James Cameron On Canada Oil Sands: 'Time To Put The Brakes On It' (VIDEO)

In this clip, James Cameron, director of "Avatar," speaks to MSNBC via Skype about his thoughts on his trip to get a first-hand glimpse of the controversial Athabasca oil sands in Alberta, Canada.

Cameron says that because the 142,000-square-kilometer deposit is the second largest in the world next to Saudi Arabia, it has triggered a gold rush of oil companies stampeding to reap the benefits, and that kind of expediency is extremely dangerous.

"The concerns are obvious," Cameron says, attesting that scientific evidence has found carcinogenic toxins from the enormous tailing ponds of the surface mining operations leaking into the water supply, and are most likely airborne as well.

While Cameron admits the massive deposit is an opportunity for North America to become independent of foreign oil, he thinks that "it's time to put the brakes on it" until the full impacts have been diligently assessed and safety concerns meticulously studied.

Cameron says only 2% of the tar sands in Alberta have been developed at this point, so unless the haste for retrieving the oil is slowed down and the process thoroughly examined, "the capacity for an ecological disaster here on an unprecedented scale is possible."

Critics consider surface mining of tar sands not only detrimental to the environment and indigenous populations in the area, but one of the most energy and water-intensive methods of extracting oil. The process was recently approved in Utah, where it is set to become the first oil sands project in the U.S.

WATCH:

Comments

[rougebaisers]

06:25 AM on 10/05/2010

You know, some day the distant relatives that seeded this planet with life are going to come calling for their brothers and sisters on this planet, (and I don't mean the alien experiment gone horribly wrong called humans), and there is going to be a huge price to pay when they can no longer find them, or they do find them and they find out what WE have done to them.

[rocketman69]

08:54 PM on 10/03/2010

Just call it 'Removing oil from our pristine beaches' and Cameron will HELP.

[Joffan]

06:47 PM on 10/04/2010

Heh, it's the biggest soil clean-up operation in the world. Oil? just a by-product. ;-)

[Kenz300]

08:29 PM on 10/03/2010

If those that believe PEAK OIL theory are correct, demand for oil will soon
exceed the worlds ability to supply it. China and India with their billion plus populations
are increasing their use of oil every year.

The last time oil prices went to $147/barrel people were parking their pick up trucks
and SUV's and were tripping over each other looking for high mileage vehicles.

America needs an energy policy. Our economic security and our national security
depend on it.

We all need to support a transition to clean, sustainable, alternative energy.
Wind, solar, geothermal and biofuels all need our support.

The oil and coal industry have been on the receiving end of tax breaks for years.

We need a choice at the pump. Gas, ethanol, diesel, biodiesel, CNG,
and electric charging stations all need to be available.

We need to end the oil monopoly on transportation fuels

[scottyknows]

06:05 PM on 10/01/2010

So what if he took the plot from Pocahontas and renamed it Avatar, this guy knows!

[SecondTime]

05:56 PM on 10/01/2010

Cameron is so yesterday. Now Curtis, he has captured the green zeitgeist with this short movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSTLDel-G9k&feature=player_embedded

[Sharon Szmolyan]

04:21 PM on 10/01/2010

Cameron toured three of the mining operations. He noted meeting smart, practical people focused on doing real reclamation. He noted that the mining companies are forty years into the process and that reclamation efforts were less than a year old, that the oil companies are promising to make good on the reclamation which at this time is phenomenally expensive. He did not tour SUNCOR’s completed tailings pond reclamation project. Land which had been a wetland is again a wetland the result of scientists and ecologists involved in the project for more than seven years. Cameron noted: what they’re demonstrating is on a scale that is economical to them. The value of the resource, particularly to the US, an energy starved country that did not have one legislator able to talk about climate change issues could however not be undermined. No food is eaten wiithout massive oil inputs. No iPods or flat screen televisions to entertain us without the oil to make them, deliver them and fuel them. For those of us who choose to bike to work, the roads themselves are made of oil. Oil is so familiar and so necessary it is not even noticed. He is not a 'drive by environmentalist’ as evidenced by the research he had done on to these very complex issues. We should all be as rigorous with respect to our positions.
Sharon Marianne Szmolyan

[nuclearISFreedom]

05:30 PM on 10/01/2010

USA has nuclear power and we have recycled Russian weapons for our energy. We have some of the largest reserves on earth of nuclear power supplies. We are NOT energy starved naturally, this is a brilliant, sick smothering by bankers and power brokers. We use nuclear to process hemp and the earth will breath again. Nuclear releases steam.

[Carol Hiltner]

02:23 AM on 10/05/2010

Nuclear is SO DANGEROUS! Nuclear releases RADIOACTIVITY!!!! I live in Washington State, where the hideously toxic radioactive waste is dumped into unlined pits or stored in leaking barrels -- and is leaching into the ocean via the Columbia River; where secret radioactive releases into the air have wrecked people's health in about a quarter of our state. Once radioactivity is loose in the environment, it can't be undone. Dirty coal is a walk in the park by comparison!

