Chapter 4.3: Alberta`s Tar Sands
While the use of alternative sources of clean energy is on the rise, the current world economy and the modern societies it supports continue to depend on fossil fuels. But fossil fuels are a finite resource. What took millions of years to create is being extracted at rates that could consume the remaining Estimated Ultimately Recoverable (EUR) global oil during your lifetime. The majority of studies suggest that world oil production is likely to peak sometime between 2010 and 2030. But many of these predictions failed to consider the development of new technologies that can extract harder-to-reach fossil fuels. As obtaining oil from more traditional locations like oil fields has become more limited or difficult due to geopolitical challenges, more attention has been focused on alternatives like oil shale and tar sands. Called “synfuels” in earlier decades, these fossil fuels are held in subsurface deposits that must be extracted for use, resulting in both localized and widespread environmental impacts.
Background Materials:
The basics: www.ostseis.anl.gov/guide/tarsands
Additional background and local perspective: http://www.eprinc.org/pdf/oilsandsprimer.pdf
How the plunge in oil prices is affecting the tar sands: http://insideclimatenews.org/news/10082015/oil-slump-canadian-tar-sands-producers-emissions-global-climate
Textbook References and Links:
Exercise 3: The Alberta Department of Environment and Parks interactive oil sands map interface: http://osip.alberta.ca/map/
Link to the Global Forest Watch interactive map: www.globalforestwatch.org/map/
Exercise 5: Kurek et al. overview: http://post.queensu.ca/~pearl/oilsands/oilsands.html and full article at http://www.pnas.org/content/110/5/1761.full.pdf
Exercise 8: AOSR environmental impact studies:
Water: www.pnas.org/content/107/37/16178
www.pnas.org/content/106/52/22346
Air: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2011GL050273/epdf
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969714004288
Health http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60703-0/fulltext?rss=yes
Exercise 9: For the full list of CERI reports, go to www.ceri.ca/publications-oil
The 2015 Refining Bitumen: Costs, Benefits, and Analysis is linked there or directly at: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/557705f1e4b0c73f726133e1/t/56b24043e32140a71499c905/1454522437762/CERI+Study+145+-+Final.pdf
Victoria report: www.vtpi.org/tca/tca0512.pdf
Exercise 10: Pembina Institute’s report: http://www.pembina.org/reports/solving-puzzle-oilsands.pdf
Downloadable data and files:
Exercise 1:Total Oil Production.txt
Exercise 5:Kurek 2013.pdf
Exercise 8:
Water: Kelly 2010.pdf
Kelly 2009.pdf
Air: McLinden 2012.pdf
Bari 2014.pdf
Health: Lancet 2014.pdf
Exercise 9: Victoria Report.pdf and Bitumen CBA.pdf
