Why are the Tar Sands the world's dirtiest energy source?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

This is why:

[blkmusclmachine]

1. ?!

?!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I don't understand your question...

What don't you get?

[riverbendviewgal]

3. Because the Harper administration does not believe in climate control

they believe in privatization and profit.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Even without the picture

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]

5. Oh, ABSOLUTELY!

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]

11. Exactly. It's not just that the water is used. It is turned into toxic waste.

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]

6. They boil rocks

to free up the oil.

[Overseas]

19. Sounds too pretty. Boil em by fracturing rock with gallons of toxic chemicals and then pump that

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]

20. That's fracking. Tar sand extraction is a lot worse.

[Overseas]

22. THANK YOU. I just realized that I'd ranted about fracking instead of the tar sands.

They really are ugly and I appreciate your showing the details.

[Jefferson23]

7. Important OP, thanks. snip*

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 gases—as Hansen and others do—then 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]

9. Thank you for the link.

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]

10. You're very welcome. We have so many up hill battles..it is frustrating as hell. n/t

[Ohio Joe]

8. K&R - nt

[Billy Love]

12. And a complete waste of finite resources...

Drink that shitty water too!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

14. You got that right!

Once that water is used for fracking, it can never be cleaned.

And when we're already facing water shortages.

[Billy Love]

16. Farmers needs to stop selling water to the frackers. That's the problem.

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]

18. Wow, I didn't know that. Thank you!

I think your ideas have a lot of merit.

Even Dem governors can be idiots on various topics.

[SylviaD]

13. Stephen Harper couldn't care less about the environment.

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]

15. I guess he hasn't realized that you can't drink money...

[Scuba]

17. Kick

[Overseas]

21. K&R. Tar sands should be a last resort not a quick buck venture.

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]

23. and 1 gallon of oil yields less than 1/2 a gallon of gasoline

So, in rough terms, one gallon of gasoline from that stuff requires ~7 gallons of fresh water be polluted.