From “It’s the Tar Sands, Stupid”:

When all the Alberta oil sands have been extracted, upgraded and burned, they will result in the release into the Earth’s atmosphere of around 112 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. That is equivalent to all fossil fuel and industrial emissions worldwide combined over a period of more than four years.

It seems like people are only just awakening to the ecological disaster that is the Alberta tar sands. Not to mention that the project will use up pretty much all the natural gas Canada has left. As far as I can tell, no political party in Canada has the stomach to touch this issue though, since oil represents so much of the Canadian economy, present and future, and Alberta itself is the economic engine. That is why Canada won’t honour the Kyoto pact and why the current prime minister doesn’t pretend Canada ever will.