Once a Great Notion: The oil sands, climate change, and the future of Canadian energy

Over the last two centuries Canada’s oil sands were first called an impractical dream , then a modern industrial miracle, and finally a source of dirty oil that threatens the planet. How did opinions of this great natural resource change so dramatically? What is the truth?

Barr investigates the birth struggles of the oil sands industry, its explosive growth and its environmental record, then looks into the industry’s future over the rest of this century. What is the oil sands’ place in a world of net-zero by 2050 ? Can the entire industry adapt to the challenge of de-carbonization ? Can it completely re-invent itself to become a producer of hydrogen and exciting new zero-emission carbon products?

A western historian who participated in the early years of the industry, Barr provides an inside look at the oil sands industry’s rise to become the world’s fourth largest petroleum producer. He shines a spotlight on the industry’s social impact – particularly its contribution to the employment and education of Indigenous people and its pioneering of a workplace revolution. Then he wades through the myths and half-truths of the climate crisis and weighs the future of Canada’s fossil fuels energy industry.

The development of the oil sands was once a great notion . Can it be again? Should it?