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Although this thread does not function under the same strict guidelines as the USPMT, it is still a general practice on TL to provide a source with an explanation on why it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion. Failure to do so will result in a mod action. |
On May 05 2016 11:47 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
So what happens if the Oil sands nearby catch fire?
http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/could-the-oil-sands-catch-fire/
In their natural state, the oil sands themselves aren’t particularly flammable. Bitumen has the consistency of molasses at room temperature, and is mixed with sand, making it burn at a slower pace if ignited (plus, 80 per cent of it is buried deep underground). But the same can’t be said of all the equipment and chemical processes used to extract and upgrade that bitumen into synthetic crude oil. Companies that mine and upgrade oil sands bitumen rely on massive pieces of machinery, high temperatures and high pressures to do the dirty work—producing fuels and feedstock.
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Unfortunately there aren't any really effective strategies to extinguish wildfires like these. Perhaps it could motivate people to rebuild using non-flammable building materials in high wildfire-risk areas, which might help mitigate the damage next time.
I remember being evacuated out of Winnipeg in 1997 due to the massive flood that year. It really sucked, but it was nothing compared to seeing your town burn down - to say nothing of all the damage caused by smoke and ash.
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Yeah, really bad news for Alberta as a fellow Calgarian 
Quite a few of my friends doing engineering internships were evacuated, really unfortunate after the floods that evacuated so many Calgarians a while back as well, and WTI at $44. Bad time to be alive.
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Bad time to be alive.
We live in interesting times.
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On May 05 2016 11:40 PhoenixVoid wrote:For an already economically challenged city, it's another tragedy on top of misery. Luckily no one died, but stories of people watching their homes turned to ashes is really unfortunate. Now I'm hearing that Notley cut the firefighting budget in Alberta, and while I doubt that had a direct correlation, can't exactly spell well for her.
Luckily, other provinces have the budget to send help. It's a good thing that we're in a position to do so. It's sad to hear about how many people have been evacuated but like you said, at least nobody has died.
This easily could have been worse than it is, which is probably the only bright side of this rather bleak affair.
On May 05 2016 15:44 Fprime wrote:We live in interesting times.
Money is life, after all.
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So the fire is growing and what about other provinces with the same type of weather situation?
Unseasonably hot temperatures, extremely dry conditions and winds of up to 70km/h, helped fuel the fire’s spectacular growth to 85,000 hectares - up from just 10,000 hectares the day before. On Wednesday, Notley had estimated that some 1600 structures had already been destroyed by the fire.
So far there have been no direct injuries or deaths from the fire. Alberta remained in a state of emergency on Thursday, with the communities of Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates and Fort McMurray First Nation evacuated in the early hours of Thursday after the wildfires spread south. The blaze continued to burn in Fort McMurray, consuming homes and threatening several other neighbourhoods, while the emergency operations centre relocated three times in one day, as it sought to duck out of the path of the fire.
Officials said more than 1,110 firefighters, 145 helicopters, 138 pieces of heavy equipment and 22 air tankers were fighting 49 wildfires in the province, with seven of the wildfires considered to be raging out of control. Officials said the fire would likely continue to grow in the coming days, but noted it seemed to be heading away from the community, which lies in the heart of Canada’s oil sands.
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So the fire is growing and what about other provinces with the same type of weather situation?
Saskatchewan (province to the east) doesn't have nearly as much forest to burn - it has a reputation for being Canada's flatest province. British Columbia (province to the west) does have extensive forests, but the humidity here is higher due to proximity to the Pacific Ocean. Plus, BC's terrain is far more rugged so its trees have greater spacing between them.
Alberta is the likeliest target for a forest fire - the climate there is often the driest in the whole country.
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While everyone feels bad for the people who live there, its hard not to look ahead and ask what should come after this disaster. I feel like there is a bright side here, in that it may discourage further investment in the oil sands. Hopefully this is something of a wake up call that continuing to pursue fossil fuels and dirty oil is dangerous both locally and for the global climate. Obviously the oil sands is not directly responsible, but it does contribute to the problem by creating drier forests that are more susceptible to these massive conflagrations and the deaths that result.
I hope that rather than reinvesting in the oil sands the government chooses to put more funds into renewables, but I am skeptical. I feel like this is going to be an emotional event that will galvanize leaders into funding the oil sands even more, even though we are still in the midst of a global environmental crisis. But we can't afford to be short-sighted. Just like people working in the tobacco industry need to find a new job eventually as people get more intelligent about the dangers of smoking, so too should there be a transition away from fossil fuels.
It seems to me like this is the best way to honor these communities. Both as a progressive change and as something that will at least help to keep future generations safe from these huge forest fires, rather than putting them at further risk (which seems to insult their memory if anything).
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Dont worry, Trudeau allocated billions for these green initiatives. Investment in Alberta is already discouraged thanks to Rachel Notley!
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Investment is only discouraged in Alberta because of oil prices.. Oil sands oil is expensive to mine, and extremely low grade.
Other than giving oil companies a completely free ride or handouts, there isnt much a government can do.
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Other than giving oil companies a completely free ride or handouts, there isn't much a government can do.
Alberta needs to diversify its economy so it's not such a one-trick pony. As renewable energy becomes more practical, demand for oil will drop and the oilsands will become less and less economically viable until it's irrelevant.
