Climate Change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, in particular carbon. 40% of Canada’s emissions already come from Alberta alone, not counting the entire tar sands infrastructure across North America nor counting the projected increase in tar sands production or the infrastructure built across the continent to accommodate such increases in production. Factor it all in and you get the picture. You haven’t even burned the petrol yet.
How to Avoid Action on Climate Change
The following is the text of Ian Angus’s keynote speech at “Smells Like Green Spirit,” a conference sponsored by the University of British Columbia Student Environment Centre, on January 19, 2008.
by Ian Angus, editor Climate and Capitalism
www.climateandcapitalism.com
Canadians are known for being modest and self-effacing. We don’t brag much, and sometimes we seem to have an inferiority complex, a belief that we do okay, but we seldom excel.
Big oil stokes the fires for the planet to burn
BP promised to go 'beyond petroleum'. But carbon remains at the heart of big energy firms
February 7, 2008 12:01 AM
There is a parallel universe in operation out there. Politicians try to negotiate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, while business executives lay plans to expand their carbon footprint.
This article, while interesting, has a major flaw: There is no sequestration program nor technology, and instead of dealing with the issues of Climate Change RIGHT NOW, with the means available before the next washes into the sea and hurricane hits New Orleans or elsewhere, this "plan" is precisely being taken up to *avoid* planning.
It's interesting, but the logic is not merely flawed, it's criminal.
--M
Looking for solutions to the carbon conundrum
Capitalism and Peak Oil: The Perfect Storm
by Jim Lydecker
Napa Valley Register (January 18 2008)
Americans have recently become aware of converging crises that can end life as we know it, though experts have been warning us for many years.
For example, many economists have been warning for decades of the severe consequences resulting from runaway national debt and an imbalance of trade. And the current mortgage/liquidity crisis was first discussed in the early 1990s by a number of financial experts.
Slavery and Fossil Fuels
Charles Justice
The nineteenth century global economy was a like a small scale version of
today's global economy. Trade in slaves, sugar, coffee, tobacco, and cotton were
the drivers of global economic growth. But the growing trade in the above
mentioned non-human commodities was first made possible by slave labour in
plantations in the tropics and the American South.
In our modern global economy, cheap fossil fuels have taken the place of slaves.
Industrial farming, convenient travel by automobile, and the transportation of
Gnostic insights illuminate Alberta Tar Sands prosperity as an apparent Manipulative Extraterrestrial Virtual Reality illusion
by Peter Tremblay
Suncor announces $20.6 billion oil sands expansion
Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2008
OTTAWA - Oilsands producer Suncor Energy has approved a $20.6-billion expansion to boost crude oil production by 200,000 barrels at its facility north of Fort McMurray, Alta.
The company said its board had approved the expenditure as part of its goal to increase output to 550,000 barrels per day in 2012.
While a few small nuggets of things are coming through in the Globe's series on the tar sands, the articles are not only omitting a lot of important facts, they are distorting others. When the articles talk about "Albertan" opinions on the tar sands, they omit/distort the fact that the province is really split into north and south-- and that a majority of those as far north as Edmonton, let alone south like in Medicine Hat, Calgary and Lethbridge, have never actually seen the tar sands mines (or in-situ operations).
Climate Neros fiddle while Rome burns
Jan 28, 2008 04:30 AM
Tyler Hamilton
Energy Reporter
Governments and industry love to talk about the things they plan to do, perhaps to detract attention away from what they haven't done or aren't doing.
How many radio or television debates have shown an environmentalist pointing out the devastating effects of oil sands and power production in Alberta, only to have industry officials tout concepts like "clean coal" or "carbon capture and sequestration" – as if the solution is here and the problem is being overcome as they speak?
Green groups rally against oil sands development
ROBERT MATAS
From Monday's Globe and Mail
January 28, 2008 at 5:09 AM EST
VANCOUVER — An environmental group that successfully shifted the buying power of Victoria's Secret, Home Depot and Staples in a campaign to protect British Columbia's old-growth forests has now turned its attention to Alberta's northern oil industry.
