Three Articles Suggested By Readers

Holy Misconceptions, Batman!<p> From Bottom of the Barrel:<p> <i>Petroleum can be extracted from tar sands and oil shale, but in most cases the process uses almost as much energy as it liberates, while creating great mountains and lakes of toxic waste.</i><p> From: <a href='http://www.syncrude.com/enviro/tailings.html'>Syncrude:</a><p><blockquote> Fine tails are a byproduct of the oil sand extraction process, containing suspended silts, clays and hydrocarbon residues - all of which are naturally found in the oil sands deposits.<br> This mixture causes the tailings to settle faster, enabling us to develop landscapes that support grass, trees and wetlands.<br></blockquote> There are no 'Mountains and Lakes of toxic waste'. I've seen them. I wouldn't want to swim in them, but Mildred Lake, AB (the Syncrude tailings pond) is the largest freshwater dam in the world (even larger than the Hoover). There are trees all around, ducks, geese, herons all live breed and thrive on the shores of this 'toxic waste'. They've terraformed thousands of acres of the land, replanted millions of trees, and have the largest herd of <a href='http://www.syncrude.com/enviro/reclamation/main.html#4'>Wood Buffalo</a> in Northern Alberta living on that land.<p> The energy used comes from Natural Gas, which is split using a Hydrogen Reactor to produce electricity much like a fuel cell. General Electric even has a similar model that runs off natural gas or propane that will provide your home with 1KeV of 120v power, and the only emission is hot water (can't find the link right now).<p> <i>Vehicles could be run from fuel cells powered by hydrogen, which is produced by the electrolysis of water</i><p> Hydrogen is not a fuel source. Hydrogen is a storage device. You have to use more electricity to crack water to get the hydrogen that the hydrogen produces in the fuel cell. If you could use solar energy to produce the hydrogen, then we'd be talking! See below.<P> <i>Coal burning is filthy, nuclear energy is expensive and lethal.</i><p> Burning coal releases more radioactivity (Carbon 14) into the atmosphere than a nuclear reactor ever will. A <a href='http://www.aecltechnologies.com/Content/ACR/default.htm'>Candu</a> ACR-700 reactor will produce 700 Megawatts of power, costing 700 Million for a lifetime operational cost of $30/MWH or about the same as an oil, coal or natural gas plant. CANDU reactors have never killed anyone, which can't be said of other forms of energy.<p> <i>Running the world's cars from wind or solar power would require a greater investment than any civilization has ever made before.</i><p> Solar, right now, is not an option. It takes more energy to produce a solar cell than it will ever produce in it's lifetime. All you are doing is trading dirty coal for less efficient solar.<p> <i>Turning crops into diesel or methanol is just about viable in terms of recoverable energy, but it means using the land on which food is now grown for fuel.</i><p> With all the empty space Canada has, how tough would this be?<p> The most efficient way we can operate now is <ul>1) Produce Grain to turn into Methanol to supplement gasoline. The byproduct is healthy feed for livestock.<br> 2) Use biodiesel<br> 3) Develop Hydrogen fuel cells, and add more nuclear power plants to produce the hydrogen.<br> 4) With known wind patterns in the North Territories and southern foothills, more should be put into <a href='http://sts.gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/urban/mapviewer_topographic_relief.asp'>windpower.</a></ul><p> Perhaps if the Gubmint had come up with a 'plan' for Kyoto instead of ramming unknowns down our throat, they could have come up with some of this, rather than giving people a $1,000 break on $15,000 home improvements. I find it interesting how all the above sounds like the <a href='http://www.gov.ab.ca/home/index.cfm?Page=316'>Alberta Alternative</a> to <a href='http://www.gov.ab.ca/home/kyoto/documents/tab.pdf'>Kyoto</a>.<p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain

Here\'s some stuff on how we eat our oil (not literally):
http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/1 ... mmary.html
http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/1 ... _food.html
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/w ... mmary.html

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"So many right-wing Christians, so few lions." - t-shirt I saw @ school

From the Troll:

Dr. Caleb, I still don\'t like the idea of planting crops for energy production.....THIS IS WHY URBAN SPRAWL AROUND TORONTO, OTTAWA, CALGARY & EDMONTON, VANCOUVER, etc. WILL catch up to us.....we HAVE to grow our food at HOME, near our cities, ensuring supply, benefitting from better environmental standards, and be SATISFIED will foods when they are \"IN SEASON.\" We don\'t need every fruit under the sun, all year long. Our fruit that comes up from the States get irradiated, anyway....I don\'t trust it, nor do I trust standards in third world countries, our Canada for that matter.

