DeSmogBlog points to a simple explanation of why “Intensity Targets” are a ploy to fool voters into electing people who are in favour of increased air pollution.
In a half-page ad in the Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Suncor boasted that it had reduced GHG emission intensity in its Alberta oil sands development by 51 per cent between 1990 and 2006. The ad failed to mention that - thanks to huge increases in production - the company’s absolute emissions increased by 131 per cent over the same period. According to a PowerPoint presentation that you can find here, Suncor also plans to increase its production in the next three to five years from 260 thousand barrels per day to 550 thousand - a further jump of nearly 90 per cent.
Who is in favour of “intensity” limits? Stephen Harper is. Is he malinformed, or malinforming?
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Mound of Sound | 17-Oct-07 at 8:51 am | Permalink
We need to put our own house in order on this one. The 800-pound gorilla in the room is the Athabasca Tar Sands. It’s an environmental disaster, GHGs being only part of the destruction. What party is going to stand up and say Canada can’t be honest on fighting global warming and yet allow tar sands development/operation to continue, much less expand? We need firm emission caps and binding reduction targets. There’s no other way around it. Global warming is just one of several, inter-related environmental challenges, all of which need to be addressed. If we can’t make a meaningful effort on this one, what hope do we have on all the others? When Inuit breast milk in Siberia is so laden with PCBs and Dioxins as to qualify as toxic waste, we need to wake up, RFN. Desertification, resource depletion, species extinction, ground water exhaustion, overpopulation, chemical contamination - the list goes on and on.
Patrick Ross | 17-Oct-07 at 2:41 pm | Permalink
I would suggest that people who want to rant about the oilsands should volunteer to do their part: stop driving your cars and heating your homes, folks: those two things account for the vast majority of GHGs in Canada.
Saskboy | 17-Oct-07 at 3:12 pm | Permalink
Way to address the topic of the post Patrick. Are you cool with companies and politicians spinning about how much they are “reducing” pollution while they actually increase it. If it’s something to be proud of, or at least not ashamed of, why do they spin it?
Ranting about the oilsands is a part of reducing GHGs in Canada. Unless people are complaining about it, they’ll NEVER consider doing something to reduce the pollution.
Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy » Blog Archive » Calvert Cares dot com | 28-Oct-07 at 11:01 am | Permalink
[...] Sask Party is measuring the net loss, and Quennell is looking at growth intensity. It’s the same misdirection/half-truth that oil companies like Suncor are using when they suggest that they are reducing their pollution levels, because the rate at which they are [...]