TED演讲 第17期:石油真正的代价(3)

The oil produced from either method

produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any other oil.

This is one of the reasons why it's called

the world's dirtiest oil.

It's also one of the reasons why it is

the largest and fastest-growing single source

of carbon in Canada,

and it is also a reason why Canada is now number three

in terms of producing carbon per person.

The tailings ponds are the largest toxic impoundments on the planet.

Oil sands -- or rather I should say tar sands --

"oil sands" is a P.R.-created term

so that the oil companies wouldn't be trying to promote

something that sounds like a sticky tar-like substance

that's the world's dirtiest oil.

So they decided to call it oil sands.

The tar sands consume more water than any other oil process,

three to five barrels of water are taken, polluted

and then returned into tailings ponds,

the largest toxic impoundments on the planet.

SemCrude, just one of the licensees,

in just one of their tailings ponds,

dumps 250,000 tons of this toxic gunk every single day.

That's creating the largest toxic impoundments

in the history of the planet.

So far, this is enough toxin

to cover the face of Lake Eerie a foot deep.

And the tailings ponds range in size up to 9,000 acres.

That's two-thirds the size of the entire island of Manhattan.

That's like from Wall Street at the southern edge of Manhattan

up to maybe 120th Street.

So this is an absolutely --

this is one of the larger tailings ponds.

This might be, what? I don't know, half the size of Manhattan.

And you can see in the context,

it's just a relatively small section

of one of 10 mining complexes and another 40 to 50

on stream to be approved soon.

And of course, these tailings ponds --

well, you can't see many ponds from outer space

and you can see these, so maybe we should stop calling them ponds --

these massive toxic wastelands are built

unlined and on the banks of the Athabasca River.