The Alberta Tar Sands Focusing on Labor and the Environment

According to analysts, the oil sands in Alberta, Canada have a major effect on both the climate and the country’s economic position. The extraction of tar sand in the Alberta region, in particular, results in the destruction of forest cover, reducing the frequency of rains in the area. Furthermore, gases emitted by companies involved in oil sands mining have an effect on the health of workers and animals in the surrounding areas. As a result, Alberta’s agricultural practices have had a detrimental impact on Canada’s biodiversity and climatic conditions. With the passage of time, the growth and needs of the people are increasing, but the energy level is not accurate to fulfill the needs of people. It can be said that if the energy level and growth rate of resources increases at the same rate, then we will not become able to meet the needs of the future. The growth in the business of oil and sand is imposing the good effect on the developments of the country like if we talk about the sand tar industries in Alberta, it is also playing a critical role in the region’s economic growth and the development of the entire economy of Canada (Poveda & Lipsett, 2013). In the last few years, it is noticed that there a reasonable increase in the development of oil and sand industry. The two major countries where this business is at peak are Canada and Venezuela. There is 16 percent of oil deposit from the whole land of Canada (from the land of Alberta) and 14 percent of the total land of Venezuela. Notably, these extraction processes and other activities that occur in the tar sands sector has also offered employment to 478000 people and enhanced the volume of energy exports that Canada trades to other nations. Being working in this type of environment or factories, it is also very important to take in notice the health of the labor also because the main base of the company to be successful or to give production is labor. It is a complex process to produce the oil sand and it requires a trained and highly skilled workers. It has been noticed in the last few years that the Government and the company both are providing a lot of facilities to their labor and also trying to develop friendly relations with them. The main process that is also becoming the barrier in the production of oil sand is the parting of bitumen from the soil. This requires a large experimentation process and obviously then highly responsible and well trained. The companies of sand and oil usually collect labor from the Canada and ado from all over the world on the temporary basis. This will help the overall development and growth if the company. (Rosa et al., 2017).

An examination of the oil sands production sector indicates that the industry faces significant challenges from the workers’ unions, which are consistently demanding for the improvement of safety measures for the employees (Ferguson, 2011). Apart from the labor unions, environmental activists have lodged various complaints concerning the adverse impacts the sand oil extraction processes and related industrial activities have on the surrounding. For instance, the sand extraction processes lead to the development of tailings ponds, which pose high risks to the workers and aquatic lives. Besides, the carbon and nitrogen compound that the industries release into the air leads to the development of acid rains, and destruction of the ozone layers thus adversely affecting the welfare of the workers (Paskey &Williams, 2013).

The environmental policies that the regulatory authorities have established affect both the economic and health of the workers. It is also increasing the pressure on the natural atmosphere of the Alberta. So, it is important for the Government of Alberta that it must have to claim such areas where there are the factories of oil and sand to make that area more productive. The production of oil and sand are especially impacting the air which is becoming the cause of many diseases. This is becoming a great area of concern for the people, investors and also for the respective Government. According to a study to come to know that more than fourteen hundred pollutants are coming from the oil sand and only a few of them are discovered till yet. Even the production of oil sand in Canada has reduced the production of carbon dioxide in the environment by thirty-three percent which is ringing the alarm.

There is also required of water (in tonnes) for the production of oil sand and this water is collected from the resources of underground water. If the water will going to increase at the same rate then it will also impose the effect on the overall water production and need of the country. For instance, the environmental policies have led to the relocation of the workers, who were residing close to the industries and a reduction in the number of women who works in the extraction sites. According to Poveda and Lipsett (2013), the tar sands exploitation has also faced objections from the Aboriginals. Finally, the environmental policies have improved the economic statuses of the workers because companies provide the employees with health risk allowances (Ferguson, 2011).

Annotated Bibliography

Ferguson, N. (2011). “From coal pits to tar sands: Labour migration between an Atlantic

Canadian region and the Athabasca oil sands.” Just Labour, 17.

