CLIMATE/FORESTS ALERT: Urge President Obama to Say No to Filthy Canadian Tar Sands

[Naked Gents Rut]

I should've figured you'd know how much oil lies in unexplored U.S. coastal regions. Your dad is in the oil business, right?

At any rate, any person who claims to want to wean the United States off Middle-Eastern oil but doesn't support both reducing demand via increased efficiency and conservation and increasing supply via increased exploitation of domestic oil sources is fundamentally unserious.

[The Mad Monk]

Realistically speaking, America's off-shore oil would do somewhere between "absolutely nothing" and "jack ****" to America's usage of middle-eastern Oil.

Quiet, you filthy Canadian!

[Elok]

Given that China, India et al are inevitably going to more than pick up the slack for any attempts at carbon reduction we make, I see no point in crippling our industry. Not that we shouldn't be pushing alternative energy, since the fossil fuels are going to run out someday--and those have the obnoxious habit of being located mostly in bass-ackwards, violent little hellholes.

We're all doomed, there's jack squat we can do about it...let's all have a drink! Or two, or twelve!

[notyoueither]

since the fossil fuels are going to run out someday--and those have the obnoxious habit of being located mostly in bass-ackwards, violent little hellholes.

There's more to Alberta than Calgary.

[The Mad Monk]

Oh joY! They have sent a further rallying call!

Dear colleagues,
The press release and alert regarding Canada's Tar Sands
may be the most important climate alert we have ever done.
Please send the alert at:

http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=obama_tar_sands

It would be a global disaster if tar sands were exempted
from future global warming regulation. Please forward the
release and alert to friends and media in your area.
For the Earth,
Dr. Glen Barry
**************************

PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE
President Obama Urged to Say No to Canada's Tar Sands

- Canadian government wants special treatment for the
world's dirtiest oil. In first international trip,
President Obama must stand strong on clean energy and
sufficient climate policies.

February 16, 2009
By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet

http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/

CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Seattle, WA) -- On February 19, President Barack Obama
travels to Canada on his first international trip as
President, where he will face pressure from the
Government of Canada to support production of Alberta's
filthy tar sands oil. An international network of
environmental groups has launched the "Obama2Canada"
campaign[1] urging President Obama to stand strong on his
new energy economy agenda and reject entreaties from
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to shelter the
dirtiest oil on earth from global warming regulation.

"Tar sands oil is the dirtiest form of energy in the
world. It has no place in President Obama's plans for a
clean energy economy," said Sierra Club Dirty Fuels
Campaign Coordinator Pat Gallagher. "Tar sands oil
accelerates global warming. It destroys forests. It
endangers public health. Instead of importing this
expensive, dirty oil, we can invest in clean energy that
will create millions of much-needed, sustainable jobs."

Called oil sands by proponents, tar sands are the very
dirtiest of fossil fuels. Producing oil from tar sands
emits three times the global warming pollution as
conventional oil, requires excessive amounts of energy
and fresh water, and destroys huge swaths of ancient
boreal forest. Given its massive carbon footprint, tar
sands would almost certainly prove unviable under any
reasonable climate change regulations. Along with ending
the use of coal and old growth forest destruction,
stopping tar sands is essential global climate policy
required to maintain an operable atmosphere.

### MORE ###

Ecological Internet's Earth Action Network has launched
an independent affinity email protest campaign[2]. There
global citizens can let the new President know how
seriously they take climate change, urge him to reject
tar sands, and support further immediate urgent action in
pursuit of sufficient climate change policies.

"This may be our most important climate campaign ever.
Tar sands development is the most ecologically
destructive project in the world. When fully developed,
tar sands will indefinitely continue North America's
addiction to climate destroying fossil fuels, ensuring
abrupt and runaway climate change exceeds safe levels.
There is virtually no chance of minimizing climate change
and achieving global ecological sustainability should tar
sands production continue or expand," says Ecological
Internet President Dr. Glen Barry.

### ENDS ###

[1] Obama2Canada Contacts:
Kristina Johnson, Sierra Club (415) 977-5619
Jennifer Foulds, Environmental Defence Canada, (416) 323-
9521 x 232
Lisa McCrummen, Obama2Canada: (206) 321-9461

More information, including photos, B-roll video and
other campaign materials are available on

http://www.obama2canada.org/

[2] TAKE ACTION:
Urge President Obama to Say No to Canada's Filthy Tar Sands

http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=obama_tar_sands

DISCUSS RELEASE:

http://www.climateark.org/blog/2009/02/release-president-obama-urged.asp

###ENDS###

Ecological Internet provides the world's largest and most
used climate and environment portals at
http://www.climateark.org/ and http://www.ecoearth.info/ .
Dr. Glen Barry is a leading global spokesperson on
behalf of environmental sustainability policy. He
frequently conducts interviews on the latest climate,
forest and water policy developments and can be reached
for comment at: glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

We must stop those filthy Canadians before they render our atmosphere inoperable!

