The Environmental Impact Of Oil Sands In Canada

The U.S. uses 25% to 30% of the oil produced in the world, yet has less than 3% of known oil reserves,” (Doc C Paragraph 3).This is important because if becoming self-sufficient is impossible than is drilling even worth

These individuals are more than willing to risk oil spills, water pollution, reliance on fossil fuels, and higher unemployment rates. There are several environmental concerns that should be known. “If constructed, the pipeline, known as Keystone XL, will carry one of the world’s dirtiest fuels: tar sands oil. ”(1) It has been shown that the tar sand oil from this region of Canada is some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet; the extraction and refining process is just as dirty.

With rising gas prices and an increasing reliance on nonrenewable resources, finding a reliable source for extracting and transporting oil has become an issue. In 2010, the Keystone Pipeline project was proposed and commissioned by TransCanada. Essentially, this is a pipeline that transports oil sands bitumen across the Canada-US border and into several different reserves in the States. An additional extension to the Keystone Pipeline, the Keystone XL Pipeline, has also been proposed. Several issues arise when considering the consequences of this new proposal, including the potential for oil spills and habitat damage.

For the majority of history, in the United States, crude oil has been the primary source of fuel and energy. Whether it is burning the oil or using it for gas, the product has been used at an excess amount. Even with great success in the search for a new source of energy, America will always be dependent on oil. Upon this realization, the Keystone XL Pipeline was started in 2010. Advancing from southern Canada, through multiple depots in the United States, to its final completion in the southern United States, the pipeline was a lengthy project.

My general overview of this article is the methods used to obtain fossil fuels is hurting people and nature all around the world. People are beginning to come to a realization about how fracking is harming the world. However, people in cities like “Buffalo, New York, Pennsylvania, and the author’s hometown

Tar sands oil is more acidic which can cause the deterioration of the

First, there is often a misunderstanding of what crude oil is used for, “Crude oil is not exclusively used to produce gasoline. Crude oil is used to produce thousands of products that we use every day, not just gasoline and diesel. Crude oil feedstock is used to create the plastics that encase our cell phones and televisions, asphalt for our roads and even the latex gloves doctors use when delivering a baby. ”(Myths & Facts-TC) One of the production company’s executives criticized the misinformed by saying, “The people suggesting that the oil Keystone XL will transport will be used to exclusively to make gasoline or diesel is simply a guess and they know that.”

Oil fracking has caused a lot of controversy the last couple years. Many believe that it is causing more harm than good. The House Committee of Natural Recourses had an entire meeting discussing oil fracking on federal managed and Native Lands. It also uses an incredible amount of water and chemicals.

Fracking has many environmental impacts on the world we live in. We should strive to keep a sustainable living community for future generations. One issue about fracking that interests me is the environmental damage of the land and water. Fracking requires a large amount of land. Once you target the area you want to use for fracking, you have to cut down all of the existing trees and create roads for the trucks.

CONCLUSION In conclusion fracking has major impacts on our lithosphere that is not entirely good. While the impacts may have minor to some it still has a harmful effect. Fracking has impacts on the environment the same way it has on us, if fracking affects the environment the environment will affect us by air impacts, water and many more ways.

As the years progressed and the ages evolved, the demand for minerals and ores increased. The high demand resulted in a faster process and worse environmental conditions, when mining. These mining strategies posed a threat towards Canada’s environment and created a challenge the country had to face. The strategies created “erosion, sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, contamination of soil, ground and surface water.” (nrcan.gr.ca/mining)

Canadian company TransCanada hopes to build Keystone XL a pipeline that carries Canadian tar sand oil from Canadian border to the Golf Coast. According to Derber “the pipeline extracts some of the dirtiest oil on the planet, a process that sends many polluting chemicals into the ground waters and releases methane, the most potent greenhouse gas, into the air, creating one of the greatest climate threat” (p. 115). A leak from a pipeline carrying the tar sand oil could cause environmental damage and pollute our drinking water and agricultural irrigation. The builders of the Keystone XL Pipeline are wilders. According to Derber, “environmental wilding in the natural environment, such as reckless polluting that causes global warming” (p. 11).

To extract and produce the oil from the sands, carbon is released into the air 17% more than that of conventional oil. The increasing carbon emissions in the air can speed up the changing climate, and can lead to severe health risks. Pollution is a result of extracting this alternative oil, but

For the citizens, “fracking will give them jobs so they can make money and support their families” (Rogowsky). Furthermore, with the addition of fracking “the United States can get about 1.8 trillion barrels of shale (“sedimentary rocks that have rich sources of petroleum and natural gas” (Rogowsky)) a year compared to Saudi

“ Natural gas industry has been identified as a major source of water pollution “ ( source 1 ). This quote from source 1 explains how out of all the ways of polluting the oceans, oil is always one of the worst. “ 8 million metric tons of plastic trash enters the sea from land every year “ ( source 4 ). This quote from source number 4 explains how every year tons and tons of plastic from land, gets into the oceans and continues to pollute. Garbage is polluting the oceans so much that the water is getting so bad, people are getting ill from drinking