加拿大油砂开采的“壮观”规模

济溪小编

加拿大油砂开采的“壮观”规模和对土壤、景观的破坏情况

In July, 2006 Artist and Photographer Curtis Hooper was taking pictures from a helicopter over the tar sands of northern Alberta.
The following sequence of photographs, in the order that they were taken, indicates the scale of the environmental destruction captured by his camera.

The gigantic heavy haulers seen in these photos are as tall as a two story house. The wheels have a diameter of 13 feet, so an average person standing next to one of them would not even reach its its midpoint.

From a distance, and right at the boundary of the devastation, he spied what he thought looked like a face emerging from the tire tracks left behind by heavy haulers and other trucks. He instructed the pilot to get a closer look.

The next sequence of photographs were taken as the helicopter turned to get a better look.

And then there it was — Kiapana. The perfectly proportioned and shrouded figure appears in anguish.

As the helicopter continued on its journey, subsequent photographs capture a glimpse of Kiapana in the bottom left corner of the screen.

The final image in the sequence gives us a sense of what the anguish is over. Off into the horizon the Earth has been transformed. The pristine Boreal forest has been cut back. The landscape has been scored with each checkerboard square just waiting to be ravaged. A toxic tailing pond replaces a Boreal lake.