Original subtitles

(water trickles)

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Canada is now the number one supplier of oil

to the United States.

Most of that oil is coming from the tar sands

in Northern Alberta, Canada.

The tar sands of the biggest oil project in the world,

but this is an oil industry with an insatiable thirst.

- We use 3.3 barrels of water per barrel of bitumen.

- [Narrator] The current rates of production

in the tar sands are at a million and a half barrels

of oil a day.

- We could be dealing with a water versus oil situation.

- [Narrator] The tar sands use fresh water

to separate oil from sand.

This turns the water into toxic sludge.

Canada is now a world leader in waste production.

- We're talking about waste dumps

that you can see from space.

- [Narrator] To find out where the tar sands get

their water from, you have to go to the source.

The source is the Columbia ice fields

in Jasper National Park.

This glaciated landscape

is supplying major multinational corporations

with the fresh water resources they need

to fill people's gas tanks.

But this ice and snow is fast disappearing

under the relentless assault of climate change.

- The glaciers, they're just almost being decapitated.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] These places are worlds apart,

yet connected by a threat.

This is a journey from ice fields

to oil fields.

(soft music)

♪ [Woman] If they blow hole in my backyard ♪

♪ Everyone is gonna run away ♪

♪ And the creeks won't flow to the great lake below ♪

♪ Or the water in the world still get a care. ♪

♪ We'll keep driving ♪

♪ on the blind line ♪

♪ If we don't know where ♪

♪ we wanna go ♪

♪ Even now is just sound ♪

♪ can get water down ♪

♪ Truth get tossed out ♪

♪ the car window ♪

♪ Truth get tossed out ♪

♪ the car window ♪

♪ If they blow a hole ♪

♪ in back lawn ♪

♪ The one that run across muscles of the land ♪

♪ Oh we might get a low storm for the road ♪

♪ But I don't know how much longer it can stand ♪

(water splashes)

- I've always been a lover of water

in all of its forms.

I love it when it hibernates up

in the quiet glacial landscapes.

I love it when it comes to life further downstream.

It's my work, it's my play.

My body is made up of two thirds of this substance.

My Name is David lavallee.

I work as a hiking guide in the Canadian Rockies.

Over the years I've witnessed some startling changes

to the glacial ice in this area.

(soft music)

(wind whistles) (snow crunches)

- Is there snow out there, David?

- Yeah, a little bit.

(snow crunches)

- It's' good travel though. - Good.

- Ken, Nevia and I are hiking to the top of Mount Snow Dome,

the frozen source of the Athabasca River.

(snow crunches)

In this rapidly changing glacial world,

the regular rules for safe mountain traveled

no longer apply and on this journey, I get surprised.

(lightening thunders)

- Through the hole. - What just happened?

- David? - What just happened?

- One of the quite light - (shovels snow) Yeah.

- I need some of your hardware, you guys.

- He took about a 30 foot tall.

It's a very deep glacier.

- I'm gonna let you know when we're gonna start the haul,

if you'll hold onto that a little bit.

Okay man, get. - All right.

(dramatic music) (Grunts)

- There we go? - Pull.

(shouting) I got far David. - You okay?

- One, two, you ready Dave? - Just throw it.

- One, two, three. (David groans)

- Okay, I got the duck walk (exhales loudly).

- You okay, a little more?

- You could just... I can't move my, just manhandled me.

That's it, yeah.

- (all) ooooooohh.

- Get up boy. - Ooh.

- I was just walking and all of a sudden next thing I knew

I was just falling,

long way,

blue ice walls rushing past me

and then the rope came tight, thank God.

Thanks, good catch, good catch Nevia.

It closes off at that end and that end.

I'm just glad I felt here because had I fallen over there

I would have nailed something,

I would have broken a femur or something on a shelf of ice.

Had I fell anywhere like, oh, angel on my shoulders,

- Yeah it was good from there

- Angel on my shoulders, oh God.

I climbed Mount Snow Dome 10 years ago.

There were no crevasses here.

It's too high in the mountain for crevasses.

Warm temperatures are getting at the glaciers,

even at 11,000 feet.

- There we go.

- Yeah, hoo. - Come on&.

Here we are.

This is kinda like the water summit of North America.

It's like the Mount Everest of water resources.

- [Narrator] Mount Snow Dome is the hydrographic apex

of North America.

A drop of water borne on its summit will end up

in one of three oceans, the Arctic,

the Atlantic or the Pacific.

- Shawn Marshall was the first person to explain to me

what was going on in these ice fields.

- The ice loss in the last 10 years, 15 years,

has been more than anyone forecast.

The last year, really good year,

where the glacier was gained to mass was 1977.

So, we're looking at about 30 years now

if it's sustained retreat.

One of the most critical signs we've really seen

in the glaciers is they're losing snow all the way

to the top.

They're just almost being decapitated

that this accumulation area

where you're supposed to be banking some snow

isn't even keeping it's winter snow.

That's a fairly new thing in the past few years.

If this is the new reality, you know,

a lot of years like this just means that the whole glacier

is his way out of equilibrium.

The whole thing will be gone.

- [David] If the changes are this dramatic here

at the source,

I wonder what the ripple effect is downstream.

- So you guys can I get me how much water is needed

for the oil sands operations versus the amount of snow

and ice that can really be supplied to the Athabasca

for fossil fuel based economy

and consumers that are hooked on it are really driving

a warming which is driving the demise of ice fields

like the Athabasca

and yet at the same time,

the oil sands really depends on the water

from this Athabasca River.

It's a strange circular irony.

- I certainly heard about the tar sands as a kid growing up

in Alberta but they were always the small project.

Now it's apparently quite huge, lots of water,

lots of waste.

All of it unfolding at the other end of this river.

This river connects me to this industry

but I know very little about what happens in the tar sands.

Basically what we're gonna do is we're gonna follow

an imaginary drop of water from the hydrographic apex,

Mount Snow Dome all the way to Lake Athabasca,

so the entire Athabasca River watersheds.

The idea is we're going to follow that drop of water

and see what kind of things it gets subjected to.

(soft music) (water trickles)

(water rushes) (soft music)

When you've seen the beauty of this place and realize,

oh, I'm watering my lawn with this

(laughs).

♪ Came up to the wa-lley ♪

♪ From my feet to knee ♪

♪ Played my heels in pasture ♪

♪ Felt the same giving inch all the people bath it ♪

♪ 'Till came from day ♪

♪ Smile my win win ♪

- I Got to grab to jump ahead

♪ to shower men, ♪

♪ take me down to the water ♪

♪ Fare you well with the do the shallow ♪

♪ That's my name, that's my brethren ♪

♪ Shore on the line, ♪

♪ on my own ♪

- I pull up the river in the town of Jasper

where I meet up with Ben Gadd, author, geologist

and environmental activist.

He informs me that something other than water

will soon be flowing through this pristine landscape.

(metal clunks)

I have to know the mission and the mandate

of Parks Canada to work in the parks.

So the mission and the mandate is to preserve and protect,

and leave a legacy for future generations.

And then I find out that they've actually allowed

a pipeline carrying tar sands oil through the park.

How did this happen?

- There was already a pipeline in the park dating

from 1953 that went through like that.

