Dunnomucho
I am mostly playing the devils advocate as I have little faith in our race. Board is so boring.
We are I think in agreement here the science is complex as well as suspect and it is too early to draw conclusions from our empirical observations of weather related phenomenon. Never the less I might argue that it is best to err in the way of caution. It is hard to argue that we are not creating significant problems for ourselves due to short sightedness and our failure to account for the negative impacts we have introduced into our ecology. Colbert had a guy on tonight who spoke about the long term effects of a Dilbit Spill. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma disaster and in light of mankind's selfish tendencies and willingness to ignore long term necessities for short terms gains I find myself saddened at the likelihood that we will subject our home to the death of a thousand cuts.Certainly a dramatic phrasing but ask yourself, at what point does the essential integrity of a system become compromised
as a result of system wide stress? It is an imaginary question whose
solutions can only be speculations on our parts. I at least an too dumb and lacking training. Hell the Sun may decide
that it has had enough of this shit of ours and blast us into the stone
age. No big deal to just send a flare this way like swatting flys. End of discussion. Given
that by Grace we do not suffer that fate don't you think it is time we
grow up and act like responsible adults?
Crude, Dirty and Dangerous
By
DAVID SASSOON
Published: August 20, 2012
EVERY day more than one million barrels of oil flow to refineries in the
United States from western Canada’s oil sands region. Producers hope to
quadruple that amount in the next decade, arguing that oil from a
friendly neighbor will deliver an extra degree of national security.
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But this oil is no ordinary crude oil, and it carries with it risks that
we’re only beginning to understand. Its core ingredient — bitumen — is
not pumped from wells but is strip-mined or boiled loose underground.
Industry insiders long considered bitumen to be a “garbage” crude. But
now that the light, sweet oil we covet has become more scarce and its
price has skyrocketed, bitumen has become worth the trouble to recover.
At room temperature, bitumen has the consistency of peanut butter, thick
enough to hold in your hands. To get it through pipelines, liquid
chemicals must be added to thin it into what’s known as dilbit, short
for diluted bitumen.