Journey to the Tar Sands: A Group of Nineteen Young Environmentalists Set Out by Bike Across Alberta to Discover the Truth Behind the Hype About the Tar Sands.

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

This travel journal details the journey of 19 environmentalists who bicycle from southern Alberta to Fort MCMurray. The content is written by 12 of the cyclists; Tim Murphy, who traveled with the group, provides the editorial glue.

There is definitely an environmental activism flavour to the book and the journey was designed to draw attention to the social and environmental impact of the tar sands excavations. However, this book is not about the tar sands directly, but about the young people moving through the Alberta landscape and reacting to the things and people they find along the way. Whether documenting road-kill or eating pizza found by the side of the road, the riders give us the nitty-gritty details of their trip.

There are photographs on every page, most of them white-bordered to look like snapshots; some look like they’ve been paper-clipped to the page. Many have hand-written captions that have been arranged to look like they have been stuck on with bits of red tape. There are also images of stained hand-written pages from coil bound note books. All of these features give the volume the informal look and feel of a personal travel journal.

Each day one a rider gives a personal account. For example, on August 19 Aflab tells us, “On the third day of the trip, we had our first ‘100+ km’ (one hundred km plus) day.… I later came to know only two types of days, the less than 100 km days and the 100+ km days.” Each entry is signed at the end. This can be a bit disconcerting: unless you skip forward to see who the writer is, you are not sure whose voice you are hearing.

Murphy’s voice is pervasive and in his commentary we see personal growth. “The flyover was an unforgettable experience, which evoked a great deal of emotion amongs us, but it failed to produce the reaction I myself had expected. After weeks of discussing the issue, the anticipated climax escaped me.”

This is an interesting snapshot of Alberta and the tar sands issue in 2008. Recommended for public, school, and academic libraries.