So, don't worry so much about the bush north of Edmonton if you are not equally outraged about urban sprawl and all its costs as well. I know which one I am more concerned about
RE Canada, the USA and N. America. Umm, yes, Canada is a sovereign country and we are pretty proud of it. No, we don't need Americans telling us what to do. Get used to it.
well I'm glad you are walking the talk....unfortunately you are one amoungst several million who don't.... Pointing fingers at the nasty oil and gas companies at the same time as complaining about gasoline prices is an all too common practice.
If you think the world can suddenly go to subsistent farming then you've been consuming some of the pointy mushrooms a bit too often.
(and no they don't leave huge polluted holes in the ground anymore).
this paragraph is mischaracterization, oversimplification, and just rhetorical noise.
On the other had, telling them they can cointinue with this charade if they let the ANWR drilling go, or the tar sands ventures, or any other polluting money grab, and that the real problem is the foney baloney environmentalists "making a killing" on their research grants and their fancy science jobs. well, that is hypocritical.
the answer does not lie in further extraction. we need to deal with this dilemma now - even though it is going to hurt
if this is true, and such grand cozy statements rarely are... it is very good evidence that the pressures from environmentalists are very necessary, and that the need to be encouraged and continued.
i know of several big defunct copper mines in new mexico that are staying open with a skeleton crew so they will never have to pay for that reclaimation... and meanwhile the water table is being poisoned in the area. there are so many ways to claim to be clean by definition. and some damage you can't see in picutures.
can you speak to the drought that Alberta has been facing for the past few years? Waht effect has this been having on all that wonderful farm land?
fossilnut2 wrote:One quote got me. Ha! Ha!
From an American, of course:
"Maybe I'm not a citizen of Canada, but I am a citizen of the Northern Hemisphere. So it's my world too, eh? "
The typical American view. 'what's mine is mine but what's yours is ours.'
I hope all the folks in California, NYC and 'wherever' are knocking down their malls, schools, roads, etc. and turning it back into natural ecosystems. Hopefully none of them drink wine from California or eat bread made of grains from the Midwest or walk on wood floors from Georgia forests. All environments destroyed yet well within the American ability to restore...but they choose not to.
As of this writing, the weather station has recorded 312 mm (12.3 inches) of rain this month. This compares to 99 mm (3.9 inches) for the long-term average, and 480 mm (19 inches) for the average yearly rainfall. This means that the June rainfall to date (most of which fell in the space of 3 weeks) amounts to two-thirds of the average precipitation for an entire year! No wonder Alberta is reeling from severe flooding and bloated streams!
fossilnut2 wrote:Heineken wrote:Americans used to believe their wild lands and natural resources were unlimited too, fossilnut. The sad fact is, it can all go very quickly. Also, damage to ecosystems isn't always apparent to the untrained eye on a country drive or hike.
That has nothing to do with hysteria.
'Untrained eye'? that's so patronizing. We're not bumpkins up here. Albertans are the best educated population in the western world. More post-secondary educated adults than anywhere else. We value our ecosystems and take great measures to preserve it. My city, Calgary, has 2 of the 3 largest wilderness areas (not just 'parks') within an urban setting in North America.
Have you been to the tarsands? Drive north to Fort McMurray and then, once your there, drive further north, east or west. You'll drive a hundred miles without reaching the next gas station...in some directions you'll never reach one, period.
Go back to the original post. What's the purpose? 11 sq miles? Hysteria without any perspective or reality check. Reminds me of the recent post about 'is Mt Everest sinking' because of oil extraction....or the one showing Niagra Falls and getting all googly-eyed because someone has no perspective of volumes of liquid and the size of the Earth.
I would like to point out that even a record month of rain isn't enough to keep a crop growing properly all growing season long. A farmers perspective is probably a lot different.
Perhaps you should ask FossilNut who appears to actually live on a farm in northern Alberta
“People are less willing to accept the pronouncements of industry and government that everything is okay. Anyone who lives in rural Alberta knows things are not okay.”
— Martha Kostuch, veterinarian and long-time environmental activist
Wiebo Ludwig might be the most prominent and outspoken farmer in Alberta when it comes to the issue of sour gas and the alleged negative environmental impact, but he is by no means alone in his crusade. As you read the following cases, note the similarities between Ludwig’s concerns and those of the other farmers, below. If you were an oil company executive or a government official how would you react to these situations?
Wayne and Ida Johnston, Sundre, Alberta
The Johnstons run a small beef farm just outside Sundre, Alberta. The farm is surrounded by more than a dozen flaring gas wells and several gas plants owned and operated by Shell Oil. In 1994, at the beginning of the calving season, a nearby pipeline carrying sour gas started to leak. Shortly after, the Johnstons lost 26 calves to irritated lungs and hypothermia. Many of the calves’ hooves just fell off, and many of the cows lost their appetites and their hair. The Alberta Research Council found that the animals showed signs of neurological damage “compatible with exposure to assorted hydrocarbons in other species. . . . No consistent pattern of disease could explain the high death losses observed in calves on the ranches.” A study by Shell, one that did not include autopsies of the animals, suggested that the cold weather was responsible for their deaths.
Joan Fossom, Cadogen, Alberta
Joan Fossom runs a cow-calf operation with her husband just outside Cadogen, Alberta. She has been fighting with an oil company for almost a year, trying to get them to clean up an oil spill that is threatening the family’s drinking water. She is frustrated that neither the government nor the small oil company responsible for the spill has come to clean up the mess. Although she doesn’t agree with the tactics of environmental terrorists, she does understand their anger. “We need an organization that will take oil companies by the shirt collar and say, ‘Clean this up.’ Do we have to force our own government to protect the environment?”
Cy Skinner, Provost, Alberta
In 1993, Cy Skinner went to the Energy and Utility Board (EUB) to prove that gas leaks near his dairy farm had been responsible for the death of some of his cattle and had reduced milk production by 35 per cent. Although he was successful with his suit, the whole process cost him $200 000. The oil company involved cleaned up the gas leak but has not reimbursed him for any of the costs associated with the suit, the lost cattle, or his reduced milk production.
Bill and John Bobock, Edmonton, Alberta
By all accounts, brothers Bill and John Bobock are ideal farmers. They have received awards for their treatment of animals and have a reputation with farm hands as being great employers. Their farm just north of Edmonton has been in the family for three generations and is said to be exceptionally well-run. In 1991, after a well just south of their property flared up, they started to notice that their dairy cows were starting to abort. Other cows were giving birth to twin calves at an alarming rate. This is bad news for a dairy farmer since female twin calves are almost always sterile. By 1993, 32 cows had to be replaced. Although the health of the cows is a major worry for the brothers, it does not compare to the human costs. Bill’s wife, Phyllis, was just diagnosed with a low-grade lymphoma.
Wayne Roberts, Bowden, Alberta
In October 1998, Wayne Roberts, a rancher near Bowden, was charged with killing Patrick Kent, a Calgary oil executive. Roberts had been embroiled in a two-year dispute with Kent’s company, KB Resources, over a contaminated well site situated on Roberts’ ranch. Kent was shot when he came onto Roberts’ land to inspect the contaminated well. Roberts, who did not have a criminal record at the time, was charged with first-degree murder. A dozen Alberta farmers set up a defence fund for Roberts, which could be an indication of just how much sympathy other farmers feeling for his predicament
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