The tar sands project is detrimental to the planet, and harmful to Indigenous Canadian communities.
It is easy to dismiss environmental changes as purely the recent advancement of technology and fossil fuel production. But as a sociologist, I have spent my academic years learning about the impact that colonialism has on the environment and the people that depend on natural resources. Even though we have seen an advancement of how people of colour are treated, and a change in our social systems, we are still dealing with the consequences of colonialism, especially when it comes to the environment.
Examples of colonialism’s lingering effects include discrimination within the justice system, climate migration, or the destruction of Indigenous lands all over the world, specifically the Athabasca tar sands project in Alberta, Canada.
Tar sands are made of sand, clay, and bitumen, and extracted from 140,000 square kilometres of North-Eastern Alberta in Canada, an area much bigger than the whole of England. This land historically belonged to the First Nation people of Canada, but is now being polluted by this major oil extraction.
In 2012, Canada was the biggest exporter of oil to the US, with most of this oil coming from Alberta. The industry has grown exponentially between 2008 and 2021, when 3.3 million barrels of bitumen were produced every day. In 2020, the sales value of bitumen was $42.7 billion. But extraction of tar sands is highly exploitative. It requires lots of energy and resources such as water and leaves the area destroyed and empty, with billions of gallons of toxic waste in its wake. The forests that were home to many animal species, as well as home for many First Nations peoples, have now been made unlivable by massive corporations.
According to international law, Indigenous Peoples communities are protected from displacement. However, as Amnesty International reports, due to their land being rich in natural resources, they are exploited by investors without consultation. The tar sands industry supports many working Canadian people, and yet the communities that are most affected by the continuous mining are struggling to make themselves heard about its negative impacts.
The documentary Killer Water, written and directed by Brandi Morin illustrates that the indigenous people of Fort Chipewyan have been affected by higher rates of cancer, as a result of tar sands production. This is a direct result of colonialism. For centuries, Indigenous tribes all over the Americas have been disrespected, displaced, and in the most tragic cases, slaughtered by the colonising powers that arrived from Europe. Efforts are being made to preserve the environment and ecosystems that are struggling to survive. However, many of the conservation projects ultimately ban Indigenous people from accessing their lands, and forbid fishing or hunting.
We must recognise the negative impact that our decisions as societies, communities, and governments have on the most vulnerable people. For centuries, the Indigenous Peoples of Canada have been marginalised. The abuse evolved from murder, to forced assimilation in residential schools, to environmental destruction of their sacred lands.
Sometimes we claim to live in a world stripped of the systemic ills of racism, having come so far from what was before. However, racial inequalities still exist, and we must fight against them, for equality and for our planet. That can be done in so many ways. Most importantly, we should educate ourselves on the matter and listen to the voices of the Indigenous Peoples who for years now have been warning about the negative effects of tar sands production.
