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Cargando... Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta Is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (And Doesn't Seem to Care)por William Marsden
   Ninguno Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. 1   Gail.C.Bull | Sep 8, 2011 |  sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
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A bestselling investigative journalist takes a tour of the Alberta oil and gas industry, revealing how Canada’s richest province is squandering our chance for a sustainable future. In its desperate search for oil and gas riches, Alberta is destroying itself. As the world teeters on the edge of catastrophic climate change, Alberta plunges ahead with uncontrolled development of its fossil fuels, levelling its northern Boreal forest to get at the oil sands, and carpet-bombing its southern half with tens of thousands of gas wells. In so doing, it is running out of water, destroying its range land, wiping out its forests and wildlife and spewing huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, adding to global warming at a rate that is unrivalled in Canada or almost anywhere else in the world. It’s digging, drilling and blasting its way to oblivion, becoming the ultimate symbol of Canada’s – and the world’s – pathological will to self-destruct. Nowhere has the world seen such colossal environmental destruction as is being wreaked on Alberta. At one point the province even went so far as to consider a scientist’s idea of nuking its underbelly to get at the tar sands. Stupid to the Last Drop looks at the increasingly violent geopolitical forces that are gathering as the world’s gas and oil dwindle and the Age of Oil begins its inevitable slide towards oblivion. As Canadians deplete their energy reserves, selling them off to Americans at bargain-basement prices, no thought is given to conservation or the long-term needs of the nation. In this powerful polemic, William Marsden journeys across the heart of a province seized by the destructive forces of greed, power and the energy business, and envisions a very bleak future. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)333.823214097123Social sciences Economics Economics of land & energy Underground Resources Fossil Fuels Oil And Natural Gas OilClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio: (3.4)
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He devotes an entire 1/3 of the book to a historical account of a plan to recover the oil by blasting the ground with atom bombs. Shocking, yes but relevant to today's current situation? No, since, thankfully, this insane plan never got off the drawing board.
Marsden's trip to Alberta seems to have been tragically short. Though he did visit the Athabasca region (the place and people who are suffering most from the environmental infractions) and raged about the injustice of their illnesses, he didn't make any attempt to find out how or where the river is being polluted. He has uncovered nothing that the average Albertan doesn't already know from talking to friends who work for oil companies. He also seems to have blurred the lines between the oilsands and all oil mining, spending more chapters on mining practices in general then on the oilsands specifically.
Marsden gives the impression that he believes mining should be 100% enviromentally friendly. It's a lovely, idealistic idea but sadly impossible. Any form of mining, whether your digging up oil, diamonds, or silcone, requires digging and that does damage to the surrounding environment.
Marsden's motives may br good, but his "investigations" into the oil sands are superficial at best and leave a great deal to be desired. If your looking for a strong investigative journalism piece about the oilsands, this isn't the book you're looking for.