The 'Inconvenient Truth' About Canada's Oil Industry

Extracting oil from Canada's tarry sand has lead to large incomes and huge environmental tolls for the holder of the world's second-largest oil reserves.

1 minute read

June 4, 2006, 9:00 AM PDT

By Arnab Chakraborty

In 2003, it became economically feasible to extract oil from Canada's large expanses of tarry sand. By 2004, the oil sands had achieved their projected 20-year production level, and now Canada has the second largest oil reserves in the world, after Saudi Arabia. Economic and political fallout aside, the new sprawling oil fields have done irreversible damage to the local ecosystem, traditional economies of native populations, and unexpectedly degraded natural resources.

"The digging -- into an area the size of Maryland and Virginia combined -- has proliferated at gold-rush speed, spurred by high oil prices, new technology and an unquenched U.S. thirst for the fuel. The expansion has presented ecological problems that experts thought they would have decades to resolve."

FULL STORY: Canada Pays Environmentally for U.S. Oil Thirst

Wednesday, May 31, 2006 in The Washington Post

Environment Canada

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Start Learning

Advertise with us

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.