Climate Change / Emissions

Consume Like There’s No Tomorrow
by Don Fitzh
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=56&ItemID=12636
April 22, 2007

Would someone please tell the Sierra Club Exec Board that the idea of an “environmentally friendly car” makes as much sense as a “non-violent death penalty?” While the vast majority of those concerned with global warming consider reduction of unneeded production to be at the core of a sane policy, the Sierra Club has endorsed a plan that includes virtually no role for conservation.

THE ONGOING CARBON AGE
BY DANIEL CASEY
APRIL 20, 2007
http://maisonneuve.org/index.php?&page_id=12&article_id=2714

Growing for black gold
http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/issues/ISarticle.asp?id=185949&stor...
By: Marilyn Scales
Price tag for all oil sands projects nears $100 billion

Canada's oil sands are the world's largest single petroleum resource, nearly 1.7 trillion barrels. Most of this country's recoverable reserves (175 billion out of 180 billion bbl) are found in the Athabasca oil sands.

Unchecked global warming would spawn unparalleled depression, Suzuki warns
http://www.brooksbulletin.com/news/national_news.asp?itemid=62139
DENNIS BUECKERT
Friday, April 20, 2007

OTTAWA (CP) - David Suzuki says Canadians are ready to pay for fighting climate change so long as it's fair.

After a cross-country tour in which he heard from thousands of people in more than 40 cities, the veteran broadcaster and author says Canadians are ready for a carbon tax that would penalize wasteful use of energy and reward efficiency.

FYI for the non-Canadian located reader: The National Post is Canada's ultra right wing newspaper.

--M

Sands are shifting for oil supply
Expert says we should be ready for big jump in price
Diane Francis, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, April 21, 2007
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=b9a3434b-...

The world continues to run rapidly out of oil and natural gas, which points to dramatically higher prices in a handful of years.

Eco-Apartheid: Why is the green movement so lily white?
http://www.commongroundmag.com/2007/04/eco-apartheid0704.html
By Van Jones // April 2007, common ground

In 2005, Americans sat before our television sets, horrified by images of an
American city underwater. In 2006, we sat in the nation's movie houses,
watching Al Gore make the case for urgent action. In 2007, Americans are
finally rising from our seats and demanding action to reverse global
warming.

Students are planning marches and protests to push Congress to curb

Oilpatch eyes neighbour
Bitumen find in Saskatchewan could spawn new industry
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=e108138b-...
Published: Tuesday, April 17, 2007

By oil sands measures, the core sample plucked from 200 metres below a spindly Jack-pine forest last month was a beauty. Saturated with bitumen, the brownish, one-metre cut, part of a 20-metre oil sands zone, smelled like fresh asphalt. The sand was as warm and homogenous as that of a Caribbean beach.

"To hell with Al Gore’s inconvenient truths; to purgatory with quisling scientists and their voluminous reports stating that Alberta’s tar sands—whether the oil there is blasted by natural gas, exploded by nukes, or even extracted in some fashion palatable to those wearing hemp or burlap—are an environmental disaster zone that, if exploited, will (by themselves) render null and void Canada’s commitment to Kyoto. Never mind. On that midsummer night, Harper, in search of foreign direct investment, was flush with energy, industry, and economic-growth models.

As the world increasingly becomes terrified of the consequences of climate change, peak oil realities leave only the worst possible oil left, in terms of net energy and in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Smart corporations-- and oil and pipeline companies are definitely clever-- will start to shift from a lack of concern to "feeling the same pain" but "warning against" taking appropriate measures. If one wants, they can still make money hacking away for corporations in the Lower 48 who will pay for "studies" that disprove or downplay climate change.

Sadly, this form of analysis is a pipe dream, no pipeline pun intended. In the scenario that the Democratic Party of the US actually tackling the automobile industry for mileage requirements, it would first of all be many years before any significant portion of the vehicles on the road were of any consequential difference. Second, the production of all these new cars would require energy, and the alternative energies we hear about (Ethanol, for example) do not reduce but increase reliance on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions-- you just don't have to see them as directly.