BP Set To Commit ‘The Biggest Environmental Crime in History’

[polly7]

Published on Monday, December 10, 2007 by The Independent/UK

BP Set To Commit ‘The Biggest Environmental Crime in History’

by Cahal Milmo

BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move “Beyond Petroleum” by finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of abandoning its “green sheen” by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which environmentalists say are part of the “biggest global warming crime” in history.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/10/5734/



An 'Environmental Nightmare":

"Most tar sands production takes place in vast open-pit mines, some as large as 150 square kilometers and as deep as 90 meters. Before strip-mining can begin, the boreal forest must be clear-cut, rivers and streams diverted, and wetlands drained. The overburden (the soil, rocks, and clay overlying the tar sands deposit) must be stripped away and stockpiled to reach the bitumen. Four tons of material are moved to produce every barrel of bitumen."

http://www.alternet.org/story/62325/

[Justiceguy]

Published on Monday, December 10, 2007 by The Independent/UK

BP Set To Commit ‘The Biggest Environmental Crime in History’

by Cahal Milmo

BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move “Beyond Petroleum” by finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of abandoning its “green sheen” by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which environmentalists say are part of the “biggest global warming crime” in history.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/10/5734/



An 'Environmental Nightmare":

"Most tar sands production takes place in vast open-pit mines, some as large as 150 square kilometers and as deep as 90 meters. Before strip-mining can begin, the boreal forest must be clear-cut, rivers and streams diverted, and wetlands drained. The overburden (the soil, rocks, and clay overlying the tar sands deposit) must be stripped away and stockpiled to reach the bitumen. Four tons of material are moved to produce every barrel of bitumen."

http://www.alternet.org/story/62325/


The SILENT GOVERNMENT........worldwie corporations....destroying the world. for our grandchildren.....thanks, corporations! Sleep well in HELL!

[The Kitchen Guy]

GOOD FOR THEM!

Now if we can start drilling in ANWR maybe we can reach the goal of not buying oil from Middle East and Venezuela!

[polly7]

GOOD FOR THEM!

Now if we can start drilling in ANWR maybe we can reach the goal of not buying oil from Middle East and Venezuela!

Good for them? Canada's environmental nightmare ........ ok, I guess you're not from the area so it doesn't affect you.


"BP’s announcement immediately stirred opposition from environmental groups, who pointed out that as well as being expensive, the extraction of oil from tar sands is highly energy intensive and damaging to the environment. Mike Hudema, of Greenpeace Canada, described it as “one of the world’s worst environmental disasters” and called BP’s decision to reenter the market “very disappointing”."

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article3007256.ece

[proud irish]

It would be great to not depend on the Middle East or South America for any of our oil. I would love to see the day when we buy less from the Asian countries and depend more on our own products. It would benefit us to be a more independent country.

[The Kitchen Guy]

No, I'm not from there but I can tell you that the number one exporter of oil to the United States is not Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, or UAE.

It's Canada.

BP knows where the market is and how to answer market demands.

[Smokey Stover]

It would be great to not depend on the Middle East or South America for any of our oil. I would love to see the day when we buy less from the Asian countries and depend more on our own products. It would benefit us to be a more independent country.

I take it that "proud irish" is not actually a resident of Ireland. But when he says "us," is he saying "us Americans" or "us Canadians"? The oil he is talking about is Canadian. Of course, either way, it's North American oil, and he is doubtless a North American.

Like Polly7 (who is Canadian?) I would rather preserve Canada than despoil it just to avoid paying the price for mideastern oil, or just to enrich BP. The same holds true for ANWR, of course. I can't even begin to understand why anyone who is not personally made richer by destroying the environment would want to do so. I know that it's a sort of conservative principle, although I'm sure I don't know why. "Let business prosper by plundering the land." Why is this better than, "Let business prosper, though not by plundering the land"?

We Yanks are inclined--too inclined--to imagine that those folks up north are too sensible to let their government be taken over by people willing to sell off the country and sell out the people just for the sake of campaign contributions and political support from lobbying industries. I've learned that Canadian citizens are fed a lot of baloney by their government that closely resembles the baloney that American citizens get from their government. I may be wrong about this, but I suspect that many Canadians trust their government in environmental matters precisely because it is not the American government, which is notorious for lies and spinning--and rapaciousness and greed. But governments are governments everywhere, and are not to be trusted too fully anywhere.

I would hope that the Canadian government would not let the BP project get off the ground. Or get into the ground. Please, let some nice Canadian tell me that this is the case, that their government is not so dastardly as to let this happen. .

[Cat]

Smokey, great post. I hope that we do hear this news in the near future. I have a daughter, who may have a child some day, and several great-nieces and nephews. I would like them to have a cleaner, not dirtier, environment and better climate. The world is becoming scarier every day, a fact I'm not happy to write.

Blessings,
Cat

[spike404]

Not exactly an un-biased source for the report.

I do believe, however, that BP is a terrible company. They treat their employees horribly, and short-cut all safety meaqsures.

[polly7]

I take it that "proud irish" is not actually a resident of Ireland. But when he says "us," is he saying "us Americans" or "us Canadians"? The oil he is talking about is Canadian. Of course, either way, it's North American oil, and he is doubtless a North American.

Like Polly7 (who is Canadian?) I would rather preserve Canada than despoil it just to avoid paying the price for mideastern oil, or just to enrich BP. The same holds true for ANWR, of course. I can't even begin to understand why anyone who is not personally made richer by destroying the environment would want to do so. I know that it's a sort of conservative principle, although I'm sure I don't know why. "Let business prosper by plundering the land." Why is this better than, "Let business prosper, though not by plundering the land"?

We Yanks are inclined--too inclined--to imagine that those folks up north are too sensible to let their government be taken over by people willing to sell off the country and sell out the people just for the sake of campaign contributions and political support from lobbying industries. I've learned that Canadian citizens are fed a lot of baloney by their government that closely resembles the baloney that American citizens get from their government. I may be wrong about this, but I suspect that many Canadians trust their government in environmental matters precisely because it is not the American government, which is notorious for lies and spinning--and rapaciousness and greed. But governments are governments everywhere, and are not to be trusted too fully anywhere.

I would hope that the Canadian government would not let the BP project get off the ground. Or get into the ground. Please, let some nice Canadian tell me that this is the case, that their government is not so dastardly as to let this happen. .

While I agree with most of your post, there are a couple of things I need to dispell. It's not actually 'North American oil' as you stated - it's Canadian oil and Canadians and Canada's environment being affected by the mindless drilling of it to stave off what - a half dozen years of actually having to do something meaningful to change the uncaring, self-entitled waste of it? And yes, it's happening. Our conservative puppet to the Bush gov't is absolutely that dastardly. Of course many of us knew what would happen before the fool was elected.

[polly7]

Environmental toll

Woynillowicz said the results show that Alberta's oilsands are growing so rapidly, and taking such a toll on the environment, that there must be better compulsory standards and regulation on the industry.

For example, he said, the amount of water used in the oilsands on a daily basis is twice the amount used by the Municipality of Calgary each day. Further, unlike the water used by Calgary, it becomes so badly polluted during use that it cannot be released back into the environment.

The amount of energy used on a daily basis is also staggering, Woynillowicz said.

"The natural gas consumption on a daily basis is equivalent to heating three million homes a day, so a huge amount of energy, and that translates into a lot of greenhouse gas pollution."

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080110/oilsands_080110/20080110?hub=TopStories

With fresh water becoming more and more scarce for the whole continent, using it to extract heavy dirty oil to stave off the inevitable for what ........ a few more years?, is nuts. I absolutely hate what this is doing to our environment.