Destroying An Entire Generation of Life
North of the American border, up in Alberta, is one of the most toxic environmental wastelands on the entire planet. This place is called the Alberta Tar Sands. Dante would have described this region as a descent into hell, with toxic smoke billowing from hundreds of smokestacks throughout the region, and an entire forest razed to the ground, turned into stinking lakes full of poisons and chemicals.
Residents describe this as a ongoing nightmare — a terrifying descent into a hell of epic proportions.
The more I read and watch about the horrifying conditions developing in the Alberta tar sands, the more shocked I am that this travesty has been allowed to continue this long.
The devastation and destruction is ongoing on a nearly unimaginable scale, now encompassing an area the size of England or Florida. Pristine boreal forest, the world largest carbon sink, even bigger then the Amazon rainforest, is being ripped out of the ground and billions of tons of soil extracted for bitumen – the world’s dirtiest oil.
Gigantic tailing “ponds”, which are really the size of large lakes, are used to store toxic wastes, leaking into the groundwater and rivers. Nothing can survive in these ponds, the carcinogenic chemicals and metals are so toxic that they kill everything. Now, the entire region is one of the world’s worst carbon emitters as a result of the tar sands destruction.
Alberta residents and tourists are told “don’t eat the fish” even hundreds of miles downstream, but indigenous people still do out of necessity, with skyrocketing cases of lupus, lymphoma, tumors, cancers and sickness. It’s not just the indigenous either, but the fish and animals too. Even the local farmers are paying for this destruction. The political corruption, coverup and terrorism against the people is truly staggering on a incredible scale that is absolutely unimaginable.
Hyperbole? I don’t think so. If anything, I’ve barely managed to convey just how horrifying this is.
You have to see this to believe it:
Guess where all this oil goes? Right here. The United States IS the force driving this development. But Canada has made it clear, they’ll sell their dirty oil to the Chinese if they have to.
I cannot understand how people think that we can go on destroying the planet like this. The short-term “gains” (gasoline) for our very temporary appeasement isn’t even remotely worth this level of destruction and devastation.
The people responsible for this should be hung as traitors to humanity and the Earth. These same scum are gloating that they’ve “just begun” their genocidal campaign of gluttony and greed.
It is hard to comprehend how much worse this is going to get, but the multinationals behind this are some of the largest corporations in the world, and control more power then entire countries. There is little hope for any of us while this type of devastation and disregard for all life or even the possibility of any future life is allowed to continue.
