August 22, 2011

Tar Sands and Water

The NY Times has an article about efforts to restore the landscape after mining a tar sands pit. 

The quote that stuck with me - "It takes two barrels of fresh water to make one barrel of tar sands oil"

Do we really want to give up two gallons of drinking water for every gallon of fuel we put in our tanks?

When I traveled up to Alberta in 2007, they told me that the tar sands fields were consuming 10% of all the water coming from the Columbia Glacier. Some of the purest water on the planet - never again able to support life. 



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