In the article above, Ferguson analyses the impact of oil sands on the labor movements in Canada, especially between the Albertan region and other parts of the country. According to the report by Ferguson, the tar sand business often provide high levels of income to the employees thereby increasing the labor supply, and a majority of the Canadians immigrate to the Albertan region to work as casual laborers or skilled employees. Although the demand for employment in the tar sands production sector has attracted people from various origins, an analysis of the employment status in the different industries indicates that women are the minority employees due to some policies that the labor relations agencies have established. The main time taking process is of separation of bitumen from the sand which requires highly skilled labor. Because of the highly skilled labor and the expensive experiments become the cause of increase in the prices of oil. The main source of getting the oil is Canada which collects almost half oil of the world. As this work is complex and requires high experiment so the security if the labor is a big issue. The production of oil sand also affects the environment, especially air. They are a number of pollutants which are getting involved in the air with the production of oil sand and to overcome these pollutants is becoming a big issue for the Government, company owners and the people also. So, there is the need to overcome these issues.

Paskey, J., Steward, G., & Williams, A. (2013). The Alberta Oil Sands Then and Now: An Investigation of the Economic, Environmental and Social Discourses across Four Decades.

The article by Paskey and Williams is crucial in the examination of the future impacts of the oil sands extraction on the welfare of humanity and other organisms. The Government of Alberta’s working from the last forty years to make the production of oil sands better. They are doing the scientific and detailed studies for this for the promotion of oil sand. For the promotion of the development of oil sand, the Government has started four to seven projects. The production oil sand has become the important conversation all over the world to check its production, risk and all economic and social factors related to it. According to the article above, the tailings ponds that extractors use during the exploitation of tar sands accumulate dangerous compounds that are hazardous to the aquatic life. The main objective of this is to check the impact of oil sands on economic, environmental and social impacts. Economically, it is impacting national economy and the foreign investment. Whereas environmentally it is impacting on the air, greenhouse, water etc. For checking the development of oil sand, a qualitative approach was adopted which shows that there is a small amount of development in oil sands. Also, the greenhouse gases that the industries release from the tar sands production adversely affects the health of humankind. In the article, it is evident that various policies have played a critical role in the reduction of environmental pollution. With the increase in development of oil sands, the opportunity of employment has also be increased for the people. Seventy-five thousand jobs were offered to people in 2010 which are expected to be increased up to more than nine lacs till 2035, but it is also increasing the amount of taxes. The increase in development of oil sands is also increasing the pollution factors. The amount of Carbon dioxide is getting decreased by thirty-three percent which can become the reason for health issues. Notably, the Kyoto Protocol established that developed countries need to reduce the levels of environmental pollution and improve the welfare of humanity and other organisms

Poveda, C. A., & Lipsett, M. G. (2013). ”The Canadian Oil sands: environmental, economic,

social, health, and other impacts.” WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 173, 575-587.

According to Poveda and Lipsett, a majority of the Canadians are employees of the industries that undertake the sand oil production processes thus increasing the levels of incomes that the Canadians receive. This is the time of energy and with the passage of time due to increase in the population and growth, the requirement of energy is also getting the increase. If the growth rate of energy remains the same, then it is not possible to meet the requirements of the future. For meeting the needs of power and energy there are some developments which are in working process which can help to overcome the future needs. Whereas the development of some phases is under discussion. There are some organizations internationally also which trying to provide all the needs of the people like United Nations whose aim is to provide to energy to everyone in order to maintain the living standard of everyone. It is also important to check that the level of product implication is balanced or not because it can impact the social, economic and culture of a country. So, it is important to check the size, rate and production level of development. Economists argue that in 25 years, the compensation for the workers in tar sands extraction amounts between $650 billion to $ 1417 billion thus indicating that a majority of the employees in the industry above significantly benefit from the investments in the sector. With the increase in the rate of population, the first impact is on the surrounding areas. So it is also important to reserve the factories areas so that the people get secure from the health problems. Depending upon the production of oil, it is classified into two different categories of conventional and unconventional oils. Production of convention oil is easy as compared to the unconventional oil. Due to the increase in production of oil sand, the energy production in Canada has become doubled. They are also trying to reduce the environmental hazard with the production of energy. The article above is necessary for the analysis of the social and health impacts of the oil sands extraction on the workers and communities in Alberta. Specifically, the industrial activities adversely affect the ecosystems and the Aboriginal communities living in the area. Indeed, oil sand production is playing an important role in meeting the energy level worldwide.

