As well as risking runaway climate change, that would effect the whole globe, the extraction of tar sands are destroying local environments and having a profound effect on indigenous populations such as the Beaver Lake Cree Nation.
However could these groups of indigenous people be the key to taking on the money and might of some of the worlds biggest oil companies?
The Co-operative Group thinks so.
A treaty was signed in 1876, between the Beaver Lake Cree Nation and the Canadian government, saw the exchange of vast amounts of land, in return for safeguarding the indigenous people's rights to fish, hunt and use the land as they had always done.
A legal team representing the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, supported by the Co-operative Group now seeks to use this law to prevent the further destruction of the Canadian boreal forests, which the indigenous populations way of life depends on.
With huge investments already made, a Canadian government ready to profit and many customers already lined up, this legal battle could be the last chance we have of preventing what Jim Hansen a leading climate scientist for NASA has called, "One of our planet's greatest threats".
The RAVEN Trust, is a charitable trust that has been set up to raise money to support the on going legal battle, which the Beaver Lake Cree Nation have undertaken. Visit
http://www.raventrust.com/ to donate now or alternatively visit the Co-operative Groups website
http://www.toxicfuels.com/, where you can watch the 'Dirty Oil' film trailer, learn more about tar sands, make a donation or buy a tshirt to show your support towards the campaign.