Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent

Andrew Nikiforuk

Greystone Books, a division of D&M, 2010 - Science - 268 pages

Tar Sandscritically examines the frenzied development in the Canadian tar sands and the far-reaching implications for all of North America. Bitumen, the sticky stuff that ancients used to glue the Tower of Babel together, is the world's most expensive hydrocarbon. This difficult-to-find resource has made Canada the number-one supplier of oil to the United States, and every major oil company now owns a lease in the Alberta tar sands. The region has become a global Deadwood, complete with rapturous engineers, cut-throat cocaine dealers, Muslim extremists, and a huge population of homeless individuals. In this award-winning book, a Canadian bestseller, journalist Andrew Nikiforukexposes the disastrous environmental, social, and political costs of the tar sands, arguing forcefully for change. This updated edition includes new chapters on the most energy-inefficient tar sands projects (the steam plants), as well as new material on the controversial carbon cemeteries and nuclear proposals to accelerate bitumen production.

What people are saying

Review: Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent

User Review  - Eric - Goodreads

Alberta would be a different place if everyone read this book and became part of the provincial discourse. I knew the Tar Sands had a high environmental cost but what this book shows really well is ...

Review: Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent

User Review - Goodreads

As a Canadian, I'm appalled by the horrors going on in Alberta. I applaud Nikiforuk's for his investigative and in depth analysis on this subject.

About the author

Andrew Nikiforuk is a well-known Canadian journalist whose work has appeared in Saturday Night, Maclean's, Canadian Business, Report on Business, Chatelaine, Equinox, and Canadian Family and in both national newspapers. His books include Pandemonium, Saboteurs, which won a Govenor-General's Award, and Fourth Horseman. He lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent
• Author: Andrew Nikiforuk
• Edition: revised
• Publisher: Greystone Books, a division of D&M, 2010
• ISBN: 155365627X, 9781553656272
• Length: 268 pages
• Subjects: Science / Environmental Science