The Colorado Environmental Coalition sponsored an event in the KAFM Community Room in Grand Junction last night. The people packed into the room were treated to some amazing photography mostly taken from the open door of a small plane as it first flew over Canada’s Boreal Forest, then the Tar Sands project so hyped in TV commercials promising to create American Jobs. (I’ve often wondered how a project in Canada could create jobs in the U.S. Now I know the answer, but it scares me to death.)
The power of the presentation by Garth Lenz, an internationally honored photographer from Canada, was in the contrast between the natural beauty of the forest and the complete environmental destruction at the development sites. These projects are so huge that they can be seen by the naked eye from space. Imagine a landscape that is mounds of black gunk for as far as the eye can see from the elevation of a low flying plane, surrounded by toxic unlined pits leaching carcinogens into major Canadian rivers and evaporating toxins into the air so that rain can pollute even more lungs and rivers.
The Keystone Pipeline is the connection to jobs in the U.S. It would pipe billions of barrels of oil from the Canadian Tar Sands through the breadbasket of America to refineries in Houston. That pipeline has been the subject of many recent hearings and protests.
The Lenz presentation was followed by a sometimes humorous presentation by Randy Udall on the potential for development of Colorado’s Oil Shale. Udall has challenged any Colorado resident to heat their home with oil shale this winter. He’ll pay them $1,000 for doing it, deliver the shale, and remove the toxic remains after the oil has been burned. The homeowner can expect to shovel 700 pounds of shale into their furnace each day, and shovel 600 pounds out at the end of each day. Udall says the negotiations with the EPA are up to the homeowner.
Homework
Colorado Environmental Coalition
Garth Lenz Website
Transcanada Promotion of Pipeline
Nebraska Newspaper Describes Keystone Controversy
Youtube of Randy Udall talking about peak oil
The power of the presentation by Garth Lenz, an internationally honored photographer from Canada, was in the contrast between the natural beauty of the forest and the complete environmental destruction at the development sites. These projects are so huge that they can be seen by the naked eye from space. Imagine a landscape that is mounds of black gunk for as far as the eye can see from the elevation of a low flying plane, surrounded by toxic unlined pits leaching carcinogens into major Canadian rivers and evaporating toxins into the air so that rain can pollute even more lungs and rivers.
The Keystone Pipeline is the connection to jobs in the U.S. It would pipe billions of barrels of oil from the Canadian Tar Sands through the breadbasket of America to refineries in Houston. That pipeline has been the subject of many recent hearings and protests.
The Lenz presentation was followed by a sometimes humorous presentation by Randy Udall on the potential for development of Colorado’s Oil Shale. Udall has challenged any Colorado resident to heat their home with oil shale this winter. He’ll pay them $1,000 for doing it, deliver the shale, and remove the toxic remains after the oil has been burned. The homeowner can expect to shovel 700 pounds of shale into their furnace each day, and shovel 600 pounds out at the end of each day. Udall says the negotiations with the EPA are up to the homeowner.
Homework
Colorado Environmental Coalition
Garth Lenz Website
Transcanada Promotion of Pipeline
Nebraska Newspaper Describes Keystone Controversy
Youtube of Randy Udall talking about peak oil
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