Contamination of a major western Canadian river basin from oilsands operations is a "high-profile concern" for downstream communities and wildlife, says a newly-released "secret" presentation prepared last spring by Environment Canada that highlighted numerous warnings about the industry's growing footprint on land, air, water and the climate.
The warnings from the department contrast with recent claims made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Environment Minister Peter Kent that the industry is being unfairly targeted by environmentalists who exaggerate its impacts on nature and people.
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
Canadian Government Withheld Report On Oil Sands Mining Contamination
The Canadian government has not until now been open about the impact of the oil sands mining process:
Just by chance, a few months ago I read about this in an newspaper article comment. It was maybe the NYTimes, not sure. Anyways it was just some random commenter, no way to judge his level of validity. Tho' he had the aura (online comments always have a "body language" or some indefinable spirit to them above and beyond the words IMO. It makes no sense but...there's just always "something" hovering around re: the personality of the writer, weird)
ReplyDeleteSo it "felt" real and seemed the the person was both In-The-Know AND nauseated AND alarmed. He (it seemed guy-ish) went on to say the image of Canada as a laid-back, environmental and health-care heaven is a huge illusion and that the central west provinces had serious serious problems and that the people were voiceless and that it was a mess. The few Canadians I have discussed this or that with online certainly have not seemed like a buncha Deadhead hippies, so I buy that part. A Madison native could certainly tell you that the big "liberal" city image is a pile o' crap. So Canada could be a frozen Texas with good PR for all we know.
At the time I hoped the commenter was a deluded nutcase making shit up. The alternative was (is) too depressing.