Oil Sands

[Lafy BAR]

http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-dest...ds-2012-10?op=1

I should mention, it's pictures, you don't have to read a bunch, it's just a bunch of pictures and short descriptions of what you're looking at.

Edited October 19, 2012 by Lafy BAR

[Quarterman 1st MRB]

Its where I use to live =D

But yeah the article was awesome, pretty much had everything right about the whole operation.

[Hudson 1st MRB]

That's pretty interesting stuff to me being a petroleum engineer. It's incredible what new innovations my industry comes up with.

My company doesn't do anything in that area, but still, good find and explanation of the process.

[Lafy BAR]

I found the giant mounds of sulfur pretty amazing. Hopefully some new technology relies on MASSIVE amounts of Canadian sulfur....

[Legend]

Electricity, made mainly from Coal. Used to get oil from the tar sands and the deep down natural gas deposits which are almost not worth investing in because of the electric input!!! So, Fuck Yo Nissan Leaf

[Lafy BAR]

Electricity, made mainly from Coal. Used to get oil from the tar sands and the deep down natural gas deposits which are almost not worth investing in because of the electric input!!! So, Fuck Yo Nissan Leaf

Could you please re-post this after editing it for grammar?

[Captain Giraffe BAR]

Damn this is devastating.

[Yamagata 1st MRB]

[Janke 1st MRB]

This, of course, doesn't talk about the new methods of oil sands mining or Alberta's provincial movements towards the reclamation of mined land. There are two sides to these things, and while people criticize the size and look of a traditional oilsands mine, strip mines for any mineral all operate in the same fashion, but because this one is getting oil rather than gold, it became the hot topic for environmentalist attacks. It's no worse than strip mines for gold, nickel, platinum, or anything else, they just want to make it look like it because they don't want people using the oil, but we have to, because there's no viable alternative available yet, electric cars are too expensive and have environmental problems of their own with the replacement of their batteries, as are fuel cell cars, as well as being dangerous since they operate on compressed hydrogen. Until we have a cheap alternative to the gas powered car, we need this oil. What pisses me off is that we mine all this oil, yet we STILL buy oil from OPEC, and that's why our gas prices are so damn high, and instead of using this oil locally to keep gas prices down, we're trying to sell it to Texan oil barons and China.

[Lafy BAR]

whoa, settle down.... nobody made any claims about the positive or negative nature of this other than you.

[Peaker]

What we really should be doing with the oil from Alberta is financing alternative sources of energy and programs for the future. That's what Norway is doing with it's oil money (Notwithstanding the fact that Norway takes a bigger cut of oil profits), by creating the generation fund. My main problem with the Alberta oil industry isn't that it's exploiting the oil, it's that it's doing it in a way where the benefits will be ephemeral for Alberta (And the ROC).

There are of course environmental issues, and it's impossible to deny oil sands mining has a significant impact on the natural fauna and flora of Alberta (Along with greatly increasing greenhouse emissions), but then again, we can't stop all development either, so the trick would be finding a just balance.

All in all, the more we reduce our dependency on oil, the better placed we will be tomorrow, when the supplies run out or the price is so ridiculously expensive that it's not viable. By slowly using profits from natural ressources for financing education, social programs, greener energies, better infrastructure, along with subsidizing research into various medical and technological fields, we can create a better Canada for our kids.

Then again, that's not exactly what Harper has in mind, and i'm a dirty socialist, so whatever.

[Lafy BAR]

Interestingly regarding the world running out of oil, Canada actually has more oil than the rest of the world combined. There are estimates that show Canada as #3 in oil, but that is #3 in easily accessible oil. The official numbers consider the tar sands impossible to mine, and cut the accessible amount of oil by 90%. Long term we _will_ exploit all of the oil, Canada will probably still be extracting oil long after the rest of the world is dry.

I would love it if the world stopped using oil tomorrow, mainly because of entropy. I think that we probably even could if people actually cared enough, but today oil profits and oil jobs are more important. I really just posted the pictures because they're impressive, not because I think that it's a good or bad thing. Any environmental damage we cause to the planet in the coming decades scientists and nature will eventually fix. Hopefully it never gets to the point that billions of humans die before the mistakes can be fixed. Or maybe the planet is over populated and that would be a good thing. Who knows. I'm sure mankind will at least survive.

[Gooderham 1st MRB]

Yes, perhaps scientists and nature will fix the environment, but it will probably not happen before irreparable damage has been done to a life supporting eco-system.