Even though the national park care had to be changed

to allow it at that time.

The simple Order-in-Council, you know,

and it when it was done and then the tar sands came on,

as we all know, and now you have this huge line up

of billion dollar companies going back to the government

of Canada and saying,

"you know what, we need to get more oil from the tar sands,

"but would increase it

"to get this 45,000,000 liters per day

"of crude oil going through Jasper everyday,"

world heritage site, right up there with Stonehenge

and its value to the world and that is what was approved

by the government and by Parks Canada

with no major public hearings.

Since then, there's been a lot

of new environmental legislation, you know,

clean water, clean air and all these things.

If the federal government had wanted to challenge

this thing, I have no doubt they could have

but they didn't want to because by now

it's not just the Alberta oil fields sending the oil out

through this pipeline, it's the tar sands

which is huge, huge.

- [Narrator] Carrying tar sands crude is risky,

whether it's through undisturbed wilderness

or busy city streets.

Kinder Morgan, the same company building the pipeline

through Jasper was responsible for a rupture

of a pipeline carrying crude through Vancouver.

- What's going on, What is it?

Why are they not stopping it?

- [Man] They're gonna probably have to evacuate houses.

(dramatic music)

- Toxic crude was washed down storm drains

and into the Pacific Ocean.

- What kind of industry has the power

to overturn federal laws protecting national parks?

In order to find out, I continued traveling down

the Athabasca River through Jasper to Fort McMurray

where I will be joining a flotilla paddling past

the tar sands plants.

- My name is Don Van Hout and I'm the expedition leader

for the Athabasca River expedition

which we're calling Connecting the Drops.

There's a few hints of industry going on,

like it looks natural when you're on the river

you can't see what's going on above the banks

but we're going to place called Tar Island

where all the dangerous chemicals are held back

from flowing into the Athabasca River by sand hill.

To me, this is kind of ground zero for this river.

This is where it all comes together.

This is where it needs the most help

and international attention, like 23 percent of the province

is gonna be impacted by this stuff.

(water trickles)

Sir, I think I can kind of see,

(water trickles)

the mineral resource that they are looking for here.

Bitumen there is no spiking cliffs over there.

kind of looks all black

- [Narrator} Bitumen is the product and the tar sands

that is upgraded than refined to make synthetic oil.

- Say the natives used to patch their canoes with it.

Now it's being touted as the solution to all

of our energy problems.

- We've come to the point where we have altered

our landscape that we don't have to participate

in the outdoors anymore or with anything natural

in order to get by in or day to day lives

like thinking about where our food comes

from the grocery store, right?

It's not from the land.

A lot of people are just so far removed

that they can take and scoop up two tons of of earth,

throw it in a truck, drive it away and make a barrel

of oil out of it.

And all this stuff that was living on top

of it gets pushed up in a pile.

(dramatic music)

♪The sunshine still trying ♪

♪ Tell me what myth lies to you ♪

♪ What secrets uncovered ♪

- When you switch from light conventional oil

to something as dirty, ugly and nasty as bitumen,

business as usual has ended.

It's a signature of peak oil.

And the fact that we are now exploiting

this project tells us that we've run out

of the cheap stuff, right?

Like it's like we've run out of big fish in the ocean

and so now we're after this the small, bony, a cruddy stuff

and that costs more to produce, costs more energy.

We make more environmental sacrifices

where it's bottom of the barrel.

- I think one of the frustrations that we have in industry

is that a lot of our critics won't take the time to come

and learn about what we're doing.

They'll sort of look at the operations from one perspective,

but they won't come back and look at the research

that we're doing and look at some of the positive results

that we have.

- There's trees on top of the muskeg.

The timber companies come in, remove the trees.

We peel back the different layers of muskeg and subsoils

and we stockpiled them.

Then we go in and we remove the overburden clays

and the tills, and we build deck structures,

and a formations, dumps and stuff like that with them.

Underneath, there's the bitumen, we mine the Bitumen,

take it to extraction.

They rented the oil off, send it to upgrading

and they send the sand back into behind the dikes,

into the ponds.

- We use 3.3 barrels of water per barrel of bitumen.

So that's the intensity measure

that we're working very hard to reduce.

- Is it possible at any point in the future

with huge increase production

that you'll ever actually run out of water to do

what you need to do, given expanding production.

- It's an industry's best interest to look this river

and to decrease our water use.

It's expensive to be mismanaging water.

It's expensive to store water and we care as much

about water as a resource as the rest

of our stakeholders do.

It's an important part of our process

and it's in our best interests to ensure

that we're managing that resource wisely.

- The water allocations to this river,

specific to the oil sands is less three percent

of the mid annual flow.

So the water, there isn't a large allocation on this river.

- So I was reading in the Edmonton Journal,

sort of this back and forth between you

and Preston McEachern from Alberta Environment

about the flows and it seems like you guys

have different views on whether the flows

are really declining.

- Well, Preston likes to quote these annual flows

and the tiny proportion of they manual flows,

which is total BS,

but it is lie with statistics.

All you have to do is quote the ones

that are totally irrelevant to the problem at hand.

- [Narrator] The statistic of three percent

of annual flow is misleading.

The critical month is January when the river is under ice,

this is the eye of the needle through which fish populations

have to pass in order to survive.

In winter months, industry proposes taking

as much as 30 percent of the river's flow.

- We see that no matter how low the flow is getting

the Athabasca River, industry is still allowed

to take water out.

So even if you reach that threshold

where if the water levels drop below that,

you risk collapsing the fishery,

industry still allowed to take water.

- Dr. David Schindler, a world renowned water ecologist

working at the University of Alberta told me

about the biggest challenge of all

to the world's thirstiest oil industry.

- I see a number of things that are going to give us

what you might consider to be the perfect storm of water.

As we've been talking, the glaciers are dwindling.

The snow pack's had been dwindling even more rapidly

with climate warming.

The temperatures been climbing.

That's the only one factor though.

On top of that, we have this huge industrial development

and huge population increase and then the third factor

is that until the 20th century,

we had droughts almost every century that went on

for a decade and in some cases three or four decades.

When we reached the point

where we have a climate warming

at a certain point,

population and industry at another point and then we get one

of those historic droughts.

We're going to know what water scarcity is all about.

- [Narrator] Schindler published a report

in the National Academy of Sciences Journal

that found that all rivers

in Canada's western prairie provinces had lost

between 20 and 84 percent of their summer flow

since the early 20th century.

- We could actually see a severe water shortages

for some of the mining firms within the next five

to 10 years.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] The biggest energy project in the world

with an Achilles heel, water.

I wonder how we'll fill up our gas tanks in the middle

of a perfect water storm.

- So it seems like the tar sands need an enormous amount

of water to function, but I look around at this waste

and I realized that my drop of water's journey is not over.

I need to follow it to the next step.

After water gets drained out of the river

and used in the process of separating sand from oil,

it ends up in toxic tailings ponds.

- When they separate the bitumen from the oil sands,

they ended up with a slurry of water, sand and clay,

still has some residual hydrocarbons and some other toxins

and they've gotta do something with it.

In the long term, they're not sure what they're gonna do.

