Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames0910
Google led me to an article suggesting tailings ponds take up somewhere around 43,000 acres (1.1 trillion litres of toxic waste and counting, they also are estimated to be responsible for 10% of the industry's carbon emissions as they leak co2 and methane into the atmosphere).
That plus the 500sq km for oil sands excavations (123,553 acres) mentioned above would put the total footprint of oil sands operations around 166,500 acres. The UCP has been sharing a graphic on social media that 106,000 acres of solar panels would cover half the space of Calgary, when essentially the oil sands cover the entire area of Calgary.  |
So the comparison here you’d want to make if you were concerned about land use would be the net energy produced / Sqkm. Otherwise it’s just comparing large numbers.