DOMINATED BY FOOTAGE FROM a helicopter to show how an area the size of England has been decimated by blinkered short-termism and greed, this is not a picture that pulls its punches.
The opening sequences wordlessly expose a rank act of corporate vandalism that has turned tracts of breathtaking Canadian beauty into a post-apocalyptic wilderness. Captions attempt to explain the rationale behind the industry and the science that sustains it, but the hideous evidence of toxic pollution is as inescapable as the savage scarring
of the landscape.
Yet, such is the might of the multinationals attempting to meet the world’s energy needs, it’s hard to see how even a film of this devastating power can stop the wanton pillage.