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Sat 04 Apr 2010Black gold in Alberta sands
The process of extracting oil from the vast Canadian sands is a messy one, and with enormous profits at stake, what chance does the environment have?
TO MOST environmentalists, the oil sands of Alberta are “Canada’s dirty secret”. Described by Tar Sands 101 as “the largest industrial project in human history”, the extraction of oil from bitumen (tar, in plain language) buried in the ground is blamed by them for causing air pollution, widespread deforestation and prodigious carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as well as alcoholism, drug abuse and prostitution.
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