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Originally Posted by boot
You don't need to be directly involved in something to form an educated opinion. Part of critical thinking involves applying research and validating/invalidating that research. Also, wouldn't working directly with the oil sands create a bias?
Anyhow, I'm not a dentist, but I'm pretty confident that sugar promotes tooth decay. I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty confident that smoking can damage your lungs and cause cancer... and so on.
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Research and environmental impact assessments are not cut and dry like your examples of sugar/tooth decay etc. Fertilizing your lawn may impact fisheries in your local watershed - but to what extent? When working around water, it is tough not to have some sort of impact. Depending on who has conducted the research, it can be incredibly bias, particularly around an industry with so many negative attitudes surrounding it already. That being said, without being directly involved, it IS quite difficult to form an "educated opinion".