So in the meantime, they store it in tailings ponds.

One of Syncrude's tailings ponds

is actually one of the largest dam structures

in the world already and it's going to continue to grow.

It's a bit of a misnomer to refer to them as ponds.

Most people think of ponds,

it's something you have in your backyard.

Maybe you have some goldfish in it.

We're talking about waste dumps that you can see from space.

- The tailings ponds contain all sorts

of a fish killing cancer making goop.

They've got a heavy metals, they've got a naphthenic acids.

They've got mercury, arsenic,

and so these ponds really are in many cases

just kind of toxic stews.

(dramatic music)

- Nikiforuk stated in his book that if Alberta drained

it's tar sands waste into Lake Erie,

it would fill this great lake basin to a depth

of eight inches.

By 2030, this toxic soup would be nearly seven feet deep.

- Most of the ponds are leaking

because they are only earthen structures.

There's been two cases of ponds leaking into ground water

and we know that one of the early ponds,

the Tar Island dyke built by Suncor

has basically been leaking into the Athabasca River

for 30 years.

- [Narrator] But this slow motion spill Nikiforuk

is describing isn't the only danger in the area.

Accidental breaches while rare are a huge risk.

- We have three known incidents

in the oil sands themselves, relatively minor,

but throughout the mining industry worldwide.

There are numerous examples of tailings dams breaching

over time either because of poor design, poor maintenance,

or just sometimes it's a case of accidents.

- Our Group, Dam Safety in conjunction with the industries

has been very proactive in terms of monitoring the stability

of these structures because of course the safety

of these dams is a major priority for Albert Environments,

an issue that we feel that of course very important to us.

- If there was a breach of an oil sands tailing dam

just north of Fort McMurray,

the contaminants would flow north

through the piece Athabascan Delta into Lake Athabasca

into the Slave River and into the great Slave Lake,

past Yellowknife into the MaKenzie River

on and on all the way North into the Mackenzie Delta

and into the Beaufort sea.

- The Mackenzie River basin

is the world's third largest watershed.

You know, you've got the Mississippi and you've got Amazon,

and then you've got the McKenzie.

- If All the tailings were to be released

in one cataclysmic event due to say

an earthquake or something.

I think it would effectively sterilize

the Athabasca River system.

The amount of toxins contained in all the tailings

is a spectacular amount,

and once you can find that into a single river system,

it would effectively kill everything in its path.

It would affect the system for centuries.

- I continue my journey down the Athabasca River

to the First Nations community of Fort Chipewyan,

200 kilometers downstream of the tar sands.

(water trickles)

(melancholic music)

(boat clicks)

(fish thuds)

- Look at that, look at that pickerel guys?

- [Woman] It's awkward

- Look at this pickerel.

- Yeah, are they tasty?

- Yeah, we've framed primer, you know it.

- Yeah, how big do you think that pickerel is?

- Maybe it's worth,

eight, seven, eight pound.

- [Woman] That's what I would say.

- Seven pound, perfect, ten pound

- And the pike?

- That was probably 18 or so.

- They look like a fighter, that's for sure.

Yeah, big teeth.

(soft music)

(water splashes)

(soft music)

(fire crackles)

- I see they're catching fish quite okay.

I'm always worried, are they good to eat?

Are you okay?

I know I would like to really get it tested

because everybody's worried, especially up north

in the basin of the of the Delta and I've spoken to elders.

They've seen so many diseases now

that they have never have seen before.

- Wow, look at that.

- There are restrictions on the consumption of fish

in this area due to natural concentrations of mercury,

not to concentrations related to contaminants

from the oil sands.

(water ripples)

- Fort Chipewyan is at the very end

of the Athabasca River.

Any dangerous chemicals in the river would end up here.

I wonder if the water's safe to drink.

(machine rattles)

- The water treatment water like once

it's in our distribution system,

it's perfectly good water but out in the lake

and we kind of just deeper like you used to in the past,

like even when I was growing up and I was a youngster

like we used to have our water hole

was in the Athabasca River.

So, I do have concerns for my children because I want them

to grow up, you know, having the same opportunities

I had like to go in the land and fish, you know,

it'd be nice to know if there is something wrong

with the water.

I used to work at Syncrude

and I one of my buddies we upset of both in the pond

- In the tailings pond?

- Right in the tailings pond

and it was near not the discharge.

I went under a couple of times.

I'm like, gulp down a maybe two or three gulps

of whatever was in the pond

because I didn't feel good after that.

So they fired us off to the regional health center

in Fort Macmurray and the doctors,

they required a list of what was it,

what I swallowed, right.

So they're quite a list.

There must have been 27 different types of chemicals.

- Personally, I've had four family members die

from cancer all within about a five, six year period

and I think just about anybody else you talk to

will have had a family member that's died from cancer

and nobody was really listening to us.

- [Narrator] Neither government nor industry

was prepared to conduct

a serious study of the contaminants in Fort Chipewyan.

So the Nunee Health Board had to undertake one themselves

and hired Dr Kevin Timoney,

I'm happy you're here and I'd like

to introduce Dr Kevin Timoney to you

and he will take the floor, thank you.

(audience claps)

- Donna told you it's, there's been some concern

in the community about the quality of the water

in the sediments and contaminants in the wildlife

and how that might be related to diseases

in the community.

For people who eat locally caught fish, the health risk

to you is greater than the Alberta government

has told you.

The three contaminants of most concern are arsenic,

PAHs is and mercury.

All the Walleye, all the female white fish and 90 percent

of the male white fish exceed

the mercury consumption guidelines.

These are a cause for some serious concern.

- the normal fish?

Fish are an important part in your diet.

They're an important part of your culture,

your community and so it is difficult to recommend

not to eat the fish.

If you eat the moose and the fish and the berries

from the area, there will be about 312

to 453 additional cases of cancer

per 100,000 people in the population.

The concern is that the chief agency responsible

for protecting your health,

the Alberta government also has a vested interest

in oil sands developments.

- We've been battling these issues for years

and nothing has been done.

Why, because people downs town where decision makers

are not up here facing, but we as community leaders

have to put up with.

We see our youth that are starting to get cancer rates.

This was never like that before.

Now there's new plants that are coming up.

You mentioned just that one plant that has a discharge back

into the river.

How would the Suncors, IBM and Stans,

General, petro-Canada, the Kerr Creek,

they all have impacted to that passed it

to where they don't care because they're down south.

It doesn't affect them.

We're the ones that are getting all this shit up here.

- [Narrator] Few outsiders knew the issues the community

was facing but then something happened.

1,600 ducks on their annual migration mistook

a tailings pond for a lake and landed.

(duck quacks)

None flew away, it was the duck heard round the world.

(duck quacks)

- They're all coming from the Fort McMurray area.

We working directly with Fish and Wildlife,

they give us a call and let us know

when there's animals impacted and what plan

they're being put on.

They are sent to one of the airports here in Edmonton

and we pick them up

- Wrap it up. (duck whistles)

- [Narrator] Pressured by the public,

the federal and provincial governments initiated

legal action against Syncrude.

This trial came to an end two years later

with Syncrude being fined $3.3,000,000.

