PETROLEUM A GOOD THING…..MURCURY CONTAMINATION A BAD THING

PETROLEUM A GOOD THING…..MURCURY CONTAMINATION A BAD THING

(Al Jazeera, Peter Moskowitz, Carl Hoffman)

(Edward Buntynsk, Jiri Rezac, G.R. Gray, R. Luhning)

(Ezra Levant, Paul Anthoney Chastko, Alastair Sweeny, Frazer Chronicle)

“Tar Sands of Canada,” sounds kind of like a resort, like a luxurious spa for the rich and shameless…..however, nothing could be further from the truth. In the case of the tar sands of Canada that I’m talking about, the site is anything but a resort, it’s a barren piece of land near Fort McMurray, in Alberta, Canada. And just like anything else that we humans harvest from the ground, there’s an environmental price-tag connect that we’ll pay for now, or probably worse…..years later.

Let’s get one thing perfectly clear and straight right from the get-go, nobody has ever harvested anything from the ground for the good of the human race…..it was done for strictly monetary reasons. And this list would include the farmer, although he would be more in tuned with nature than probably any of the other extractors.

Scientists have found a nearly 7,500-square-mile ring of land and water contaminated by mercury surrounding the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, where energy companies are producing and shipping oil throughout Canada and the United States. There’ll soon be a scientific report published that found levels of mercury up to 16 times higher around the tar sand operations, principally due to the excavation and transportation of the bitumen in the sands by oil and gas companies.

This report will be authored by Canadian environmental researcher Jane Kirk, who presented her findings at a recent toxicology conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The revelations add to a growing concern over the environmental impact of the tar sands industry which includes increased carbon emissions.

Kirk’s study suggests that the development of the tar sand mining method of capturing oil from sand may be responsible for spreading mercury far beyond the areas where drilling and transportation are taking place. And of course we all know that mercury can cause cancer in humans and birth defects in unborn babies.

HUMANS ALWAYS GO OFF HALF COCKED…..AND THAN PUT THEIR HEADS IN THE SAND

Without any doubt, the world today needs petroleum products to continue living in the fashion that we are accustomed to. We use petroleum, and its bi-products for all sorts’ daily needs that we take for granted, and if we didn’t have access to these products, our whole way of life would be changed.

Without a doubt, our way of living in today’s so called modern age leads us to explore and search for new and revolutionary ways to concoct all sorts of human devices. As I’ve mentioned, these new concoctions that are invented, although wonderful achievements of the human mind and spirit, are for money and glory…..and nothing else.    

Bitumen is a thick, sticky form of hydrocarbon that won’t flow unless heated or diluted with lighter hydrocarbon. At room temperature the substance resembles cold molasses…..which I’ve hated since I was a kid.

There are problems with the extraction of the bitumen from the (host) soft sort of rock, as steam is injected as part of the refinement process. This steam process generates 12% more greenhouse gases per barrel of final product than extraction of conventional oil.

The use and exploitation of bituminous deposits dates back to our great, great, great…..Paleolithic times, and our grandparents. Before them, their grandparents used the stuff that would be grandma and grand pa Neanderthal.

The reserves of the sticky substance is huge, 598 deposits in 23 countries, with the largest deposits in Canada, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Discovered original oil in place is, 2,511,236 billion barrels, and total original oil in place is estimated 3,328,598 billion barrels.

There are three major areas located in Canada, the Athabasca-Wabiskaw oil sands of northern Alberta, the Cold Lake deposits of east northeastern Alberta, and the Peace River deposits of northwestern Alberta. Between them, they cover 140,000 square kilometers, and hold proven reserves of 1.75 trillion barrels of bitumen.

In Russia, there is an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil located in the Tunguska Basin in eastern Siberia, Olenek and Siligir. Other deposits are found in the Timan-Pechora and Volga-Urals basin. There are already test wells, some of which are producing small amounts of oil.

In the United States oil sand resources are primarily concentrated in Eastern Utah, with 32 billion barrels of oil (known and potential) in eight major deposits elsewhere in the state. Canada is the only country actively producing oil from tar sand, 1.25 million barrels per day, through 81 oil sand projects. 44% of Canadian oil produced was through this method.

FURTHER STUDY NEEDED NOW

Environmental impact studies can’t wait, whether conventional extraction, (the old fashioned derrick like in the old movies) or surface mining…..(open pit type). There are also other types of processes that’ll extract the sticky goo, but I don’t understand them…..and neither would you…..however if you do, drop me a line.

Air pollution, land use and waste management, waste water management, greenhouse gas emissions, aquatic life, public health impacts, and input energy, the amount of effort to produce one barrel of oil; all of these issues need to be addressed, even after the barn door has been left open and the horses have escaped.

I had…..and have no idea what sort of problems we will run into as a race of people who are grubbing around looking for petroleum products to power our daily lives. I however can be counted in with those folks that are interested in knowing the consequences of this latest search for a power source…..actually we should demand comprehensive studies and answers to a plethora of really, really important questions.

HAVE A NICE DAY!