Tar Sands and the Carbon Numbers August 21, 2011
This page opposes the building of a 1,700-mile pipeline called the Keystone XL, which would carry diluted bitumen — an acidic crude oil — from Canada’s Alberta tar sands to the Texas Gulf Coast.
We have two main concerns: the risk of oil spills along the pipeline, which would traverse highly sensitive terrain, and the fact that the extraction of petroleum from the tar sands creates far more greenhouse emissions than conventional production does. The Canadian government insists that it has found ways to reduce those emissions. But a new report from Canada’s environmental ministry shows how great the impact of the tar sands will be in the coming years, even with cleaner production methods.
It projects that
Canada will double its current tar sands production over the next decade to more than 1.8 million barrels a day. That rate will mean cutting down some 740,000 acres of boreal forest — a natural carbon reservoir. Extracting oil from tar sands is also much more complicated than pumping conventional crude oil out of the ground. It requires steam-heating the sands to produce a petroleum slurry, then further dilution.
One result of this process, the ministry says, is that greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector as a whole will rise by nearly one-third from 2005 to 2020 — even as other sectors are reducing emissions. Canada still hopes to meet the overall target it agreed to at Copenhagen in 2009 — a 17 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2020. If it falls short, as seems likely, tar sands extraction will bear much of the blame.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/opinion/tar-sands-and-the-carbon-numbers.html?_r=1&ref=opinion NRDC: The Canadian Boreal Forest: A Global Treasure Under ThreatA quick primer on Canada's boreal forest -- the natural and cultural qualities it possesses, the problems it faces, and the solutions that could save it for future generations.
Conservation Opportunity: In the far north latitudes, just below the treeless tundra of the polar region, a forest of evergreen trees encircles the earth: this is the boreal forest. The last frontier of northern forest wilderness in Canada, the boreal forest is North America's greatest conservation opportunity. Although most of the world's original wilderness forests have been logged or developed until just about 20 percent remains, approximately 80 percent of the Canadian boreal forest is still unfragmented by roads. Mostly in public hands, over half of Canada's boreal has yet to be allocated to industrial use. This situation is quickly changing, however, as the boreal forest comes under imminent threat from industrial logging, hydropower, mining and oil and gas development.
Of Global Importance:
Like the Amazon, the boreal forest is of critical importance to all living things on earth. It is home to the one of the world's largest remaining stands of spruce, fir and tamarack. The thick layers of moss, soil and peat of the boreal are the world's largest terrestrial storehouse of organic carbon and play an enormous role in regulating the Earth's climate. Boreal wetlands filter millions of gallons of water each day that fill our northern rivers, lakes, and streams. As a vast, intact forest ecosystem, the boreal supports a natural web of large carnivores, such as bears, wolves and lynx along with thousands of other species of plants, mammals, birds and insects.Home to Indigenous Peoples: The boreal forest is home to approximately 500 First Nations communities and hundreds of Métis communities, many accessible only by water or air. As the Canadian government has leased boreal public lands to industry for logging, damming and drilling, the debate about indigenous rights and land claims has come to the forefront in Canada. The connection that the indigenous peoples of the boreal forest have with the land goes beyond land use or subsistence. Elders of communities in the boreal forest talk of being "born on the ground" -- literally born outside in the boreal forest. They describe their spiritual relationship to the land on which their ancestors have walked for thousands of years, as well as their dependence on the fish, medicinal plants and wildlife of the boreal forest.
World Class Wildlife: The boreal forest is teeming with life. The more than 1.5 million lakes in the boreal are a nursery for 40 percent of North America's migratory waterfowl, such as the American black duck, mallard, blue-winged teal and northern shoveller. Approximately 30 percent of North American landbirds, including common backyard songbirds such as the warbler, raise their young each spring in Canada's boreal forest. The elusive and threatened woodland caribou, known as the grey ghost, depends for food on old-growth boreal forests and the lichen that have taken 100 years to develop there. Black bears range throughout the boreal, preferring low-lying vegetation and the abundant food provided by shrubs.
Imminent Industrial Threats:
Less than 8 percent of Canada's boreal forest is protected. This provides both opportunity and danger as the logging, hydropower, petroleum and mining industries continue to exploit the southern boreal forest and eye the still unallocated northern regions. In the west, oil and gas exploration and development have carved an ever-expanding network of roads and seismic lines into the forest. Industrial hydropower dams on the boreal forest's northern wild rivers have flooded wildlife habitat, clogged lakes with sediment and killed off critical fish species.
Destruction Driven by U.S. Consumption: The United States is driving much of the demand for boreal forest resources. The United States is the destination for approximately 80 percent of Canada's forest products, including lumber, toilet paper, catalogue paper and newsprint -- much of which comes from clearcutting in the boreal forest. The United States imports more oil from Canada than from any other country and approximately 90 percent of total U.S. natural gas imports come from Canada -- primarily from Alberta, but increasingly from further north in British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories' boreal forest. Canada is the largest producer of hydropower in the world, with much of this energy going to the United States from Manitoba and Quebec's boreal-forest rivers.
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http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/fboreal.asp 
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