Tar sands developing dangerously fast: prof
CALGARY, AB--If we don't give this tar baby a critical glance before shaking its hand, we may find ourselves more stuck than Brer Rabbit.
That's what John Hiemstra, a politics professor at The King's University College believes after spending a year researching the effects of the most ambitious economic boom in Canada's history--the Alberta tar sands.
"It's urgent," says Hiemstra.
The industry recovers about 1.1 million of barrels of bitumen--from which crude oil is extracted--each day, and some experts estimate there is enough oil in Alberta's sands to supply the world's energy needs for 15 years.
But when Hiemstra started looking for some big-picture research into Alberta's oil industry, he was surprised at what he found: nothing.
"I started looking for literature that said, 'This is what this whole massive boom is all about and this is how it makes sense. This is how we're dealing with the problems in that context.' Shockingly, there is virtually no literature that does that."
He found plenty of studies on specific side effects: massive deforestation, ducks drowning in tailings ponds, water and natural gas consumption, carbon emissions at rates three times larger than produced by conventional oil production, questionable labour practices and rising drug use and prostitution in oil boomtowns like Fort McMurray.
But Hiemstra wasn't satisfied with piecemeal solutions.
"I've come to the conclusion that picking on an issue is why we're not tackling the essence of it," he says.
So, with camera in hand, Hiemstra traveled to Fort McMurray to see the oil giant at work. He visited open pit mines--some on First Nations land--where bitumen-drenched sand is dredged from the ground and enough earth, rocks and trees are moved every two days to fill the Toronto Skydome.
He toured the extraction plants where oil is extracted from the sludge using millions of gallons of hot water.
He photographed the world's second largest dam and the 150-square-kilometres of toxin-laced tailings ponds it contains.
Using the data he collected, Hiemstra has delivered lectures, written articles for several journals and is working on a book.
Instead of treating the symptoms, Hiemstra wants to see Canadian Christians "reorient" their view of development.
"I think it's so critical for the Christian community to start to realize how the mainstream way of thinking and understanding is actually shaping how we as a Christian community perceive this," he says.
"It's the obsession with something that generates an idol. In our hearts we're deeply obsessed with material goods and economic growth….We're obsessed with national security….We're obsessed with mastery of nature….Those three oddly come together in this particular project.
"We've developed a whole way of life and a suburban style of living and globalized consumer system that demands transportation fuel. We need to ask whether that is the best way to live in harmony with God's creation."
Hiemstra doesn't necessarily advocate for shutting the whole industry down–maybe slowing its pace long enough to recognize the hidden costs.
"I've talked to people whose jobs are dependent on it, and in their guts they're not sure this is the right thing to do," he says.
"When you reorient you have to reorient in the reality that exists and help people to change and help people who are going to be hurt by this to change and to find possibilities. That's our communal responsibility to justice."
KAIROS, an ecumenical social justice organization, is also taking a look at the tar sands.
It prepared a reflection paper to get churches thinking about the topic and is organizing a delegation of church leaders to visit the tar sands next May.
"They have a huge impact on the environment, an impact on indigenous rights in Canada and an impact on people's lives because people work there and make their living there, so it's a really important thing for us to wrestle with," says Sara Stratton, KAIROS' campaigns coordinator.
"Our task is not approaching things in a simplistic way, saying 'this is good' or 'this is bad.' Nothing's as simple as that."
Stratton expects KAIROS to have drafted a policy by the end of next summer.
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