Thursday, January 08, 2009

Tar Sands Dead? The Upside Of Economic Collapse

So Says Gwyn Dyer:



A bit of wishful thinking Dyer's part, I think. What will kill the tar-sands is under-40$-a-barrel oil.

In fact the current economic collapse is having all sorts of salutary effects on carbon emissions. Get a load of this graph of Chinese power generation.

Remember, for every three starving peons you can save a polar bear.

6 comments:

Ti-Guy said...

I'd better comment quick, before one of the stupid trolls starts fog-horning about "the Goreacle" or farting about "Warm-mongers."

...uh, well-said, BCL!

Actually, I really don't believe the Americans are quite ready yet to give up their oil addiction.

Sean S. said...

Actually, <$40 would kill the tarsands quicker than >$40, unless that was a typo on your part.

As long as there is an accessible (I'm discounting the environmental costs here) source of oil on friendly soil our governments will find a way to get it on the market.

Now you could use the Alaska Preserve as an example of extractable oil being put out of play by politicians, but I would counter that the tar sands have already been exploited making it easier to continue their exploitation.

Do you have a link to the Obama document you make reference to?

bigcitylib said...

Thanks. Fixed.

I think the proposal was from Harper to Obama and not vice versa, and the "he" in the sentence refers to Harper. I wrote about that briefly here

http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com/2008/11/obamas-election-pays-off-immediately.html#links

...but I don't think the original globe story is accessible.

Frank said...

Gwyn Dyer? About what I would expect from someone who hasn't lived in this country for decades, and hasn't bought a new bomber jacket in about as long.

New sands project are not economic at under $40, but the existing ones certainly are, they were profitable at $20.

If the US doesn't want the stuff the Chinese and Indians will snap it up. Rumors abound that Syncrude or Suncor are on someones shopping list. There were plans a few years ago for a pipeline from Ft Mac to the coast, watch for that to get dusted off.

As for Obama, he and the dems quickly moved off the ban on offshore drilling once the polls told them most voters supported offshore drilling. Four dollar gasoline has a way of changing politicians minds.

Unknown said...

Gwyn Dyer? Sheesh. What next, George Monbiot??

The oil sands can roll along at $10 a barrel for a long time. I'd be far more worried about the future of Chrysler, Ford and GM in Canada then the oil sands.

Ti-Guy said...

BCL, just how did you manage to pick up the stalker Paul S.? Was it from Desmogblog?