The facts about Canada's extreme energy

Canada's Tar Sands are the new frontier of oil production

They allow us to continue to feed our addiction to oil. But at what cost?

The development of the Tar Sands, characterized by high demand for energy, intensity of environmental impacts in the Boreal Forest and significant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, is an unprecedented challenge. In this early stage of the 21st century, the Tar Sands are emerging as a focal point of discussion about the future of energy production and consumption.

Here are some facts about one of the largest fossil fuel projects on earth Canada's Tar Sands:

• Tar Sands destruction is fueled by America's addiction to oil: 99% of Canadian oil exports go to the US, making Canada the biggest supplier of foreign oil to the US;
• The Tar Sands are wasteful: Processing Tar Sands sludge requires enough natural gas in one day to heat three million homes;
• The Tar Sands threaten community health: Downwind and downstream of the Tar Sands in Alberta, and near US refineries using and pipelines carrying Tar Sands oil, communities are exposed to extremely dangerous chemicals;
• The Tar Sands are destroying biodiversity: Threatened woodland caribou have declined by nearly 50% over the past 10 years in the Tar Sands region;
  
• Toxic waste from the Tar Sands is killing our birds: Certain bird species have already declined by as much as 80% in areas heavily affected by Tar Sands development;
• The Tar Sands are exhausting our fresh water: Every day three million barrels of drinking water are lost to the production of Tar Sands oil;
• The Tar Sands spew toxic waste: The Tar Sands' toxic lakes grow by 1.8 billion litres each day, and are leaking dangerous chemicals into the nearby soil and water;
• The world's dirtiest oil comes from the Tar Sands: Producing one barrel of Tar Sands oil generates three to five times the global warming emissions that producing the same amount of conventional oil would;
• Tar Sands impacts are getting worse: The Canadian government predicts that greenhouse gas emissions from the Tar Sands will more than triple in the next decade.
• Tar Sands destruction is growing: If expansion is not sharply curtailed, toxic Tar Sands operations will expand throughout an area the size of Florida.