Petropolis: les sables bitumineux vus des airs

Photo: NRDC

Grâce à l'appui financier de Greenpeace, le producteur de films et de documentaires Peter Mettler a filmé les sables bitumineux de l'Alberta des airs et en a fait un film qui était disponible au Canada l'automne dernier. Il a tourné dans les cinémas en Grande-Bretagne ce printemps, et j'ai trouvé une entrevue publiée dans l'excellente revue scientifique New Scientist (trop chère pour mon budget, malheureusement).

L'introduction donne quelque statistiques comme: la production de pétrole des sables bitumineux produit 5 fois plus de gaz à effet de serre que la production de pétrole conventionnelle, ou l'extraction du pétrole des sables bitumineux de l'Alberta utiliste autant d'eau qu'une ville de 2 millions d'habitants (et après l'usage, 90% de cette eau est si contaminée de produits chimiques toxiques qu'elle doit être versée dans des bassins de décantation qui peuvent être vus de l'espace (à l'oeil nu dans un scaphandre ou grâce à des caméras satellites?).

Il y a beaucoup d'information de disponible sur l'exploitation des sables bitumineux, mais rien ne peut remplacer l'expérience de voir soi-même ce qui se passe là-bas. Mettler regrette de ne pas pouvoir partager l'odeur de la place. Par contre, le pétrole et son abondance se voit partout: les plus petits véhicules à Fort MacMurray sont des VUS, le plastique et le fast-food sont omni-présents. Les Seadoos errent sans but sur la rivière, et la majorité de ce que l'on aperçoit est fabriqué, temporaire et jetable. La ville est là pour servir le boom pétrolier, prédestinée à devenir un jour une ville fantôme abandonnée de la ruée vers l'or (noir).

Le producteur du film pense que Petropolis choquera certaines personnes, et il espère que le visionnement de son oeuvre sera un catalyseur pour des discussions et mènera à une recherche de plus d'information.

Le site du documentaire est assez impressionnant: http://www.petropolis-film.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Petropolis: Filming Canada's tar sands

Canadian media artist and filmmaker Peter Mettler aerially filmed the tar sands of Alberta, Canada from a helicopter to highlight the vast scope and impact that the industrial mining site has on the environment. The result is his new film, Petropolis. The mining area of the tar sands is as big as all of England and the tar sands oil production releases five times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil production. As Mettler explains, getting the oil out of the tar sands uses roughly as much water as a city of two million people. Afterwards, 90 per cent of this water is so contaminated with toxic chemicals that it must be stored in tailings ponds so huge that they can be seen from outer space.

Interview:

There has been a lot of debate about the tar sands, but the opportunities to actually see and somehow experience them have been rare. There is a lot of information readily available out there, from a variety of perspectives, but nothing that really lets you "feel" it. The beauty of cinema is that it can deliver an experience at least somewhat close to the real thing - in this case though, seriously lacking the smell.

In Fort MacMurray, there was an abundance of oil culture too. A large amount of vehicles were on the roads at any time; the smaller vehicles tended to be SUVs. Plastic and fast-food were in abundance. Seados raced aimlessly along the river. So much seemed fabricated, temporary and disposable. The town seemed to serve mostly the boom of the economic moment, predestined to become like one of those earlier goldrush ghost towns.

I think the film has fallen into a unique position in that it has combined the resources of Greenpeace, as a large well-informed enlightening institution, with the resources of a filmmaker, and his associated vision and cinema audience. Ideally this will cross-pollinate the audiences. I think that what the film shows could be shocking to some people. Ultimately we see it as a catalyst for discussion and as a conduit to more information. The rest remains to unfold."

Excerpts of an interview with the film producer before the screening of the film in the UK. Article written by Amanda Gefter, Books & Arts editor of New Scientist here: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/03/petropolis-filming-the-tar-sands-of-canada.php

Until we are willing to use the bus and train, to reduce our traveling to a minimum (and by that I also mean air travel), to accept that gas is going to cost more at the pump, to stop buying plastic stuff, and to PLEASE stop subsidizing the oil and gaz industry, disasters like the tar sands and the outshone drilling spill in the Gulf of Mexico will continue to happen.