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High loonie causing harm says Mulcair

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Fidel
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Joined: Apr 29 2004
May 10, 2012 - 8:09pm
#91

Boom Boom wrote:

If I read this article on the NDP website correctly, the NDP is calling for more refinery capacity here in Canada:

 

NDP releases dissenting report on pipelines and refining capacity

 

I think so. But the Exxon-Imperialists and the rest of the fossil fuel industry probably don't want many more refineries anywhere in North America. Not if building more refineries increases supply of value-added products, like gasoline etc. Multinationals want to maintain their right to monopolize and gouge us every step of the way. These Reform Party retreads couldn't run a lemonade stand without screwing it up. They are poor business planners themselves, and that's exactly what Canadians are supposed to think about government in general. Essentially we pay them to do a poor job of things and give federal governments a bad name.


Boom Boom
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Joined: Dec 29 2004
May 10, 2012 - 8:21pm
#92

If the NDP forms government in 2015 or 2016, will they be able to have refineries built here instead of shipping away raw bitumen?

 

(IIRC, we've had this debate many times before Embarassed )

 


JeffWells
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Joined: Dec 15 2003
May 10, 2012 - 10:01pm
#93

Has everyone seen this, from yesterday's New York Times? Because every Canadian needs to. Especially the ones who believe the NDP are going too hard on the tar sands. (Oops, I mean oi- no; I mean tar sands.)


Quote:
Game Over for the Climate

By JAMES HANSEN

Published: May 9, 2012

GLOBAL warming isn’t a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so troubled to read a recent interview with President Obamain Rolling Stone in which he said that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves “regardless of what we do.”

If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.

Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk.

...

James Hansen directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and is the author of “Storms of My Grandchildren.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/opinion/game-over-for-the-climate.html...


Boom Boom
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Joined: Dec 29 2004
May 10, 2012 - 10:16pm
#94

Good article, Jeff.

 


6079_Smith_W
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Joined: Jun 10 2010
May 10, 2012 - 11:38pm
#95

Harper may soon regret his attack on environmental group funding.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/05/10/pol-forest-ethics-advoc...


Boom Boom
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Joined: Dec 29 2004
May 11, 2012 - 12:05am
#96

Hansen is NASA's top climatologist and he has more information available to him than you or I will ever see or know. So if he says the tar sands are that bad, I tend to believe him.

Another article of interest about Hansen.


Boom Boom
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Joined: Dec 29 2004
May 10, 2012 - 11:49pm
#97

Rex Murphy continues to be a prick, totally misunderstanding Mulcair tonight.


6079_Smith_W
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Joined: Jun 10 2010
May 11, 2012 - 1:03am
#98

Boom Boom wrote:

Rex Murphy continues to be a prick, totally misunderstanding Mulcair tonight.

He talked a lot of nonsense, but said one thing that it correct. Mulcair needs to come and spend a bit of time out here , expecially if this is going to be a major issue for him.

 


Boom Boom
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Joined: Dec 29 2004
May 11, 2012 - 12:39pm
#99

6079_Smith_W wrote:

He talked a lot of nonsense, but said one thing that it correct. Mulcair needs to come and spend a bit of time out here , expecially if this is going to be a major issue for him.

Yes, understood - but it's not as if Mulcair hasn't been out there already.


KenS
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Joined: Aug 6 2001
May 11, 2012 - 12:57pm
#100

The occasional visit is not on.

Even more frequency would not in itself do the trick.

Its a matter of focus. It is going to take APPLICATION, and smart application, for this to fly as much as we need in the West. And everyone can say they will. But it has to HAPPEN, in the context of the laundry list of demands.

We're down this road now. [And would have been forced down it anyway, not at least in a time and manner of our choosing.] Once having chosen to go down it, the work has to be done. Anybody can plant banners and draw lines in the sand.


6079_Smith_W
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Joined: Jun 10 2010
May 11, 2012 - 12:58pm
#101

Has he?  And has he been to Fort McMurray? 

Honestly, I can't say for sure, so I apologize if I am mistaken, but I do not remember him coming here to Saskatoon during the leadership run. 


Boom Boom
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Joined: Dec 29 2004
May 11, 2012 - 1:03pm
#102

Oops - I may have gotten Mulcair's visit to Alberta mixed up with that by Jack Layton. I honestly don't know if Mulcair has been to Fort McMurray or not. Regardless, one doesn't need to visit the tar sands to know they're bad for the climate - and the economy. Wink


NorthReport
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Joined: Jul 6 2008
May 11, 2012 - 1:09pm
#103

Thanks Jeff

Some folks don't think dinasaurs existed either.

JeffWells wrote:

Has everyone seen this, from yesterday's New York Times? Because every Canadian needs to. Especially the ones who believe the NDP are going too hard on the tar sands. (Oops, I mean oi- no; I mean tar sands.)


Quote:
Game Over for the Climate

By JAMES HANSEN

 

Published: May 9, 2012

GLOBAL warming isn’t a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so troubled to read a recent interview with President Obamain Rolling Stone in which he said that Canada would exploit the oil in its vast tar sands reserves “regardless of what we do.”

If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate.

Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk.

...

James Hansen directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and is the author of “Storms of My Grandchildren.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/opinion/game-over-for-the-climate.html...


6079_Smith_W
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Joined: Jun 10 2010
May 11, 2012 - 1:32pm
#104

@ Boom Boom,

I am also not saying that he has no right to speak, and personally, I think his comments on this issue were far more measured than what they have been twisted into. 

But I do recall him not being as available or as engaged as other candidates  during the leadership run, at least insofar as it involved coming here to the prairies.

 


kropotkin1951
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Joined: Jun 6 2002
May 11, 2012 - 2:41pm
#105

He might want to do a tour that includes Lloydminster and Fort McMurray.  He should then travel the two proposed pipeline routes to get a feel for the communities that will be affected.

Then he will be able to have an informed view of the issues involved in the tar sands.  He needs to be at least as brave as Peter Lougheed in calling for a dramatic reduction in the pace of development and for higher revenues going into the government coffers.


Boom Boom
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Joined: Dec 29 2004
May 11, 2012 - 2:51pm
#106

I can't find any specific regarding Mulcair's travels in the past year or so other than this:

 

He (Mulcair) has crossed the country five times during the leadership race, seeking votes of NDP members.

But I totally agree - it'd be great for Mulcair to have an extended visit through all of Alberta and Saskatchewan.


Rebecca West
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Joined: Nov 28 2001
May 11, 2012 - 3:01pm
#107

CFL


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