Last week, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Tutu and seven other Nobel Peace Prize recipients added their voices to the growing chorus calling on President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Their letter to the president comes after two weeks of demonstrations at the White House that saw more than 1,200 people arrested in the biggest civil disobedience in the U.S. since the Vietnam War.
If all seems quiet in comparison on this side of the border, that's because our government essentially rubber-stamped the pipeline over a year ago. While opposition mounts in the U.S. and our ambassador in Washington continues to defend our desire to pump more dirty oil into the country, President Obama is the one who can still make the right decision: reject the pipeline in favour of clean energy.
But, that doesn't mean that the Canadian government is off the hook. It is Canada's failure to look at the full impacts of new tar sands projects -- global warming pollution, toxic waste, impacts on communities living downstream -- and failure to put limits on those impacts that, in part, drives the controversy in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. And, blinded by the tar sands, our government's energy strategy has been to support rapid tar sands expansion and bully other countries into buying more of it rather than to map out a path away from oil to clean energy.
Now that is coming back to bite Canada in the form of growing opposition from other countries. Rather than making real changes to address the concerns raised, Canada has beefed up its lobby efforts abroad in an attempt to put a greener spin on our dirty oil. While Environment Minister Peter Kent has been promising regulations to deal with global warming caused partly by pollution from the tar sands, strong rules to actually reduce the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions from the sector are nowhere on the horizon.
Hopefully, the Keystone XL protests will be a wake-up call to Ottawa. The problem is only getting worse, and it's time to use the tools in the federal government's toolbox to fix it. First, put regulations in place that put firm limits on the water, air and carbon pollution coming from the tar sands sector. Second, work with the provinces and our main trading partners to create a roadmap off oil to a clean energy economy.
Finally, while the Keystone XL pipeline decision is now on President Obama's desk, our federal government will soon need to decide on another new major tar sands pipeline -- Enbridge's Northern Gateway. Given the mounting opposition from First Nations communities along the proposed pipeline route, the impact of increased tar sands production to fill the pipeline and the growing recognition that we're heading in the wrong direction on energy, the federal government can expect to hear from Canadians urging for the rejection of that pipeline.
Maybe the prime minister will even hear from the Dalai Lama about it...
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What is on the surface of the Earth influences climate. Bare soil is hotter than a tract covered in evapotranspiring plant biological diversity. Climate regulation and moderation are listed as a natural ecosystem service, and ecosystems are the natural sequesteration of heat trapping gases, and ecosystems balance the gaseous composition of the atmosphere,
All ecosystems have feedbacks and loops to both the climate and the atmosphere, and all integrated ecosystems also create the very life zone of the Earth, the biosphere/ecosphere. When these ecosystems are attacked for the construction of this pipeline and the soil disturbed, the stored
C02 and methane will be released back into the atmosphere.
Oil sand uses natural gas for the energy to make the conversion to oil. That's one of the reasons its so Carbon heavy. Why don't we just use natural gas directly in the cars ? Can't we put a pump in our garage running from the methane line we have already going into our home and fill up? If it takes technology to get better CH3 auto engines - then why aren't we focusing on that if we want a domestic fossil fuel? Natural gas hybrids? Natural gas plug in hybrids? Not as good as solar panels on the house... but better than using other domestic fossil fuels.
They really want to stop fossil fuel usage in this country. Won't happen.
Nor do they criticize Venezuelan, Nigerian, or Californian oil to nearly to same extent, even thought they do comparable damage to the environment.
Oil sands happens to be the "cause du jour" I suppose.
Enough said.
Now, we are discussing the life giving services the Earth's ecosystems provide for the planet and for human existence, like oxygen releasing, a life giving atmosphere, the moderation of the climate, the sequesteration of heat trapping gases, the nitrogen cycle and the hydrological system and a long list of vital, free services provided by ecosystems and their plant and animal biological diversity.
Once the soil is disturbed, the heat trapping gases will be released into the atmosphere, and with removal or deforestation of the ecosystems, that climate will be hotter and drier. When man destroys ecosystems, he is basically killing the life giving, physical body of the Earth, that which seeded all life and maintains it right today. The eco-nomy of the Earth is her ecosystems and the native plants and animals or biological diversity that create the ecosystems.
solar - $415, on shore wind- $160, biodiesel -$165 oilsands oil- $75 , conventional oil- $45
non conventional natural gas $6 . With the recent bankrupcy of solar co.Solyndra LLC in California (at a cost of545 million to US taxpayers,) , it obvious that renewables cannot, realistically replace fossil fuels over the forseeable future. As the technology improves for the oilsands, the environmental impact is falling every year. With regard to the Keystone pipeline, what do movie stars and nobel peace prize winners know about pipeline technology ? Nothing.
So, lets get on with building our economy, providing real jobs, and let the gum flappers say what they will.