(dramatic music)

- [Woman] Technically-- - Fact is, is that birds die

in these tailing lakes,

large animals dying in these tailing lakes

because they are inherently dangerous.

The only solution really is to eliminate

these tailing lakes all together and again,

that's another place that the federal

and provincial government are failing their responsibility.

- Yeah, exactly don't go south or there.

- This is exciting

- Don't go North. - Don't go North.

(all laughs)

- [Narrator] Three days after

a three point $3.3,000,000 fine,

roughly 300 ducks landed on another Syncrude tailings pond

and none flew away.

(melancholic music)

- I went back to take a look at some of those tailings ponds

where the ducks had died.

This is interesting.

We were here about eight months ago

and there was a big sign here.

It said Syncrude and--

- He has come back - We move mountains here.

- Come back by the way.

- That's it. - Yeah

- And there comes the...

- Hi there? - We are going.

- Good yeah but we're have to get you guys

to leave right now.

- Okay - Because--

- Because why?

- Why, because you can't film here.

I can't help it but you guys will have to go.

- All right, well, why?

- I'm just a Messenger.

- Who's telling you we're out there?

- Come from higher up.

- From higher up?

- From corporate.

- How high up? (laughs)

- Corporate.

- Corporate, so corporate cares about what we're doing?

- Yeah, you are trespassing.

So we can't allow that, you can't film.

It's on the regulations, you can't film.

- Okay, all right, we already respect that.

- Okay. - Okay.

- Thank you

- I don't know, it just seems like the messaging here

is just getting so tight ever since

a duck incident everything's changing.

Out there before used to be a sign that said,

"we move mountains here,"

it's a biggest earth moving projects since the pyramids

and now they removed the sign.

I guess it's not per se anymore

to have that kind of a sign.

Especially when you've got this duck sensitive

and all these ducks that are dying.

Is there some kind of ironic way that the bird situation

has helped raise awareness?

- There's more than now water following.

There's actually human beings that are involved

and being affected in this and that's what the Canada

and the rest of North America has to see and the rest

of the world that you know,

there is actually communities downstream

from this center getting affected.

Understand these ducks come here on an annual basis.

We are here year round.

What do we have to do?

Do I have to line up 500 of my people,

log into tailings pond, get that same response.

- Before I start, I would like to apologize for the fact

that some of you were probably sitting in this gym waiting

for us on April 17th when we were supposed to come

into this the last time.

We were very disappointed that we couldn't come

and see you that evening.

The good news is on April 17th,

we only had muffins and this time when we bought KFC.

So I think you came out a little bit better in the end.

I hope you enjoyed your dinner.

So Kevin, I'll let you get started.

- Thanks Brenda and thanks to the community

and the chiefs here.

I really appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight.

So these are our approval actually for our water discharge

from our process recycled water system on site.

- [Man] Would you suggest that some of them

are cancer causing,

Have cancer causing contaminants in them?

Carcinogenic PAHS?

- Well, it's all a function of dosage

and exposure over time.

So, it's an individual basis

to different humans are more susceptible

to cancers than others.

- So, yes, yes?

They could contribute

but I can't conclusively say

that they do.

It's an due to a number of factors.

- [Man] So then why do you keep doing it?

- So again, these are licensed limits

and we do a lot of work

on the river out these limits to understand

the impact on the river.

- There was a spill that happened about a year ago

that basically we're just being informed about

which was about a million liters of tailings.

So July seven,

- O seven. - O seven.

How can we prepare our people when a quantity of that size

is going into our river system?

We weren't told of anything.

How can I prepare my people to tell them basically

you cannot drink water because of this.

- We really need to discuss this July incident because we,

I have no knowledge of such an incident.

- [Man] You are saying there's no July 2007 incident

of 1,000,000 liters of toxic tailings into Athabasca?

I'm not aware of that incident.

- And you know how important water is to us,

you've heard us all evening.

All these people are afraid.

We've lost a lot of people here.

We've lost a lot of people.

We bury people all the time.

And the government still gives out their licenses.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

- I'm just as confused as ever.

So when I began this trip,

I had this naive idea that I was going to find out the truth

and what I've discovered is that truth

like the water in the Athabaska river is liquid.

The arguments put forth by government and industry

are that there is no cause for concern

for people living downstream,

but I've seen firsthand the obvious impact

on this community.

I'm realizing that how information is presented

is critical, only independent science can give me

a holistic picture.

So I go to Edmonton where Dr. Schindler

is working on a study of the contaminant loading

in the river.

- So there's two questions we want to answer.

Number one is how much is the mining contributing

to the toxicity of the Athabasca River?

How much will those streams if they are toxic, be diluted

by the time that river reaches the Fort Chipewyan

an area whose look like some pretty high values.

Those tubes down there.

- I read Schindler Study

which sample contaminants that came out

of smokestacks in the area.

He found that in a 50 square kilometer radius,

11,000 metric tons of particulate got deposited in the snow

in the winter months.

When the snow melted this particulate

got into creeks and streams leading

into the Athabasca River.

This was the equivalent of a major oil spill.

Water and air are totally interconnected.

You can't look at one without considering the other.

Dr. Schindler's findings prompted him

to collaborate with Dr. Timoney

and the people of Fort Chipewyan,

to display for the press

and Edmonton contaminated fish caught downstream

of the tar sands.

- [Narrator] Schindler's research focused

on the Athabasca River and impacts from mining,

but mining is only the first step

of the process.

The second step is piping it to the upgraders.

Now, David will follow an imaginary drop of water eastward

on the Saskatchewan River.

Bill Donahue, a colleague of Dr. Schindler's takes me

on a visit to upgrader alley where the mines are sending

the heavy oil.

- For an impact, do you think the upgraders

will have on the river?

- Well, I mean they'll certainly reduced the amount

of flow downstream of Edmonton and down stream

of the refineries and then potentially

also there's the likelihood of increased contaminant loading

in the river.

- A few years ago I had the opportunity to visit the source

of where these upgraders get their water from,

the Saskatchewan glacier.

So this map was made in 1996 and it tells us

that where we're standing there should be ice.

If you take a look, that's where the ice actually is.

- [Narrator] This glacier is the source of water

for Edmonton, a city of a million people.

A report by the Pembina Institute concluded

that each upgrading plant, we'll use a minimum

of 5 billion liters of water annually and only a quarter

of this will be returned to the river.

This could create the conditions for major conflicts

with Saskatchewan and Manitoba over water.

- So what we do here in Edmonton Effects Manitoba.

- Yeah, and I've been in meetings,

interprovincial meetings where people

from Manitoba and Saskatchewan

have got up and expressed real alarm

at what they see coming.

- I wonder what alarm bells are going off downstream

on the North Saskatchewan River.

David Sauchyn is a scientist working out

of the University of Regina

who has compiled an impressive array of data

on the rivers flow over time.

- We've been studying the Saskatchewan River

for the past several years and in particular the record

of stream flow for the last millennium.

And the reason we collect wood

is because the tree rings record the weather

and on the prairies they record how much water

was available every year.

Trees are excellent but we want validation

of what we see in the trees.

So few years ago I sent a student to the Hudson Bay

or curves in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

He found this gem from 1796 from Fort Edmonton

on the North Saskatchewan River.

