The December 2009 issue of PHYSICS TODAY (page 8) had an interesting letter exchange on environmental effects in the Alberta tar sands—especially on the impacts of oil development on birds. In response to a letter, Murray Gray, Zhenghe Xu, and Jacob Masliyah, authors of the original article on the subject (PHYSICS TODAY, March 2009, page 31), wrote that claims of the specific adverse effects on birds and bird habitat were “grossly exaggerated,” as though the claims focused only on the effects of mining and the tailings ponds that store waste products. Yet the Natural Resources Defense Council study to which the article authors seem to refer also reviewed the current and potential future effects of fragmentation from in situ drilling, water withdrawal, air and water toxins, and global warming.1 The harmful effects of tar-sands operations on birds nesting in the region are very real and will...

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