Wednesday, February 25, 2009

"The Answer To All of This is Technology"


That's Harpo EnviroMin Jim Prentice's way of dismissing the environmental catastrophe we call the Athabasca Tar Sands. Just add a heaping helping of technology, fold in the Tar Sands, whip furiously and - voila, Clean Energy Forever.

Prentice is in good company. Interim Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is totally onside with the technology fix scam. Nothing wrong with the Tar Sands that a bunch of technology won't solve. Clean Energy Forever! We Love U, Alberta, we really love you. Sure, that technology fix, even if it can be developed, is at the least twenty and more likely thirty years off, but that's just a pesky detail. Onward and upward!

Iggy got a bit miffed when confronted with the well-balanced National Geographic article on the Tar Sands. He puffed himself up and set the reporters straight, ""National Geographic is not going to teach me any lessons about the oilsands."

Well that's too f__cking bad Iggy because somebody has to. But, then again, nobody teaches Mr. Ignatieff anything.
h/t LeDaro

9 comments:

Scruffy Dan said...

the Techno solution is anything but proven, and as you said exists somewhere in the future if it exists at all.

Unfortunately politicans cannot speak out against the tar sands at a time when our economy is tanking, and wont speak out against them when the economy is booming. So the go forward, regardless of the damage they do.

susansmith said...

Iggy came off sounded like a self-righteous prig. I wonder when he will eat these words. This is reminiscent of him supporting Bush's war on terrorism, no matter the reported NWM to be found in Iraq.

The Mound of Sound said...

I noted over at Steve V's blog one comment that engaging in Tar Sands boosterism might, just might, get Iggy 2-seats in Alta but could easily cost the LPC far more than that in Quebec.

Dan did you see that item about the 2008 EnviroCan study that found the several processes involved in sequestration (capture, liquification, transport, sequestration, monitority) emit as much CO2 as they sequester?

I cannot support this guy and he's the first Liberal leader I've been unable to support in four decades as a voter.

Anonymous said...

The Canadian "Let's wait and see" attitude has got us in trouhle again. When I mentioned there would be trouble regarding Iggy being put in a place of power, you scolded me. A. Morris

Beijing York said...

When is Ignatieff's official coronation? Is there any possible way that the LPC brain trust may recognize a losing proposition by that time and actually elect a new leader? Or will we have to watch him boast and blabber through a federal election to see him win a minority at best?

The Mound of Sound said...

BY, I know one person who has the grit to lead the Libs out of the desert - Louise Arbour. She's exactly what we need so badly right now.

If we really want another Trudeau (as America wants another Reagan and Britain another Thatcher - we're smarter than them) we'll find it in Louise Arbour.

It's not like we even have to conduct an exhausting and fruitless search like the Americans and Brits have been on. Our leader is right there - in front of our eyes.

Beijing York said...

I like Louise Arbour and think that would be an excellent choice. The pro-Israeli at all costs contingent of the LPC wouldn't like her though.

I would definitely say that her policy credentials dwarf anything Ignatieff has ever offered. And she also has far more concrete successes on the human rights front than just publishing internal dialogues of the fate of the civilized world and democracy.

The Mound of Sound said...

Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, chief war crimes prosecutor of the International Court of Justice, bold and fearless UN Human Rights Commissioner - and did I mention she's a woman?

Interested in helping to form a campaign to promote Louise Arbour? I think this is someone who would almost have to be drafted or her arm well twisted.

Arbour, alone among all the others, has the makings to be the sort of leader that comes around maybe once in a generation if you're lucky.

Beijing York said...

I've never been a card carrying Liberal but I would support your drive to recruit Arbour if it means bringing Canda's political culture back to the centre if not left-centre. My hope is to move the goal post in our political landscape back from the right wing space we find ourselves in.