This is a news compilation setting the record straight on the day’s top anti-oil and gas stories and providing research and facts to counter misinformation about the oil and gas industry.
Caution: Some crude language in the article below.
News Headline:
Gizmodo author gets paid to torque the results of a study and make sex jokes about the effects of naturally occurring compounds and metals in the Athabasca region on the reproductive bones of otters
Tar Sands Pollution Is Giving Otters Limp D*ck
The Facts:
Metals and compounds studied are naturally occurring, have not had any measurable increases in otter habitats and there have been both positive and negative differences depending on the individual otter and their reproductive bones. This seems like a weak attempt make a headline.
- What was not mentioned in the otter study, is that studies have found “no measurable increase” in contaminants “since the onset of oil sands development,” and “no evidence that industrial activity has contributed measurably to the sedimentary concentration of PACs supplied by atmospheric transport” in the region.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0046089 - Another independent study did an analysis of eight floodplain lakes spanning a 67 river-km transect across the Athabasca Delta and found no evidence of increasing metals enrichment above pre-1920 baseline concentrations.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896971935301X - Despite the headline, the otter study also found that the presence of some compounds — strontium, iron, and the hydrocarbon retene — was associated with stronger penis bones among some otters. This was admitted by the author.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653520331179 - The Canadian oil and gas industry has invested heavily in reducing environmental impacts from water use so they protect Canada’s precious waterways.
https://research-ca.bmocapitalmarkets.com/documents/140A6529-CE63-4B90-A627-06768A001783.PDF
- The Canadian oil and gas industry spends the most on the environment of any industry.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/181214/dq181214d-eng.htm
