Just over a year ago, I wrote an article about Canada’s failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of upholding the Kyoto Protocol, which the liberal government had ratified in 2002, Canada’s newly elected conservative administration abandoned emissions regulations to help the country’s burgeoning oil industry. In what is still a surprising fact to many, Canada is home to the second largest oil reserves in the world–known as the Athabasca Oil Sands of Northern Alberta. For years, the process of withdrawing the oil was considered too expensive. But now with skyrocketing oil prices that is no longer true. The operation is underway and Prime Minister Stephen Harper is calling Canada an “energy superpower.”

The reason I’m mentioning this story again is because Environmental Defense, one of the leading environmental non-profits, has released a report calling the Alberta Oil Sands “the most destructive project on Earth.” Here are some of the facts highlighted by De Smog Blog:

• Oil sands mining is licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary uses in a year.
• At least 90% of the fresh water used in the oil sands ends up in ends up in tailing ponds so toxic that propane cannons are used to keep ducks from landing.
• Processing the oil sands uses enough natural gas in a day to heat 3 million homes.
• The toxic tailing ponds are considered one of the largest human-made structures in the world.
• The ponds span 50 square kilometers and can be seen from space.
• Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil.

The good news is that Harper’s administration isn’t representative of the Canadian government as a whole. One recent Parliamentary report states: “Mounting environmental and social costs associated with oilsands activities in particular make it increasingly clear that it would be irresponsible to continue on a `business-as-usual’ course. It is time to begin the transition to a clean energy future.”