The tar sands in Alberta cover an area the size of England. Oil from the tar sands is one of the world’s most carbon-intensive fuels. It takes two tons of tar sand to produce a single barrel of oil. The tar sands generate 40 million tons of CO2 per year (more than all the cars in Canada combined), and is expected to grow to over 100 million tons by 2020.

In 2012, Joanna Macy (environmental activist and author of Combing Back to Life), Jennifer Berezan (activist and singer-song writer) and Anne Symens-Bucher (activist and teacher) flew over the oil sands. Their visit inspired Jennifer to write a song, My Memory Forever, about their experience.