Let's look at the true cost of oil. Garth Lenz breaks down the statistics and facts of the extraction in the Alberta Tar Sands. But what truly speaks to me about this video and what I find different from other factual videos of it's kind, is when Lenz relates the human quotient to his listeners.
Lenz describes the raw injustices forced on native people in the Boreal region, on a personal level. As a photographer journaling the life under threat in Alberta, Lenz meets fathers and mothers who are given no other choice but to knowingly feed their children poisoned food.
Natives have lived sustainably in this ecosystem for over 10,000 years and oil addiction will destroy it, making it inhabitable, in just a few.
Toxic affluent from the tar sands is infecting the food chain of Athabasca aboriginals. Due to this, cancer rates in Athabasca that are about 10x greater than in the rest of the Canadian population. Lenz describes an incident when a man, who would not wish harm on anyone, told Lenz not to eat the fish from the river as it is extremely carcinogenic. That man had to feed the fish to his own children since it was one of their only sources of food.
"There is a huge network [worldwide] fighting to stop [the Tar Sands] project. This is not something that should be decided by Canada [alone]..." ~ Garth Lenz
I saw a program involving this issue recently and as Lenz suggests it is underpinned by our current addiction to oil. We have the technological capacity to use other forms of energy, however there is too much easy money to be made for key investors in continuing our reliance on fossils fuels. Australia's unethical reliance on its coal industry is another example. These activities which continue despite the obvious environmental, long term economic and social consequences may one day be viewed in very low regard.
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