Rosa, L. Davis, F.K., Rulli, C.M., D’Odoricco, P. (2017). ”Environmental Consequences of Oil Production from Oil Sands.” Earth’s Future 5(2)

The article above is crucial in the examination of the environmental impacts of tar sands extraction on the environment. Rosa, Davis, and D’Odoricco postulate that most of Canada’s land has forests thus the exploitation of the oil sands leads to the loss of biodiversity and destruction of ecosystems. Within the last few years, the production of oil sands is getting an increase to improve the energy level due to which the demand for energy is also increasing globally by twenty percent. Whereas the production of unconventional oil is getting an increase from twenty percent to forty percent. It is found that there is a lot of oil sand deposited are present all over the world. According to the collected data, it comes to know that the production of oil sands results in loss of forests, water, carbon dioxide etc. there are deposits of oil sands in a lot of countries but the big resources are found in Canada and Venezuela. Canada produces almost sixteen percent of oil sand (from Alberta land) of the whole world whereas the fourteen percent of oil sand has been produced by the Venezuela. In Alberta, there is the huge loss in the forest because they caught fire. So, they use the forest in order to make the oil sands instead of wasting them by fire. As a large amount of water is also used in the process of making oil sands and this water is collected from the underground water son it is also important to take in notice the average use of water and its availability. Besides, the destruction of forests to allow for the extraction of the tar sands adversely affects the climatic conditions of Alberta region and the entire Canada. According to Rosa et al., the tar sands extraction in the Alberta area has led to the establishment of environmental policies to help enhance the welfare of humanity by reducing environmental pollution through the emission of dangerous gases such as carbon.

Avagyan, A. (2017). Environmental building policy by the use of microalgae and decreasing of risks for Canadian oil sand sector development. Environmental Science And Pollution Research, 24(25), 20241-20253. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9864-x

This article is written by Armen Avagyan, who is a very famous Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies. The production of tar sand of Alberta has created a sense of trouble and created a risk in the development of oil. The production of unconventional oil is going to increase globally. The development of oil sands has become the strong point of economy of Alberta and also becoming the reason to impact the atmosphere. The problems which are arising in the atmosphere because of the production of oil sand are managed by making some policies. After checking the consequences of all the situation and stages, in depth analysis has to be performed. In the recent research, its main impact is on environment degradation which means that its production is affecting the environment at large scale. It is getting difficult for the management to stop the impacts of these effects. Because of the negative impacts due to the production of tar, the NGO’s are also get involved in it to manage the risk factorsBy doing the in-depth analysis, these matters can be solved easily. It is also helpful in reducing the price of production of oil sand which is becoming the reason for increasing the market opportunities of oil sand. One of the important thing is that the use of scrap in form of food also become the reason to reduce the green house effect. This article is proving very valuable for me because it is providing the precise information in writing my essay. This also is also credible because it has been published a couple of years ago and also written by the experience writers.

Tarnoczi, T. (2013). Life cycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions from transportation of Canadian oil sands to future markets. Energy Policy, 62, 107-117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.08.001

This article is written by famous writer Tyler Tarnoczi. This article is about the future of oil sand. The oil sand production is one of the difficult oil to produce. As its production is difficult so that why it is highly expensive. With the passage of time, the scientists are getting the research in the production of oil sand and they come to know that the in the production of oil sands the most expensive and difficult process is to get the deposit of bitumen from the sand. It is difficult to make the oil san perfect and reasonable price. It is difficult for the individual to get rid of negative impacts of oil sand. There are some complex impacts that the production of oil sand is imposing on the environment. One of the main impacts is on air. It is producing a large amount of air pollution especially by affecting the ration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The second impact that is mentioned in this article is of water. The water that is used in the production of oil sands is used from the underground which can later affect the other water in the underground which results in form of illness because the people use this water in their daily life. It is also not possible to recycle this water for the further use. For managing all these problems, LCA model is used which helps to reduce the cost of production also by providing different type of analysis. It is also disturbing the land because the land will not be able to use later by the public because it includes the mining of surface.

