Efficiency and environmental effects in the oil sands of Alberta

One day this past March, I received two interesting pieces of mail: Physics Today’s March 2009 issue and the March/April issue of Nature’s Voice, a publication of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Physics Today issue contains an interesting article, “Physics in the Oil Sands of Alberta” (page 31).

On page 1 of Nature’s Voice is an article entitled “America’s Birds Face New Dangers This Spring,” which highlights the potential danger to America’s migrating bird populations from oil extraction in the great northern forest of Canada. According to the article, the forest is “one of the planet’s largest bird nurseries” and is suffering the onslaught of “major oil companies seeking to extract petroleum from its sandy soils for export to the United States.”

The loss of habitat will affect “more than half of America’s migratory birds,” according to the article, and “some 8000 to 100 000 birds of various species die each year in ponds containing toxic mining waste.”

That situation affects more than bird populations. The article states that “tar sands mining is also Canada’s fastest growing source of global warming pollution.”

It seems to me this is another case in which physicists, in choosing a particular project to work on, should consider the consequences to the natural environment and to mankind.