Tag Archives: global warming

Perpetual economic growth is unsustainable

globeThere’s little doubt in my mind that the three-legged stool economic model is flawed and needs replacement. Setting economic concerns as a priority above the environment when the environment is the grounds for all is irrational and adopting this never-ending growth model has had catastrophic consequences.

It has led to our elected people becoming the marionettes of the corporate king makers who pull their strings. It has led to abuse of the environment that we all rely upon for survival and it has led to systemic abuse throughout or societies. It has led to a sense of entitlement that ought not to exist at all.

When I read this article in the Orion magazine I agree whole heartedly with Derrick Jensen’s observations and his conclusion.

I’M CONTINUALLY stunned by how many seemingly sane people believe you can have infinite economic growth on a finite planet. Perpetual economic growth and its cousin, limitless technological expansion, are beliefs so deeply held by so many in this culture that they often go entirely unquestioned. Even more disturbing is the fact that these beliefs are somehow seen as the ultimate definition of what it is to be human: perpetual economic growth and limitless technological expansion are what we do. — The Tyranny of Entitlement: A lesson in limits

It seems obvious to me that until we recognize that the crisis in the way we humans govern ourselves is due to viewing ourselves as being separate and apart from the environment that sustains all, no real changes will be made.

What’s your opinion?

Offshore drilling is bad news, and we should say so

Offshore oil production is a growth industry that has  produced numerous large-scale oil spills destroying  an immense amount habitat and devastating wildlife.  Clearly drilling is not the answer to any of our energy problems. It creates far fewer jobs than clean energy,  it won’t help us become energy independent,  and it definitely won’t help solve the climate change crisis.

This and what follows are what my visitors are discussing as we share our holiday together. Alberta supplies about 1.4m barrels of oil a day to the US, both from the oil sands and conventional wells. The oil sands, which contain the world’s biggest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia, are set to grow as several projects come on stream.

Offshore drilling is bad news, and we should say so.

The BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill demonstrates the consequences of offshore drilling can be devastating to the coastal communities that depend on fishing and tourism.  Approximately 640 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline is currently oiled:  100 miles in Florida, 362 miles in Louisiana, 108 miles in Mississippi and 70 miles in Alabama.  About 1.84 million gallons of total dispersant have been applied: 1.07 million on the surface and 771,000 subsea. More than 34.7 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.

As of July 28, although sporadic sightings of tar balls may continue, Florida’s shoreline is not expected to receive additional impacts over the next 72 hours. Observations by NOAA continue to indicate no significant amounts of oil moving toward the Loop Current.

Offshore drilling is bad news, and we should say so.

Early Tuesday a tugboat was pushing a dredge barge when the dredger hit a wellhead. Since then the wellhead has been spewing a mixture of oil, natural gas, and water into Barataria Bay in southeastern Louisiana. The resulting sheen covers more than six square miles.  Cedyco Corp. of Houston is responsible for the well abandoned in 2008, and the company has hired Wild Well to secure it. –  Read the full article.

EPA: Michigan oil spill may have exceeded 1M gallons

The Environmental Protection Agency says it believes more than a million gallons of oil may have leaked this week into a major southern Michigan waterway that leads to Lake Michigan.

On Monday July 26, 2010, a 30-inch pipeline in Marshall, Mich. belonging to Enbridge Inc. burst. EPA estimates over 1 million gallons of crude oil spilled into Talmadge Creek, a waterway which feeds into the Kalamazoo River.

The site currently includes a 25-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River, which is at higher than average levels due to heavy rainfalls. The site area lies between Marshall and Battle Creek and includes marshlands, residential areas, farmland, and businesses. — Source

Offshore drilling is bad news, and we should say so.

The B.C. government has been lobbing to get Ottawa to lift the offshore drilling and tanker moratoriums for years.   British Columbians are rightly concerned as oil share oil drilling destroys more habitat than the province’s forest companies do.

On June 26 during events on English Bay, in Victoria, in Kelowna, and on Hornby Island and on beaches across B.C.  gathered to oppose offshore drilling in non-political Hands Across the Sand rallies that began in Florida. “There is a message for people to wake up and see the damage that is being done and to say ‘no,’” said Renee Lindstrom, an organizer.

Offshore drilling is bad news, and we should say so.

The moratorium on offshore oil development in B.C. won’t be lifted any time soon, especially in the wake of the environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, according to federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice. Read the full article.

Federal ban on offshore drilling, oil tankers not legally binding

The Harper government has quietly affirmed that it isn’t legally bound to maintain a moratorium on oil drilling off the coast of British Columbia.

The government has also determined that the ban doesn’t apply to oil-tanker traffic, despite the widely held view that such vessels are prohibited from plying the waters along B.C.’s northern coast.  — Read the full article

Ignatieff supports oil tanker ban off B.C. coast

The federal Liberals want to ban oil supertankers from British Columbia’s northwestern coast, a promise that would halt the building of a proposed $5.5-billion oil sands pipeline from Alberta through northern B.C.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s announcement that a future Liberal government would legislate a ban on the tankers pits his party against one of Canada’s largest companies, Enbridge Inc. — Read the full article

Tankers in Georgia Strait- the risk is growing

Here in the Strait, an increase in tankers taking crude from the oil sands out through Burrard Inlet means our waters are more at risk from a catastrophic oil spill than ever before. The decision to increase tanker traffic was made without any public consultation and the question has to be asked: are we ready?  The answer is – no we’re not.  Read more about the issue.

