Yeah, rpg...."so what"....

There are plenty of sites discussing the implications of tar sands mining in Alberta - just google and see. The "good ol' Canadian oil industry is a'boomin'....why, you could even get a job scraping bird carcasses from the surface of their tailing ponds.....

Here's an in-depth article from that dastardly activist mag National Geographic.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadian-oil-sands/kunzig-text

Rpg,
Well that’s the other factor of course.

In the process of producing fuel to survive, we stuff up our environment, and this make it even less satisfying to survive, (or we get less satisfaction from living).

So we attempt to get satisfaction by living in a secular, feminist society where consumption is encouraged, but everything is imported, and then we stuff up our environment to get fuel so that we can continue to live in a secular, feminist society where consumption is encouraged, but everything is imported.

It is interesting that carbon + hydrogen gives a hydrocarbon.

And there are plenty of carbon and hydrogen atoms on the planet.

so I take it some of you are very pleased about peak oil .. and the human race running out of fuel?

all kinds of fuel?

So you'd like to see the human race basically eradicated is that what you want?

it won't happen, someone somewhere will find a way, as long as people want to pay someone will produce

That's the problem isn't it, that life will continue regardless of running out of fossil fuel, and we won't get our comeuppance, which seems to be the activist's fantasy.

no poirot, I'd take your money when you line up for the privilege of scraping carcasses .. some lead, some follow, some are entrepreneurs and some are just angry that they aren't as capable as others, that's life - but don't ask me to share your dream of poverty and living in caves, I'm not interested, (unless I was selling the caves of course .. you could have a very special deal on a nice hole, hardly used at all.)

Some parts of the earth have to be sacrificed for fuel development, I have no problem with that, just like some parts of the city or country have to be sacrificed for rubbish dumps .. so what?

I'm not going to get all teary about it, life goes on.

progress will continue, regardless of the luddites, carsons and caldicots of this world

rpg,

It's a shame that no-one's come up with a way to fuel the world on short-sighted arrogance - people like you could keep us going till the end of time : )

You're right - life will go on, but not in places that been transformed into lifeless hellpits.

I believe it's paramount to limit the sort of calamitous life-repellent outcomes such as those we are witnessing in Alberta.

Poirot

Tut,tut

So how do you suggest that we get our fuels?

Remembering that atoms do not generally disintergrate, or take a long time to do so.

And what type of lifestyle or living arrangements would be most satisfying, in the short, medium or long term?

Cameron's opinion piece I expect arises from a deep knowledge and wide reading in the area of peak oil and general human sustainability, in a world where economic growth and population growth must continue indefinitely until we get the beginnings of collapse. (Having attended the 6th international ASPO conference in Cork, Ireland in September 2007, I began to understand where Cameron is coming from). I can also understand where reactionary people like 'rpg' are coming from, as I meet these kind of people people every day. It is interesting that for a scientist or an engineer, the future poses an interesting philosphical problem. It is not verifiable in principle. Therefore it is really pointless to debate what will happen. Fear about the future I think is linked to fear of death. Once you understand that death is a part of life, then the death of civilisations is a part of human evolution. It is not a bad thing, but something that is natural. Therefore, why worry? The 18c poet Thomas Grey summed it up well, in one of his poems, wherein he said
"where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise" So from that perspective, "rpg" is no fool. .