[Naked Gents Rut]

We're really calling a stop in Canada an "international trip" now?

[notyoueither]

There are French people in Ottawa...

[Kuciwalker]

There are French people in DC, too.

[notyoueither]

I thought they were officially considered freedom people.

[The Mad Monk]

Does one need a license to operate the atmosphere?

[notyoueither]

Some would like that.

[notyoueither]

It does not sound as if there is much to worry about in the office towers of Mordor Alberta.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/02/17/don-martin-obama-sees-oil-sands-future-as-a-technology-issue.aspx

Don Martin: Obama sees oil sands' future as a technology issue
Posted: February 17, 2009, 9:00 PM by Kelly McParland
Full Comment, Don Martin, Canadian politics
It’s always been a hard circle to square -- U.S. President Barack Obama’s vow to stop oil imports from the Middle East within ten years while turning up his nose at “dirty” oil sands product from safe, reliable supplier Alberta.

Given his country’s heavy dependence on imported oil to meet domestic demand, one of those two positions is going to falter.

To his credit, CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge devoted a hefty chunk of his interview with the U.S. President Tuesday pressing for clarification on his energy view of Canada.

While the transcript follows so you can make up your own mind, President Obama is clearly seeking a way to keep the oil flowing and claim victory through sequestration of carbon emissions. There is no talk of a Don’t Buy Oil Sands Oil policy in the United States.

That should come as some relief to Alberta, which depends on the U.S. as by far its biggest energy market. There’s even a signal that he wants the U.S. involved in perfecting the technology for capturing and burying greenhouse gases.

But he also sounded serious enough about the problem that if the carbon footprint isn’t curbed “then we're going to have a ceiling at some point in terms of our ability to expand our economies and maintain the standard of living that's so important”.

His praise for Mexico’s environmental initiatives, without any acknowledgement of Canada doing its share to tackle the problem, suggests Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have a sales job to do on Thursday.



Mansbridge: There are some …. who feel the oil sands is dirty oil because of the extraction process. What do you think; is it dirty oil?

THE PRESIDENT: What we know is that oil sands creates a big carbon footprint. So the dilemma that Canada faces, the United States faces, and China and the entire world faces is how do we obtain the energy that we need to grow our economies in a way that is not rapidly accelerating climate change. That's one of the reasons why the stimulus bill that I'll be signing today contains billions of dollars towards clean energy development.

I think to the extent that Canada and the United States can collaborate on ways that we can sequester carbon, capture greenhouse gases before they're emitted into the atmosphere, that's going to be good for everybody. Because if we don't, then we're going to have a ceiling at some point in terms of our ability to expand our economies and maintain the standard of living that's so important, particularly when you've got countries like China and India that are obviously interested in catching up.

Mansbridge: So are you drawing a link, then, in terms of the future of tar sands oil coming into the U.S. contingent on a sense of a continental environment policy on cap and trade?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think what I'm suggesting is, is that no country in isolation is going to be able to solve this problem. So Canada, the United States, China, India, the European Union, all of us are going to have to work together in an effective way to figure out how do we balance the imperatives of economic growth with very real concerns about the effect we're having on our planet. And ultimately I think this can be solved by technology.

I think that it is possible for us to create a set of clean energy mechanisms that allow us to use things not just like oil sands, but also coal. The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal, but we have our own homegrown problems in terms of dealing with a cheap energy source that creates a big carbon footprint.

And so we're not going to be able to deal with any of these issues in isolation. The more that we can develop technologies that tap alternative sources of energy but also contain the environmental damage of fossil fuels, the better off we're going to be.

Mansbridge: I know you're looking at it as a global situation, in terms of global partners, but there are some who do argue that this is the time; if there was ever going to be a continental energy policy and a continental environmental policy, this would be it. Would you agree with that thinking?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, I think one of the -- one of the promising areas for not just for bilateral but also trilateral cooperation is around this issue. I met with President Calderón here in the United States, and Mexico actually has taken some of the boldest steps around the issues of alternative energy and carbon reductions of any country out there. And it's very rare for a country that's still involved in developing and trying to raise its standard of living to stay as focused on this issue as President Calderón's administration has.

What I think that offers is the possibility of a template that we can create between Canada, the United States and Mexico that is moving forcefully around these issues. But as I said, it's going to be important for us to make sure that countries like China and India, with enormous populations and huge energy needs, that they are brought into this process, as well.

National Post

[Victor Galis]

since the fossil fuels are going to run out someday--and those have the obnoxious habit of being located mostly in bass-ackwards, violent little hellholes.

There's more to Alberta than Calgary.

Yeah, Banff and Jasper National Parks.