This post might seem out of character for me but I have become so frustrated by such an important issue being communicated so badly.
Best Ever or Worst Possible:
The Canadian Oil Sands
Development of the Canadian oil sands is
the worst: unsound, unethical, anti-planet and pretty much everything else
Or
Development of the Canadian oil sands is
the absolute best alternative for our petroleum addicted world.
Let me start by saying three things.
1. I really don’t know much about the
development of the oil sands, at least not enough to claim any sort of
expertise.
2. I think that we are all addicted to
petroleum and that is not a good thing.
But, have I haven’t seen anything from the stop the oil sands group that
suggests that stopping the oil sands will help this issue.
3.
I
don’t believe that stopping the development of the Canadian oil sands will
curtail our global appetite for petroleum produced energy but would simply mean
that we would get more of it from elsewhere.
For me this means that the central
question in the oil sands debate is about should we consume petroleum energy
from the oil sands, or from somewhere else.
Like many of you, or at least those of
you from North America, I’ve been bombarded by terribly polarized opinions on
the development of the oil sands.
It is frustrating. This is important stuff. Yet, neither side seems adult enough to
present a well-reasoned argument, or at least they haven’t connected a
well-reasoned argument to a communications plan which meant that you could
actually hear it
·
We
have some industry infomercial like ads on TV that make it seem like just the
best thing ever. No need to ever be
concerned about anything.
·
We
have a Canadian government who, in their clumsy attempts to assist the
industry, have made it seem like they are willing to throw environmental
regulations and safeguards out the window to support quick project approval.
·
And
then there is the steady parade of over-paid movie stars and celebrities,
prancing through the media telling us how absolutely earth and civilization ending
terrible the industry is.
·
Can
anyone tell me how being a famous celebrity makes you an expert on this
subject?
Does anyone else wish that one or more
of the key stakeholders was mature enough to trust that some comparative facts
and objective (or even partially objective) information would be helpful?
Here are some things I wish that they
would tell us
On Environment
Petroleum production has nasty, terrible
even, impacts on the environment. Not
just in Canada but globally. Sure, it is
getting better, but not nearly fast enough.
I wish we had a different way to power
our planet and hope that we will soon get to one. But, in the interim, let’s think about this
rationally.
I want to know the comparative
environmental impact of oil sands petroleum and that from elsewhere.
·
Carbon: What is the carbon cost per barrel of
oil, delivered to where it will be used for oil sands petroleum? How does that compare to petroleum from other
major global oil fields
·
Carbon: How is the carbon cost per delivered
barrel changing over time from the oil sands and other producers? In other words, who is investing in reducing
their carbon impact?
·
Water and other Natural Capital
/ Global Commons inputs: Similar to carbon. How much is used per barrel (delivered to
where it will be used) and how does that compare to other major global oil
fields. What are the trends? Which fields are getting more efficient at
using Natural Capital.
·
Overall impact: How can we quantifiably compare the
overall environmental impact of energy from the oil sands with energy from
alternative locations; including the cost of transporting it to the end user
And, while we are on the environment can anyone explain why nobody is
assessing and monitoring the cumulative impact of oil sands development on the
production areas and all the way downstream through the Athabasca, Slave and
Mackenzie River systems.
On Human Rights
Much of our planets remaining petroleum
reserves are in places that don’t win so many human rights awards.
Syria, Iraq, Russia, Saudi Arabia and a
host of other producing countries have some pretty dismal human rights records. And, let’s be honest, our western companies
and governments have cozied up to these regimes and their human rights track
records to get access to their petroleum energy.
To me a key question is around whether
we’d sooner use petroleum energy coming from countries and locations with
better human rights records.
I think we need to figure out how we can
quantifiably compare the human rights/petroleum energy issues so we can have a
rational discussion about this dimension.
On Global Security
I’m probably in a bit over my head on
this issue, but, on the simplistic side, when I hear that ISIS is funded by
millions of dollars/day of petroleum revenue I think that isn’t a good thing.
When I see the conflict all over Syria
and Iraq that, as I understand it, is financed by if not fueled by petroleum, I
think that is not a good thing.
There may be other relevant dimensions
but these are three key ones.
Overall, I believe we are better off
using petroleum energy that has less, rather than more environmental impact in
its production and transport and that comes from more stable countries with
better human rights records.
Intuitively I feel that this means
developing the oil sands but I would really like to see some research and
informed debate around it.
Surely it isn’t asking too much of
industry, government, NGOs and celebrities to be supportive or informed and
rational debate around such an important issue?
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