A Forest Threatened by Keystone XL
CALGARY, Alberta
ENVIRONMENTALISTS typically fret about the prospect of adding monstrous new amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere if the Keystone XL pipeline is approved, and for good reason.
Bitumen, the low-grade petroleum in Canada’s tar sands that would be carried by the pipeline to the United States, emits an estimated 17 percent more greenhouse gases overall than an average barrel of crude refined in America, according to a report earlier this year by the Congressional Research Service.
But for a vast stretch of western Canada’s boreal forest, the fight over extracting bitumen has already been lost. The question is, how much more will we lose?
Since the mining frenzy for this garbage crude took off in 2000, nearly two million acres of this ancient forest have been cleared or degraded, according to Global Forest Watch — a swath more than six times the size of New York City. If Keystone XL and other proposed pipelines are approved and bitumen production grows, much more forest will be lost.
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Woodland caribou, shy, lichen-eating animals, are a notable casualty. They avoid cut lines like the plague and won’t cross a logged forest. In recent years their population has declined significantly. They are listed as threatened by the Canadian government.
Bitumen mining requires about three barrels of water to produce one barrel of oil. Surface mines take their water from the Athabasca River while the steam plants drain aquifers. All the water comes from the Mackenzie River Basin, which covers one-fifth of Canada. The basin’s freshwater energizes the Beaufort Sea.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/opinion/a-forest-threatened-by-keystone-xl.html?_r=0
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