During his final remarks as Moderator of the 2008 General Assembly, Rev. Cheol Soon Park asked for special prayers for Canada’s oil industry.
“It’s a remarkable resource, and we need it,” he told commissioners and staff during the first session of the 2009 assembly. “Although a lot of money can be made by extracting oil quickly, we need to be responsible. We need to ensure that the next generation and the generation after that still have access, and do not have to bear
the cost of restoring the land.”
Park had just returned from a tour of Alberta’s Athabasca oil sands that allowed church and aboriginal leaders to meet with industry representatives, workers, government officials and aboriginal communities. The tour was sponsored by KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives.
Canada boasts some of the largest oil reserves in the world—second only to Saudi Arabia—and its petroleum industry is a booming employer in the midst of an uncertain economy.
But the industry has its environmental dark side. Processing heavy crude, such as that found near Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta, requires large quantities of water and substantial amounts of natural gas, making oil sands projects one of the largest contributors to Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. Water contaminated by the process is also stored in large ‘tailing ponds,’ which environmental groups allege can seep into nearby water sources.
Speaking to the Record, Park expressed particular concern for the people of Fort Chipewyan, a small town 300 km north of Fort McMurray. Cancer rates are unusually high in the town, which is located downstream from several oil sands developments.
“That’s a harsh reality,” Park said. “People are dying there.”
“It’s not their problem,” he said at General Assembly. “It’s our problem. We’re the consumers of this oil.”
