Oil Spills Create Jobs

I’m severely disappointed in the lack of vision that conservatives have regarding our economy. Faced with information that burning a lot of fossil fuel is not able to be sustained without Catastrophic, Repulsive, Atmospheric Pollution (CRAP), their response tends toward ignoring evidence of damage to their environment in favour of delaying the predictable economic train wreck that would occur if fuel production were to halt in the span of months or a year.

Jobs are being created to create the doomsday device known as the KXL pipeline. Jobs will be required to [partially] clean up the many spills it will create. Doctors will be needed to treat the cancers created by the soil and water contamination, and the burning of the fuel.

@Rhino_Bob @votelau the long term goal *is* to wind down oil production as much as possible. Cleaner forms of energy are better for life.—
John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) March 31, 2013

@JohnKleinRegina @Rhino_Bob @votelau
Sorry, NO viable solution to end use of fossil fuels (cars, plastics, power prod, etc) = pipe dream.—
Chad (@Chad4Mayor) March 31, 2013

Yet when asked if they’d like to wind down fossil fuel production in favour of renewable sources, they answer “No!” because they can’t envision it ever being an equivalent and essential source of power. When you ask them if they believe in higher education, most will say they do, choosing (at that time) to instead embrace the idea that short term expense and investment can lead to longer term gain through a change in skills and information. There are plenty of conservatives at schools of business.

So, why rush into upgrading ‘ethical’ oil infrastructure, instead of renewable energy manufacturing and design?

Group says latest oil spill is a preview of Keystone's "nightmare scenario" huff.to/10jaGJI—
HuffPost Canada (@HuffPostCanada) April 01, 2013

And seriously, if the tar sand oil companies can’t stave off repeated spills in the months leading up to an approval of KXL pipeline, how can anyone believe they’ll suddenly stop leaking oil all over the place once there is less pressure to behave because they’ll have the pipe built?

Oil The Humanity!

Oww, my sides would be hurting from laughing at the irony of this situation, if it weren’t a deadly serious joke that the Conservatives are playing on Canadians.

On a public relations mission to convince the public that the BC coast will be safe from oil spills, the clean-up vessel ran aground on a sandbar, and was delayed by hours.

British Columbia’s largest oil spill response vessel got stuck on a sandbar en route to a federal news conference where Monday about strengthening Canada’s oil spill defences.

This was only a test. If this had been a real emergency, your coastline would be covered in oil. Joe Oliver would be cackling.

You really have to love it when a press conference fails so badly for any politician hell bent on pitching a catastrophic idea destined to ruin lives and our environment.

ReThink Meat

Meat fraud is taking place all around us. Most people probably can’t tell the difference between similar looking meats sold in stores, were it not for the labeling.

Fish fraud is apparently common in the USA.

Safeway recalled big and juicy E.coli burgers. “Must be cooked” is right on the box, and they weren’t kidding, were they?

I’m not above eating horse meat. I’ve never done it, however. At least, I don’t think I have. Many French and Italians didn’t have a choice if they bought from a mega-meat distributor who decided for them.

What all this brings to our attention, is how vital it is to cut down on overall meat consumption. You don’t have to eliminate meat from your diet to make a huge difference. Have it at half as many meals as you typically do today if you’ve not made a previous effort to cut back.

“Unless action is taken, increases in pollution and per capita consumption of energy and animal products will exacerbate nutrient losses, pollution levels and land degradation, further threatening the quality of our water, air and soils, affecting climate and biodiversity.”

Over consumption of meat, leading to higher than optimal demand in the food supply chain, leads to suffering in even rich countries:

Suzanne Salami, a single mother of three, subsists on just £30 a week and is angered by the way the horsemeat scandal is hitting the poorest hardest. “When you can’t afford to buy anything to eat, [or] ask where meat comes from and if it’s sustainable, it is not fair,” she said. “I am being made to eat stuff I don’t know about and I am being let down. It’s like we’re being told to eat and shut up.” She was particularly worried about the potential health impacts of traces of equine painkillers found in horsemeat in the food chain by the Food Standards Agency this week.

When I buy meat, I prefer it come from a source I know, such as a farmer near Wood Mountain or Ormiston; if I’m in the city, then a local meat shop like Fellinger’s. I’ll still take chances and buy meat from elsewhere, but I don’t feel comfortable with doing that.

#ForwardOnClimate Support in Regina: Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline

Stephen McDavid interviewed by CBC/SRC about climate change action:

Stephen explains that the pipeline is a line in the sand. Using it, is crossing that line. I’ll explain why there is a line, further on in this post.

I was also interviewed. The CBC reporter was pleased to learn from me (off camera) that there is a car share co-op in Regina.

I know some people don’t see the big deal with the Keystone XL pipeline, thinking it’s just another way that people can make money. It’s more like a doomsday device, than economic stimulus. Taking into account the truth that burning all of the bitumen in the Alberta tar sands will create enough carbon dioxide to push climate change past +2 degrees Celsius, a pipe intended to be used for that purpose will be seen as a crime against humanity by most people within a few short generations of now. Already, some people understand it to be that.