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On May 06 2016 20:52 Fprime wrote:Show nested quote +Other than giving oil companies a completely free ride or handouts, there isn't much a government can do. Alberta needs to diversify its economy so it's not such a one-trick pony. As renewable energy becomes more practical, demand for oil will drop and the oilsands will become less and less economically viable until it's irrelevant.
This is true for all of Canada, not just Alberta, these days.
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Kevin O'leary letter to Notley
That letter there is a pretty good read and contains some rather solid idea on how to kick start the economy. Would like to see these types of moves be made.
Alberta and by extent, Canada is all on on Oil Sands money thanks to Harper and Alberta PC's (who will never hold government in Alberta again I imagine).
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Canada should focus its economy on selling stuff to the USA. its worked since 1867.
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Canada11350 Posts
I don't really see what's so great about O'Leary's letter. He says that she is a good reason for the low Canadian dollar because " Energy is a multi trillion-dollar global sector, it's part of every country's economy. "
But of course the biggest problem with the energy sector is global over-supply. If low dollar comes from bad energy sector, and bad energy sector is from low price of oil, and low price of oil is from a massive oversupply of oil, and the over supply of oil is because of OPEC at one point is Notley to blame in the Saudis bid to shut down North American fracking?
He attributes the entirety of the sell-offs to her NY trip... but how do you say with certainty that's it's just her and not just the accumulation of low oil prices for such a long time. Combine that with companies no longer able to hedge due to how long the slump has been... I think the blame is rather misplaced.
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On May 07 2016 06:38 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
Canada should focus its economy on selling stuff to the USA. its worked since 1867.
USA has also been known to restrict Canadian imports when our products are better than theirs.. despite NAFTA.
And they also no longer need our oil. What to do...
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The devastating wildfire in northern Alberta grew greatly and continues to rage out control, growing to more than 156,000 hectares on Saturday, as officials frantically worked to evacuate thousands of people still trapped north of Fort McMurray.
“In no way is this fire under control,” Rachel Notley, the premier of Alberta, said on Saturday, almost one week after the fire first ignited in a remote forested area of the province.
“The weather today is going to be significantly worse for fighting fires,” she added, pointing to the temperatures upwards of 82F (28C) and winds gusting up to 25mph (40kmh). “Officials tell us the fire may double in size in the forested areas today. As well, it may actually reach the Saskatchewan border.”
The fire could swell to as much as 300,000 hectares by Sunday, officials said.
The fire’s spectacular growth, combined with volatile winds and a heavy layer of smoke hanging over the area have challenged authorities as they seek to move evacuees south of Fort McMurray, far from the path of the fire, and into the province’s major cities where more extensive support services are available. Officials have warned that the blaze could continue to burn for weeks.
Around 12,000 people were moved south in mass airlifts that began on Thursday. Another 7,000 people were escorted in convoys that crawled through the dense smoke, taking evacuees through the charred city that had been hurriedly evacuated on Tuesday. The goal, said Notley, is to have every evacuee moved south by the end of the day on Saturday.
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Taxpayers are footing the bill for a $10 million renovation to 24 Sussex Dr., which is typically the official residence of Canada’s prime minister. While the renovations are underway, the prime minister’s family is living at Rideau Cottage, but also has access to a vacation cottage in Quebec, Harrington Lake.
Documents obtained exclusively by the Rebel show that Canada’s first family has had some odd requests at that property.
Emails between National Capital Commission staff and the Prime Minister’s Office show that “Mrs”—referring to Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau”—doesn’t like the taste of the water, even though continuous testing done by the NCC shows that there is nothing wrong with it, and even a PMO representative said it’s completely potable.
In the meantime, the Trudeaus are getting drinking water supplied only in glass bottles, instead of drinking from the tap like the rest of Canadians do.
The basement of Harrington Lake is also being renovated, with a newly-purchased ping-pong table and hockey game requiring new lighting. The Prime Minister’s Office stipulated that only incandescent lighting will be used—the NCC actually had to replace existing fluorescent lighting to make the space more appealing.
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i could care less. if Trudeau gets teh Canadian economy running as well as Chretien had it going then he can skim $0.5 billion per year right off the top just like Chretien did with Ad-Scam and Trudeau will be my hero.
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The wildfire burning around the Canadian oil sands hub of Fort McMurray has forced the evacuation of about 4,000 people from work camps.
A mandatory evacuation alert on Monday covered 12 camps north of the city, with workers being moved south and all northbound traffic once again cut off at the city, the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo said.
Both Suncor Energy and Syncrude Canada confirmed they had evacuated workers from the affected area. Officials late on Monday said they were hopeful the fire would not reach the facilities but were monitoring the situation.
The entire population of Fort McMurray, about 90,000 people, was forced to flee the Canadian city nearly two weeks ago as the wildfire raged through some neighbourhoods and destroyed about 15 percent of structures.
On Monday the blaze continued to burn uncontrolled across 285,000 hectares (704,000 acres), officials said. They noted firefighting efforts would be challenging over the next few days with hot, dry conditions and lightning fires expected.
The fire also threatened Enbridge Inc’s Cheecham crude oil tank farm south of Fort McMurray on Monday. The blaze, about a kilometre away from the tank farm, was brought under control due to favourable winds and the efforts of the company’s industrial firefighters, officials said.
Enbridge said a firebreak around the terminal was being widened and crews were assessing other fire suppression tactics like spraying down facilities. It said some pipelines in and out of the terminal were operating and the situation was being monitored.
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