Neil Young calls Fort McMurray oilsands 'a wasteland'

[taxslave]

Good point; I guess that I was stretching back in time when there were many professionals involved in the Clayquot Sound protests and that they would look towards some kind of reasonable hygiene... But then again, those folks are employed - probably have a slightly different standard than the balance of the Earth Rangers that are hell-bent on saving the world

Many of those professionals depended on the forest industry for their paycheques. Makes you wonder.

 

[petros]

roflmao



But it is for a good cause so it doesn't count. Was the power used to post it generated by bird killing windmills or fish killing hydro power?

Kootenay Power is fish killing hydro isn't it?

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

False dichotomy.

 

[petros]

An addadichtomy?

 

[#juan]

An addadichtomy?

Easy for you to say....:lol:

 

[Zipperfish]

How do you stop plants from uptaking the naturally occurring minerals in the at black shale and uranium from surface deposits and entering them into the food chain?

How do you catch a red herring? Increasing the surface area of black shale, and disturbance of that area will cause greater amounts of contaminants to reach surface water and groundwater through several different mechanisms. I think the industry does a pretty good job of containing what they can, but you're going to get tailings seepage to groundwater, and atmospheric deposition of dust etc. Sometimes refclamation works, sometimes it doesn't. Bit of a black art really. When it doesn't work, it's a problem because the cost of remediation is extremely high. That said, they have some of the best guys in the world working on the reclamation up there.

 

[Cobalt_Kid]

Allow Harper to take advantage of one of the largest single oil deposits in the world?

Did you really ask that question?

Considering that he needs to ignore reality then yes I do need to ask that question and as he's supposedly an elected leader of a democratic nation it's our right to not just ask him about his actions but to demand accountability. Which is what democracy is based on...and why Harper spends so much time running away from any real open and accountable government.

The TCPL West East pipeline will make a difference on that, at least in terms of the degree of discount for the grade of oil

It's still crap when compared to the alternatives, we could be investing in modern alternatives that provide essentially limitless energy for the future but instead we're investing billions in one of the most polluting sources of power imaginable. Like I said, this nightmare is some oil execs dream of how the world should be, not the wishes of a sane citizenry who would like an actual future for their children's children.

 

[captain morgan]

Considering that he needs to ignore reality then yes I do need to ask that question and as he's supposedly an elected leader of a democratic nation it's our right to not just ask him about his actions but to demand accountability. Which is what democracy is based on...and why Harper spends so much time running away from any real open and accountable government.

Ignores reality?... Please do explain

As far as accountability on this issue is concerned - I really don't understand the specific issue that exists (other than you demanding the gvt be uniquely accountable to you personally).

It's the same old story every time... A party gets elected with a majority (or minority) vote, and all those that didn't support that party moan endlessly about a perceived injustice and corruption of the democratic system.

Honestly, I can set my watch to it

It's still crap when compared to the alternatives, we could be investing in modern alternatives that provide essentially limitless energy for the future but instead we're investing billions in one of the most polluting sources of power imaginable. Like I said, this nightmare is some oil execs dream of how the world should be, not the wishes of a sane citizenry who would like an actual future for their children's children.

Alternatives like Solyndra or the thousands of subsidized windmills that have been decommissioned and are rusting away in the fields?

None of these 'alternatives' have proven reliable nor economically feasible, so until you table a reasonable alternative, we're stuck with what we know.

btw - I never get tired of the 'won't someone please think of the children' schtick... How do you expect them to live today when the only reliable power source available with the infrastructure in place is oil or coal?

 

[Cobalt_Kid]

Ignores reality?... Please do explain

As far as accountability on this issue is concerned - I really don't understand the specific issue that exists (other than you demanding the gvt be uniquely accountable to you personally).

It's the same old story every time... A party gets elected with a majority (or minority) vote, and all those that didn't support that party moan endlessly about a perceived injustice and corruption of the democratic system.

Honestly, I can set my watch to it

AHHHH*CLIMATE CHANGE*CHOOO

Old tricky Steve hasn't been busy pulling the hockey toque over our heads for the fun of it.

Most parties in this country haven't gotten into power by a complex campaign to avoid and neutralize the democratic traditions and laws of the nation, so it really isn't the same old story.

Alternatives like Solyndra or the thousands of subsidized windmills that have been decommissioned and are rusting away in the fields?

None of these 'alternatives' have proven reliable nor economically feasible, so until you table a reasonable alternative, we're stuck with what we know.

btw - I never get tired of the 'won't someone please think of the children' schtick... How do you expect them to live today when the only reliable power source available with the infrastructure in place is oil or coal?

Nuclear power can meet whatever needs we have indefinitely.

