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 s...

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, l...

  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 syste...

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 produc...