And I quote the fur traders as saying

that the first could not be moved there being no water

in the river.

So that spring, the North Saskatchewan River

could not support a canoe.

And we've seen nothing like it since then.

Nothing that would cause the entire north Saskatchewan River

to virtually dry up but it's entirely possible.

It can happen in the near future.

This river after all is about 12 to 14,000 years old

and we're talking about a severe drought that happened

just 200 years ago.

If all of those upgrades or something like nine get built,

the amount of water that's required,

it will be like 10 times the current allocation for the city

of Edmonton and I've seen quotes of from the proponents

of these projects where they refer

to the North Saskatchewan water as a reliable

and the river being a viable source of water

and I'm not sure how they've reached this conclusion.

- [David] But Sauchyn warned me about a related industry

that could put even more pressure on the river.

- I've read the proposal from Bruce Power

for this nuclear power facility that would be built next

to the North Saskatchewan River.

Apparently, the purpose of this nuclear power facility

would be to supply the people of Saskatchewan

with an additional source of power,

but given its proximity to the Alberta oil sands,

it's hard to imagine

that there wouldn't be another customer.

- [Narrator] Currently the tar sands power their operations

using large amounts of natural gas.

Since Canada only has enough natural gas

to extract 29% of the available bitumen,

government and industry are pushing for nuclear energy

to fill the void once the natural gas runs out.

- [David] So what happens to a nuclear power plant

if it runs out of water?

- I'm not sure what what the consequences are

if a nuclear reactor runs out of water.

Just based on my rudimentary understanding of nuclear power,

it has to be cooled using a source of water.

And so I can only imagine what the consequences are

if they run out of water.

And I'm not sure if they've taken that into account

because they must be fairly confident that this river

would never run die.

And yet we have the quote from the Hudson Bay Company

indicating that they couldn't move firs there

being no water in the river.

- The Institute of Development published a report

on our reliance of nuclear power in an era

when the climate is changing.

They found that

"a lack of cooling water can lead to serious consequences

"in the nuclear power plant

"and May in extreme cases even risk a nuclear meltdown."

- [Reporter] Older power sources indispensable to cool

the nuclear fuels were last.

- [Narrator] Although this particular incident in Japan

was caused by a tsunami and flooding,

the report also cites a 2006 incident in France

when heat waves cause drops in river levels,

forcing 17 nuclear reactors to either shut down

or limit their out put.

- [Woman] Nuclear reactors are believed to have fallen

into the state of melt down, one after another.

A large amount of radioactive substances

have been dispersed.

- all across Saskatchewan people were getting together

to speak out against the government's position

on nuclear power plants.

- We wanna get educated.

How safe is it for us?

How safe is it for our boys and everything else?

I've kind of come to the conclusion I can live

with it myself but this is what it's all about

is these young fellas and we got to look out for them.

I guess would the health part of it,

I think maybe the town mayor here maybe said it best.

We've got one group here saying the world's gonna end

with the health studies.

Another side saying is perfectly safe and it's up to us

to find it what acceptable risk is.

I feel with our children,

there is no acceptable risk.

(audience claps)

- This tar sands which is what the nuclear powers for,

we have to begin to take this whole operation into place.

We can't just say,

"well, let's talk about nuclear,

"let's talk about an upgrader, let's store one".

We have to take this whole thing together, all in one shot,

not at all. And if we don't want the whole shot,

throw the down, works out.

- [David] And here I thought I was going on a glacier hike

and a canoe trip to follow a drop of water.

But now I find myself watching the final days

of an energy era, the downward spiral into chaos

as we struggled to use any means necessary including nuclear

to extend the age of oil .

Back in Alberta upgraders, we're raising the stakes

for another community on the banks of the Athabasca.

Just being trailed here by security.

So last winter there was a huge explosion

at an upgrading plant,

I guess reports were saying that the workers were running

for their lives from huge corrugated sheets

of iron raining down from the sky and one worker ended up

with third degree burns.

This is the same upgrading plans where one

of the workers died when he drowned in a tailings pond

and I guess this incident, this explosion really affected

the people of Fort McMurray.

So I'm just going up to find out.

I've been chatting with some folks up there,

going up to find out more about it.

(native's drum booms)

(camera clicks)

- Mom, can I see?

(drum booms)

- The blast was felt and heard by a number

of community residents here.

So at that time, I believe the, you can see

some of the black plumes.

It's a good thing, yeah,

the wind was blowing in the right direction

because it was a westerly wind.

It was taking the blast away,

the smoke away from the community.

Who knows what's in that plume of smoke.

In these plants, they got hundreds,

thousands of different types of chemicals.

- Mike Orr showed me the plant in question.

- Then ten minutes from the time explosion happen,

I got to call and some people there got so scared

that they were on some of the pieces of equipment

in the area there.

They just got off the equipment, ran to the parking lot,

got into their own vehicles and just took off right

out of it, that's how scared they was.

- Mike took me on a mystery tour to an area in the Bush

that was attracting national attention.

(egine roars)

(water splashing) (engine roars)

(engine revs)

(engine roars) (water splashes)

We finally arrived and then I saw it.

The ugliest waterfall I'd ever seen

I had followed my imaginary drop of water into a graveyard.

- It's a three sided tailings pond.

Yes, they have three berms and the one side is open

to the vegetation and everything

right into the bushes.

You see all the tar sands there is,

that what come out of the pipes from the process.

I guess in his all comes into here and flows right

into there and you get to see the right into the tree line

and whatnot, the tar.

- So it's leaking into the Bush.

- Right into the bush, right into there,

When we, when I came out here,

I've made a few trips out here,

also seeing rabbits, chickens, wolf right

in this whole area.

They are here because this is all fresh vegetation.

Even CBC News, they took some shots of that.

- So, I know all the other tailings ponds,

they've got berms around them.

So, but this one you say is leaking into the bush.

So how are they allowed to do that?

- I don't know.

They started what's approved it,

it was pre-approved 20 minutes either direction

we come upon one of these things and these people

in the community feel like that lonely cattle.

You know, because were corralled in any direction we go.

It's, we're surrounded here.

- Mike had taken a CBC reporter to see the tailings ponds

in November of 2010.

When the story broke, it triggered debates

in both the House of Commons and the Alberta Legislature.

- Public had no clue that apparently unsecured tailings dam

was being built across trap lines in Northern Alberta.

And there was no public consultation

after the ERCB conditionally approved

the strange three walled tailings pond in 2004.

First it was ducks put at risk by toxic tailing soup.

And now animals are reportedly free to wander

into this three walled pool.

So to the Ministry of the Environment,

how could this government possibly approve

such a seemingly nonsensical strategy

for containing liquid toxic sledge?

- Mr. Speaker, there is an allegation

that somehow the tailing pond is not operating as it was.

It was intended and what the members referring to

is a footprint for a pond that is not yet full.

The pond is rising.

It is not going beyond the footprint that was designated.

- Can the minister now tell this house

whether he's received that report

and whether he will table it

in the legislature to prove his claim

that his three sided pool is not leaking

into the water.

- [Mr. Speaker] The honorable Minister

- Trying, well again, Mr. Speaker,

the member is referring to a report that was requested

by the ERCB.

