Whether you love or hate the oilsands

They exist. There is a huge and growing demand for the products produced from the oilsands. As the with the Borg on Star Trek, resistance is futile.

Instead of trying to put the genie back into the bottle, our efforts should be focused on reducing the environmental harm caused by the extraction of this resource.

Staunching the Haemhorraging...

"...you have all of the ingredients that can promote a kind of social paralysis..." Dobbins.

Which, in my read of the tea leaves, is an entirely accurate analysis observation of the period. There is a widespread "social paralysis" out there, as a consequence of issue and sensory overload. And that everyone is having to scramble more in these times, just to try and hold some semblance of a life together, economically.

And there is a need for radicals and progressives to not get caught out, spread too thin, tilting at every windmill going by. And, to my mind at least, the key to preventing this data and issue overload as leads to burn-out, is to step off the merry-round round and focus on what it is they virtually all have in common, how err uncomfortable that makes some, and place one's focus and action attention on that.

And that which they all have in common is the social and economic milieu, or order of things out of which the arise and in which they are rooted. (Not entirely disagreeing, I think, with Fait LyX's opening observation above actually.)
All these issues, be they of poverty, the Free Trade Agreement and globalization, the declining position of the working class generally within our society, and the great gaping contradictions in what passes for economic and political democracy, and a collapsing global natural environment, all do not arise out of nothing and fall to earth of their own account. Rather, they arise out of and are manifested in a global capitalism order of human relations and activity, that creates the economic drivers, molds the mass thinking, initiates and fights the imperialist wars for resources and hegemony, and shapes peoples lives, and to what their energies are directed or not... as the case may be.

Though I disagree perhaps "some" with Murray, I do agree on the need for "focus" and alliance building around that. Nor do I even disagree on the seriousness of where his attention directs us here. I simply say that, somewhat, it still misses the great forest in his focus on the trees, though the two are not unrelated to be sure.

The great forest here, however, is the socio-economic soil out of which they arise. More helter skelter, like attempting a multiplicity of patches on a great gaping wound, does not staunch the hemorrhaging.

Peak oil

Illahie, the problem with your argument (and I single yours out because it's representative of the prevailing ignorance) is that it assumes there will still be a genie to put back in a bottle when things go bad.

Climate change, environmental risk, pipelines and tanker traffic -- all of this flows from the unsettling fact that one day the taps will run dry. The question isn't about putting 'genies back into bottles' or minimizing the environmental impact of that 'genie', but rather preparing for the inevitable era of a world without oil, or to cite the more gentle euphemism, "post-carbon economy." We are not even close to preparing for that reality. We have a lot of great greenwashing propaganda and talk about electric cars and windmills, but we are nowhere where we ought to be in meeting the end of oil and gas. Can we do it? We will hit a point at which we have no choice. At that point the question isn't whether humans will survive, but how many will survive. There is no way a post-oil economy can sustain the projected 10-billion population we are headed for.

"Surveying the available alternative energy sources for criteria such as energy density, environmental impacts, reliance on depleting raw materials, intermittency versus constancy of supply, and the percentage of energy returned on the energy invested in energy production, none currently appears capable of perpetuating this kind of society." —- Richard Heinberg

Illahie

The water, natural gas and general environment are, to me, much more valuable than the tar sands.

There is no long-term economic strategy that is good for Canada that includes the tar sands. Not one. Its a finite resource with a huge energy and environmental cost.

As for "putting the genie back into the bottle", we don't need to put the oil back into the ground, most of us would be quite happy to simply stop pulling the genie out.

Put production systems back

Put production systems back into localities, cutting back on commuting and transport and the vast majority of the problem and the need for oil will disappear.

In other words, use the definition of physical efficiency for economics.

That simple!

Can it be done? Yes, it can The world has been practicing it since day one, until quite recently, and so have I all my life, and have the experience.

Of course, we need oil and transport etc. but only to a fraction of the degree we're wasting now to fill the pockets of the globalizing predators and their priesthood of so called "economists".

I had a long chat with a European friend, by phone, on Sunday. All their industries, that used to supply their real economic needs, are wiped out and they're too covered with the products of Asian slave labour.

Does anybody ever wonder how and why our Western capitalists are so welcome and at home in communist China ? Because they're brothers under the skin, all surviving and thriving on dictatorship and enslavement.

