Pond Scum

Hundreds of mallards migrating back to Canada this spring have died after landing on a partially frozen pond near an oil sands processing plant. The pond was filled with toxic chemicals.

Syncrude Canada Ltd owns the pond and the oil sand factory. Each year as migrating birds return, the company fires up noise-making cannons around the pond so that migrating birds won't be tempted to land there. This year the cannons weren't firing. (And if ya don't know, oil sands are pretty much what they sound like. They contain crude oil which will be turned into a bunch of stuff like gasoline, fertilizer and plastic.)

Really? A neo-petroleum company pollutes a bunch of water and all they gotta do is put up some noise-makers? That's it? Hundreds of mallards died. What happens when the company goes belly up I mean let's face it, most companies eventually move, abandon factories, or go bankrupt. So forty years from now there'll be a toxic pond surrounded by rusted noise-cannons killing whatever birds are left and possibly harming other wildlife including (gasp) humans. That's great. Really sustainable development there, Canada.

Note: in a typical year "only" about 24 mallards die. Now that's a number we can live with. Oh yeah!