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Environment, Energy and Economies - A Canadian Primer: CANADIAN AGREEMENTS AND TARGETS Ray Hamm

A new Canadian Climate Accountability Act was introduced in November 2020, Healthy Environment and Healthy Economy, in December 2020. The Pan Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate was brought out in July 2020 - developed with the provinces and territories and in consultation with Indigenous peoples - to meet our emissions reduction targets, grow the economy, and build resilience to a changing climate. These look like good plans and projections. We can only hope that it will all work. One needs to look fairly deep to see specific numbers, there are a few. For the next 5 years, most of Canada is to be decreasing emissions or holding steady; Alberta is still projected to be increasing GHG emissions. It is hard to find specific numbers and goals among all the good words in these new plans. Time will tell, actual numbers over time, will show the real story.  Canada has a mixed record. At a 1992 UN conference, Canada was seen as a leader. This did not last long. In 2009, Canada was
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Environment, Energy and Economies - A Canadian Primer: CANADA IN A CHANGING CLIMATE Ray Hamm

Canada in a Changing Climate: Advancing our Knowledge for Actio n is the national assessment of how and why Canada’s climate is changing, the impacts of these changes on our communities, environment, and economy, and how we are adapting. Released in 2019, this report is about how and why Canada’s climate has changed and what changes are projected for the future. Led by Environment and Climate Change Canada, it is the first report to be released as part of Canada in a Changing Climate: Advancing our Knowledge for Action. Canada in a Changing Climate: Advancing our Knowledge for Action   is a reader friendly government report. The bold print below is taken from a chapter on headline statements. The full report is available at https://changingclimate.ca/CCCR2019/   Canada’s climate has warmed and will warm further in the future, driven by human influence.  Both past and future warming in Canada is, on average, about double the magnitude of global warming.  Oceans surrounding Canada have w
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Environment, Energy and Economies - A Canadian Primer: ENVIRONMENT ENERGY AND ECONOMIES IN CANADA - Ray Hamm

A few companies account for more than half of Canada’s crude oil production: Suncor, Canadian Natural Resources, Imperial Oil, and Cenovus. (Husky and Cenovus have recently combined. Hong Kong billionaire, Li Ka-shing will hold approx 27% of the new Cenovus.) The oil industry in Canada has taken a hit. Larger external factors are more significant than pipeline delays and environmental regulations. (For example:  international oil prices collapsed.) If Canada would reduce production of petroleum, one of the first options should be to shut down the oil sands in Alberta.  Why start with the oil sands?  why not share cutbacks across the country? The oil sands produce 12% of Canadian Green House gases. Even with newer technology the GHG production of the oil sands is increasing every year due to increasing petroleum production. It costs more energy to produce a barrel of oil from the oil sands than from other sources. Oil sands technology has gotten more efficient but it is still not near
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Environment, Energy and Economies - A Canadian Primer: ENVIRONMENT ENERGY AND ECONOMIES (EEE) Ray Hamm

Energy and environment and economy have always been tied together. The present world economy is built on cheap energy, on not paying the real cost. Ending slavery removed an earlier major source of cheap energy.   This brought major turmoil. Peak oil production, running out of oil, was a concern some years ago. Now with new technologies and shale oil and tar sands oil, there is plenty of oil. This is good because there will probably continue to essential needs for oil in industry and society in the future. The REAL concern is about what happens to climate for us and for the children of tomorrow if we continue to use fossil fuels at the present rate. GHG and single use plastics are not good gifts to our children. Extracting, mining, refining, transporting energy takes energy. Always there is some loss, some waste and some by-products. Using energy drives the economy, it drives our cars and there are byproducts. Using coal, oil, gasoline and diesel fuel produces carbon. For a long, long
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Environment, Energy and Economies - A Canadian Primer: OCEANS - Ray Hamm

  A large portion of the heat of the earth is stored in the oceans. Oceans cover 70% of our world. Imagine warming such a huge bathtub of water. The new, extra heat is reducing the ice in our world - land ice in Greenland and Antarctica, glaciers, sea ice in the polar regions. The rate of loss of ice in Antarctica has tripled in the last 10 years. Sea levels rose eight inches in the last century. The rate of sea level rise is now double what it was in the last century.  The oceans are the foundation of our climate patterns. Near or far, our lives depend on healthy oceans. Oceans produce half of the oxygen in our world. The oceans are like a flywheel that keeps the motor running. Oceans are the primary source of food for millions in the world. The carbon dioxide content of the oceans is changing, the temperature of the oceans is changing. Marine life in the oceans is being affected. Changes in the ocean also increase the frequency and the intensity of more extreme weather systems.  Cons
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Environment, Energy and Economies - A Canadian Primer: GREEN HOUSE GASES (GHG) AND OIL COMPANIES Ray Hamm

The production and use of fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases. GHG are a small number of chemicals which reduce the amount of heat the earth reflects back into space. When too much GHG  gets into the atmosphere, it begins to make a difference. GHG make the earth warmer, like a greenhouse. Carbon, carbon dioxide, is the main factor in all this. China produces 26% of global GHG. The US is at 15%  Canada produces 2% of the total. Per capita, GHG emissions are quite different. China is #12. Canada and the US are in the top five in per capita GHG emissions. Coal continues to be “dirtier” than oil and natural gas. Tar sands oil is “dirtier” than regular oil - environmentally and economically more expensive. New technologies are improving some of the environmental impact. Fossil fuel companies are among the top carbon dioxide emitters in the world. Twenty corporations are responsible for more than a third of total global emissions  since 1965. (These lists are based on production, transpor
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Environment, Energy and Economies - A Canadian Primer: MOTHER EARTH NEEDS HELP Ray Hamm

Some parts of Earth are getting overloaded and tired. Mother Earth needs help from some babysitters to take care of her children. If you have a cat, you know there is litter box to take care of, or else a corner in the barn that needs to be cleaned out once in a while. The time has come, there needs to be some caretaking, some cleaning up after human activity in our world. If Mother Earth is tired, who will carry and sustain us? There has been enough human activity, especially the use of fossil fuels - coal, oil and natural gas - to have a dramatic impact on the overall balance for life on Earth. Other sources of energy are available. Of course, population has increased but the increase in energy use is way beyond this. Everything we do, every activity, takes energy. Every time energy is used, there is some leftover, a footprint, some waste. (This is about energy. There are many other environmental impacts resulting from human activity.) Fossil fuels came into large-scale use in the I
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