I would recommend reading the book “Tar Sands.” This novel will help by giving definitive facts and truths about the oil sands that were hidden from the public. It is mind-boggling to really understand the magnitude and the negative effects the oil sands have on the Province of Alberta and in the bigger picture, the Country of Canada. As the book reveals the ugly truth the reader finds him/her self captivated and glued to the text. It is hard to believe the damage that is being conducted to our environment in Northern Alberta. If the tar sands don’t come to an end, and the oil companies continue to thrive off the destruction of the Earth; what will our future look like? I enjoyed this book a lot, and for those who are considering or are looking for an interesting read this book fulfills that desire.

Andrew Nikiforuk's intention of writing this novel is clear to the reader. This is his wake-up call to the world on the impact of our greed. He was a little bit heavy with facts and statistics in his work but he was able to deliver a thoughtful explanation of the tar sands situation in Alberta. Andrew Nikiforuk makes sure his writing can be read by anyone interested in the matter.

I have read a number of books on the Tar Sands, and this one is the most thorough, well-researched and readable. The analysis in Chapters 12 and 13 on how Alberta and Canada fit in the world of petro-politics is illuminating. Given the regional and global impacts of tar sands development, this book should be required reading for every Canadian. Nikiforuk very much deserves all the awards he has won.

When I got to the section on a subtopic I knew something about already, i.e. carbon capture and storage, Nikiforuk's poor research stood out starkly. His writing style is also very overblown. If you want to be told, over and over and over, how bad, how ugly, how awful, the tar sands really are, in every way, from the name, the appearance, the environmental problems, the social problems, the political problems, well its all repeatedly restated again and again right here in this book.

If you were looking for facts so you could make up your own mind, look elsewhere. Any facts in this book would have to be double checked from a better source in any case.

Nikiforuk, most famous for his book on Wiebo Ludwig, "Saboteurs", now returns with a book that looks at the massive oil sands development in Northern Alberta and shows how out-of-control exploitation of this resource is having a terrible effect on the environment and the health of the local population. Nikiforuk also shows how the Alberta government has for years under-collected revenues from oil sands exploitation, and has made no provision for keeping these funds out of general revenue. The effect has been to diminish civic involvement in politics and democracy in Alberta. Bitumen--the raw oily dirt which can only be processed by burning enormous amounts of energy and wasting vast quantities of water before it becomes usable oil--is here exposed as Alberta's dirty "secret" and the largest single petroleum project in the world. A must-read for Albertans, though at times a bit dry in its writing style.

this small book is densely packed with information about the history of the tar sands and contemporary developments. It is passionately written as call to action and it makes a good argument for the economic and environmental dangers of the tar sands projects for all canadians, and the global community as well.

Its virtually an exposee on a topic that is tremendously under reported