Ed Deak.

Environmentalist or Anarchist?

"Fight to re-regulate corporations"

"We must, on this issue in particular, begin to imagine and plan for direct action politics, including sustained and determined civil disobedience"

"de-growth future"

Is Murray Dobbin an environmentalist or an anarchist? It seems to me that the above is something that the Taliban would aspire to.

tar sands and coal?

Tar sands not so great for the environment, but really not much different than conventional petroleum extraction when you look at the whole life-cycle. Probably the biggest difference is that Alberta's future is going to be tar sands, not so much conventional. All of the major political parties will end up coming on side to support tar sands, when the alternatives are analysed. Ditto with coal. Better start looking at how to adapt to climate change because stopping it just isn't in the cards.

Heinberg is Wrong. The Nuclear Economy will replace Fossil Fuels

warbler, the ONLY way we can sustain the World Economy, without relying on Oil & Coal, is Nuclear Energy. Richard Heinberg is avoiding consideration of Nuclear Energy, like many of his ilk, using ridiculous, nonsensical, tired old clichés like "there is no solution to the Nuclear Waste issue". Wrong, it is actually a minor problem and anyone who has studied the question and makes that statement must be considered lacking in integrity.

As Bill Gates has pointed out, the R&D we do on Energy Research is ridiculously low. This is no accident. The truth is, we haven’t mass deployed or spent significantly on clean, realistic alternatives to Fossil Fuels because the Vested Interests – DON’T WANT ANY ALTERNATIVE. Instead 100’s of $billions are used to subsidize Nutty Scams like AgroFuels, Wind & Solar Energy, Hydrogen and Clean Coal.

Nuclear Energy is easily capable of replacing Fossil Fuels, it just takes the political will to do so, and that means a total blockade on the influence peddling of Fossil Fuel Vested Interests.

See the effect of the minor effort France (not a wealthy country at the time, with a hugely expensive Armed Forces and yet with about the strongest social support program in Europe) undertook in the 80’s to develop Nuclear Energy:

http://www.iea.org/stats/pdf_graphs/FRTPES.pdf

As you can see one more 15 yr cycle of what they did in the 80’s would’ve eliminated Fossil Fuel Energy – assuming you used Nuclear synthetic fuels or Electrified Transport. So it is ridiculous to say that Nuclear cannot replace Fossil Fuels. And we’ve barely touched the surface of Nuclear Energy’s potential – with virtually non-existent R&D.

Yes, what the world needs is

Yes, what the world needs is to guard abandoned nuclear facilities and waste for half million years.

Like the school they've built in Ontario, some years ago, over a forgotten uranium mine waste site.

Ed Deak.

tarsands

Ah Murray,
You're 40 years and multi billions too late.
Albertans sold their souls (most of us anyway) a long, long, time ago. Once the glaciers have melted All of us will be drinking sulphur water; only then will we care.

Nuclear waste

Nuclear waste is not a problem as long as there is countries like Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan in which to dispose of it.

What an odd observation, Illahie makes

We must, on this issue in particular, begin to imagine and plan for direct action politics, including sustained and determined civil disobedience ... de-growth future

Illahie asks, 'Is Murray Dobbin an environmentalist or an anarchist? It seems to me that the above is something that the Taliban would aspire to'.

Would you kindly care to expand on your thoughts here, paricularly tieing in the Taliban remark?

The Best Of All Possible Worlds

would be the elimination - or least the amalgamation - of all independent countries in a United Nations partnership in which all the people co-operate to achieve any particular goal, with a non-profit energy source (nuclear?)that powers whatever universal tool is required for any particular task. Profit would reward employment for actual physical and mental work, for interest and financial investment, and development of innovation, but never exceed expectations.

But we possess free will, and are imperfect beings, and are imprudent and injudicious gamblers. We will inevitably get bitten in the ass,, never learn basic lessons of morality, and f#@! up everything we touch. Serves us right.

samuidave

Hi:

The Taliban provided support for Al-Qaeda, which about 9 years ago attacked the USA financial (World Trade Centre) Military (Pentagon) and attempted Political (White House) centers of power.

You and I get up every day and produce things which make the world a better place. In exchange for our toils we get a pay cheque, which we generally spend quite quickly which helps others.

