Journalist Dan Grossman and photographer Alex MacLean are in the middle of their week long tour of the Alberta oilsands. Their on-the-scene reporting is meant to bring greater public attention to the scale – and the stakes – of developing oil from the world’s largest deposit of carbon-intensive bitumen.
As Grossman puts it on the Pulitzer Center website, “We know the ground beneath Alberta’s boreal forest—saturated with an estimated 150 billion barrels of oil—rivals all other troves of oil apart from those of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. We know Alberta’s rich deposits underlie a territory of 54,000 square miles, as large as Iowa. But we can barely comprehend numbers this big. Alex will help us. He’ll show us waste ponds nearly the size of Manhattan and dump trucks that could swallow a McMansion whole.”
Grossman has been tweeting about his experience in the oilsands region prolifically since April 4th. Below you can see some of the duo’s photojournalist coverage of their trip so far.
Why fly over #oilsands? From ground, it’s mostly hidden. Here was our route over Cold Lake today. #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/ZG8jCH57ki
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014
Geometric beauty of #oilsands from air. Alex thinks rectilinear grid is extraction network. Pipeline on right. pic.twitter.com/xnmYu65yze
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014
#oilsands waste in tailings pond. Abstract beauty w stark questions. Will it leak? Can it be cleaned. #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/0f9Rp7L23D
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014
Recent remediated #oilsands site raises questions. Can mono culture make up for the forest cut? #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/H4j14Mg1PK
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014
Cold Lake AB. next we go military escort to controversial spill site. Few outside industry has seen #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/rgvzzgcoJp
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014
How does a journalist get the oilsands story? Here’s what my multimedia kit http://t.co/2lUFSYVlSu @sejorg @AIRmedia pic.twitter.com/PqzZx73zcT
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014
Cesna we’re renting to see primrose site #oilsands spill. http://t.co/oNsHZt3MmD #pulitzercenter #keystone #tarsands pic.twitter.com/4zmiUyKBZW
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014
Journalists not permitted to visit. We appealed. Here’s photo Alex shot of gooey #tarsands ooze up. At 1 of 4 sites. pic.twitter.com/Esmrq2jJEG *
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 6, 2014
We took Sheila Pratt, local reporter who’s covered mysterious leaks. http://t.co/oNsHZt3MmD Our route from GPS here. pic.twitter.com/foMjlQw9Do
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 6, 2014
@AlexMacLean shot photos, by opening window of cesna. #tarsands actives extend 100s of miles. He’s one tiny piece. pic.twitter.com/UZ5uB4wf4f
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014
Firms prospect before extracting. They cut corridors–seismic lines–and set off explosions. Detrimental to wildlife. pic.twitter.com/YUbi2jrFLt
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014
From air, @AlexMacLean sees 100’s of pads: past, present, future sites fr extracting heated #tarsands @pultizercenter pic.twitter.com/06urBrSsve
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014
Photos of industrial transformation of Canada boreal forest can transfix. Tomorrow we shoot more. #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/EYWbYp9CFE
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014
Jessica Moir, our pilot, leaving for tour of F. McMurray from air. Going photographer @AlexMaclean #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/42rAb62DbJ
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014
Above McMurray with @AlexMacLean Town classic mining boom town. Over prefab worker homes in cul de sac swirls. pic.twitter.com/OKOrvmPdub
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014
Shooting video with GoPro. Tried yesterday but battery problems! Multimedia journos have too much equipment to track! pic.twitter.com/znMem8c0li
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014
How to describe Frt McMurray from air? So big, black and fiery. Biblical imagery perhaps? Like Hell? #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/rb4OmMBqsH
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014
At same latitude as Hudson’s Bay, middle of boreal forest. But this one Syncrude site, is industrialized as anywhere. pic.twitter.com/Chfsww4IzA
— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014
Follow Dan Grossman on twitter: @GrossmanMedia
* Updated April 16, 2014: Journalist Dan Grossman and photographer Alex MacLean have removed one photo that was initially thought to show unrecovered oil from seepage on a CNRL site. CNRL officials insist the black substance in the photo is water mixed with soil, not oil. Since the photo was posted, the company has expressed greater willingness to allow journalists to inspect the site.
Grossman told DeSmog Canada that he’s pleased CNRL is showing greater openness about the site, which local journalists had been asking, unsuccessfully, to visit. “By excluding journalists from the site, CNRL was making it hard to know what was going on and whether company pronouncements were correct,” he said.
