Do you know what really looks like a moonscape? The 500,000sq km of cleared farmland in AB, SK and MB in winter at night.[/.quote]
They look ugly because open pit mines are ugly. It's not supposed ot be a judgment so much as an observation. I suppose you could say they look like money. :lol:
The high rates of cancers in the Native population isn't from the processing of the bitumen. It has always been there naturally and the problem isn't new. It's poly metallic black shale and it's part of the sand that makes the forest soil and in lakes. Plants love minerals, forest critter eat plants and fish eat bugs that eat aquatic plants and algae. It's in the food chain if you're living off the land.
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Not to mention that incidence of smoking among Indians is abysmally high. And alcoholism. And diabetes. My guess is you wouldn't statistically be able to tease out an oil sands effect due to teh overwhelming influence of smoking and such.
While the background levels of several contaminants is naturally higher (whihc is one of teh reasons they mined there in the first place), mining also tends to make these contaminants more available. You can put controls in place--and teh companies certainyl have--but you can't complete contain it, especially at that scale.