Imagine your children go to the dock to go fishing and catch a fish with two mouths. This is precisely what the CBC reported yesterday( see pic and news story here). The news giant said the fish came from Lake Athabasca in Wood Buffalo National Park. The fish appears normal except for the fact it has two mouths – one underneath the other. Interestingly, it was found only a few before days from a water quality conference in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta.
The local native community and thousands around the world are angered that the government have allowed things to get this bad in the area. The local communities surrounding the Oil Sands have also noticed a significant increase in cancers and other serious illnesses. Rumors are that coalitions and demonstrations could be held in the near future to stop any expansion plans that may currently be in the works.
This is very terrifying, but not the worst of it. If you have read my previous post on the Lake Athabasca region, you will already know that this is also home to the Athabasca Sand Dunes. The massive sand formations are some of the largest in the world and are habitat to several endangered species. Some of the flora and fauna cannot be found anywhere else on earth. To the East, sections of the surrounding forest were devastated by wildfires. To learn more about the region please read this post.
Of course the Oil Sands are probably a large portion of this occurrence, but is it the only cause? I highly doubt it. I think the longer pollution and waste runs rampant and people continue to use and abuse the world around them, there will be more and more like this. In fact, a cat with four ears was reported in the news just this morning and this isn’t the first one!
You can’t tell me that’s because of the Oil Sands. Again, I’m not in any way saying they have not been a large factor in the earth’s downfall, but unless we all get off the soapbox and become willing to work towards solving these issues it is bound to happen. I myself am extremely guilty. I have a fair sized home. We have two vehicles. I have a gas lawn mower.
On the other hand, I do cut back my driving as much as I can. I recycle and conserve energy. In reality, I do lots of small things to help out. But then again, so have the oil companies in the Alberta Oil Sands. So who is responsible?
***Update**** Thanks to MathewCurrent ***Update****
Thank you for your great info, memory, and care!! (The following was his response at Current.com)
This story has been debunked by the University of Alberta. The “second jaw” is, indeed, the Goldeye’s tongue…and it dropped through the lower jaw after the fish’s death because of natural decomposition.
Here is the link to the story that ran in the Edmonton Journal today:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Business/Freakish+fish+really+normal+specimen/138…
Ah yes. The tar sands. Use google earth to take a look at NE Alberta. The tars sands (and more precisely, the vast tailings ponds) are one of the few man made…um…things that are visible from orbit. (Another being the great wall of china).
The tailings ponds contain all the dregs left over from separating the bitumen from the sand. And they are toxic. Did you see the news stories about the flocks of ducks, migrating south this past spring, that landed in the tailings ponds? Syncrude apparently had failed to deploy cannons and other devices meant to keep migratory birds from landing on the ponds.
Despite the valiant efforts of would-be rescuers most of the birds died.
I don’t know what the toxicity level of the tailings ponds is but the experience of these migratory birds says it must be high. Certainly higher than, say, a crude oil spill.
I’ve read speculation that a major geologic event in the Athabasca region (like an earthquake) that caused a breach of the tailings ponds containment would poison everything in the watershed all the way to the Arctic Ocean.
I am not totally and completely exposed to tar sands exploitation but I do think that those doing the exploiting need to incorporate more environmentally friendly practices into their operations. Cleaning up the tailings ponds would be a good start.
Oh yeah. The Alberta Government has gone on record that they are not concerned if a species (of flora or fauna) in an area is wiped out as long as there are members of that same species in existence elsewhere. I guess they don’t concern themselves with those subtle evolutionary differences amongst members of the same or similar species that arise from different environmental factors.
Off the soapbox for me for tonight now.
Thanks Rob!
That is precisely my view on the issue. To make matters worse, the Alberta government has quietly passed the necessary paperwork to allow these companies to destroy MORE lakes and MORE ecosystems for this purpose.
I’m no fool. I know that until we have a viable alternative that is both affordable and accessible to the public, there is not much choice in the matter.
I do feel that they should be held responsible for their actions and that they should have to respect the communities and world around them.
For me, these wasting ponds (the name changes depending on who you are talking to) should not only have chemical liners underneath, but should also be covered and sealed to prevent harm to anything or anyone.
Being a bit of a country girl, I have watched animals die from poisoning and there is no way I would wish that on my worst enemies.
I’m not particularly anti-oil sands. It’s more of an ‘anti-stupid’ policy. If any other person or company had pulled this same stuff, we’d be picking bottles for a living if we were ever allowed to see the outside of the prison.
With the latest announcement of the massive off-shore oil rigs off Newfoundland…I wonder if we can expect more of the same. The premier was pretty exited to get the paperwork signed. Doesn’t know who will do the work or exactly how they will be done, but he’s excited. Excited politicians worry me!
All in the name of $bucks$. I travel to FMM ocassionally for transportation & environmental work and meetings, and have seen the devastation of the lands and hear the stories of mutant fish and toxic leaks into groundwater that are making their way to the Athabasca River. These companies should be ashamed that their only motivator is money & greed, actually they should be putting all the top executives in jail. Once all the oil is gone to the US, so will the Americans. It’s time to raise the royalty taxes, beat the players senseless all the way back to their borders. By the way, are any of these idiots puitting aside funds for the end of live clean up (i think that’s what its called).
I’ve been working on trying to politely shake these bastards into coughing up some more funds for the development of new roads and maintenance of existing roads. Can you believe they tell me that they don’t have budgets for that and it is really responsibility of governments….and I’m a big player here in Ft. Mac. with connections and an executive job. Somebody shoot them before I do! I like BC so much better than Alberta and come here only to suck money out the oil sand guy’s pockets. Boy I bet they’d be pissed if they knew what I was writing about bacause I know a whack of them up there.
I truly wish you the best of luck. With the downturn in the economy combined with the greed for the almighty dollar, it doesn’t sound like they will be shelling out for much except their own pockets. I am fairly certain, when it comes to cleaning up this mess, not one of them will be there. Not one of them will get their hands dirty. Let’s face it, if they did care about anything other than themselves and the bottom line, their workers wouldn’t be living out of their cars and rent wouldn’t be $1100+ for a crappy little apartment. But that, is a complete different story.
Thank you so much for stopping by and for the comment!