Thread by @BlairKing_ca

Scientists are supposed to get the science right in articles like this. Yet this piece misinforms about the relative effect on the boreal forest; on the toxicity of dilbit; on spill response; and on shipping and processing. #bcpoli #cdnpoli #abpoli @sjmuir 1/

https://twitter.com/LynneQuarmby/status/1024326385861517314

The article implies that mining is a risk to the Boreal Forest. The area it is technically possible to mine oil sands represents less than 0.02% of the Canadian Boreal forest, less that 0.01% is being mined. More area burns most years than is mined #bcpoli #cdnpoli #abpoli 2/

The article gets the chemistry of dlibit completely wrong. Dilbit has much less benzene than a typical light crude oil and diluent is almost entirely aliphatic in nature. Don't get me started on her use of the word "tar" #bcpoli #cdnpoli #abpoli 3/

The oil sands certainly use water from the Athabasca but not nearly as much as is implied by the article. Less than 0.5% of the River's flow. As for the effect on the Athabasca River, the River literally runs through areas where the oil sands daylight #bcpoli #cdnpoli #abpoli 4/

The section on pipelines leaking ignores the fact that pipelines leak less than the alternatives and to bump up her numbers the author includes all releases into containment facilities (designed to contain spills) in her stats #bcpoli #cdnpoli #abpoli 5/

As for the spill response the author relies on the badly outdated National Academy of Sciences report because the newer research (nicely summarized by Transport Canada) tc.gc.ca/eng/mediaroom/… completely destroys her narrative #bcpoli #cdnpoli #abpoli 6/

Her last point (point 11) is by far the most bizarre. I have no clue where she gets the idea that dilbit is trans-shipped to Asia via US ports or piped from US ports to other facilities inland. These are new claims that I haven't seen to date. #bcpoli #cdnpoli #abpoli 7/