In regard to a recent letter in The Morning Star outlining the indispensable benefits of the oil tar sands, I have had a tendency to disagree for years.
It was mentioned in this letter, that “oil will be around here for a lot longer and will be the saviour of Canada.”
This seems to be contrary to the scientific evidence that I have been investing my time learning about.
I recently went to a public talk, given at the Okanagan Science Centre in regard to carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, rapidly shrinking glaciers, and CO2 saturation in the oceans.
I learned, among other things, that the oceans have played a highly significant role in absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere and slowing global warming to a rate that is less than what was originally expected, but that this effect is not going to last forever.
Unlike the atmosphere, ocean waters move at a much slower rate, and given that, all of the CO2 they have absorbed thus far to help us will eventually be released again as the water surfaces, from deep ocean currents that take 1,500 years to circulate, to mid and upper currents that can take 100 years or a couple of decades.
This isn’t good news, make no mistake about it. Our future generations are inevitably going to suffer in the short and long term, as all the harmful gases we’ve produced are released back into the atmosphere.
The good news is, we still have a chance to minimize this effect, if we act soon. ASAP.
Moving away from precious oil commodities is inevitable, and is something we should have been doing a long time ago, but have failed to implement the proper transition movements of shifting those thousands of jobs away from harmful industries. Investing in less suicidal uses of energy in regard to the cars we use, all the way up to the plants and factories that make use of oil, when there are alternatives to it that have been kept very quiet, due to need, greed and speed, is something we now have to face with less time to change.
Let’s have a real reality check on what we’ve been doing and continue to do, the real effects, and the long-term instead of short-term benefits.
J. Adams
Vernon
