Time Magazine Gushes over Tar Sands. Posted by Bill Becker, Grist, May 28, 2008. "I consider Time to be one of the more forward-looking periodicals when it comes to the environment. But the editors messed up in this week's... June 2 [edition, which] carries a breathless feature about the potential petroleum bonanza in Canada's tar sands. The article's authors are so giddy with the testosterone rush of big-ass earth-moving machines that they forgot what a multifaceted disaster this 'bonanza' would be... 'The mega-projects across Alberta's oil sands rival some of the humankind's greatest engineering achievements, including the pyramids of Giza and the Great Wall of China,' [the magazine] gushes... 'Canada may become the new Saudi Arabia, the last great oil kingdom, right on the U.S. border.' Let's pause for a moment, take a deep breath, and think about this... The 'stark' landscape Time describes is Canada's boreal forest... As Exxon pushes for the biggest oil boom in North American history -- and as the melting Arctic ice opens access to vast new oil and gas fields -- it's hard to imagine a more dramatic and critical fork in the road of human progress. One path offers dazzling new riches for oil companies and... tantalizing new frontiers for wildcatters... The other... takes us to a future in which our energy is inexhaustible, our economy is secure, drilling and digging have been phased out in favor of green industries and jobs, and global warming is stabilized. We have very little time to choose. Unfortunately, the allure of black gold and big trucks appears to be taking us down the wrong path." Bill Becker is executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.
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