Anti-Tourism Oil Disaster Billboards Debut in Four U.S. Cities

Environmental groups launched an ad campaign today starkly portraying the mining of oil sands of Alberta, Canada as a disaster on par with the Gulf crisis. The goal is to lure U.S. tourists away from the province.

Corporate Ethics International (CEI) and a network of green groups unfurled billboards in four cities using striking imagery of oil-coated dead birds in Alberta to drive home its point on the oil sands. The effort comes as Alberta finds itself under unprecedented scrutiny for plans to build a pipeline to move the tar-like crude from Canada to the Gulf.

"Americans ought to know that their future oil supply Canada is trying to sell to them is a disaster that’s on par with the gulf oil disaster." Michael Marx, executive director of CEI, told SolveClimate. "We think if they know about that, they're going to be less inclined to visit Alberta."

Billboards went up on Wednesday in Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland and Denver — cities that send the highest percentage of American tourists to the province.

The signs declare, "Alberta: The Other Oil Disaster." A similar campaign will kick off in the United Kingdom in August.

The slogan is set against two nearly identical images. One is of a brown pelican coated in oil in the Gulf of Mexico’s Deepwater Horizon spill; and the other is of two dead ducks smothered in tar in an oil sands tailings pond.

It says in smaller print, "Thinking of visiting Alberta Canada? Think again."

"There really are two oil disasters," Marx said. "One is an accident – unforgiveable but still an accident. The other one is intentional in Alberta, and it will destroy an area the size of Michigan."

Jay O'Neill, spokesman for Alberta Energy, scoffed at the idea that there are any parallels between the BP oil crisis and the oil sands.

"The gulf oil spill is a terrible situation and to compare the two is ridiculous," O'Neill told SolveClimate in an email.

"Alberta has stringent legislation and on-the-ground measures in place to protect our air, land, habitat and water during oil and gas development," he added. "We are also committed to ongoing improvement with oil sands development to ensure we are among the most environmentally responsible energy producers anywhere."

A Multi-Year Campaign

For years, environmental groups have been raising the oil sands issue to raise the awareness of media and shareholders of oil majors.

The unconventional crude is locked in a tar-like sludge called bitumen. Extracting the substance is highly energy intensive, releasing three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional crude. Industry officials say full lifecycle emissions of oil from bitumen is only about 15 percent greater than conventional sources. The process destroys pristine boreal forests and contaminates about three barrels of water for every barrel of oil produced, leaving sprawling, toxic tailings ponds that can endanger wildlife and public health.

In June, an Alberta Provincial Court judge found Syncrude, the largest producer in the oil sands, guilty in the deaths of 1,600 migratory waterfowl that were poisoned in one of its tailings ponds.

A recent study by the Audubon Society and the Natural Resources Defense Council has estimated that over the next 30 to 50 years up to 166 million migratory birds could die from the lost habitat and mining operations in Alberta.