Dirty Politics, Climate Change, Pollution & Charitable Giving

Alberta is in tough. We have been vilified for our oil sands and have been all but cut off from getting one of our major export products to market.  For the last  10 years nothing has progressed in the oil and gas sector thanks to politics, and for the last 3 years our economy has been battered and left in tatters by governments and yes, even some businesses/industries that seem to think that Alberta Oil is an evil product that overly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, an YET, they continue to take our money, in some cases even demanding it.

In fact the Alberta Oil and Gas sector has been painted as a villain in many cases around the world.

There is so much that I could write on this topic, but unless your head has been in the sand for the last three years, you have already heard everything that can be said so I will simply summarize a little bit of what I know:


DIRTY POLITICS

#1 - Alberta's taxpayers pay the lions share of taxes that then become transfer/equalization payments and Quebec receives the lions share.

#2 - Quebec's premier says there is no social acceptability for a pipeline for Alberta oil to go through their province.  Yet he's happy to have Albertans tax money subsidize his province and  seems gleeful in preventing his neighbour, New Brunswick from refining our oil.

#3 - Justin Trudeau's government says Energy East is dead and has NO intention of reopening talks.

#4 - Quebec is running a 3 billion dollar surplus and is out of debt, Alberta is running a 7.8 billion dollar deficit and has a debt of 8.8 billion as of March, 2018 and yet Alberta because of its earning power gets no transfer payments.

#5 - Hydro - of which Quebec has an abundance of is not part of the transfer payment program.

#6 - Saudi Oil, which Canada imports $17 Billion a year worth, is not subject to carbon tax. Alberta's oil is subject to carbon tax both up and down stream.

#7 - BC is blocking us from getting our expanded pipeline out to the West Coast.

#8 - Trudeau paid Kinder Morgan off for the rights to the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, but it will never get built and he knows it.

DIRTY POLITICS & CLIMATE CHANGE:

#9 - Whistler was trying to get CNRL to pay for the climate change costs they are feeling that is until the oil and gas sector pulled out of the CIBC Investment Conference that took place in Whistler.

A little background on Whistler:

Just over 40 years ago,  there was a decision made to turn a sleepy little town with a ski hill located in what was then a pristine, natural environment into one of the world’s mega resorts.

Perhaps, JUST PERHAPS the “climate-related harm” to Whistler is actually cause by the community itself, the people who visit and live there?

Here are some stats from the Travel Trade Website for Whistler:

(https://trade.whistler.com/about/stats/)

Whistler has almost 12,000 permanent residents and 2,432 seasonal residents (estimated).

Whistler receives approximately 3 million overnight and non-overnight visitors each year (approximately 45 per cent in winter and 55 per cent in summer).

Whistler has capacity for about 35,000 overnight visitors. There are some 150 hotels, condos, chalets, pensions and bed & breakfast facilities offering more than 8,000 bedrooms. There are also 230 hostel beds and 118 campsites.

I wonder if Whistler is having problems because of:

1) All of the jet fuel that planes consume in enormous quantities to transport thousands of visitors from around the planet to the lower mainland area of BC? 

2) Diesel fuel, again, consumed in huge quantities to fuel the buses that shuttle those air travellers to and from the airport to your over-developed community? 

3) Gasoline that thousands upon thousands of personal vehicles use on a year-round basis to enable skiers, hikers and mountain bikers etc. to experience the world-class attractions? 

Distances and approximate travel times by car - again from the Travel Trade Site for Whistler:
Whistler to downtown Vancouver: 127 km (79 miles), 2 hours
Whistler to Vancouver International Airport: 140 km (85 miles), 2.5 hours
Whistler to Seattle: 354 km (218 miles), 5 hours

And then there is snow making: "If a slope uses compressed air in its snow guns, it has to provide a lot of energy to run the large air-compressing pumps. It also needs a pump system to provide the water to the snow makers. These pumps are often run by diesel engines, which expel a high level of air pollution."

