General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy are the Tar Sands the world's dirtiest energy source?
This is why:blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)?!
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,699 posts)What don't you get?
riverbendviewgal
(4,253 posts)they believe in privatization and profit.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)I'd have replied that tar sands fuck water. Its not just how much water is used : its what it does to the water in the process.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,699 posts)The water can never be cleaned of the chemicals used to blast the stuff out of the ground.
NEVER.
And that is completely unacceptable.
And this doesn't even begin to touch on the dangers of transporting the crap.
SunSeeker
(51,694 posts)So for each gallon of tar sands oil, 3 gallons of toxic waste is created, if you don't count the oil itself as a toxin...which is a whole 'nother post.
pscot
(21,024 posts)to free up the oil.
Overseas
(12,121 posts)waste back into the ground which has been fractured and gee whiz, sometimes those toxic chemicals leak into groundwater and poison people even though the gas industry is trying to hush that little problem up and make us think poisoning a few thousand people is worth it for lovely clean natural gas.
pscot
(21,024 posts)Overseas
(12,121 posts)They really are ugly and I appreciate your showing the details.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)The trillion-tonne question
To begin to estimate how much fossil fuels can be burned, one has to begin with a guess about how sensitive the global climate really is to additional carbon dioxide. If you think the climate is vulnerable to even small changes in concentrations of greenhouse gasesas Hansen and others dothen we have already gone too far. Global concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached 394 parts per million, up from 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution and the highest levels seen in at least 800,000 years. Hansen's math suggests 350 ppm would be a safer level, given that with less than a degree Celsius of warming from present greenhouse gas concentrations, the world is already losing ice at an alarming rate, among other faster-than-expected climate changes.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tar-sands-and-keystone-xl-pipeline-impact-on-global-warming
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,699 posts)It's always good to have solid scientific evidence along with the sensational stuff to get people's attention.
I have true fears for the future of our planet.
Not enough folks in positions of power and influence are listening...
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Ohio Joe
(21,761 posts)Billy Love
(117 posts)Drink that shitty water too!
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,699 posts)Once that water is used for fracking, it can never be cleaned.
And when we're already facing water shortages.
Billy Love
(117 posts)Farmers should be banned from selling water to oil & gas companies, and tell the oil & gas industry to import water from the ocean, and the expel it up their rear end.
My governor is an idiot, and a Democrat. We call him Frackenlooper for a reason.
I'm going to write a letter telling him to put the fracked water in his beer and try SELLING that to the public.
John Hickenlooper owns and operates the Wynkoop Brewery Company - right now in a blind trust while he's a governor
If the farmers need money, we can put aside major bucks to help subsidize their flagging crops as long as they refuse to sell their water to the frackers.
One of the Colorado's rep's vacation home was fracked - and he got PISSED and opened an investigation - found out the well was an illegal one and had it shut down, but is looking for repartitions, but I am hoping Polis will learn this lesson and introduce a bill banning fracking for good.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,699 posts)I think your ideas have a lot of merit.
Even Dem governors can be idiots on various topics.
SylviaD
(721 posts)From what I've read he is an arch-conservative who instigated a takeover of the traditional Canadian Conservative party - from the right-wing fringe party he used to lead.
So this character, Harper, an enemy of Canadian Conservatism because it wasn't right-wing enough for him, is now leading the country. He probably sings "drill baby drill" in the shower. What does he care about fresh water or the dangers of refining bitumen? So long as the oil profits continue to flow north!!!
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,699 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)Overseas
(12,121 posts)These are even dirtier than our current petroleum drilling projects which are still too messy and wasteful.
Tar sands should be second to last resort. AFTER we have tried to economize and use existing oil much more efficiently.
Fracking is so very destructive it should be a last resort, not a rush project like it has been.
We should have already tried every bit of waste reduction technology and energy conservation technology we have before we take one step toward fracturing the shale under our country and in the oceans.
We should have tried to increase the efficiency of our use of regular petroleum and poured a trillion into alternative energy before we even begin with fracking to get natural gas.
It just isn't right that we waste so much of the old fossil fuels before we go disfiguring our land and using up our precious water to keep our wasteful lifestyle going.
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)So, in rough terms, one gallon of gasoline from that stuff requires ~7 gallons of fresh water be polluted.