Garth Lenz's Image

To portray the sheer scale of the Alberta tar sands in Canada, Garth took to the skies.

'One of the biggest challenges', he says, 'was directing the pilot to position the plane precisely for the optimal composition. Multiple passes were required to get the positioning just right.' Garth's aim was for the public to see his pictures and grasp the scale of the devastation. This scene is just a small section of one of five huge tar-sand mines in the region. Tar sand is a mix of clay, sand, water and bitumen - a heavy, viscous oil, which needs refining. To extract the bitumen, wilderness areas the size of small countries have been replaced with toxic lakes, open-pit mines, refineries and pipelines. Huge quantities of oil (more than two trillion barrels) are locked up in tar sands and offer a viable way to cope with the world's energy needs, but at a huge cost. Putting aside the massive loss of wildland and the water pollution issues, tar sands are considered to be the most carbon-intensive form of energy, and as former-NASA-climatologist James Hansen has stated, if the tar sands are fully tapped it will be 'essentially game over' for any hope of establishing a stable climate.