Bitumen slick [Denesuline translation: Tłes tu k’é , Cree translation: asiskīy-pimiy ē-pimicowahk], Syncrude Aurora North, Fort McMurrayThis is the tailings pond where industry suffered its first significant public relations setback, when, in the spring of 2008, someone alerted the public and the authorities to flocks of ducks landing on its surface. In this particular incident about 1,600 ducks were killed

Photograph: Louis Helbig