Oil sands' impact on climate change 'overblown'
fifeboy @ Sat May 23, 2009 9:46 am
RUEZ RUEZ:
mtbr mtbr:
You probably think that orange are is all developed oil sands don't you?
He needs to download google earth and take a look at what's actually there.
CommanderSock @ Sat May 23, 2009 10:04 am
To be perfectly honest we as humans are seriously fucking up the planet and only someone completely self centred and egotistical will not see the massive damage we're purporting around us.
I'm not trying to come off as a tree hugging hippie, but if the destruction of the the great barrier reef, the rising acidity of our oceans, our endless pollution of rivers, and the destruction of marine life in the oceans to the point of extinction aren't signs that "maybe the environmentalists have a point", then perhaps we as a race deserve a fucked up fate (google Chinese pollution and respiratory illness).
The oilsands will one day be depleted, and the only thing that will be left is a polluted desert waste land.
But hey, its a big employer.
Proculation @ Sat May 23, 2009 10:10 am
CommanderSock CommanderSock:
To be perfectly honest we as humans are seriously fucking up the planet and only someone completely self centred and egotistical will not see the massive damage we're purporting around us.
I'm not trying to come off as a tree hugging hippie, but if the destruction of the the great barrier reef, the rising acidity of our oceans, our endless pollution of rivers, and the destruction of marine life in the oceans to the point of extinction aren't signs that "maybe the environmentalists have a point", then perhaps we as a race deserve a fucked up fate (google Chinese pollution and respiratory illness).
The oilsands will one day be depleted, and the only thing that will be left is a polluted desert waste land.
But hey, its a big employer.
I'm not trying to come off as a tree hugging hippie, but if the destruction of the the great barrier reef, the rising acidity of our oceans, our endless pollution of rivers, and the destruction of marine life in the oceans to the point of extinction aren't signs that "maybe the environmentalists have a point", then perhaps we as a race deserve a fucked up fate (google Chinese pollution and respiratory illness).
The oilsands will one day be depleted, and the only thing that will be left is a polluted desert waste land.
But hey, its a big employer.
Hey, it was much worst last century.
CommanderSock @ Sat May 23, 2009 10:18 am
Proculation Proculation:
CommanderSock CommanderSock:
To be perfectly honest we as humans are seriously fucking up the planet and only someone completely self centred and egotistical will not see the massive damage we're purporting around us.
I'm not trying to come off as a tree hugging hippie, but if the destruction of the the great barrier reef, the rising acidity of our oceans, our endless pollution of rivers, and the destruction of marine life in the oceans to the point of extinction aren't signs that "maybe the environmentalists have a point", then perhaps we as a race deserve a fucked up fate (google Chinese pollution and respiratory illness).
The oilsands will one day be depleted, and the only thing that will be left is a polluted desert waste land.
But hey, its a big employer.
I'm not trying to come off as a tree hugging hippie, but if the destruction of the the great barrier reef, the rising acidity of our oceans, our endless pollution of rivers, and the destruction of marine life in the oceans to the point of extinction aren't signs that "maybe the environmentalists have a point", then perhaps we as a race deserve a fucked up fate (google Chinese pollution and respiratory illness).
The oilsands will one day be depleted, and the only thing that will be left is a polluted desert waste land.
But hey, its a big employer.
Hey, it was much worst last century.
You're right, it was much worse.
But the difference is that this time 100 years ago the earth's population was 1.6 billion and industrialization was concentrated in small pockets around the world (Western Europe, Japan, USA, Argentina).
Today the world's population is 6.7bn and industrialization is happening all across the world in every country, including third world countries (India, Africa etc).
How much capacity does the Earth have? I bet alot more but we have to buckle up and become more efficient.
Proculation @ Sat May 23, 2009 10:26 am
What do you suggest ? Restrain natality and industrialization to poor people ? That would be quite selfish.
fifeboy @ Sat May 23, 2009 10:57 am
Proculation Proculation:
What do you suggest ? Restrain natality and industrialization to poor people ? That would be quite selfish.
Nope, no need to get off the
CommanderSock @ Sat May 23, 2009 11:34 am
Proculation Proculation:
What do you suggest ? Restrain natality and industrialization to poor people ? That would be quite selfish.
You have a great point, we simply cannot tell the developing world to "stop developing". We have no such right.
But I believe we should buckle up ourselves, we should not destroy our own environment. We must make sure we do not rely on the poor world for our waste disposal as we do now, because when they say "we don't want your garbage anymore" we will be unprepared to deal with it. Computer disposal is a perfect example. We send most of it to West Africa for a fee, but as that region in the world is the fastest in population growth (the population explosion phenomenon), very soon we will find out that they are "no longer accepting applications". In turn we will not be sufficiently prepared to dispose of it because we were more than happy to ship it off and ignore investing in technology for recycling plants and appropriate waste disposal techniques(and by "we" I mean 700m Europeans, 330m North Americans, and eventually 1.3bn Chinese).
We should make it clear that the world's oceans are not a disposal site, and that dumping millions of cubic gallons of waste and toxic material into it annually will eventually lead to unmitigated disaster.
There needs to be an international executive body with strong tools at its disposal to oversee that countries, poor or rich, do not use the ocean as a toilet and garbage dump. It would go a long way in making sure our future waters aren't swarming with angry ex fisherman turned pirates, as well as generally clean ocean water for a better future etc etc.
Now it comes back to the oil sands and the overall Canadian environment. If we as a rich nation of 33 million cannot keep clean 9m square miles of land then the expectations that 4.05bn Asians, 1bn Africans, and 500m Latin Americans will is sincerely thrown out the window and we're all fucked royally.
Wally_Sconce @ Sat May 23, 2009 1:45 pm
Gunnair Gunnair:
mtbr mtbr:
It's only dirty if it's in Alberta 
It is dirty and it's a terrible environmental blight.
That being said, until we find something else, we don't seem to have much choice. Self destruction is certainly soemthing we're good at.
the tar sands are already there. we are just cleaning things up.
RUEZ @ Sat May 23, 2009 2:18 pm
fifeboy fifeboy:
RUEZ RUEZ:
mtbr mtbr:
You probably think that orange are is all developed oil sands don't you?
He needs to download google earth and take a look at what's actually there.Why?
fifeboy @ Sat May 23, 2009 4:06 pm
RUEZ RUEZ:
Why?
It's a big, nasty blob, right along the river. Just like Parliament 
CanadianJeff @ Sat May 23, 2009 4:17 pm
no parilment decides it's a good idea to let their limos idle in the parking lot or they "would get too cold. Truth be told none of the MPs give two craps about the environment or they would be giving a big slap to all the green movement out there and start passing real laws like fast food places having to meet evnriomental standards on the amount of waste they produce (because out of all the business out there that we use everyday they make a LOT of waste) and give out things like tax credits for consumers who switch to a fuel efficient vehicles.