Exploitation of North America’s shale and tar-sand oil reserves could increase atmospheric CO2
levels by up to 15%, a new report from WWF-UK and the major UK
financial group Co-Operative Financial Services (CFS) has warned.
Extraction of the projected 1,115 billion barrels of recoverable oil
from unconventional fuel sources such as Alberta’s oil sands and
Colorado’s oil shale, which involve much more energy intensive
procedures for extraction than traditional oil reserves, would
significantly increase global risks of dangerous climate change, the
report said.
"Most oil companies have hardly begun to factor in the externalities that are currently imposed on the environment."
These externalities include mass deforestation, such as Alberta’s
Boreal forests, which lie above 140,000 square kilometres of oil sands,
and are now crisscrossed with seismic lines and open-cast mines.