There was a safe, clean and efficient reactor design produced back in the 1960s that didn't get developed due to politics.

http://www.energyfromthorium.com/pdf/MSadventure.pdf

In 1972 ORNL proposed a major development
program that would culminate in the construction and
operation of a demonstration reactor called the Molten
Salt Breeder Experiment. The program was estimated
to cost a total of $350 million over a period of 11 yr.
However, those who would have had to approve such a
program were already heavily committed to the
LMFBR and guiding a very expensive development
program that would be spending about $400 million
each year by 1975. It was asking too much of human
nature to expect them to believe that a much less
expensive program could be effective in developing a
competing system, and the ORNL proposal was
rejected. In January 1973, ORNL was directed to
terminate MSR development work. For reasons I do
not understand, the program was reinstated a year later,
and in 1974 ORNL submitted a more elaborate
proposal with suitably inflated costs calling for about
$720 million to be spent over an 11-yr period. This last
proposal was also rejected, and in 1976 ORNL was
again ordered to shut down the MSR program “for
budgetary reasons.”

It can't melt down and we won't run out of fuel for thousands of years. $1 billion and 5 years would give us a basic design and Canada already has extensive experience with thorium in our CANDU reactors, something we've helped export to China as they rapidly develop thorium MSRs, the last I heard they were investing $2 billion a year and had 1,200 Phds working on an advanced model of the reactor.

So while we're selling off our energy future to the Chinese we're also allowing them a huge head start in the next generation of energy production.

Way to go SteveO! He's shutting down Canadian science, telling us there is no such thing as climate change and letting the Chinese effectively take over.

This was earlier in the year, like I said, they've stepped things up considerably on this.

China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium - Telegraph

Princeling Jiang Mianheng, son of former leader Jiang Zemin, is spearheading a project for China's National Academy of Sciences with a start-up budget of $350m.
He has already recruited 140 PhD scientists, working full-time on thorium power at the Shanghai Institute of Nuclear and Applied Physics. He will have 750 staff by 2015.
The aim is to break free of the archaic pressurized-water reactors fueled by uranium -- originally designed for US submarines in the 1950s -- opting instead for new generation of thorium reactors that produce far less toxic waste and cannot blow their top like Fukushima.
"China is the country to watch," said Baroness Bryony Worthington, head of the All-Parliamentary Group on Thorium Energy, who visited the Shanghai operations recently with a team from Britain's National Nuclear Laboratory.
"They are really going for it, and have talented researchers. This could lead to a massive break-through."

 

[taxslave]

AHHHH*CLIMATE CHANGE*CHOOO

Old tricky Steve hasn't been busy pulling the hockey toque over our heads for the fun of it.

Most parties in this country haven't gotten into power by a complex campaign to avoid and neutralize the democratic traditions and laws of the nation, so it really isn't the same old story.



Nuclear power can meet whatever needs we have indefinitely.

There was a safe, clean and efficient reactor design produced back in the 1960s that didn't get developed due to politics.

http://www.energyfromthorium.com/pdf/MSadventure.pdf



It can't melt down and we won't run out of fuel for thousands of years. $1 billion and 5 years would give us a basic design and Canada already has extensive experience with thorium in our CANDU reactors, something we've helped export to China as they rapidly develop thorium MSRs, the last I heard they were investing $2 billion a year and had 1,200 Phds working on an advanced model of the reactor.

So while we're selling off our energy future to the Chinese we're also allowing them a huge head start in the next generation of energy production.

Way to go SteveO! He's shutting down Canadian science, telling us there is no such thing as climate change and letting the Chinese effectively take over.

This was earlier in the year, like I said, they've stepped things up considerably on this.

China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium - Telegraph

And there you have it. The person that claims that fossil fuels is polluting is doing a dog and pony show for the most dangerous and polluting source of energy known to man.

 

[damngrumpy]

Everyone has an opinion that is all it is. So Neil is a celeb, who cares.
As for the oils sands yes its a mess and hopefully when finished the
powers that be will make them clean it up. In Europe its coal they dig
up and when finished they repair the mess they've made.
If so then there will be some redemption is not off to court with them

 

[JLM]

Everyone has an opinion that is all it is. So Neil is a celeb, who cares.
As for the oils sands yes its a mess and hopefully when finished the
powers that be will make them clean it up. In Europe its coal they dig
up and when finished they repair the mess they've made.
If so then there will be some redemption is not off to court with them

The post is perfectly clear..................up until the last sentence! ?????????

 

[captain morgan]

And there you have it. The person that claims that fossil fuels is polluting is doing a dog and pony show for the most dangerous and polluting source of energy known to man.

Remarkable isn't it?.. And Fukishima is the latest disaster that is presently sending nice little radio active waste to West coast shores.

Not a peep outta Suzuki or Clark - but lots of bile to vent about pipe lines... Too bad that she crapped the bed on that one.