I remind her one more time that the ERCB reports

to the minister of energy,

not to the minister of environment.

- [Mr. Speaker] The honorable member?

- Wow, duck and dive there,

so well could the minister please advise

the house whether--

- We gotta hold industry accountable

we will always be checking out in the bush

like this out in our area, wherever we can, you know, yeah.

- The oil company responded to the attention

that they were getting by cutting down all the trees

around the pond to avoid attracting animals.

- These are fresh moose tracks.

- Correct but these are--

- This are fresh? - That's fresh

(milling sound)

- Thinking we were a herd of Caribou,

the noisemakers designed to scare animals away went off.

My personal favorite was the screaming man.

(man scream)

- There has been a Muskrat swimming right there

and you can see there's still no barrier.

There's no differentiating

between what the tailing's water is

and what the fresh water is.

This is the fourth side of the tailings that's open.

They may have been operating within their legal permit

but not their moral permit.

And in that sense, I mean, how could this design

be hidden from Canada?

How could it be hidden from the people of McKay?

(engine roars)

- So, we're just out for a Sunday drive

with the family, going to see the tailings ponds.

(all laughs)

back in McKay

Mel Grand Jams surprise me with a revelation.

- One of the things going back a few years ago,

was we had an ammonia leak from one of the southern plants

and the ammonia level in the community was quite high

and intense and, and it got to a point

where we had to bring emergency response paramedics

to the school because some of the kids were vomiting

and those kinds of things.

- You got into the school?

The leak was caused by the failure of a desulfurization flew

in the tar sands plant just south of town.

(dramatic sounds)

Can you tell me what happened that day?

- You were getting lightheaded, people were puking

and a few passed out and like everyone was freaking out

and they didn't know what to do.

- So were you scared or?

- I actually had to call my mom to come get me

because I was scared.

- And did you go to a hospital or?

- Yeah, got a little sick after

and they're like a little green

and my mum take me to the hospital, I could barely breathe.

- Hi Leona. Yes.

- David. - Nice to meet you David.

Hey, we can go to the grade one classroom.

- Okay, great.

Okay, this was really getting bad and in the school,

you could just smell it.

- What did it smell like?

- I really bad gas like something like from,

I dunno, rotten egg

or something but a lot of kids who are starting to say,

"I don't feel good.

"I'm getting dizzy and can you call my parent?

"Can you call my mom?"

I'm adding all together,

(inaudible chatter)

tune in to my meaning all together?

(dramatic sounds)

- They were 20 old kids affected.

Five of them were transported to the ER in Fort McMurray.

- What's the general response as a physician

when you come across somebody

who's been poisoned by ammonia?

- Ammonia or anhydrous ammonia is ammonic acid

is very caustic, the symptoms can vary from mild irritation,

nasal passage irritation

to more severe mucosal involved

that can involve the air way or lungs.

Generally respiratory support is needed.

So anything from very mild to quite severe

can use big expectation in the community

but will be more events

or process upsets as the industry likes to call them.

- Process upsets.

- Process upset,

- Oh, wow.

- it's a dangerous industry as bringing so upsets

and what MacKay is right smacked up

in the middle of it, right.

- Who's responsible?

- Well, everybody can easily point at the plants.

Well, when you go back further,

who's giving these plants permission to operate?

Who's setting the guidelines, who setting the parameters?

It's Provincial government.

- And who's buying the product?

- That's right and who's buying product

and then I'm driving a vehicle that's needs oil and gas?

I'm just as one to blame,

but it's got to be done in a very proactive,

measurable way where somehow it has to re-sustain itself.

(water bubble)

- This is really, I don't know,

it's just really disturbing.

I mean, the most disturbing part

about it I think is, you know, how much of of this,

I'm a part of this problem

and you know, I got a letter in the mail the other day.

It was my mutual fund statement

and it told me I actually have holdings in these companies

that do this kind of stuff and you know,

I burned a lot of oil to get up here.

I'm such a part of this problem,

but if I'm a part of this problem,

converse, that means I'm also part of the solution.

And the ironic thing about this is that it happened

on April 28, 2006.

So that's two years to the day prior to the ducks incident,

I mean two years to the date.

That's not a coincidence.

That's the universe trying to tell us something.

- What are you going to do about it?

- What am I gonna do?

well, I believe in the power of questions.

If you ask a person in a position of power, a question,

it tells them that you are paying attention

to what they're doing.

When you pay attention to their behavior,

their behavior changes.

So I want to ask a question specifically

to Alberta Environment.

They're the ones that are responsible

for this kind of stuff.

Then I wanna ask What's the consequence

when you do this to kids in a school?

You know, what was the fine?

That's what I wanna know.

- Some instances, instances where these things occur,

best management practices were followed

where we tend where we tend

to get companies a severely fined

is when they fail to report, when--

- That's management practices when you have ammonia coming

into a school?

- Yeah and here's the deal.

Some unforeseen event occurs, accident occurs

and your followup is done absolutely right.

Then you're gonna get probably

a much more lenient result.

- Preston didn't clarify for me if a fine was issued.

So I called his colleague Jessica Potter

at Alberta Environment.

- [Jessica] We issued an environmental protection notice

and they did everything to a satisfaction

to rectify the situation.

- what is the process for a company to actually get a fine?

- [Jessica] We looks to Work,

education and prevention first.

- Okay.

- Then we, then from there we moved through,

there's a variety of steps that we can take

to view into compliant.

- Are you guys aware that this happened

to the elementary school?

- [Jessica] I actually need you to send me some more details

about what you are referring too.

- I mean it seems like a pretty important detail.

- [Jessica] Okay, you know-- - It's pretty serious.

- [Jessica] I'll tell you this isn't what the interview

is supposed to be about.

- Well, just like comparing it to society in general

if I speed through a crosswalk at 140 kilometers an hour,

it just seems like this would be one

of those incidents that is far more serious that--

- [Jessica] it was, there was an investigation.

that's what resulted

with the environmental protection order.

- So no fine, no penalty, no consequence.

Back in the 80s, I had a similar experience with this kind

of emission release.

- [Reporter] On October 17, 1982,

the Amoco Dome Brazeau well 1312, 4812.

West of fifth Meridian experienced

an uncontrolled blow of gas

or commonly called a blower.

This major well site incident became known

as the blowout at lodgepole.

- The blood at Lodgepole was about 175 kilometers

from our house.

That week my father suffered to allergic reactions

to the hydrogen sulfide in the atmosphere and clung to life

in the emergency room in Edmonton.

- [Reporter] The toxic gas blanketed the site.

This necessitated the use

of breathing apparatus which slowed and complicated to work.

On many days, work was prevented entirely.

- It's not easy to forget watching

your father struggled to breathe.

(dramatic music)

(door clings)

So about a year ago, I moved from Alberta

to British Columbia, but it appears as though the tar sands

have followed me here to BC.

There's a proposed pipeline.

It's called the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline

and it's gonna go from Edmonton, my hometown,

all the way to Kitimat BC on the northern Pacific coast.

There's a series of public consultation meetings called

the Joint Review Panel and in which they decide

whether or not to approve this pipeline.