To meet a halfway reasonable carbon budget in our atmosphere, there’s no good use for the Keystone XL pipeline. To have to shut it down, and clean it up later in order to correct the error today in building it, is a huge folly that Obama can stop.

It’s widely accepted by people that our daily lives cause pollution, and it’s a sort of price we pay for progress. More people need to question what sort of progress we’re striving for as a species. It’s not like we’re trying to stop 7-Eleven from selling drinks that cause diabetes and obesity and kills a few thousand humans indirectly; we’re trying to stop investment in a technology whose use is known to cause so much pollution as to create catastrophic changes to our atmosphere, and will hasten the extinction of countless species and displacement of countless people. It’s a very, very big deal, and that the Harper government in Ottawa sees fit to label peaceful protesters as “adversaries”, “enemies of the state”, and “terrorists”, is in itself terrifying.

Here are the numbers behind why we must not burn all of the fossil fuel we are technologically capable of extracting with today’s technology.

ConCalls: RoboCall Boundary Edition #RoboCon 650 days and counting

Last week I got a robocall from “Chase Research” and listened to it all, taking notes when I realized it was a Conservative push-poll and would cause a scandal. I waited for the number to push to repeat the message or options, but pressing 9 just erroneously thanked me for responding, provided a contact phone number (306-993-2392) and hung up. I called the number to find out more, right away, and got a message that it was Chase Research and to leave a message, which I did. A friend’s place I was at an hour later also got the call while I was there. (Tried the number at 12:30pm today, and it immediately says I reached Chase Research and to leave a message, not disconnected as some media reports state {so they may be working with an alternate disconnected or wrong phone number, or it’s been reinstated since}.)

ADDED: Audio of their voice mail presently.

It referred to “drastic” changes to “traditional” riding boundaries and said the new way would pit “rural vs urban” against each other. After being negative about the situation, it asked for a yes or no option to the changes, or to have options repeated.

The next day I saw the SK media buzzing about it, so provided them with the phone number and notes from the call. The Conservatives federal ‘spox’ spokesperson DeLorey (who has graced the pages of my blog before for saying untrue things), lied about his party’s involvement in the call. He later admitted that the Conservatives were behind the call, and blamed his lie on having apparently been mislead himself due to miscommunication in their tightly centralized party.

I got a call from the Star Phoenix journalist doing the story, but I didn’t say what he was looking for to include in his story, so he quoted someone else who got the call. I stressed that boundary redrawing is a sideshow to real electoral reform such as proportional representation to replace First Past the Post. If non-Conservatives win the urban seats as expected, it still leaves SK disproportionally represented by Conservative MPs when the popular vote would have them winning much less power in the House. This partisan phone call was meant to interfere in the traditionally non-partisan process of riding boundary creation. Efforts to move them for partisan gain is called Gerrymandering and is not an ethical way to win an election.

There’s evidence suggesting that Chase Research is connected to the operator of RackNine that was at the centre of the Pierre Poutine robocalls. When NDP MP Martin said unkind things about RackNine, they sued him for millions of dollars. They are obviously nice, litigious guys. They happen to have an exclusive contact with Conservatives or Conservative approved parties. There are suggestions that they made calls for the Wild Rose Party (which Harper’s Conservatives are linked to). There’s presently no evidence that suggests RackNine’s head honcho Meier knew of Pierre Jones/Poutine’s evil scheme prior to being contacted by Elections Canada’s glacially slow, token investigation.

Here's @RalphGoodale telling me about his CRTC complaint r.e. #robocalls cbc.ca/morningedition… #skcbc—
Sheila Coles (@SheilaColesCBC) February 06, 2013

A little “Ha Ha!” goes out to the Conservatives who gloated about the Liberal MP from Guelph who got a $4900 CRTC fine for running a robocall that failed to identify who it really was from. The Pierre Poutine misdirection and misidentified robocalls have still not even prompted charges for the Conservatives behind that election fraud.

ADDED: Cathie talks about Conservative crime.

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Is it normal to wait 650 days for charges to be laid in a major criminal election fraud investigation that has narrowed suspects to fewer than 5 people in Guelph, and fewer than about 5 in Ottawa with system access required to delete/lose specific logs? Consider, citizens only have 30 days to complain of suspected crime coverups to the courts.

In Conservative Controlled Corrupt Canada, it’s Cromulent & Completely Crooked.

Tarred and Feathered

It’s one of those “I told you so” findings, as the toxic fingerprint of tarsand oil production is found in distant lakes supposedly unaffected by the decades of strip mining. Well, the oil companies and their shills would have had people believe there was no effect, that is. Environmentalists were listening to doctors and people in the region suffering from higher than average cancer rates.

“P. Timoney evaluated environmental contaminants in the area surrounding Fort Chipewyan. From 2001 to 2005, concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) rose within the sediment around Lake Athabasca. The report indicated that the treated drinking water in Fort Chipewyan was safe, but described high levels of arsenic, mercury and PAHs in fish, which is the main diet of many people in Fort Chipewyan, especially members of its Aboriginal communities. Dr. Timoney also quoted evidence from previous documents that there has been water contamination in the region since the 1960s, including evidence of oil spills and leaking. No evidence was available to determine how much of the measured chemicals were due to naturally occurring sources or how much resulted from human activity.

