patrick.net

It is true that productizing the oil sands are and will be an immense ecological catastrophe.

But it's your land so if you want to f--- it up for ~$10T of our cold, hard cash, good luck with that.

Of course, all that gunk is only 5 years or so of supply, less if we don't build nukes up there to assist in the reprocessing.

All that carbon release is going to be a doozy if Al Gore is correct on this anthropogenic global warming thing.

Domestically, it would behoove the US to reduce oil imports. We get a helluva lot of insolation each year, precious little is tapped. Sun beats oil, but oil is easy and sun is hard.

The stupid thing is that there's an unimaginably immense energy reserve literally under all our feet. The sun could go out tomorrow and we'd still have enough energy to survive, if we were smart enough to be able to economically tap the Earth's extant geothermal power.

Troy says

It is true that productizing the oil sands are and will be an immense ecological catastrophe.
But it’s your land so if you want to f— it up for ~$10T of our cold, hard cash, good luck with that.
Of course, all that gunk is only 5 years or so of supply, less if we don’t build nukes up there to assist in the reprocessing.
All that carbon release is going to be a doozy if Al Gore is correct on this anthropogenic global warming thing.
Domestically, it would behoove the US to reduce oil imports. We get a helluva lot of insolation each year, precious little is tapped. Sun beats oil, but oil is easy and sun is hard.
The stupid thing is that there’s an unimaginably immense energy reserve literally under all our feet. The sun could go out tomorrow and we’d still have enough energy to survive, if we were smart enough to be able to economically tap the Earth’s extant geothermal power.

It's nice to know you Greenies are based in sound science and a profound understanding of how Stars and their planetary system react with each other. Especially after the star expands burning the three inner orbit planets to a toasty crisp. Then collapses on its self taking all of the planets in under the immense weight of the gravity. Before exploding a final time dispersing our solar system's matter back into the Cosmos.

Tenouncetrout says

It’s nice to know you Greenies are based in sound science and a profound understanding of how Stars and their planetary system react with each other. Especially after the star expands burning the three inner orbit planets to a toasty crisp. Then collapses on its self taking all of the planets in under the immense weight of the gravity. Before exploding a final time dispersing our solar system’s matter back into the Cosmos

I really need to find out who your supplier is... You must be getting some good sh#$

...or some really bad stuff.

10oz, sometimes you truly make no sense. Sometimes you wax poetic and I'm proud to read your stuff on the interwebs. Lately it's the former - what gives?

jljoshlee3:

I was just reading about the Oil Sands - and the idea of raping the environment in order to get more oil scares me. Especially in light of recent disasters.

My nephew did a paper on the Berkeley Pit when he was in college & I was amazed that I'd never known about it... it's a huge heavily acidic 'lake' in Montana. The problem with raping the environment is that we don't always realize the ramifications. We need to find a happy balance, if at all possible. Much of the time, tho, we only look at the part that affects our little corner of the world and don't see beyond that. Like the Yucca Mtn project - the site was chosen politically and they've spent 30 some-odd years trying to prove it's viable. So far it's not... but the nuclear plants holding their own waste don't care.

It's an environmental issue, for sure. But it's also a local issue, a national issue, and an international issue. I would be upset if someone told me what to do in my back yard - but hopefully Canadians can take a rational look at the issue. A good question is whether the employment provided by mining the tar sands would help offset the unemployment of the area. If the financial benefits wouldn't stay in the area, that would surely be a consideration.

elliemae says

…or some really bad stuff.
10oz, sometimes you truly make no sense. Sometimes you wax poetic and I’m proud to read your stuff on the interwebs. Lately it’s the former - what gives?

That's because you are partial to Liberals, I'm only singing your song, when I'm bashing the Republican side of Independent Voter list of things that are wrong with this country. You don't like it when I get to the Democrat side of my rant.

That's O.K. it's not 2012 Yet, you'll come around.

Tenouncetrout says

It’s nice to know you Greenies are based in sound science and a profound understanding of how Stars and their planetary system react with each other.

You failed to also criticize that he said "tomorrow." Do most other greenies also think we have to worry about the sun ending tomorrow or soon ? I thought the sun's life expectancy is in fact billions more years. Also, even if not for the problems you mentioned, with it that fricken cold, wouldn't we have to worry about using up the Earths heat too quickly ?

Oh wait,...maybe he didn't mean that he literally thought the sun might "go out" tomorrow. Never-mind.

elliemae says

…or some really bad stuff.
10oz, sometimes you truly make no sense. Sometimes you wax poetic and I’m proud to read your stuff on the interwebs. Lately it’s the former - what gives?

he's been house shopping

Tenouncetrout says

elliemae says

…or some really bad stuff.
10oz, sometimes you truly make no sense. Sometimes you wax poetic and I’m proud to read your stuff on the interwebs. Lately it’s the former - what gives?

That’s because you are partial to Liberals, I’m only singing your song, when I’m bashing the Republican side of Independent Voter list of things that are wrong with this country. You don’t like it when I get to the Democrat side of my rant.
That’s O.K. it’s not 2012 Yet, you’ll come around.

No, 10oz -

it's, like, the order you put your words & stuff. Makes no sense, they don't. As if all of the order of the cosmos that are falling in on each other are sucking the gravity out of your brain cells.

IMHO, of course.

Of course...

Then there's this...

Senate ditches global warming
http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/22/news/economy/cap_and_trade/index.htm

That certainly sucks. Unless it's in your face, it's not important I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro0LWXPlTSA

there is nothing really up there but millions of acres of pine trees

jljoshlee3 says

there is nothing really up there but millions of acres of pine trees

...plus the animals that inhabit the woods, and the plant life... an entire ecosystem that helps to filter groundwater, adds oxygen to the enviroment...

Alberta tar sands have probably the worldest largest reserve of oil by up to several times larger than the entiremiddle east. It's very difficult to calculate because it's not a typical oil well, and most geologists and people who work with oil are used to estimating oil from those sources. It's a HUGE amount of possible oil.

The US provides roughly 40% of it's oil, canada was around 18%, mexico/venezula like 15% each, with saudi arabia like 12% with the other couple from other places like nigeria, iran, iraq, etc.

There isn't all that much up there in the tar sands if memory serves me correctly, it's mostly flat lands. In fact Alberta is just praire lands, and until you get into the rockies it's just FLAT.

What is horrific is the fact that the energy needed to get one barrel of oil output, is something horrendous. They need to heat that tar up to extract the oil. They do that by burning natural gas! They burn a perfectly clean burning fuel to extract oil! argh. That is why heating prices on the east coast have been going up, even though there have been huge natural gas deposits found! The tar sands are consuming it all! That is the real travesty here!

Making a mess of flat lands sucks, but it's possible to clean it up. Making a mess of beaches, and the ocean is impossible to clean up.

If you've never seen the tar sands in action, I would recommend getting a good documentary on it. The equipment they use is so massive in scale that it's almost unreal that it moves!