New research published in the journal Nature shows that Canada's oil-sands are not as harmful to the climate when compared to other energy sources.
According to the Globe and Mail, the news comes at a crucial time for Canada, who plans to start a trade war with the European Union if they do not vote down a new rule that will penalize countries with raw oil-sands.
Researchers at the University of Victoria looked at the climate impact of producing 170 billion barrels of natural oil-sands. They found that removing all that oil from the ground, at three million barrels a day, would affect global-warming by 0.02 to 0.05 degrees Celsius.
It would take over a hundred years to heave all the oil, that the industry says is producible, from the earth. The end result would be 1.8 trillion barrels of oil, which is seven times more that Saudi Arabia's current reserve. Producing all that oil would increase the earth's temperature by one-third of a degree.
The research states that in contrast, burning the entire world's coal supply would increase temepratures by 15 degrees, and using all the shale gas would see a rise a little below three degrees.
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