Oil sands are natural "treasures" which have water, clay, other minerals, and bitumen which is heavy and extremely viscous oil that can't be used in oil refineries until properly treated. This seems like a good thing for the economy because it makes Canada lots of money, but it requires a lot of water. Did you know 2 to 4.5 barrels of water is required to produce one barrel of oil, even though most of the water is recycled the oil sands use more water than Calgary every year. Most of the water is taken Athabasca River and even though the amount of water being used has been reclining there won’t be enough water to keep the river flowing and continue on future oil sand projects. The oil sands also contribute loads of green house gases to the climate. Alberta in general contributes one third of Canada’s green house gases mostly from oil sands. Alberta is trying to decrease its total emissions of green house gases, but isn’t exceeding.
Do you think that Alberta does to decrease the oil sands?
The oil sands is a huge issue. Personally I think there needs to be a better process for removing the oil. On the flip side, I don't like paying more for gas.
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