So just heading up there to check that out.

(dramatic music)

(Raven caws)

(people sings in native language)

- We have traveled to Kitimat from Bella Bella our village.

That communities are commercial fishing village.

We take our sustenance from the land and sea still today.

That is what is at risk.

We are not prepared to risk everything

and gain nothing.

(cloud applauds)

- I wanna say thank you the highest people

for having this on their traditional territory.

(cloud applauds)

I gotta say, it feels a bit like Deja Vu all over again.

Hey, gotta get together every once in a while

because some motor head in Calgary he says,

"Hey, I've got an idea.

"Let's drill for coal bed methane up at the headwaters

"of all your major rivers."

And we all gotta get together and say, "No thanks".

Now Enbridge is shown up.

The idea that for 50 years, every year,

more than 250 of these massive ships are going to head out

of this port and not make one single mistake is lunacy,

- [Man shouts] Impossible.

- The idea that you can put an 1100 kilometer pipeline

from here across all those mountains

across all those rivers all the way to Alberta

and not have a major spill is idiocy.

The idea that you can double the size of the tar sands

and not have an impact on this poor old world

of ours is madness.

- Northern Gateway pipeline for limited partnership applied

to the board.

They're looking for authorization to construct

and operate the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project.

- So we come here today to begin a process

that we have serious misgivings about

but what we don't have misgivings about is the support

from not only the Heiltsuk,

TSimshian including the Gitga'at.

The power is throughout this territory.

I don't wear this flag or my shoulder lately.

It's a message that we are part of Canada.

I want to speak for Canadian because I am.

- [Narrator] for more than a thousand years

on the northwest coast

all life has revolved around the salmon economy.

Today the focus is the fight to protect this heritage.

- A few years ago we commissioned a study

through IBM consulting that looked at the value

of the wild salmon economy on the skin of watershed

and they came up with a figure of 110 million,

- So that's a significant dollar amount for people earning

their living up here.

- Yes, that's right and of course it's basic sustenance

for First Nation and also a lot of other residents

in the area,

- [Man] Jolly time in the old days

was describe as a dinner plate

of the Haida people and every territory along the coast.

These places exist and continue to exist in some areas

you've heard when the tide goes out our table is there,

that reality exists today.

- No one can guarantee us that there'll be no spills

if the panel recommends the project and in effect,

you are forcing us to live in fear ,300 days a year,

we're gonna wake up in the morning wondering

if this is the day our community dies.

- [Narrator] These threats to rivers are not hypothetical.

Three weeks before the Joint Review Panel meeting,

Enbridge spilled three point 3.3.000,000 liters

of bitumen crude from Northern Alberta

into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

This isn't just a one time incident.

There have been eight documented ruptures

from Enbridge's Canadian pipeline systems since 1992.

- [Man] It's been noted around the world.

Fifteen percent collection of oil is considered a success.

- [David] Fifteen percent

- one, five percent.

- [David] They call that success?

- They call that success.

And because of the difficulty to clean up.

The panel is going to take all these comments that they hear

and it will shape the next phase of the process.

- The National Energy Board rarely ever turns down

an energy project.

Their whole raison d'etre is to permit energy projects

- Has the National Energy Board

actually ever turned up down a pipeline.

- I'll have to get back to you about like how far back

to find, you know, a pipeline that may have been rejected.

♪ Pay there Mr Ticket, go look at my country. ♪

It's the Eden and the apple of my eye.

♪ You come up from your office in the city. ♪

♪ I will meet you at the river by and by, ♪

♪I cannot let this pass me by, oo ooh ♪

- What I've learned on this journey

is that there is a triangle of concern with regards

to the tar sands. It extends from Inuvik to Hudson's bay

to the Pacific coast, over half of Canada's water.

(guitar plays)

♪ Hey there Mr. Ticket, go look at my country. ♪

(clouds applauds)

- We're locking cells into a 20th century energy system

on the cusp of a transition to a new energy system.

And while yes you and I both drove our cars here,

fueled with oil which has probably got a genesis

from the tar sands, there's no need

for that twenty years from now.

We can transform our vehicles stock

in North America in 10 years

if we really put our minds to it.

- Little did I know that my innocent journey of following

a drop of water would lead me into such darkness

but honestly I cannot think of a more useless emotion

than despair, I needed more, I needed hope,

So I went to Pincher Creek, a southern Alberta region,

sculpted by the winds.

Here the trees have adapted to the wind by growing into it.

I wonder can human beings do the same?

(engine roars)

Ironically, in order to get a sneak preview

into Canada's potential energy future,

I had to go back in time.

This Hutterite community is embracing a new paradigm

of how we can produce use and distributed energy.

Mike Gross is one of the elders community.

- We voluntarily have half of it light us all

- Tell me about the colony, how big is it?

- We are about 125 people.

We are Anabaptist.

- Anabaptist?

- Anabaptist - Okay.

- From 1500.

- 1,500 from a long time ago.

- From a long time ago, yeah

and we've been living in a community way

of life ever since.

We are all with for something that's new out there.

We wanna be the first ones to to try anything

that's new out there and that's why we were the first ones

to put up windmills.

These 60 windmills, they produce enough power

to a light and heat and 17,000 homes.

- 17,000? - 17,000 homes.

- With just These?

- Yes, these 60 windmills.

- Wow, yeah.

- For a year.

- For a year. - Yeah.

- Turbines in this area are considered

a second cash crop for farmers

and ranchers which in some cases actually helped

the family survive current economic times.

One farmer told me that the average income

for having wind turbines on your land is between 50

and $75,000 per quarter section of land per year.

This industry also creates high skilled jobs in rural areas

and provides the local municipality with 20 percent

of its total tax revenues benefiting all of its residents.

- The what the turbines are doing for the farmers,

they are putting a little gravy on the potatoes.

That's what an amount to.

There's a nice little income from 'em.

- So we've seen a real revitalization of a sector

of our economy that might otherwise who disappeared.

- So it's almost like instead of food versus oil,

it's wind for food.

- Yeah and it's a new approach to a local ownership

of power production as opposed to having all

of that power literally

and figuratively concentrated in the hands

of a bigger company

who's more remote and doing their own thing

and oftentimes the benefits aren't coming

into the community.

- So it's kind of like a win-win situation

for your community. - it's win-win situation.

It's nice to win - Wind, wind situation.

(David laughs)

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Do you know where all the power is going?

- This lift power is going to the see trains in Calgary.

Oh, okay, the see trains in Calgary?

- Yeah. - Oh Wow.

Calgary, Alberta, the nerve center of Canada's oil

and gas industry.

It's where the prime minister of Canada home riding is.

It's where all the major oil companies are located

and it's where those companies make decisions

about the tar sands.

It's a city bubbling over with gold rush euphoria.

If I could find hope

for a water friendly energy future here,

then I could find anywhere.

(bell rings)

(train zooms)

- Hey, how is going? - I'm all right.

Chris Turner wrote a book called the Geography of Hope.

He had traveled around the world looking for signs

of hope for a sustainable future

and had found more hope than he ever thought possible.

He even found some here at home.

I've been on this journey for the last three years

and I've heard about some pretty intensely negative stuff.