Now, years later, there is evidence further supporting claims by environmentalists.

The joint study between scientists at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., and Environment Canada looked at core samples from five lakes close to the oilsands mining and upgrading operations in Fort McMurray, Alta. They also studied samples from Namur Lake, 90 kilometres northwest.

The authors focused on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. These are cancer-causing chemicals that are released when things are burned. They can occur naturally — from forest fires, volcanic activity and geological deposits — but burning petroleum in the production of the oilsands leaves a particular fingerprint, so the scientists were able to trace where the PAHs in the core samples came from.

So again, the reasons for winding down tar sand production, while ramping-up renewable energy technology use instead, becomes clear.

Alberta Taliban — UPDATED

UPDATE:
The National Post reports that RCMP claim the earlier report of carvings was a hoax. It’s a puzzling hoax, and pretty elaborate rock vandalism, regardless. Who is correct?

–
Priceless, irretrievable, unexplored stone markings in Alberta have been intentionally destroyed by unknown criminals using methods employed by the Taliban to erase investigation of history. Vandals with power tools, acid, and apparent historical-genocide as motive, ruined a look into Canada’s ancient past. It’s an international disgrace, and for what? For what??

Parasites

Parasites are nasty things that take the lifeblood of other creatures, and escape to reproduce with it, leaving damage and disease in their wake.

There are wood ticks and deer ticks. How do they differ from Spillopec (Sinopec) and Pains Midstream Oil [Spill], and other Ethical Oil companies? The oil companies don’t spread Lyme Disease? The ticks aren’t owned by Communist China?

We’ve put energy companies in charge of national policy, and as a result they’ve evolved into parasites gorging themselves at the host’s expense and well being. Are energy companies an important part of any economy? Heck yeah. Should they be the force that drives Canada’s energy policy? Would you take directions from a wood tick?

I Spill, You Spill, We all Spill for Oil

The Canadian Press had a rather disappointing effort in presenting the true harm to the Red Deer area animal (and human) system. I know they’re short on time, so why not just publish the press releases from Midstream Oil Gusher Co. Ltd. instead of pretending like they’re journalists? After all, we know we can trust Midstream “officials” how?

Note the commenters like Ann Compton on CTV with paranoid delusions that the pipe was sabotaged underwater to coincide with an Alberta visit from the leader of the NDP. That’s about as insane as adding thousands (to hundreds of thousands by other estimates) of litres of oil to the main water supply of Red Deer, AB.

Despite the company’s optimistic tone, the Johnstons believe their health will be adversely affected if they return to live on the land they once called home.

“I believe my property is done, like this stuff is full of all kinds of toxins and carcinogens, how can my kids, my grandkids . . . how can we come back to this and live here and swim, fish and boat,” Gord Johnston said.

“Where are we going to be in five years? Are we even going to be alive if we stay? I highly don’t think so,” he said as oil-coated rushes behind him wavered in a breeze, but looked more like a row of automobile dipsticks.

He doesn’t know much about maintenance on the pipeline, but Johnston said he’s positive it had a similar problem a few years ago.

“We flew directly to the spot we figured it was and we could see it bubbling out of the Red Deer River,” he said.

Bonnie Johnston said she’s devastated by the spill and said it’s likely she and her husband are still in shock.

“I don’t think we’ve come to truly understand what this is going to do to us,” she said.

Gord Johnston said the company promised security for his property the night of the spill after they decided to leave, but that help never arrived.

Smart man. Too bad his home has been ruined in a way he’d be risking his life to return to.

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Here’s a fun trick by the Yes Men

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@DDickin No, Cons were accused of withholding information members needed to perform their duties. Big difference—
Grant Bowen (@bow_en_arrow) June 11, 2012

“My place is destroyed” – Albertan

Plains Midstream Canada, wow, what an ironic name given their midstream oil leak on the plains of Alberta. I hope Plains Midschool Canada, or Plains Midlake Canada don’t operate in Regina.

Gord Johnston grew up on the banks of the Red Deer River, at a place his family first settled in 1939. On Thursday evening, just before 7, he returned home to the nauseating smell of crude oil in the air.

Little more than an hour later he was in a helicopter, flying down one of Alberta’s principal waterways, where he saw a wide plume of oil flowing along the banks of a river that had already flooded its banks, running heavy with rainfed spring melt.

The oil, some 1,000 to 3,000 barrels of which spilled from a pipeline owned by Plains Midstream Canada, stretched nearly 10 kilometres up-river from Mr. Johnston’s 57 acres on the Red Deer River. As they flew in the helicopter, the source of the leak was obvious: “You could see it boiling up where the line crossing was,” Mr. Johnston said.

The oil was surging up into the river from below, where a pipeline owned by Plains Midstream Canada ran. That company, in an early press release, said the oil leaked into a creek leading into the river. Mr. Johnston saw differently. It was leaking from underneath the river itself.