The USA is in the midst of a severe recession, yet the loss of GDP is only a couple of percent. Murray is hoping for a significant loss in our GDP. Recent stats suggest that 59 percent of Canadian's would suffer severe hardship if their paycheque wa

And so we struggle on,

And so we struggle on, trying to make sense of it all and pointing out some good solutions. Do the elite care? Not a whit. Will they take into consideration our concerns? Nope. As long as coddled Albertans keep re-electing the same political agenda... but what if they didn't? What if they voted in the ndp? Would anything change? Nope.

The elite rule and what they say goes. Elections, concerns, ngo's, commentary, analysis, letters to the editor, peace, love, the environment, it's all beneath them. The psychopaths are in control and look out below. Meanwhile, all that's left for us is to struggle against them and to enjoy life while we can.

Insightful analysis, but....

Murray Dobbin's writing on this issue is an insightful analysis, but just as his narrow one-sided Palestinian violence absolving polemic of Israel's injustices shows up, his understanding of the roots of our self-destruction at the hands of carbon fuel consumption is too restrictive.

We must also look at how carbon fuel consumption is the consequence of a car culture society that is proud of its car, that shows a blind eye to the habits of car usage, of a society that looks down on those who don't use cars; of a society that doesn't easily share cars, of a society that does too little to promote alternatives to the car; of a society that gives almost no reward to those who've chosen not to use a car.

In the same way that Dobbin absolves violence of Palestinians and other Middle East extremists in his discussion of Israel's wrongs, Dobbin gives absolution to the almost criminal car and fuel consuming public that looks down its nose at those who don't, rather than try to find ways of emulating them.

The GDP is a fraudulent

The GDP is a fraudulent accounting system without liabilities and debits, to permit the accounting of damages and losses as benefits for the purpose of misleading the public.

The US, and also Canada, are in recession because our corporate mafia took their factories, inventions and systems to communists China to make bigger profits.

The tar sands debacle is a prime example of having to sell the country from under our feet, while causing incredible damage, and account it as GDP, because our manufacturing sector has been wiped out and we're now
a "service" and "resources" based economy, both liabilities in any logical business accounting system, yet praised as GDP..

Thousands of NATO, including 152 Canadian, soldiers have died in Afghanistan so that our multinational corporate mafia can get control of the country's yet untapped, mineral resources, so they can sell it to China and then import the products, making huge profits at both ends, while millions go jobless, hungry and homeless here and also in Europe.

Then, the new Chinese "investor class" can bring back the monies we're paying them to put our people out of work, and buy up our country in the name of "wealth creating foreign investment"

The best goddamn racket and biggest crime wave in human history, forced on the world by so called "economists" and pimp neocon politicians, praised and reelected by the sucker public.

Ed Deak

Big Oil Energy Hegemonists

Yes, let's replace Big Oil Energy Hegemonists with Big Nuclear Energy Hegemonists. Or perhaps I misunderstood ... are we talking about mom 'n' pop nuke startups rather than corporations such as Exelon, EDF, Entergy and various Chinese friends?

A Time for New Strategy and Tactics Development 1...

"We must, on this issue in particular, begin to imagine and plan for direct action politics, including sustained and determined civil disobedience ... de-growth future..." Murray D.

Of all Murray's positions above, there is none I agree with more than this.

There is no doubt in my mind, but that the polite, hand wringing ways of the what has passed for the left in this country, for far too long already, serve little good purpose. These tactics are as poor serving to the cause of environmentalism, anti-capitalism and the fight for economic and political democracy and against war as, on the other extreme, in my view, the Black Bloc approach. (Nay, in some respects, the polite left's ways are worse. At least the Black Bloc is forcing the rest of us to re-examine the entire issue of effective tactics and strategy, in the context of the coming struggles. The hand wringing, good decorum, get out and vote in isolation tactics invite simply being ignored... which the left and other progressive movements have been for too long.)

You want respect in these emerging times, you better be of a more aggressive tactical posture, display more certainty in the rightness of your cause and, unfortunately, likely be prepared to make sacrifices. Or stay home and let the ruling class and its ideological minions run the planet into the brick wall coming up fast here in the oil sands and elsewhere. (A recent northern study has been released today showing that before this 21st century is out, approx 17 of our key species will be extinct... including the polar bear, musk ox, arctic fox and, I believe it was, the beluga whale.)

