Arctic takes brunt in dirty fight over oil

THE world’s largest untapped oil reserves – in the Canadian Arctic – have become the new front line in the battle between environmentalists and the energy industry.
Shell, a self-styled “green” energy company, is to invest billions of dollars in exploiting the Athabasca tar sands.

Environmentalists say the tar sands are the world’s dirtiest oil deposits and that refining them generates three to four times more carbon dioxide than normal oil extraction.