Energy and how it is captured and consumed is barely viable in tar sands production. While the amount of oil in places such as the tar sands in Alberta or the Orinoco Belt in Venezuela may have deposits of similar size to the reserves of countries such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq, the return of new energy after expending energy in production is not even close. In Iraq, the process of using one barrel of oil generates 100 new barrels. In the tar sands, estimates of 3 to 1 and even as low as 1.5 to 1 have been made. Offsetting the net energy loss would require minimally 25-30 tar sands facilities for one Saudi plant operating at the same capacity.
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.
Saskatchewan uranium expert brings warning to eastern Ontario, western Quebec
Four city tour to reveal uranium's long-term ecological and health pain for short-term private economic gain
by Lynn Daniluk
OTTAWA - An expert on Saskatchewan's uranium mining industry will warn people against letting the industry establish itself in the Ottawa River watershed in a 5-day book tour Jan. 22-26, 2008.
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.
Profit and Power at the Expense of the Lubicon: Pipeline Pushes On
http://mostlywater.org/profit_and_power_expense_lubicon
Syndicated from Intercontinental Cry
Promoted by ron collins on Mon, 2008-02-04 07:50.
According to a recent communique from Friends of the Lubicon, TransCanada officials have decided to proceed with their application to build a new jumbo gas pipeline across unceded Lubicon Territory.
Eastern Canada Vulnerable to Oil Shortages
New Report Calls for Canada to Set Up Strategic Petroleum Reserves
EDMONTON
Canada is currently the most vulnerable country in the industrial world
to short-term oil supply crises, and we need to establish strategic petroleum
reserves to remedy the problem. This is the key finding of a report released
today by Alberta’s Parkland Institute in conjunction with the Polaris Institute.
Freezing in the Dark: Why Canada Needs Strategic Petroleum Reserves points out
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).
