Schools
See the film "White Water, Black Gold" about the Alberta Tar Sands
You are invited to see the film "White Water, Black Gold" (about the Alberta Tar Sands) at Southdale Library on Monday, November 7, at 7 pm.
Canada is the number one foreign supplier of oil to the United States, a fact little known in America. Most of the oil imported comes from the Tar Sands of Northern Alberta, the second largest known oil reserve in the world outside of Saudi Arabia.
But this is not a traditional oil field. The oil must be extracted and processed from the sands at a significant environmental cost -- requiring huge quantities of a diminishing fresh water supply and large amounts of energy that contribute to global warming.
Find out what's happening in Richfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
White Water, Black Gold follows David Lavallee on his three-year journey across Western Canada in search of the truth about the impact of the world's thirstiest and dirtiestoil industry. This is a journey of jarring contrasts, from the pristine mountain ice fields that are the source of the industry's water, to the Tar Sands tailing ponds, where thousands of migrating birds have unwittingly landed and died.
Both government and industry spokespeople deny any cause for concern, but in the course of his journey Lavallee, backed by university scientists, makes a number of discoveries that challenge that assessment and raise serious concerns for Canada and the United States.
Find out what's happening in Richfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Native peoples living downstream are contracting unusual cancers; new science shows that water needed to process the oil will become increasingly scarce in an era of climate change; the proposed upgrading of the oilfields could endanger multiple river systems across Canada that makeup about half of its water supply; and a planned oil pipeline across British Columbia and through the US bring new threats to many precious ecosystems.
White Water, Black Gold is a sober look at the untold costs associated with developing this major oil deposit, and raises important questions about how much environmental damage we're willing to tolerate to feed our oil appetite.