Perpetual Innovation

Category: oil sands

  • A Song Of Fire And No Ice: We Just Had Our Fourth Record-Breaking Hottest Month In A Row This Year | ThinkProgress

    A Song Of Fire And No Ice: We Just Had Our Fourth Record-Breaking Hottest Month In A Row This Year | ThinkProgress:

    Oh poop, crap, scat!.

    Each month of 2016 has been a record hot month. (Even though 2015 was wicked record hot with 10 months matching or exceeding record highs!)

    April blew past the last record in 2015 by a mile or two (+0.28 C or +0.43 F). [See NASA summary data here. Note that you have to go back to 1992 to find the first negative monthly number (-1) below average, and much further to the 1970s to find a year with a good spattering of negative numbers (below the mean).]

    If the first quarter holds true in predicting the full year, 2016 will take us to about +1.3 d C, almost three-forths of the way to that magical +2 d Centigrade that so many scientist warn we need to stay away from.

    Good news, we’ll be able to navigate the north pole by boat & barge form months this year. China’s gonna love that, avoiding the Panama Canal.

    The early thaw and dry conditions results in ugly fire conditions as demonstrated by the Alberta fires.

    Ironically, the fires caused by global warming, aggravate and accentuate the very factors that cause — you guessed it, global warming.

    And, in a double irony, the oil sands have a very heavy carbon footprint and environmental footprint. (Do a Google search on Alberta “Oil Sands before and after”.)  Visit Canadian TV News to look at McMurray fires.

    Fire and no ice!.

    Hot. Sad, True.

    Poop!:-(

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  • Climate Leadership | Climate Leadership Plan | Alberta.ca

    Climate Leadership | Climate Leadership Plan | Alberta.ca:

    WOW.

    On the eve of the humongous climate meetings in Paris next week (week after Thanksgiving in USA), Canada has stepped up to the plate on addressing climate changes.

    Alberta is the home of Coal and Oil Sands: two of the great game changers in addressing pollution in general and Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG).

    There are several reports, but one is to simply charge a tax per metric tonne (yes, I know that’s the colourful way to spell ton) of CO2. The price will move up from $15 to $30 per ton of CO2 by 2019.

    In electric generation, the big game changer is to switch away from coal in general.

    By 2030 in Alberta, “There will be no pollution from coal-fired

    electricity generation.” The focus will be on reduce electrical needs and switching to NatGas and Renewables.

    But for Alberta, capping and steadily reversing the oil sands is a very big game changer.

    With the oil glut keeping oil prices down below $50 per barrel for the foreseeable future, Alberta should be ramping down oil production anyway. (I think oil sands requires $70 to $80 to be profitable.).

    The Carbon Taxes will be used: to offset increased living costs for poorer people, to assist with transition to renewables and other research.

    For those still skeptical about Global Warming: Look at the pix of Athabasca Glacier over 100 years (well 98 really). Or look at any pictures over 40 years related to Glacier Bay in Alaska. Or, just a little south from Alberta, give a look at Glacier National Park in Montana (soon to be renamed Glacier-Less National Park).
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