________________________________

And just as an aside because MkumbaJoe raises it, displaying the contradictions in his own analysis: part of the global struggle taking place, driving the war and resource theft dynamics of the current period, is the continued "aggressive" presence of Western Imperialism in the Middle East, conquering land and resources, and re-securing old colonial hegemony. And In Israel's case, it is a surrogate for these forces, built around the post WW2 theft of the Palestinian homeland on which to install European Jewry, as atonement for the crimes of Europe as a whole, but especially Nazi Germany. (Palestine is expected to pay, again, for European crimes against humanity.)_

Continued next post...

A Time for New Strategy and Tactics Development 2

Continuing from previous post...

Israel IS, and is so correctly understood by the entire peoples of the Middle East, The US-Larger Western Imerialist Empire intruded into the heartland of the Middle East... and it serves this Empire interest. And guess what? You invade a country, even if you largely succeed at conquering it, as Israel much has old Palestine, those displaced peoples can be expected to resist "by any means", for as long as they have any strength at all.

And I support the Palestinian people's right to resist Zionist fascism, as an instrument of US Empire and European conquest policy. Had we in this country only but such a fraction of this Palestinian courage, in our own need to resist the predations and resource coveting eye of the US Empire. But alas, as yet, we have not.

Though even yet, the worm may turn.

THE END

Electric Planes

Not a lot of chances for long distance and fast electric planes, the batteries are generally too heavy. And not enough natural rubber to produce all those running shoes. Never mind the plastic bags, but what about all those cases for computers, TVs, food, files, vacuums, etc.

We can become more efficient and effective in use of resources but shutting down the mining in the oil sands will do neither but make us dependent on other countries that we admire so much, like Nigeria, Iran and Venezuela.

coyoteman's Resistance

I assume you support the resistance "by any means", for as long as they have any strength by North American aboriginals against the intruding immigrants from the rest of the world. And also you should support the resistance of the french Canadians against the imperialistic anglophone from the rest of Canada and the world. How about the imperialistic tyranny by eastern Canada on to western Canada.

Why are you so worried about Israel and the Palestinians. Many more people and children are oppressed, die and killed elsewhere in the world, such as Dafur and Pakistan. What about the terrorists killing people in southern Thailand, southern Philippines, the Congo and Zimbabwe? Who cares and why should you care about Israel and the Palestinians?

Sask. Residents Obscurantism Attempt...

"I assume you support the resistance "by any means", for as long as they have any strength by North American aboriginals against the intruding immigrants from the rest of the world. And also you should support the resistance of the French Canadians against the imperialistic anglophone from the rest of Canada and the world. How about the imperialistic tyranny by eastern Canada on to western Canada."

There are many different, even unrelated issues in your comment here, but I will treat it seriously in any case.

First, in the case of Israel, the Palestinians have been in a constant state of "resistance" since shortly after the Zionist invasion from Europe began and its terrorist campaigns were first initiated, unslackening since.

In the case of our aboriginal's cause however, European populations have now been here for many hundreds of years, and we are even widely interbred with aboriginals. Additionally, though "the settler population" clearly took advantage of the near extirpation of Native populations, agreements have been signed between the various parties, if frequently violated by same again, and a "kind of" state of peace has likewise long existed between us... If in relative terms more than real. Though indeed, not all aboriginals have signed "treaties" and there are still many violations of their rights and theft of resources occurring, I think it is that most major Native groupings accept, more or less, the status quo. And I don't question that.

Still, if Natives did at some time in the future begin to resist by more aggressive means than currently, I would understand that. Indeed, it may even be part of our future, as part of some revolutionary stage, to secure more particular sovereignty/national rights for themselves over their treaty territories.

As for Quebec, I have long viewed Canada as, in fact, a three nation state: Anglo-Canada, Quebec and the Native Nation(s), whom all have issues between themselves, and this will likely be ongoing until eventually they are serious negotiated by ALL the parties and resolved... free of the long standing arbitrariness of the Anglo/Settler Nation.

The Western Canada sovereignty issue I, personally, consider a rightist red herring of no validity whatsoever, that only serves the neo-Conservative/US Empire Loyalist cause of breaking up this country to facilitate its absorption by the US.

Real life is complex, seldom simplistic as rwingers attempt to portray it.

END OF STORY.