Photo Essay on Canada's Filthy Tar Sands – This Is Why Keystone XL Must Be Stopped

onAug 23, 2011 @ 06:45 PDT

Robert van Waarden, an excellent photographer and friend of DeSmogBlog, has compiled this great visual essay on Canada’s filthy tar sands to show people just a few of the reasons why the disastrous Keystone XL pipeline must be rejected by the Obama administration.

Robert’s photos are accompanied by quotes from First Nations’ people whom he interviewed on a recent trip to the Alberta tar sands. First Nations communities living near the industrial tar sands development suffer the worst of the impacts, a fact often overlooked by the mainstream media.

View the tar sands photo essay below:

Thanks again to Robert for putting this photo essay together for DeSmogBlog. Based in Amsterdam, Robert van Waarden is a climate change photographer and travel photographer whose work has been published in National Geographic Traveler, Canadian Geographic and elsewhere internationally.

Also check out Robert’s previous visual essay on the impacts of tar sands development on indigenous culture in Canada.

By Brendan DeMelle

Brendan is Executive Director of DeSmog. He is also a freelance writer and researcher specializing in media, politics, climate change and energy. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, Grist, The Washington Times and other outlets.

‘Utterly Abusive’: First Nations United Against Mark Carney’s Alberta Pipeline Plans

ByMitch Anderson

onDec 2, 2025 @ 07:48 PST

By tying the project’s fate to Indigenous “equity,” Carney saddles groups with the blame, and potentially the bill, if they move to stop a pipeline they oppose.