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Assess the environmental impact
An essay for environmental impact
North America Oil Sands
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Alexander Quinn Mrs. Marshall May 20, 2014 The Alberta Oil Sands Responsible development for a prosperous and sustainable future The Alberta Oil Sands are large deposits of bitumen in north-eastern Alberta. Discovered in 1848, the first commercial operation was in 1967 with the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant opening, and today many companies have developments there. The Alberta Oil Sand development is very controversial, as there are severe environmental impacts and effects on the local Aboriginal peoples. This essay will discuss the need for changes that can be made for the maximum economic benefit for Canada, while reducing the impact on the environment and limiting expansion, as well as securing Alberta’s future. Changes need to be made to retain the maximum economic benefits of the Alberta Oil Sands while mitigating the environmental and geopolitical impact. This will be achieved by building pipelines that will increase the economic benefits, having stricter environmental regulation and expansion limitations, and improving the Alberta Heritage Fund or starting a new fund throu...
Nikiforuk’s article is written to argue a point and persuade the audience, non-specialist individuals, to his claim. There are many methods used to achieve this. Starting in the introduction Canada is glorified for what it used to be known for, then that image is quickly juxtaposed with the now dark and destabilized country because of the developing tar sands (Nikiforuk 211). This introduction, which uses pathos by using strong words to evoke negative e...
The reason for this report is to increase the reader’s knowledge on the Alberta Tar Sands, which will allow them to create their own opinions on the situation. It is a very pertinent issue in politics and will have a very large effect on the carbon emissions of Canada. Also, I wanted to further my understanding of the Alberta tar sands and learn the side effects of the tar sands. How the tar sands are different from other oil and energy procurement methods and which method is more energy efficient? Would the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in the United States be an intelligent way for the US to involve itself in the tar sands? I wanted to answer these questions by knowing the real facts about the tar sands versus what the oil companies are telling the consumers. The ability to assess the entire situation will allow both the reader and I to formulate our own opinions about the tar sands and whether the extraction of oil at the tar sands should continue.
This paper will discuss the effects of Keystone XL Pipeline project and how the findings of the research might be beneficial to the United States. The first point of argument will be the negative impact of the Keystone Pipeline to America’s economy and the environment. The second point of view will be the positive impact of Keystone Pipeline to America’s economy. Keystone XL Pipeline is TransCanada’s tar-sand transportation project. The pipeline is supposed to cut across America to be linked with Canada’s tar-sand mines. It is aimed at increasing energy security in America. However, the project has received a lot of criticism from both the citizens and environmentalists for climate reasons (Mendelsohn and Dinar 154). To understand the implications of Keystone XL Pipeline, it is important to look at its environmental and economic impacts to the United States.
The opposition to this project is increasing because the people living in those areas are already feeling negative consequences. The large communities living in Boreal Forest and other Natives lands are being affected by the extraction and process of tar sands. Not only this people are being rushed away from their lands, but also, the rate of cancer, renal failure, lupus, hyperthyroidism and other decease, are higher than ever. This health conditions increased because of the air pollution and the high quantities of metals and chemicals in the drinking water. Yet, lots of precautions are being taken by the company, oil spills keep happening over and over. The external metal corrosion caused by extreme temperatures and the corrosive acid components of the bitumen are factors that contribute to accidents like explosions and oil
A leak occurred which impacted the forests around the area and the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) weapons testing area. This resulted in the loss of 1.878 million litres of bitumen oil and 13.5 hectares of land was affected (mostly damaged). The situation was reported in June 2013 and the leak was cleaned by late 2014. CNR officials stated that the leak was caused because of the use of faulty equipment in one of the oil wells. The faulty equipment was not strong enough to hold the oil that it created so much pressure in the pipes and lead to a leak. The flooding of the oil also went into the underground reservoir which caused even more leakage of bitumen oil. Canadian Natural Resource strives to minimize the impact on the environment, but because of the negligence of the pipes, they have set back on their vision. This leads us to think about the main question, how might the company be able to prevent further spills and
Pierre Trudeaus government decided they needed a way into the oil industry in order to get and control Canada's natural resources. The Canadian Parliament passed the Petro-Canada Act in 1975 establishing a Crown Corporation to meet these goals. Many in the Alberta Oil industry felt that this was an not very good intrusion into the business world and campaigned to have Petro-Canada and its activities restricted.
Canadian landform regions include the Interior Plains, Canadian Shield and the Western Cordillera, Innuitian Mountains, Appalachian Mountains, Great Lakes St. Lawrence Lowlands, Arctic and Hudson's Bay Lowlands. When studying the Interior Plains, we learned it’s a dry, flat land called the ‘breadbasket’ of Canada. The Interior Plains are made up of sedimentary rock. The topics covered in unit 3 were the levels of industry, resources, sustainability, trade and oil resources. The oil sand industry brings great impacts to Canada. This industry creates jobs and lowers taxes. It is also Canada’s largest and most important export. On the other hand, oil sands damage the environment and contaminate the water and air, which make people sick. These two ideas are connected because oil sands are found in the fossil fuels in sedimentary rock. Oil sands are extracted from sedimentary rock. We also learned that sedimentary rock is the only rock that contains fossil fuels. Oil is trapped within the layers of sediments and can be extracted by a well or open-pit mining. Without the Interior Plains, Canada wouldn’t have as much oil resources and have negative trade
The positivist-post-positivist paradigm is the most appropriate paradigm for research regarding the subject matter of Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland by Thomas Berger (1988). This paradigm states that social science research pushes towards western cultures causing other regions to adapt to western ideas. According to Travers (2010), “[t]he physical and the social sciences are products of western culture in a specific historical moment. [s]cience is a modern phenomenon, emerging in step with capitalism, industrialism, global expansion, and a liberal philosophy” (p. 9). Ingenious people living in the North are being forced to change the way they live if the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline were to be built. According to Berger (1988), “[i]n developing institutions of government in the North, we sought to impose our own system, to persuade the native people to conform to our political models (p. 236). The indigenous people have their way of living, they hint their food, and they live in a quite and peaceful land where they live off their own economy. The pipeline would destroy the Northern Homeland. In an interview with the President of the National Indian Brotherhood told Berger (1988) in the Inquiry, “[s]uch projects have occurred time and time again in our history. They were, and are, the beginnings of the type of developments which destroy the way of life of aboriginal peoples and rob us of our economic, cultural and political independence” (p. 229). The pipeline would cause high amounts of traffic, and drilling. The noise that would be created due to the pipeline would cause the animals to migrate elsewhere, causing fewer animals to be hunted. The information obtained from scientific research can be used to predict and control nat...
