A FEW THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

       This past year I think many people have begun to take climate change seriously. Things have happened that are making a big impact on our daily lives. 

      My neighbor province of British Columbia , Canada, has suffered this year. You know , the beautiful province with mountain scenery and forests.  This summer they had major forest fires for most of the summer. Homes and businesses were  lost. High temperature records were made. I live in the province to the west , Alberta, and we had heavy smoke for a good part of the summer. 

       This winter British Columbia has had torrential rain and major flooding. The major highway was washed out in many places. The two railroads were also damaged. 

      This is one place and it had some very obvious changes and they don't want any more. 

       Just this year we had a major conference on climate change. You know, the conferences that do nothing! Plans and promises are made but nothing happens to control warming. Most of these plans involve the big guys. Big business. Big industry. Big government. They all look after themselves to make it look like they are doing something when all the time they are creating more schemes to line their pockets. Carbon tax? Carbon trading? These are games to funnel money around.

     Individuals have to do their part. Maybe that will bring about change. One thing I would like to suggest is that we have rationing. Let's say rationing on gasoline. Rations that would influence enough so that people would have to drive less and drive smaller cars. At times my neighbor across the street has five vehicles. Two of them are large trucks. This guy drives to Tim Hortons to get a coffee. He makes a special trip to the store for smokes. If we had rationing this guy wouldn't be able to get gas to drive those vehicles. 

    So it's just an idea I throw out . We have to get on climate change sooner than later. 

CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE

        For the next ten days most world leaders will put in an appearance at the climate change conference in Glasgow. Glasgow business men will be gleefully wringing their hands as about 10000 people will be attending the conference. 

       However , the rest of the world should be wringing their hands in grief as this conference will probably be like all the other climate conferences. Country after country will tell the world how much they will do  toward control of climate change. The heads of state will go home and do little or nothing of what they promised. 

       Our government , Canada, has done very little to bring about any changes. Our provincial governments scrap with each other and the federal government. How will they ever come up with some practical ways of dealing with climate change? We do have a carbon tax that will be increasing. I'm not sure that a carbon tax will do much in controlling emissions. 

     We do have the Athabasca tar sands which is a heavy producer of carbon. Oil companies have great PR staff and make us think that they are doing much that will begin bringing down carbon. 

     To me it's obvious. Climate change has already gone too far. A very major change in our behavior has to take place right now . Climate change is in gear and it won't stop on a dime. Change will keep taking place long after carbon has been limited .

    I've spent much of my time outdoors. I love the outdoors and all the flora and fauna out there. I can notice changes. Well you don't have to be outside to recognize changes. We all know when it's too hot! We know when it's too wet! We know when it's too cold! By "too" I mean much more than normal. 

     What we're talking about are human activities that  produce carbon. All of us have to make major changes. In Alberta, where I live , there are many huge pick up trucks being driven around for fun. That and many other unnecessary activities have to stop. 

     I believe that man made climate change started long before we knew . Only recently have we had the technology to test and measure changes. 

     I'm not hopeful for results from this conference. Climate change has already gone too far. 

CLIMATE CHANGE

      The climate change issue has been on my mind for a long time.

      In this province, Alberta, a carbon tax has just come in on Jan . 1.

      Now the climate change goes off in many directions. Some people deny that there is climate change caused by the activities of man. What really gets me is people who talk about believing in climate change. You can believe in ghosts or fairies but when it comes to climate changes it's there. It can be measured and felt.

     Two stories stick in my mind when it comes to climate change. They are both northern in origin.



     When I taught in Inuvik, we had some students from Sach's Harbor which is on the southwest corner of Banks island. When we flew across the Beaufort to take these kids home in mid June we found open water for 2 or 3 miles along the coast of the Beaufort. This quickly changed to ice and then solid ice.

     Now in the 1930's the Sach's Harbor people had a 60 foot boat. Their nearest trading post was Aklavik in the Mackenzie Delta. Once a year they would make the trip by sea. Follow the map. They would first sail east along the south shore of Banks Island (which is the 5 th largest island in Canada). Sometimes the ice was caught at Cape Lambton which is the bulge on the bottom of Banks Island. They would wait. The ice usually cleared but sometimes they could not get through and would go back to Sach's Harbor and wait and try again next year. Anyway some years they would cross the Beaufort at Cape Lambton to the mainland near Paulatuk.. They would then sail about 500 km west to the Mackenzie Delta and Aklavik. Some years they went further east and found open water close to Victoria island. They usually got to Aklavik in August and then had to go back. Sometimes they couldn't get back and stayed on the mainland for the winter.

    What I'm trying to tell you is that in the 1930's there was lots of ice and it was difficult to get to Sach's Harbor by sea.

    Now there's lots of open water. They can always cross at Cape Lambton. Today they cross that stretch of water in speed boats that carry lots of gas.

    So there has been a major melt of the ice.


    Now I taught in Northern Quebec at Kangiqsujuaq. It's a barren area. The biggest trees were knee high but usually ankle height. They were spruce, birch and willow. We had lots of blue berries but the plants were only 2 or 3 in high. It was a bleak area but beautiful. Now you see photos of the village and there are large spruce trees. In the 1960's the maximum height of trees was 10 to 15 in. Now they have 20 ft trees. WHY? The temperature has warmed up and larger trees can grow.

     So climate change is with us and we have to take action before disaster strikes in some areas. We may debate about how to deal with climate change , but we have to deal with it in a very realistic way.

Politicians and Oil Companies Don't Get It

      I live in Alberta, Canada. We have the Athabasca tar sands which covers an area almost the size of the state of Florida , U.S.A.

     Some of  the bitumen produced by the tar sands is processed in Canada and some in the US. When we sell our bitumen to the US we don't get world prices. Therefore the Canadian Govt. the Alberta Govt. and big oil companies are lobbying for pipelines. One pipeline that has receive much publicity is the Key Stone XL pipeline which would take bitumen to Texas refineries.

    The approval for this pipeline has been held up for 6 years by various groups opposed to the pipeline.

    Now the Canadian Govt., Alberta govt. and big oil companies are their own worst enemy in this project.

    The present operations cover 715 sq km. It is the ugliest project on the face of the earth. Forests, waterways... everything is destroyed in the path of these mines. Gigantic plants are extracting the bitumen from the tar sands. There are major tailings ponds that contain all the water and chemicals used to extract the bitumen from the tar sands. The tailings ponds are disasters waiting to happen. Now if this doesn't register major environmental damage and climate change then I don't know what climate change is.

    Now the three groups I've mentioned just don't get why there's opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline or at least they say they don't understand. They have done a great job of stone walling and playing fast and loose with the numbers trying to show that the tar sands operations do not contribute huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Now if they were honest and presented a realistic case they may get a pipeline. They just don't realize that the rest of the world sees through their lies. When will they ever get it?

   Each company that starts a tar sands operation has to establish a fund for reclamation of the mines. (open pit) These funds are really quite small. There are promises made to reclaim the land. So far nothing has happened except a demonstration project of around 50 acre.

   The world looks at these open pit mines with horror.

    Alberta has a very dismal record of reclamation of oil wells that are finished producing. In many cases the wells are sold to smaller and smaller companies until somebody walks away and abandons the well. The last company to own the well has nothing that the government can have to pay for reclaiming the well. The Alberta government then has to reclaim the well. 

  Now I know this is a very incomplete description of the tar sands operation but I hope that I've given you an idea of how monstrous the project is and that it's far from environmentally suitable.