Tar sand mining IS the Clean Up

Just a reminder, tar has been oozing into the Athabasca River since forever.

Seventy or eighty miles along the river-bank, out of which oil oozes at frequent intervals... …tar there is … in plenty. … It oozes from every fissure, and into some bituminous tar wells we can poke a twenty-foot pole and find no resistance.(1909 & Cameron 71)

Have you seen that pop-up propaganda ad, "one drop of oil pollutes a million drops of water", the ad showing a guy with his mouth under a spigot of motor oil?

It was a profit to the natives when they patched their canoes with it but now there's better money available in cheques from the Tides Corporation.



Related: Forest fires this summer in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan polluted on a staggering scale compared to the tar sands.  h/t smalldeadanimals

Central USA June 29th
A reminder that smoke
must go somewhere.