H2Oil

If you still think the United States gets most of its oil from Saudi Arabia, you are wrong.  America's biggest oil supplier has quickly become the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, ever since former Vice President Dick Cheney went to size up their potential back in 2005.

These controversial tar sands are located under Alberta's ancient boreal forests.  But extracting oil from them is a dirty business, using up to 4 barrels of fresh water to produce only one barrel of crude oil.  This mining process also produces at least three times the CO2 emissions of regular oil production. This makes it the dirtiest oil in the world, and these tar sands will only produce enough crude oil to feed the global appetite for oil for about 50 years.  (http://h2oildoc.com/home/tar_sands)

The fresh water used to extract the oil is being diverted from local water sources. But the environmental impact will eventually be felt much further away - in the Great Lakes Region of the US and Canada - which contains 20% of the world's fresh surface water.   (See:
http://solveclimatenews.com/news/20081017/alberta-tar-sands-poison-us-great-lakes-region-too  for more information.)

Canadian filmmakers last year released the documentary called "H2Oil" about the impact on the local people and the environment.  Here's the trailer:







And a here's a poignant still shot from the film:

For more information about the Alberta tar sands and the documentary 'H2Oil" please visit their website: 
http://h2oildoc.com/home/

Other good websites for information about tar sands:
http://oilsandstruth.org/

http://www.tarsandswatch.org/
/
/