Mikisew Cree First Nation

Mikisew Cree First Nation live downstream of the Alberta Tar Sands. The tar sands are a contentious topic for many reasons. There are many reasons for concern regarding further development of the tar sands for oil. However, there it has also been estimated that the tar sands hold the largest reserve of oil in the world paralleling that found in the Middle East region. Therefore, there are many companies eager to further tap into the natural resource.

The tar sands have become an attractive investment for two primary reasons. The first is that all of the oil reserves in the world that are easily accessible have already been utilized. All of the remaining oil on the planet is much harder to get to which has driven the price of oil much higher than it had been formerly. At the new market prices, the oil found in the tar sands has become more financially attractive. It was previously too expensive to extract the oil from the tar sands and this made the operation financially unfeasible.

Another factor that has contributed to the development of the tar sand has been the improvements in technology that have made the oil extraction from the tar more efficient. The oil is extracted from the tar with a process that relies heavily on steam and energy to produce the steam from water. However, this extraction process requires a great deal of energy and water usage to complete and thus makes it a bigger source of greenhouse gas emissions during the production of the oil compared against more traditional oil extraction.

The pollution generated by the process generates issues that occur on multiple levels. First of all there is the localized pollution that affects the Mikisew Cree First Nation. They can longer eat the fish from the water because of the pollution that the tar sand extraction process has contributed to the waters. Furthermore, the water supply itself is being used up in the extraction process because so much of it is used to generate steam. Therefore, the tar sand oil extraction is certainly not an equitable affair for many of the local communities. Therefore natural resources are being utilized without their consent. Although the workers at the oil plant are paid seemingly well, the money is not distributed to all stakeholders.

Not only is the pollution is affecting the local community, but it also is impacted the entire planet through the emission of greenhouse gases. Climate change has been referred to as the issue that will define this generation and the effects of this phenomenon are already apparent in many areas of the world. The have been record droughts in some regions and food security is increasingly becoming a salient issue. Extreme weather events are becoming more common as the planets mean temperature rises and the effects are also visible in the arctic region in which sea ice has reached record low levels.