Lynam, M., Dvonch, J., Barres, J., Morishita, M., Legge, A., & Percy, K. (2015). Oil sands development and its impact on an atmospheric wet deposition of air pollutants to the Athabasca Oil Sands Region, Alberta, Canada. Environmental Pollution, 206, 469-478. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2015.07.032

This article is about the development of oil sand and its impact on atmosphere especially on air written by very famous writers of Environmental Pollution. The main theme of this article is to tell about the areas of destruction due to the development of oil sands. The development of oil sand is imposing a very bad impact on the humans and their health and it is very important to manage these risks. It requires the knowledge about all the environmental factors. For the assurance of this work, the scientist has collected the data from the nearest surrounding and make the specific process applicable to it. After this, they come to know that because of the negative impact of the oil sands production, the main partials are getting eliminated from the land which is creating a lot of issues. The removal of great elements from the land soil is creating the problem related to the land mining and the settlement of human on this land. This is becoming the reason for the people of that are to survive over there. This article is discussing these reason in details. In my essay, I want to discuss these factors in depth that’s why it is proving reliable for me. This article is also credible because of the fact that it is has been written by much-approved writers. Another reason for the credibility of this article is that it has been issued a couple of years ago and has been used as a source in different other works also.

Hoberg, G., & Phillips, J. (2011). Playing Defence: Early Responses to Conflict Expansion in the Oil Sands Policy Subsystem. Canadian Journal Of Political Science, 44(03), 507-527. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0008423911000473

This article is written by George Hoberg and Jeffery Phillips whose basis topic is about the response of people especially owners or stakeholders on the impacts of oil sands in Alberta. It is very important to overcome the negative impacts produced by the production of oil sands to go in the depth and check all the circumstances from the beginning. For this purpose, the involvement of stakeholders is also very important. This is becoming the major area of concern since 2005. For making the problems and crises clear, it is also important to study the policy and all the action related to this. The scientists are focusing on studying the nuclear policy so that the depth of this matter can be understood easily. It is very important to study the two basic processes in the beginning like the beginning of the subsystem of oil sand system and the other is to check the surrounding issues related to the production of oil sand that is at their peak. For this, it is also very important to get involved the other oil companies to check their strategies and policies in order to make our strategies better and to overcome the risks. This article is a valuable article because it is providing me the relevant information that is required by me for the writing of my essay. It is also a credible article because it has been published a couple of years ago, it is a published article and by the experienced writers.

References

Ferguson, N. (2011). From coal pits to tar sands: Labor migration between an Atlantic Canadian region and the Athabasca oil sands. Just Labor, 17.

Retrieved from: http://www.justlabour.yorku.ca/volume17/pdfs/08_ferguson_press.pdf

Paskey, J., Steward, G., & Williams, A. (2013). The Alberta Oil Sands Then and Now: An Investigation of the Economic, Environmental and Social Discourses across Four Decades. Retrieved from: https://era.library.ualberta.ca/files/j6731549r/TR-38%20-%20Paskey%20Then%20and%20Now.pdf

Poveda, C. A., & Lipsett, M. G. (2013). ”The Canadian Oil sands: environmental, economic, social, health, and other impacts.” WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 173, 575-587. Retrieved from: https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/SDP13/SDP13048FU1.pdf

Rosa, L. Davis, F.K., Rulli, C.M., D’Odoricco, P. (2017). ”Environmental Consequences of Oil Production from Oil Sands.” Earth’s Future 5(2). Retrieved from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016EF000484/pdf