A modern CANDU reactor setup would be a good last resort, but: ANY chance we could finally overcome the limits of DC pwoer, and harness the remarkable power of lightning? 2 oe 3 strikes equal the output of a nuclear reactor for an entire year!!! The CN Tower gets hit 50+ times a year.....couldn\'t we build a big capacitor?!

More from the Troll:

Also Dr. Caleb, remember, the water vapour creatd by hyrdogen cars or reactors will be better for our air, but WORSE for our environment.....water vapour is MANY TIMES better at trapping heat than carbon.....EXCESS Methane from ALBERTA LIVESTOCK is another, much greater problem than carbon.....


Also, when will we stop pretending that we can\'t do what China used to do more of, and RIDE BICYCLES. If we lived near where we worked, only the elderly and disaabled couldn\'t manage, but could use wheelchairs.....imagine how many bicycles we could fit on the average roads, to supplement expanded subway systems......and physical ailments which prevent people from riding bikes will wventually disappear, we\'ll live longer and longer, and won\'t NEED to travel places as quickly.

DrCaleb,

What \"empty space\" are you referring to? The space with all the toxic tailings? Can you grow Canola on that? The spaces that have been clear cut? I hope you\'re not thinking of taking virgin \"empty spaces\" and clearing them for energy crops.

Every space has an eco system it supports no matter how \"empty\" that looks to the untrained eye. You need to go take an afternoon off and lay down in an empty space to aquaint yourself with the empty spaces in Canada.

Dude, you stop being a Troll when you start contributing to this site. Like asking questions <p> Trust me, urban sprawl will only go so far. IIRC I think the average density in Canada is something like 1 person per 2 square kilometers, averaging the land area of Canada vs it's population. If you travel 30 minutes north of Edmonton, or 30 minutes south of Calgary you are in big wide open fields. Most of which produce grains and canola. Drive from Edmonton to Grande Prairie or Fort McMurray. You'll drive for hours and pass nothing. No towns, no stores. Nothing. I regularally fly from Edmonton to GP to Fort Nelson, Prince George and Whitehorse, Norman Wells and Yellowknife. There are millions upon millions of hectares of wide flat land, and not one light. Not one development. There's lots of space to plant things (but a remarkably short growing season) that won't interfere with anyone or anything.<p> Incidentally, <a href='http://www.adn.com/front/story/4214182p-4226215c.html'>Toshiba</a> is donating a small compact design reactor to the town of Galena, Alaska near the city of Anchorage to try out the design and hopefully reduce or eliminate their need to generate electricy and heat their homes using diesel. This would be a boon to all northern communities.<p> I like fresh Chilean fruit in the early spring. Lets me know that the cold will end and spring is coming.<p> I hope we could store lightning strikes. But until we overcome the inherent ability to charge a system quick enough to store a lightning bolt, that power will be unavailable.<p><p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain

Hydrogen combustion doesn't produce water *vapour*, it's liquid water after being catalysed and cooled.<p> Ahhh yes, blame Alberta Cattle for a problem that originates mainly from <a href='http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1491340-6078-0,00.html'>landfills</a>. Good urban legend, that.<p> I would love to ride my bike to work. I used to when I lived in Jasper. Now, I'd have to leave the day before to get there in time. Make my work closer to my home, or make housing prices cheaper nearer my work, and we'll talk. Even some form of mass transit between work and home would be nice. Physical ailments preventing people from riding bikes will suddenly disappear? What, they'll invent a pill to cure paralysis? Numpty. <p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain

I believe that the cattle in Alberta produce more excrement than the entire country put together....we know that part of the natural balance includes the methane released from wetlands, but as these are drained, and farms expand, the balance is damaged.....I think cattle, in general, are a problem.....we\'d be better off eating vegetarian, not that I want to.