An underground pipeline that carries crude oil from Alberta to Texas? That does not sound like it is going to help Canada. The Keystone XL Pipeline is a pipeline that carries crude oil from Alberta to Texas. It stretches over 8000 KM and will carry up to 700000 barrels per day (FAQs: Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Project). It will destroy affect out water supplies, give excessive amounts of greenhouse gases, and give Canada the pollution, while USA gets the jobs.
The Athabasca oil sands are the second largest producer of crude oil in the world, with a surface area of approximately 100 000 square kilometres (Anderson, Giesy & Wiseman, 2010). The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board estimates that the oil sands contains approximately 1.7 trillion barrels of crude bitumen, however only 19% can be ultimately recovered (Raynolds, Severson-Baker & Woynillowicz, 2005; Humphries, 2008). The availability of recoverable bitumen makes Canada’s oil sands deposit larger even than that of Saudi Arabia (Czarnecki, Hamza, Masliyah, Xu & Zhou, 2004).The process of surface and in situ mining of the Athabasca oil sands is causing rapid and significant degradation of the regional environment surrounding Fort McMurray and the Athabasca River. Production is expected to increase to three million barrels per day by 2015 from approximately 2 million currently (Humphries, 2008). This increase will further exacerbate the existing environmental impacts of crude oil production. The Canadian oil and natural gas industry is extremely lucrative, but despite the short-term economic benefits of the mining of the Athabasca oil sands, the remediation of the negative environmental impacts of the extraction of oil on terrestrial and aquatic environments, biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions are a priority.
Canada is great economic superpower that has yet to reach its potential. As the second largest nation by area, we possess vast natural resources. We are a massive importer and exporter on the world stage, who a play a vital role in the stability of the northern hemisphere. Through Canada’s international trade, we export vast quantities of many different foods stuffs, minerals and manufactured goods like cars, while we tend to import lots of Iron, Aluminum and Steel. Our relations with neighbouring nations have been integral in the success of our trade. In 1994 Canada became a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA with the US and Mexico. NAFTA reorganized Canada’s and America’s trading systems to work as one. The trade issue of recent months is about the rising costs of energy in Canada and in the United States. Newly elected President George W. Bush now is proposing a North American energy initiative for a continental power grid. This proposal puts Canada in a very uncomfortable situation. On the one hand we would love to share our resources and appease our super-power to the south. But on the other we prefer to leave our pristine land alone. The growing trend nowadays is that politicians are the ones wanting to please the Americans by giving away our resources, while it is the activist who is concerned about the vast environmental damage this energy legislation could entail.
One of the reasons why pipelines are a benefit to Canada is because of they are, by far, “…the safest way to get oil from place to the other” (Goldsworthy, 8). Compared to transportation by rail or sea, pipelines are obviously the best, and safest
Fracking allows the pursuit of natural gas and is cracking the shale rock underground to release the trapped gas; chemically treated water and sand release natural gas deposits. Fracking will impact the economic development and revenue in some positive ways as far as creating jobs, especially in some places where jobs are scarce. It can also help with economic growth in the idea of helping to improve the natural gas industry and technology. Fracking natural gas can help America restrain from its need on oil and coal. When fracking it can destroy the natural soil which blocks the production of crops and which also makes revenue low as well; which means no money for families that need it. With the land being destroyed there cannot be cattle in
...i. "Environmental Pathways Of Potential Impacts To Human Health From Oil And Gas Development In Northeast British Columbia, Canada." Environmental Reviews 20.2 (2012): 122-134. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
When we look at Enbridge’s Line 9 and the pipeline carrying oil substance that it was not initially designed for we can apply the discipline of environmental sociology and dismember the different aspects and analyze them individually to understand how outcomes are produced. Environmental sociology, in regards to Line 9 addresses the social relations between some of the major towns and cities that the pipe runs through and explains how capitalism forms the base of environmental deterioration as financial income and wealth accumulation are often factors that receive more recognition. The familiar understanding of the Line 9 is that the government and city officials declare that it is safely distributing oil, when in reality, when we as sociologists observe and record that it is providing more societal concerns than it is claiming. This can be obtained through an examination of the numerous health affects that are presented through documentaries, such as residents suffering from seizures, and the arrest of a gentlemen who displayed signs of insanity and madness (Line 9, Film). It is at this point where it can be understood that environmental sociology helps us recognize human diversity and the challenges of living in a diverse world through the examination of human behavior and action towards environmental concerns. In the documentary, This Changes Everything, we are shown that fossil fuels are a growing concern that is attracting the attention of local residents who acknowledge that we are all sharing a common atmospheric space that needs attention from all individuals on all different social and economic levels (This Changes Everything, Film). When environmental