Managing our resources
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I personally believe that Canada has been doing a terrible job trying to manage our resources. I find that the lack of sustainable extraction practices used to extract our resources has caused me to become baffled towards the question, "Is Canada the best place to live?" The amount of companies that are using sustainable ways of extracting fisheries, forestry, oil and so forth, are almost non- existent which can cause many complications for the future.
The average ecological footprint of a Canadian is around 8 hectares. I think is mainly because of the over excessive amount of natural resources that are used by the Canadians. Like i have said before, the Canadian land form regions offer us a huge variety of different types of natural resources such as Oil, fishery forestry, mining, agriculture and many more. It is great that our country can provide many kinds of natural resources although, Canada does indeed need to find better ways to extract our natural resources. The way that our country extracts our resources has many negative impacts on our environment. Our extraction practices endanger species, take away the habitats of many species and, sometimes the way that we extract our natural resources can effect the health of Canadians. Canada's relies on the money that comes from our primary industries greatly because out primary industries provide the most money for Canada. Oil, fishery and forestry are the three natural resources that are exported from our country the most. although the way that we extract the resources can be really harmful to the environment.
Canada's oil industry
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Canada is the number one supplier of oil for the USA. Canada greatly relies on our oil industry for economic growth because so far this natural resource has been really helpful towards our economy already. Our oil comes from the oil sands located in Alberta near the aboriginal village, fort Chipewyan. one reason that the oil extraction process is harmful towards the aboriginals and their population. The aboriginal people are very upset because they are forced to give up their land for economic growth. Therefore, the people of fort Chipewyan have begun to make efforts to put an end to oil extraction in their Area. The aboriginal of people of Alberta have tried to explain several times to the government about how the oil extraction practices have negative impacts on their environment such as, oil contamination in the water, land and air in fort Chipewyan. Oil extraction in Alberta has caused the high rates of cancers and other diseases due to the oil contamination in the air. Many people have been becoming sick from oil pollution and now in Alberta, there are 17-35 additional cases of cancer per 100 people therefore, therefore the oil contamination in Alberta has caused the population of Albertan people to dramatically decease. In order to retrieve oil, it has to be taken out of the ground this is done by clear cutting and removing the top level of the environment. The oil extraction practice causes harm to environment this way, it not only damages the physical environment of Canada but it also destroys the habitats and ecosystems of Alberta's wildlife. The water as well as the organisms that live in the water of Canada are greatly affected by the extraction of oil in Alberta. The water that is used to remove bitumen from the oil is stored in Talence ponds, the water stored in these ponds are extremely toxic. It has been discovered that the water in the Talence ponds leak 67 liters per second into the Athabaskan river. Unfortunately, fishers have found that The oil contamination in the Athabaskan river has caused the fish in the river to have cancers from the extremely high mercury levels in the water. Despite the efforts of the aboriginals who are very passionate in their fight for change, The still feel as if the Albertan government does not even address the concerns of the aboriginals in fort Chipewyan, where as, in my opinion i believe that good country would make the concerns of their civilians a priority.
Canada's fishery industry
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The fishery industry is definitely one of Canada's top three natural resource industries. Canada is able to provide a lot of fish especially in the Appalachian Land form region. This industry provides 120,000 people in Canada with jobs therefore, this industry really contribute to the Canadian economic growth. Many people are unaware of the environmental damage that is caused by this industry, which is why there are many people are trying to raise awareness about the fishery extraction process. The few people that are aware of the negative effects this extraction process has on the environment, are primarily concerned about how the population of fish in Canada is dramatically decreasing. In just one catch, fishers catch around 400 kg worth of fish while kg of that amount is thrown back. Many do believe that throwing back fish allows us to maintain the population of fish in Canada. Although, when fish are removed from water, they lose a special coating on their skin which allows themselves to be less prone to diseases and illnesses. Therefore, half the fish that are thrown back die. Fishers fish at all times of the year. There are different seasons as to when there are more fish, other wise known as breeding season, while there are less fish in the other seasons.therefore i strongly believe that fishing industries can opt to fish more during the breeding season because there are more fish at this time of the year. This way the fishing industries can retrieve a good quantity of fish without greatly damaging the fish population of Canada.
Canada's forestry industry
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Next to oil, forestry is an industry of such high demand which is why Canada really relies on the industry for economic growth. Forestry is extracted for shelter, food and other products such as paper. Most forestry extraction practices such as, clear cutting are bad for the environment. Clear cutting is a cheap and easy forestry removal practice used by many forestry extraction companies. In this process, all trees in a specified area are cut down. in the process on clear cutting, the top layer of the environment is removed as well as many animals lose their habitats. Selection cutting is a great way for the forestry extraction companies to become more sustainable when extracting this resource. Selection or group selection cutting is a practice which is used by few lumberjacks to extract forestry. In this process, certain trees in an area are selected to be cut down. The trees are selected by the following criteria; The age of the tree, How much the tree is worth and also, whether or not the tree is preventing the growth of other trees in the area. I find that this would make the forestry extraction process more environmentally friendly because, through this extraction process you are preventing the amount of topsoil removed from the earths surface, less animals are capable of losing their homes and these companies would not have to wait very long to extract more trees.
I strongly believe that in order for Canada to become more responsible with how our natural resource extraction companies run their businesses, they need to find ways to make their extraction practices more sustainable.