Alberta's tailings ponds cover about 97 square miles and hold enough waste to fill more than half a million Olympic-size swimming pools
[Provincial regulators estimate that cleaning up oilsands facilities represents a $27 billion liability, of which the companies have posted only about $1 billion in security. Environmental groups say the cost could be much higher.]
Nov 27, 2017 - Arguably the most important thing to your future that's happened lately is the international effort to confront climate change, but much of the public is unaware and uninterested, and news coverage is puny or nonexistent.
Canada's largest national park – established 95 years ago to protect the last herds of northern bison – is deteriorating and faces significant threats from climate change and industrial development, says an international agency that monitors world heritage sites.
The International Union on the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is based in Switzerland and was established in 1948 to encourage conservation and natural diversity, released a World Heritage Outlook report this week that examines the condition of ecologically important sites around the globe.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna helped bring more than 25 new governments on board for a Canadian and British push to power past coal on Thursday at international climate change talks.
EDMONTON — The Canadian government says it lacked the scientific evidence to determine if oilsands tailings ponds were leaking into waterways and hurting fish.
But the government says it continues to work on methods to determine if chemicals associated with bitumen in groundwater are natural, or the result of industry.
The government has provided a response to a call from the environmental arm of NAFTA to explain what Canada is doing to stop oilsands tailings ponds from leaking into Alberta waterways.
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has approved a tailings management plan from oilsands giant Suncor, despite the plan relying on “newly patented, unproven technology” that will require decades of monitoring.
The past year has seen communities around the world dealing with major weather events. Here in Canada flooding in Quebec and unprecedented wildfires in BC displaced tens of thousands, while the southern U.S. and South East Asia suffered from intense storms. Forget about polar bears – these communities are the new face of climate change.
Alberta’s oil and gas industry – Canada’s largest producer of fossil fuel resources – could be emitting 25 to 50% more methane than previously believed, new research has suggested.
