From her home on the bluff of the river, she can see billowing steam rising from a vast strip mine 10 miles away. There, almost 200 feet below what was once a forest, giant machines cleave the earth into a cratered moonscape. Immense shovels plunge into the ground, wresting out massive chunks. Trucks the size of houses prowl the pit. They deliver the black soil to clanking conveyers and vats that steam the tar from the sand.
The miners have created a marvel of human industry that takes a spongy muck once considered worthless and converts it into oil for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. But the price of that alchemy is high: Each barrel of oil requires two to five barrels of water, carves up four tons of earth and uses enough natural gas to heat a home for one to five days, according to the industry's own calculations.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003034191_oilsands02.html
[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on June 5, 2006]
Note: http://seattletimes.nws...

Besides, how is Calgary supposed to enjoy all that wealth if Calgarians have to take time to think about the future.......
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RickW
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Expect little from life and get more from it.
<br />
Here's a bit of a humourous explanation.<br />
<a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_4491622,00.html">http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_4491622,00.html</a><br />
I remeber reading the cartoon and laughing as well.<br />
<br />
...
Now, do you not agree that everyone's greed for oil is polluting my province?
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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden
I run a van as a private courier these days and planned on converting it to propane. Presently propane is half the price of gasoline. The conversion will be $4,700. I save nothing. Alternate fuels may be cheaper but it still will cost more to use it. A major player in the Natural Gas field is dropping production and diverting to oil. This Calgary company plans to make more money and that's where it ends. The players aren't going to give the consumer alternatives at a cheaper rate.
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Expect little from life and get more from it.
Industry officials say they do not pollute the river, and instead reuse the water they take as often as 17 times. The leftover emerges as a black, foul liquid collected in tailing ponds. The ponds have grown; one dam is among the largest in the world. The mining companies fire propane cannons to scare away migrating birds from the toxic waters. [end quote]
Those toxic dams I find horrifying. And the thought of innocent wildlife trying to get from A to B so they can carry out their life's journey while cannons go off to keep them from what used to be a safe environment is downright criminal.
The pollution from the oil sand will find its way into BC waterways as well. The pollution does not stop at borders so I think Ralph Klein owes all of Canada big time.
Also from the article:
Industry officials say they are confident they will find a way to cap the ponds and solve the other problems. "I don't think there is a silver bullet that is the single answer," said Greg Stringham, vice president of the Calgary-based Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. "But there are five or six technologies that are promising." [end quote]
There is a silver bullet but Mr. Stringham would never be the one to pull the trigger and fire it. The Association of Petroleum Producers will cling to a promise of new technology helping out. And that would be when? In 2 weeks, 2 years, 2 decades? What a lame, lame statement when so much is at stake. Why isn't this a crimal act? They are creating the same kinds of situations that our corporations do in developing nations that leave people without homes and a clean environment and turns them into "terrorists" and opponents of free trade. yet it seems that Canadians know the doctrine that when you're making all that money what's there to lose?
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"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." Friedrich Nietzsche
I could've sat down and cried with the sheer joy of its beauty.
What kind of sacrilege is it, to turn a blue-green waterway into a shitty
brown sewer unfit for man nor beast?
If there actually is a god, I hope she balds and tortures the guys who do
this. Nothing is worth this.
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My pickled onions are infinitely superior to your pickled onions.
- Great Sage of the Rocky Mountains, circa 1889.
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Fossil fuels are not the answer. Nuclear power is not the answer. Hydroelectric dams are not the answer.
Hydrogen is the fuel answer. When burned it produces heat and water and that is all. It can be produced by splitting water with electricity produced by windmills. Solar panels are a good source of energy in sunny climes. These are all regenerative energy sources.
Are there problems to be overcome, you bet, the overhaul of our economy along with the rest of the worlds economies is part of the answer. All of the problems can be overcome. The major problem stopping the development of this energy scenario is ignorance. When we pay attention we dispel ignorance.
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"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
(Albert Einstein)
It's called "Money". They only way to stop it is by not allowing the money to flow. That's the only river they are concerned with. You want the tar sands to stop, then don't buy the oil.
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Expect little from life and get more from it.
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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden
Why not build a nuclear facility to prevent the oil companies from wasting natural gas to create the energy used to extract oil from the tar sands??? Create jobs building the great new version of the Canadians invention called CANDU--just make the oil companies pay higher royalties to pay for it.
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"True nations are united by blood and soil, language, literature, history, faith, tradition and memory". -
-Patrick J. Buchanan
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"True nations are united by blood and soil, language, literature, history, faith, tradition and memory". -
-Patrick J. Buchanan