Alberta's dark age

[Burbert]

Lets get Newfoundland, to send Alberta some seal pups, you know the little White ones, so we can bash them over the head here too! In the meantime, we kin look for some really big, old trees, that have been round for a 100 years or so, and chop'em down. No wait lets go looking fer some neclear energy plants and ploop them down in central Alberta, er on a big clear riverbank somewere. Tarponds, waste lagoons they ain't enough. Lets build some more big ole powerlines cross Alberta farms and make the farmers pay to do it. Now take that Grenpeace and Dr. D. Suzuky. Ifen we want ta wreck our land, its our budness not yearn to stop uss!

[coppertop]

During the last storm our power was off three times, according to Fortis there were several pole fires which caused it. I questioned whether it was because the lines were taxed to the limit and didn't get an answer.
Suzuki is a joke, he is an extremely high paid spokesperson for environmental groups, and as far as Greenpeace goes, they must be getting paid to do what they do, because they seem to spend a lot of time doing it !
I am not sold on nuclear power, there sure seems to be a push to get a plant in the Whitecourt area by the local MLA and some local politicians.

[per]

I hit a duck with the windshield of my truck yesterday. It startled the quack out of me. I wonder what the ratio of ducks dead to GDP created is. That would make the duck I hit exponentially more tragic. We need not disregard the wild life but we also have to look at our own selves and how we interact with nature.

[coppertop]

I would suspect that a lot more than 500 deer are killed annually on our highways, yet there hasn't been an outcry about it !

I am not trying to minimize the issue with the ducks at Ft. Mac, but lets try and keep it all in perspective.

[cakadu]

You're right copper, we need to keep this in perspective and at the same time not dismiss it either. You're earlier point about what else is amiss up there is a valid one.

With keeping things in perspective, those tailings ponds are not getting any smaller, in fact they are increasing in size and will continue to do so as long as they are in a frenzy up there. We can't do anything about the ducks that were lost (begs the question as to how many birds and wildlife are affected on a yearly basis).

What we can look toward is how to prevent this in the future and more importantly what emergency preparedness is in place if (maybe even when) something more serious happens. Let's be realistic, there is huge potential for an environmental disaster with these tailings ponds, not to mention the challenges being encountered by folks who live in those areas.

What I believe is happening with the ducks is drawing attention to the potential for even greater problems. Notice I've referred to potential.

Maybe one day the technology will exist to be able to do something with the sludge, but for now we have to be proactive and diligent in our stewardship.

[wilagro]

A lot of people don't realize that those tailing ponds are growing every year. They still haven't found a method to clean the dissolved silt, oil residue and now dead ducks, out of the water and it is just sitting there and can't be returned to the river from which it came as it is bloody well POLLUTED.

Seems to me that they should have done more research BEFORE major expansion was allowed.

[cakadu]

Wilagro, it's called being over $125/barrel of oil. As long as the money is coming in like that, we have to ask whether or not environmental concerns will ever be first.

I will continue to push for 10% of the surplus going towards restoration, reclamation and just plain old preservation. Sadly, much of the damage that has already been done is irreparable and it will be future generations that pay for it, not us.

[coppertop]

WE, ALBERTANS, should not have to pay for restoration, it should be the companies that create the problem.

Far too often the taxpayer ends up cleaning the mess others leave behind,

[cakadu]

I'll play devil's advocate, for a moment coppertop.

It is the government that cut back people doing reclamation orders, so there is no enforcement and/or thorough follow-up.

It is the government that is heralding how safe our oil is, tarsands included.

It is also this same government that is saying full-steam ahead on economic development.

The government has eased up on collecting more royalties, at a cost to us, the taxpaying Albertans.

So, in essence, we COULD be getting the companies to pay for the clean-up if we enforced and inspected the reclamations, if we collected more in royalties that could be set aside for reclamation efforts and we took a long, hard look at the impacts of what we are doing.

[grassfarmer]

"Suzuki is a joke, he is an extremely high paid spokesperson for environmental groups, and as far as Greenpeace goes, they must be getting paid to do what they do, because they seem to spend a lot of time doing it !"
That's very PC thinking Coppertop - believe it or not some people are politically active because they believe in trying to make the world a better place. Who would be paying Greenpeace to act the way they do? That is maybe how the corporate buddies of your AB PC government do business - buy whatever decision is favorable to them from weak spined politicians it doesn't mean it's how the rest of society operates.

As for Suzuki being a joke - try looking in the mirror - what of a Government that has no longterm thinking capability beyond how many dollars they can raise through resource exploitation this week. It seems they'd sell their granny to the Americans if they thought they'd get $5 for her! It just doesn't seem to matter who or what gets damaged in the process. Poison the environment, ruin the landscape, kill the wildlife it's all acceptable progress in the lust for the almighty dollar.