Offshore drilling is bad news, and we should say so.

Rethinking and reducing oil dependency

My husband and I awoke to the news that BP Plc is preparing for a key procedure to replace the containment cap over its blown-out Macondo well, which could temporarily cause more oil to gush into the Gulf of Mexico.  This provoked a long and thoughtful discussion about global warming and what additional steps we can take to reduce out own dependency on oil.

Richard has published two though provoking articles  in response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and  NASA photos depicting the effects of global warming around the globe. The first is titled Our addiction to oil: The cost in pictures and the second is titled Oil slick around Mississippi barrier islands. They provided much food for thought and evoked distress about how little governments, including our own Canadian government, are doing to address the issues and stop subsidizing the oil and gas industry.

exxon valdez aerial imageThe need to kick our addiction to fossil fuels as soon as possible is before us and “in our faces” so to speak. But is it possible to energize people the world over to embrace the green energy changes be made, without evoking the fear that arises from accidents like the Exxon Valdez and now the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

Images are so powerful and can become motivators for change.  When my husband and I viewed the images by AP Photographer Charlie Riedel of seabirds caught in the oil slick on a beach on Louisiana’s East Grand Terre Island we were heartsick.

As BP engineers began their efforts to cap the underwater flow of oil, we feared our federal  government, which is in bed with big business, might lift the moratorium and allow off shore oil drilling permits do even more tankers would be transporting oil up and down the Canadian coastline and increasing the risk of blow outs and spills.   But on May 21st, 2010 Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice said that the moratorium on offshore oil development in B.C. won’t be lifted any time soon, especially in the wake of the environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico  B.C. offshore drilling moratorium stays: Prentice

The National Wildlife Federation has also released a powerful video titled Crude Awakening: BP Oil Spill/NWF Spec PSA. It was made as an unsolicited donation to the organization and drives home the impact of the BP oil spill on wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico by depicting a young woman’s perfect world consumed by oil.

oil covered girl in ocean Chicago-based Jane Fulton photographed more than a dozen people drenched in an oil-like substance while standing on local beaches. “When I started to photograph, people would come up and ask if they could be involved,” she said. “The pictures just flowed.” Fulton worked temporarily as a clinical social worker in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and says she can’t forget the wrenching photographs of oil-drenched birds.  Crude Awakening (15 photos)

I believe it’s reasonable to expect our governments to ensure that industry complies with the laws of our land and to strengthen them.  I believe we must insist regulatory oversight be put into place to protect the environment and must be stringently enforced.  I believe maintaining oil as a energy resource and relying on oil based economies only serves to keep some people rich at the cost of the environment and the future ability of our beautiful planet to meet the needs of its inhabitants.

We must rid ourselves of the faulty economic model referred to as the three legged stool and the governance model founded upon it. The environment is grounds for all and without it we have nothing.

The fact that our western culture has placed a higher priority on economic growth than it does on environmental health can explain much of the present deteriorating state in which we find the environment and thus ourselves.

Will we ever understand our place on this planet and choose to live within the limits set by the biosphere? Perhaps, but not by using the “three legs of the stool” as a model for sustainable development. Why? Because it continues to place us [humans and our activities] outside those limits. And while we may be able to think outside the limits, we cannot live outside the limits. — Neil K. Dawe & Kenneth L. Ryan in The Faulty Three-Legged-Stool Model of Sustainable Development (PDF)

Motivated by the images the reality of the risks,and failures and our fear of worse yet to come, we must all live up to our personal responsibility to reduce our oil dependency in every way that we can.  In this regard,  Sandra Lee recently published an informative article titled Reducing your oil use saying, in part:

In the wake of recent disasters you too may be reconsidering the wisdom of an oil-based lifestyle.  Petroleum derived products are all pervasive in our culture.  To help you out, I’ve compiled a short list of ways to reduce oil dependence.  Since you’ve probably already taken the most obvious steps, they are last on the list.   Suggestions for digging deeper and fine-tuning are included first.

After a careful reading and re-reading of her article, I recognized that despite the many changes my husband and I have still have more changes to make.

Tragic events like the Exxon Valdez and the BP oil spill make it clear that it’s time for our governments and their oil and gas industry puppet masters to stop tinkering with energy policies, destroying the environment we all depend upon for survival and change our energy strategy – now.

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Reality Check on Global Warming

Please read this early post of mine Global Warming: A hoax or a reality? as it describes how discouraged I was when I decided to delete my very successful environmental blog.  After over a year of putting up with the asinine and unfounded, specious and fallacious comments of climate change deniers I threw in the towel.

An overwhelming majority of the world’s climate scientists agree that the globe is warming – the world’s climate is changing – and that the indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels is to blame.    Continue reading →