2 -There is some eveidence that stem-cell reserach could eventually cure paralysis, -although a supercharged wheelchair could also do the trick.

From my post above: <i>"Fine tails are a byproduct of the oil sand extraction process, containing suspended silts, clays and hydrocarbon residues - all of which are naturally found in the oil sands deposits."</i><p> Tailings are not toxic. They are ionized particles of sand and clay which refuse to settle out of water due to their electrical charge. It takes time for this ionization to dissipate, in the mean time, you have a soupy mixture of sand, clay and water to store. Oils float out of this mixture and are collected. In the first stage ponds it's significant enough that propane 'scarecrows' are on the pond to keep waterfowl from landing. The surface tension of the pond is too low for them to float, and they would drown without the sacrecrows.<p> Perhaps you are more acclimatized to urban sprawl, but Canada is mostly empty space. When I lived in Fort McMurray, I could walk 1km out my back door, and be the only person, building or structure for 1 km. The Syncrude tailings pond is basically a big lake. When compared to the land area of Alberta, it's insignificant.<p> Yes, ecosystems are distinct. How good is stripmining for oilsand for that ecosystem, compared to planting barley, wheat or corn? (both hybrid grasses) I would think that the ecosystem could more easily adapt to farming than stripmining.<p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain

<i>we'd be better off eating vegetarian, not that I want to.</i><p> Me nethier. The last Vegetarian I had was quite stringy, but went well with a Merlot.<p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain

I know what you mean....but in the Toronto area, sprawl could continue right up to Lake Simcoe, almost an hour+ north of the city, if we don\'t get our act together. We can thank Mike HArris, and Dalton McGuinty for doing nothing to stop development on the Oak Ridges Moraine, but I know what you mean. Oil won\'t last forever, and so on and so forth. That being siad, the suburbs around Toronto lower the enrollment in our schools, and cost us billions of dollars in funding.

The best farmland in Canada, is around the TORONTO AREA! The farther north you go, the worse it gets, with a FEW exceptions, such as near Orillia, Fenelon Falls, and so forth...essecetially, we\'re building houses on our best farmland.....What on earth will this mean when oil gets to expensive to use, in 10 or 20 years?! It would be so much better to just grow our food nearby.....Toronto already lost 50% of its several hundred thousand hectares of prime farmland.

I believe that the hydrogen fuel-cell prototypes produce water vapour....I not sure millions of vapour-producing cars would be any better for global warming......I have heard that BMW wants to produce an internal comnustion engine, that burns LIQUID HYDROGEN. That could be effective, although I\'d aks for black-box strength material for the fuel-tank.

Many buses in <a href='http://www.hydrogenjobs.com/hydrogen-info.php'>large</a> cities are already using liquid <a href='http://www.science.org.au/nova/063/063key.htm'>hydrogen</a> as the primary fuel. <a href='http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/features/story/0,24330,3425829,00.html'>Many </a> <a href='http://carbon.cfr.washington.edu/esc110/2003winter/projects/030/h.html'>vehicle </a> <a href='http://www.preownedcars.com/2.hydrogen_powered_cars.htm'>manufacturers</a> have liquid hydrogen <a href='http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/history/hcar.html'>cars</a>, <a href='http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.08/fuelcellcars.html'>GM</a> , <a href='http://www.evworld.com/databases/shownews.cfm?pageid=news211003-02'>Ford</a>, Chrysler all are developing hydrogen vehicles. Nissan even made a 300z with over 500 horses running on pure hydrogen. The fuel tanks are works of art. Thick aluminum and carbon fiber.<p> Hydrogen is only dangerous when mixed with oxygen.<p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain

The EU is forging ahead with the worlds first working model of a fussion reactor. If they succeed it will forever change power delivery.