I wonder if SUCCESS is what is fuelling the climate change issue in Whistler and what will happen to resorts like Whistler if and when the oil and gas gets shut off?

Or perhaps, Patrick Moore, one of the founders of GreenPeace 

turned energy activist is right.

A carbon neutral world is not possible. And it's not necessary.

As he aptly points out in the video below, food production RELIES on Carbon Dioxide.
C02 is the MOST important food for ALL LIFE ON EARTH.

At 150 PPM of C02, plants die.

To grow plants FAST or to double their size, greenhouse growers double and triple the amount of C02 pumped into their greenhouses up to 450 PPM.

Fossil fuels are a product of life (created by dead fossils).

Patrick Moore explains and debates Climate Change in the video below.
The historical data that he presents explains that climate changes most likely causes are the earth's own natural rhythms, the rotation of the earth and the position of, and the activity on the sun in relation to the earth:

Now,  at the oil and gas rally here in Grande Prairie on Sunday December 16th where our MLA Wayne Drysdale and MP Chris Warkentin spoke as did Jason Kenney of the UCP.

The speakers at this rally had it right - we need ALL kinds of energy to be developed, wind, solar, hydro, oil and gas, nuclear, biomass etc.

Close to 3,500 people at the rally and another 1,500 - 2,000 in trucks

Lets look at these different energies that are available to us these days...

In an IdeaCity talk, Mr. Moore speaks about the differences in energy in this way:

Renewable - is good BUT as he points out, we can use renewable resources in a way that is unsustainable, look at the cod fisheries, look at buffalo, whales etc.

Sustainable - lasts a long time, it doesn't run out. Lots of sustainable resource like iron ore (there's enough to last millions of years) yet it's not renewable.  Fossil fuels are finite, and yet they are being consumed in such a way as to provide 85% of the worlds energy. That is not sustainable.

Clean - clean means it doesn't pollute.

Green - the word GREEN has no merit in technology or science, it is simply a marketing word.

There is no one energy type that does not have limitations and in some cases they actually can have detrimental effects on our environment and the creatures of our planet.  

Wind: birds migratory paths are often affected and it can drive people crazy with the sound, not to mention a whole host of other problems: https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/advantages-and-challenges-wind-energy  (Totally unsustainable and unreliable and yet, there is a place for it in servicing our energy needs)

  

Solar while helpful, is not fully reliable either. Just have a few days of overcast weather, or lots of snow and not enough batteries for back up and you'll see what I mean.  (Batteries are made from oil products) Here are some other issues with solar: https://www.sepco-solarlighting.com/blog/bid/115086/Solar-Power-Advantages-and-Disadvantages. 

Geothermal: There is huge potential to heat homes and water with geothermal technology, but it also has it's challenges: https://www.our-energy.com/geothermal_heating_advantages_and_disadvantages.html

Ocean Energy: while it creates no known by products can hurt marine life and is only reliable about 10 hours per day: https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/advantages_disadvantages_waveenergy.php 

BioMASS or BioEnergy:  This fuel has a lot of advantages but its disadvantages can far outweigh any good it might produce.  The vast quantity of land required is but one of the many limitations of this fuel source: https://www.originenergy.com.au/blog/about-energy/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-bioenergy.html

Hydro Energy: while it is safer than many sources of energy, it too has its issues depending on its fuel source. Dams re-route water, and can hurt animal habitats, on top of that are the issues of the limited areas that hydro generating stations can be built and they are exceedingly expensive. Not to mention the pollution generated in the building of them. http://energyinformative.org/hydroelectric-energy-pros-and-cons/  Coal fired plants that use old technology are one of the biggest contributors to pollution, but that is a different discussion than climate change.

Nuclear power generation: A small amount of uranium can generate a ton of electricity.

however, while the cost to run a plant is minimal, the costs to build them are astronomical and there is one tiny problem: the lack of long-term waste disposal facilities. Wastes are stored on the grounds of these power plants and sooner or later, there will be no space left to contain these nuclear wastes. AND - there is the other problem.... Leak Potential...

