Dead Ducks a Disaster for Alberta Oil Sands

onMay 1, 2008 @ 10:58 PDT

Its a story that’s running around the world and it is reaching an entirely new audience of people.

If Canadian weren’t questioning the environmental impact of the Alberta Oil ~~Spill~~ Sands they are now that 500 ducks died by just simply landing on one of the many toxic lakes of tar sludge created by the oil sands process. These toxic oceans of sludge are created when fresh water is diverted from the river to be used in the processing of the oil sands – 90% of the water used ends up in these man-made lakes.

The Alberta Oil Sands are licensed to use roughly the same amount of fresh water in a year that the entire of City of Calgary uses (about the size of Austin, Texas for our US readers).

We’ve been following this story very carefully and updating our Oil Sands Facebook group, join up and send it around to your friends to help spread the message.

Here’s a video clip of the dead ducks:

But the Premier of Alberta claims all this talk of environmental problems in the Alberta Oil Sands is somehow a “myth”

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmogBlog.

He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning.

Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks.

Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder.

Prior to DeSmogBlog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health.

In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications.

Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.