The Controversal issue of Alberta Oil Sands

Canada's oil sands have become a huge source of debate there good for our economy but are they good for our health?The oils sands are a mixture of minerals,water,sand and Bitumen (bitumen is a heavy and vicious oil). Alberta's oil sands are located beneath a boreal Forest drained by the Athabasca river. The boreal wilderness that the oil sands are underneath is larger than Greece.The Athabasca river flows north were it flow into a lake that forms one of the worlds largest fresh water delta systems.Fort Chipewyan is a small town, its located at the Athabasca river delta.

Canada's oil sands produce more oil for the U.S then any other foreign source and many think its the biggest deposit of oil on earth. The oil sands have become the heart of Canada's economy, they increased Canada's GDP by 1.7 trillion dollars. The oil sands are the largest construction project on the planet and have made jobs for 450 000 people. They bring in twenty billion dollars a year to Canada economy and their is a fortune more to be made.

Before you sign off on the idea that the oil sands are the best thing for Canada you should know some of the environmental and health risks.The citizen's of Fort Chipewyan are seeing the negatives results of these oil sands. Chipewyan people have always been big on fishing and eating fish but have stopped because of the fish deformities they are seeing. The started to notice the deformities in the fish from lake Athabasca when the oil sands became up and running. But not only are the fish suffering so are the people. They have a unusually high cancer rate and fear the water has been contaminated by Arsenic from the oil sands. There are six suspected cases Cholangiocar cinoma which is an extremely rare kind of cancer usually seen in one every hundred thousand people. There our illnesses occurring in this town that are linked to toxins in the environment. Whats the government going to do? Well they turned water monitoring over to industry funded consultants so I guess there going to ignore it.

The solution to the many problems we are facing from the oil sands isn't an easy one. If we close down production 450 000 Canadians are out of work and the effects on Canadian economy would be catastrophe if its poisoning our soil,water,animals and people immediate action needs to be taken.
-D