Al Gore was US Vice-President from 1992-2000 and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. This interview with Michael Enright (on the Sunday Edition) was mainly to talk about Gore’s new book: “The Future: Six drivers of global change”.
As part of it, they had an interesting discussion about the Oil Sands development. Here are some highlights:
When
asked how we can possibly transition off oil when there are new sources of oil being
made available regularly:
AG: As a
former Saudi oil minister, Sheik Al-Yamani, said, ‘The Stone Age did not end
because of a shortage of stones. Rather it was because people found better,
safer, more efficacious ways to continue to improve civilization.’
AG: The problem that blocks our rapid transition away from
fossil fuels is the political and economic power of the legacy industries that
depend upon our willingness to continue to use our atmosphere as an open sewer.
Today, fossil fuel burning produces 90 million tons per day of Carbon
Dioxide. We are trapping additional
energy due to increased GHGs in the atmosphere which is equivalent to 400 000
Hiroshima bombs. It is a big planet but that is a lot of energy.
AG: These resources (oil sands) are so dirty. It
is not only that burning produces a significant amount of Carbon pollution. It
is also all the fracking of gas that’s necessary to process this tar and turn
it into heavy oil. It is also gravel mining. It is also the waste which has
already contaminated the ground water around Ft McMurray, already polluted the
Athabasca River.
GE: But
the companies say that they are cleaning that up.
AG: Oh,
yes they do.
GE: It is the most extensive recovery program
ever, environmentally.
AG: Well,
BP said it did a great job of cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico, too. These
companies have a way of sugar-coating what is necessary.
Look, I
understand why the value of these resources tempts Canada to fully [exploit
them]. I understand how the failure of
policy leadership by your big neighbour to the south, my country, has opened
the door to irresponsible policy.
Even
though it’s understandable how you got into this policy cul-de-sac, and many in
my country support you in it, I do think that we are not far from that day when
the entire world is going to have to look at reality squarely, and realize that
we’re destroying our home. We are not going to some other planet. We couldn’t
even evacuate New Orleans!
ME: Is there such a thing as “Ethical
Oil”? Various American administrations have said that we would rather buy
Canadian oil than Saudi oil because Canada is a more benevolent and more open
democracy.
AG: I think oil is oil. ... You
know the evidence shows how much of this would be exported from the terminals
of Houston and Galveston. That is really the purpose of it. There is oil and
then there is dirtier oil and beyond dirtier oil is tar sands.
AG: We
need to make a shift in our global civilization as rapidly as we can to produce
energy from renewable sources. The good news is that we can. The more solar and
wind we use, the cheaper it gets. The more oil and coal we use the more
expensive it gets. It’s just that simple.
V. Investment in the tar sands, including pipelines and upgraders, now (2010)
totals approximately $200 billion. The tar sands boom has become the world’s
largest energy project, the world’s largest construction project, and the world’s
largest capital project. No comprehensive assessment of the megaproject’s
environmental, economic, or social impact has been done.
-
"Declaration of a Political Emergency" in Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and
the Future of a Continent by Andrew Nikiforuk
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