So I'm feeling a bit feeling a bit of despair actually.

So, but you had a very different experience.

You went around the world looking for solutions

and success that the world is having.

So what gives you hope for the future?

- Well, probably in the short answer

is that we have already built all the tools we need

to end the age of fossil fuels.

And, the really encouraging thing is that anywhere you go,

where they'd begun this transition,

they found not only can they reduce the dependence

on fossil fuels and reduce their carbon dioxide emissions,

but that these tools,

these decentralized power generation,

renewable power generation actually enhance the quality

of life in the places where they use them anyway.

So it's not just a question of going

without conventional fuel sources.

We don't want to be wedded to a giant coal plan

very far away.

The only people who profit from a coal plant

are the people on the coal plant.

Everyone else needs electricity but we don't care

where it comes from and if we can be directly involved

in producing it,

I think it's just an enormously appealing prospect

for most people.

- So how do you produce your own power?

Chris told me about a community just south

of Calgary called Drake Landing

where we had begun this transition.

I wonder how much money you save

on your hot water heating bill with this.

(water gushes)

Carpets need a pump bottles.

A low flow shower head up

to 40 percent water savings.

I think we need one of these up in the plants

in Fort McMurray.

- Yeah, some of the thinking that that's going on right now

is around a grid where alight your electric vehicle

might actually become both something

that draws from the power grid when you need

to charge your battery, if they're going to go dry

but it could also be a supply of energy back into the grid.

- So that's a wind power rough in, so I can plug

in my electric car and get electricity

from the wind turbines on my roof, brilliant.

I never have to go to a gas station again.

You read in newspapers

like the financial post or something.

You know, it's gonna be total chaos

if we switched to renew,

the whole economy is gonna collapse.

How do you argue that?

- Well, again, I think you just say,

how have you been to northern Europe lately?

Does it look like chaos, does it look like calamity?

The only thing, the only thing that has hurt the economy

of Germany for example,

and I've been hearing for almost 10 years now,

the Germany was gonna tank it's economy

with the commitment that are made to renewables.

The only thing that really hurt the German economy

was the financial chaos unleashed

by the same brilliant economic minds who are telling us

that it would be chaos to commit to renewables.

So, I mean the those people have no credibility.

They haven't looked seriously at the problem.

They are looking for reasons to extend a status quo

that benefits them, but we'd also have to recognize

the societies when those interests are no longer all

of our interests and to say,

it's okay if the fossil fuel industry suffers.

They've prospered for very, very long time.

It might be time for them

to not be the most prosperous sector of our economy

- A lot of people would say that this renewable energy

is completely utopic.

What do you say to people like that?

- I think there were probably skeptics who said

that your utopia of wildcatters running

around striking gushers of oil, you know

that was utopic and and yet we saw a very rapid transition

to oil becoming the predominant source of fuel

for our entire transportation system.

- In a place like Alberta, you have to be pretty committed

and altruistic to put solar panels on your roof.

It's gonna be a long time before you get them.

They will eventually over the life of the system all

by themselves pay that off but if you put it in something

like a feed in tariff like they have in Germany,

you're looking at like five/seven years where you paid off

the cost of the system and you're actually profiting

from this investment and so the feed and tariff just puts

a higher price in the marketplace on renewable sources.

- Germany gets 20% of its energy

from renewable sources.

In Canada just one percent.

Clearly we have some catching up to do.

- One of the things we forget is there are no open markets,

not one anywhere in the world.

We have tilted these things and manipulated them to do

what we decided to wanted them to do it.

- Boy, he wasn't kidding.

The auditor general of Canada produced a report saying

that 1.5 billion dollars per year is the gift

that Canadian taxpayers give to the tar sands.

Could we maybe put that money elsewhere?

- All we need to do is go back in and kinda reject the rules

which we created ourselves anyway to favor

the energy sources we want and not the ones

that are exhausting our ability

to live the lodge to win these.

- We now need to see that same kind of government support

for renewable energy so that it can compete

and ultimately overtake forms of power generation

that are no longer consistent with what we need to do

to address climate change.

- So we have to end the age of fossil fuel

not because the people who are involved

in that business are wrong.

They are providing us with an essential service that we need

to make that transition but because it's time has come

and we've seen the full impact of it.

- [David] Any words of advice for how to communicate

this to people,

- I think it's important to point out the scale

of the problem we've created, but I don't think

that we're going to get where we need to go.

using that old kind of environmental activist model

of saying, "here's the problem, stop it.

"Let's protest it until it stops."

Having identified the problem that got you motivated.

the important thing that could take to the next step

is that you don't just wanna talk about the problem.

You wanna talk about the world

you'd like to see what that problem is no longer in it.

That worldview needs to broad enough that it can welcome

just about anyone.

- What do you wanna be when you grow up?

- I wanna be a pilot

- A pilot?

- A pilot or a pilate?

- I want to do a pilot then drive the aeroplane.

- Oh an airplane.

- Oh yeah.

(girl laughs)

- Will you're playing have algae oil in it.

- Maybe it'll be a glider.

(David laughs)

What is algae little baby?

I don't even know what oil is.

- I don't even know what oil is.

- Oil is kinda of dirty.

- Yeah.

(birds chirp)

- Finally upon that is not a tailings

♪ I became a thin blue flame ♪

♪ polished on the mountain range ♪

♪ and all the hills and fields I flew ♪

♪ wrapped up in royal blue. ♪

- [David] John Muir said it best.

Anytime you try to pick anything up,

you find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

♪ I run three sisters in the flush of a land. ♪

♪ The lake was a dime and then the valleys held ♪

♪ I wondered what it was. ♪

♪ I've been for above ♪

♪ Having some big bearing no mediocre ♪

♪ So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air. ♪

♪ Only a full house gonna have a player ♪

- [Narrator] The question remains,

will Canadians bridged the gap between white water

and black gold?

(upbeat music)

♪ If the blow a hole in backyard ♪

♪ Everyone is gonna run away ♪

♪ And the creeks won't flow to the lake below ♪

♪ Will the water in the world ♪

♪ Still be okay ♪

♪ If they blow a hole back bone ♪

♪ The one that run across the muscle of the land ♪

♪ Oh we might get a low storm for the road, ♪

♪ But I don't know how much longer we can stand ♪

♪ We'll need to bear some new car ♪

♪ And I know we gonna have ♪

♪ to fix the road ♪

♪ But if we blow ♪

♪ another hole in sky ♪

♪ The wild ones won't have ♪

♪ anywhere to go ♪

♪ If they blow a hole in my backyard ♪

♪ Everyone is gonna run away ♪

♪ And the creeks won't flow to the lake below ♪

♪ Will the water in the well still get a care ♪

♪ We'll keep driving ♪

♪ on the blind line ♪

♪ If we don't know ♪

♪ where we wanna go ♪

♪ Even now it's just sound ♪

♪ Can get water down ♪

♪ Truth get tossed out down ♪

♪ the car window ♪

♪ Truth get tossed out the car window ♪

♪ Choose that water ♪

♪ Until we really need the sun ♪

♪ shower soil and sea ♪

♪ Choose that water ♪

♪ The aquaforce provide ♪

♪ Deep down in the rock ♪