Accidents can happen despite the safety systems applied to nuclear reactors. If leaks happen, the radioactive byproduct of nuclear energy is toxic and can cause burns, cancer, blood diseases and bone decay. https://futureofworking.com/8-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-nuclear-energy/

For those who seem to think you can just quit producing oil and solve the world's ills, think again. 

All of the above renewable and or sustainable energy sources, all of them, use oil in one form or another be it for drive belts, grease, or various components like batteries, blades, switches, transmission lines etc.

And then there is geography to consider. 

What works in urban centres likely won't work in rural settings, at least not in the foreseeable future.

In urban centres where infrastructure is easier and more affordable to install, where the likelihood of being stranded thanks to a low battery or a frozen one, is minimal; great - drive electric cars and trucks but remember something, all of that infrastructure to deliver the electricity relies on oil. 

Here is some information on the kinds of transmission lines that carry electrical energy - surprise, surprise, they all require oil to create: https://www.anixter.com/en_us/resources/literature/wire-wisdom/cable-jackets-types-101.html

In Northern Canada, places like Grande Prairie, Yellowknife, Whitehorse etc., electric cars are not yet practical or feasible.  In -40 a battery looses a ton of its power, just try using your cell phone in the cold and see how long the battery lasts. And with sparse populations, the cost of the infrastructure isn't an investment that will be made any time soon.

Here is some information for you about electric cars, cold weather and their batteries: https://ez-ev.com/tips/12-tips-for-driving-your-electric-car-in-the-winter-and-cold-weather

I want you to consider what would happen if the oil and gas sector just shut down before the products to replace the following were developed....here is a small list of 80  of  products that are created with the use of oil and its byproducts (out of literally thousands):

I want you to consider something else - the true threat to humanity is POLLUTION not Climate Change, AND you need to understand that we can no more control the rhythms of glaciation and warming that we can that of the tides.

Reducing the heavy metals and sulphur dioxide from our air caused by burning coal using outdated technologies and reducing the plastics that get thrown into our oceans, solving the disposal issues of nuclear waste; doing these things are far more beneficial to our world than attempting to reduce C02 emissions.  REMEMBER  - At 150 PPM of C02, plants die. Our world needs at least 180 PPM C02.

It is a lofty goal to want to remove a product like oil completely from our lives, a product that is so ingrained in our lives. 

The best we can do is to reduce our dependancy and where it makes sense to, use renewable and sustainable energy sources and keep working at improving them, all the while improving our methods of oil production/extraction.  

If every energy sector works at improving their production methods and their usage methods, we will all be better off.

I will say it again - We need ALL energies including oil.

CONSUMERS MUST PLAY THEIR PART TO FIGHT THE REAL THREAT WHICH IS STILL POLLUTION:

We can use our vehicles less, refuse to use plastic bags and things that are too easily disposed of but don't degrade quickly. Refuse to buy products from manufacturers that waste packaging by putting tiny amounts in big plastic containers.

YOU have it within your power to impact pollution and "climate change" from the comfort of your own home.

Here are a few ideas on how: https://www.wikihow.com/Reduce-Your-Carbon-Footprint-at-Home

Now, onto a much different topic....

Charitable Giving be it of your money or you time...

All of us on the CMTA board and on the various committees work at bettering our communities and giving back into where we live so we thought it would be really nice to know.....

You have a chance to win the Gear Club 2 Unlimited game for the Nintendo Switch!

The winner will be chosen at random.

Instructions on how to win:

Like my "personality page" @BeltDriveBetty2 on Facebook if you haven't already.

Post your favourite charity or non profit's name and cause and one sentence on why you support them on my the thread that has the above meme in it....

I will choose the winner on December 31st, 2018 at 10 AM MST

If you are blessed to live where you can be riding, please ride a few for me!

Belt Drive Betty 

Editor & Rider