Alta heading for hell in a hand basket?

[79ford]

humans are the main cause.... consumption= demand. Reduced consumption= less destruction to feed it

[Big Daddy Badger]

Originally Posted by CanuckShooter

I am curious....how many Albertans are concerned about issues like this?? I don't know if this is even legit....but are we making a huge mistake by embracing this industry? Are we killing our environment for some numbers in our bank books?? Thoughts?

Going to hell in a handbasket?

Nope.
We're already there buddy... that decline started a long time ago when the provincial conservatives started putting a price tag on...well on just about everything.

I'd say that Albertans started to get a diminished return for their efforts when Loughheed was in and had begun to actually lose ground by the time Ralph became premier.

That trend is picking up spome momentum now that we have Alison behind the wheel.

Alberta advantage....pffft.
There is more to life than money.

Problem now is that Alberta is just a place to make some quick cash for many.
I don't believe that most people really understand or appreciate how much they have lost for that or remember what it was that really made Alberta an awesome place..

The oil was part of it but now... it seems to be all that matters.
We have forgotten who we are and where we came from.
Pretty sad.

[Turtlewolf]

Originally Posted by CanuckShooter

I am curious....how many Albertans are concerned about issues like this?? I don't know if this is even legit....but are we making a huge mistake by embracing this industry? Are we killing our environment for some numbers in our bank books?? Thoughts?

Same crap propaganda that the Echo Terrorist David Suzuki has been puking up for ages, this has no credibility at all.
I'm willing to entertain factual evidence (I work in the industry and it is a bit backwards) but this is fearmongered garbage aimed at stirring the sensationalist in everyone.

[JEHL75]

I find it funny that nobody complains about all of the polution produced in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and last but not least Vancover. Oh I almost forgot the tree hugging city of Victoria where the hippys still send their untreated waste directly into the ocean. I have never heard of a smog advisory in Edmonton or Ft. Mack but while living in T.O. they happened all of the time. Pretty sad when it was recommended to stay inside on a summers day. If you could see Toronto through the green haze while looking from across the bay in Clarkson you would be lucky. Vancover is ok though....the wind off the ocean just blows the polution into Hope and Chillawack. The last time I drove through Chillawack I thought it was foggy but a freind from Vancover laughed and told me it was Vancovers smog. Gotta love the wind he said. But I guess Alberta is just plain evil. How much money does the Green Party put into enviromental awareness compaired to the Oil Companies? Yes the Oil companies are not perfect but they are for the most part trying to make improvements enviromentaly.....

IMO, JEHL75

[Fisherpeak]

Any radical changes we make here don`t amount to a drop in a GIANT bucket compared to the damage China and India do to the enviroment every day.
we could shut down everything in Canada and the U.S,cars,factories,mining ,logging ...........wouldn`t make one damn bit of difference to the Earth.
This whole "are we doing bad" argument is pointless.
We have zero control on how the rest of the planet pollutes so screw it,live like there is no tommorow.

[Cyclops]

Originally Posted by Turtlewolf

Same crap propaganda that the Echo Terrorist David Suzuki has been puking up for ages.

Yep, the guy should not be allowed to walk around with a wonderful name like Suzuki!. Pompous ass. The enviro-nazis and alarmists have been around forever and they should be ridiculed as the tinfoil hat wearing nutjobs that they are. Remember those global cooling/new ice age scare movies from the seventies?

[CanuckShooter]

Originally Posted by Cyclops

Yep, the guy should not be allowed to walk around with a wonderful name like Suzuki!. Pompous ass. The enviro-nazis and alarmists have been around forever and they should be ridiculed as the tinfoil hat wearing nutjobs that they are. Remember those global cooling/new ice age scare movies from the seventies?

Remember DDT and Thalidomide.....sometimes the scare jockeys have it bang on.

[whammy]

Originally Posted by CanuckShooter

I am curious....how many Albertans are concerned about issues like this?? I don't know if this is even legit....but are we making a huge mistake by embracing this industry? Are we killing our environment for some numbers in our bank books?? Thoughts?

Here is a paper on the subject.

http://www.globalforestwatch.ca/clim...ee_TOConBJ.pdf

It is ignorant to think that mining the Oil Sands are not affecting the environment. Of course they are! All mining affects the environment in one way or another. This paper shows quite clearly that the waterways in northeastern Alberta are being polluted by Oil Sands development. What is not clear is what effect this pollution is having on the environment.

The statement in the above picture that 3/4 of Alberta will be a highly toxic land mass is a load of baloney, As all of the waterways drain towards the north/east, if the pollution is that terrible it is going to be more likely to affect Northwestern Sask/NWT. It's likely that the effect of the pollution is not that great however, and to be frank, nature finds a way to deal with these things very handily.

[CanuckShooter]

Originally Posted by Bushrat

I don't think we are committing suicide, at least not for our generation, that time is aways away. We are slowly chipping away the days until it comes if we do not change. Thing is, we do change, always have changed and adapt with each generation to all the forecasted doomsdays. I call it just in time social/environmental intervention. If the present generation is not really directly affected it gets bandaids and then passed on to the next generation, the track record shows we have always come up with enough generational bandaids to avoid present catastrophies just as we have it since it all started. The environment is extremely durable, self healing and adaptable much like humans. As technology changes so will humanity and the environment. Neither is static. If todays present population lived as it did at the beginning of the industrial revolution the world would be a sewer of epic proportions. Just as the people of the past couldn't fathom how we live today we really can't predict how we will deal with things in the future, but deal with them we will. As technology and environment evolve, time goes by things change, it will not be perfect but I believe we will have a tolerable relationship between man and the environment, no worse than today. If you took stock in the predictions of scientists of past generations we wouldn't be here now. Listening to the fear mongering media industry of the present it would seem we won't be here much into the future. I think we will be here a long time and it won't be anything like present predictions forecast. It will never be a perfect relationship between the two, it never has been.

I don't work in the oil industry, I could do my job anywhere in Canada. But the town I live in wouldn't exist without oil, so, yes my job here is dependant on oil. When I lived in BC I did the same job but the community I lived in depended on forestry, pretty much a ghost town these days.. When I lived in N.B my town was dependant on potatoes and pulp, so was my job. As long as people eat french fries and buy paper I can still get a job there.

I see the man vs environment as a catch 22 situation, man depends on the environment for wealth, without wealth we can not improve the environment. We could all go back to pre industrial revolution populations and lifestyle. I don't think anyone really seriously wants to do that.

BOLDED~~man I hope your right!!!

[densa44]

In the late 1800's some scientists predicted that if we kept using energy at this rate by 1950 North America would be three feet deep in horse poop.

We got BS instead.

[Turtlewolf]

Originally Posted by CanuckShooter

Remember DDT and Thalidomide.....sometimes the scare jockeys have it bang on.

You've got that one correct!
Sadly it's hardly true that they do get facts right any more, it is about the mighty dollar for them now more than the Oil Industry.