[Sharon Szmolyan]

04:20 PM on 10/01/2010

Not unfamiliar with the constitutional issues Cameron encouraged Canadians to do the real science, that the science be open to the public, that the science be put to proper peer review. This was an important point not missed by any with knowledge of the Canadian government’s position on the oil sands – the government of Canada’s 18 month investigation into oil sands pollution of the Athabasca River was cancelled and draft copies of the final report were destroyed. Referring to water expert Dr. David Schindler’s perspectives on the scientific methodology that had attempted to deny there were any issues within the river as a result of the tar sands Cameron said “it would behoove us to establish what the causes of the fish deformities are that are showing up with greater and greater frequency” and that “it is very important that the clear linkages between rapidly expanding oilsands development and evidence of damage to the Athabasca River be addressed with integrity, embraced and mitigated”.

[lbsaltzman]

05:58 PM on 10/01/2010

Even if oil sands can be mined withour producing toxic wastest this should be stopped immediately for the forseeable future. The return on oil for the amount of fossil fuel energy required to extract it is not worth it. The projects are burning up natural gas, a relatively clean energy source, to produce energy with high CO2 emissions. To extract and use the energy from the tar sands is insane. I am pretty fond of Canada as a country, but they are now one of engaged in an act of unspeakable evil, and contributing to the death of civilization along with the U.S.

[Sharon Szmolyan]

04:18 PM on 10/01/2010

Iconic Canadian James Cameron took forty minutes to share his very thorough perspective of the Canadian oil sands. Invited by Mr. George Poitras, former chief of the Mikisew Cree Cameron was a respectful guest considering the perspectives of all who shared their beliefs on what is perhaps the backbone of the Canadian economy at this time.
The Canadian oil sands are not without their opponents. I woul be hard believe any live of them live in Alberta. The sheer scale, size and economic input to the province are staggering. Provinces in Canada have the rights to natural resources. They are also beholden to manage these resources responsibly which is one of the key observations Mr. Cameron made. The Canadian who had grown up close to the land had the opportunity to live a life that many who live in major metropolitan environments could only ever dream of. Able to swim in the rivers as a child, able to hunt although not to support himself or his family, able to live a life close to the land in a way he felt he had portrayed in Avatar, is not something the Canadian First Nation’s people living along the Athabasca River can now do because of the high levels of contaminants in the river and in the air. It is however their constitutional right to do so, established by treaties as far back as 1879. The First Nations have filed a lawsuit against the province of Alberta for treaty violations.

[lbsaltzman]

06:00 PM on 10/01/2010

Maybe they can succeed in bringing sense to Canadians.

[zula dawn]

03:42 AM on 10/03/2010

that would be nice, really nice. i could go with that. i've been up in alberta several times. let me tell you, if alberta were an american state it would be a very proud bastion for the right wing republicans. the people i know up there have no intention of letting any outsider(s) tell them what they can and cannot do in their own province. they have no intention of anyone turning them into a "have not" province; no one is going to bankrupt them. and don't even get them started on james cameron!!!

[JASONH0099]

10:49 AM on 10/01/2010

i see how this thread works.... if you do not absolutely agree you get deleted.... why don't you just post that?

[Vivian Alicia Evans]

01:07 PM on 10/01/2010

You got it.

[nuclearISFreedom]

10:11 AM on 10/01/2010

If he took a trip over to West Virgina, Pennsylvania and Ohio, he would have seen the second beast that is taking place-hydraulic fracturing of natural gas. These states were pillaged once for timber, then they were pillaged again for coal, and now we have the most destructive pillage of all GAS. Because when you mine this gas, you shoot water, mixed with toxins past the aquifers to crack open gas. 6 million gallons of water, and you get 10% of it back. Then, you hook up combustible pipes to the well, and hook the pipes to a compressors stations(which are giant engines) that pump the gas to homes.

If we do not back nuclear and start researching how much less land it destroys relative to gas, oil, and solar and wind(these are not efficient right now, they are mining, using enormous energy to make panels and turbines, they have replacement costs), then we will have lost again.

We need base load power that emits steam to run our country, and process bio-diesels. The gas and oil are still winning, and solar and wind can not stop it at all. It does not create anywhere near the power we need.

[TBJ]

04:25 PM on 10/01/2010

Thank you for knowing that solar and wind are not efficient enough. As well as the obvious fact that oil/coal/natural gas are terribly destructive in multiple ways.

I live in PA. Dropping a friend off in Amity, there was a huge fireball off in the distance; they were burning off the toxic gas that was being mined, and, when we got close to it, it looked like a 4-story tall bunsen burner of doom.

Not to mention that the natural gas is getting into people's water supplies, to the point where some home's faucet water can be ignited.

Right now, there are almost no regulations on this, and because of it, everyone wants to make a quick buck before they get taxed and have to spend money on safety, etc.

[doxienan]

09:21 AM on 10/01/2010

We need more people to speak out against tar sand oil. How about those communities (including in the U.S.) that are downstream of these polluting operations? What chemicals and pollutants are you drinking, courtesy of the Alberta Tar Sands?

It's time for every country to start spending money on clean renewable energy. We've trashed Mother Earth for too long. It's time to clean up our act.

[JTCan]

10:42 AM on 10/01/2010

Canadian's in general are against the Tar Sands developement. Unfortunately, Alberta is Canada's Texas.

[Vivian Alicia Evans]

01:04 PM on 10/01/2010

And the most redneck province at that. They run fast and loose with environmental policies. However I think we need to address our dependence on Oil first and then Arab Oil. There has to be a way with technology these days to make this a safer more ecological way to extract oil. Otherwise we will always be held hostage to the Arabs.

[Vivian Alicia Evans]

01:04 PM on 10/01/2010

f&f!