The StarPhoenix |
Last week I had an opportunity to interview Matt Price, author of the ominously titled report Canada’s Toxic Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth. As I was speaking to him, I was thinking of a film with an equally ominous title — There Will Be Blood — which I had watched the night before.
The film turned out to be a good preparation for the interview.
Price, in town last week to speak at a public meeting about the effects of the oilsands on Saskatchewan, is convincing in his defence of his bold title. Alberta’s tar sands are massive, the size of the state of Florida. They are being steadily converted into a stream of pollutants, such as acid rain, which mostly ends up in Saskatchewan, and greenhouse gases, distributed worldwide. Exploiting Alberta’s tar sands produces higher greenhouse-gas emissions than 145 countries.