Summary: The Canadian Oil Sands, located primarily in the prairie province of Alberta, are the world’s largest oil reserves outside of Saudi Arabia. Counting 170 billion recoverable barrels of oil, they are in Canada the embodiment of a global debate: how do we balance the economic boons of oil production with its environmental impacts? Canada is the largest importer of oil to the United States, shipping 2.5 million barrels across the border every day. These shipments alone account for close to 5% of all global oil exports. And with Oil Sands production expected to grow to almost four million barrels per day by 2020, Canadian citizens are having to evaluate the worth of the Oil Sands to their country’s development, just as the world grapples with the place of oil consumption in its future
