Oil sands - an enviromental catastrophe?

“The Caterpillar 797B heavy hauler is the world’s biggest truck. It’s taller than a four-storey house, as wide as a tennis court and it removes nearly 35,000 tonnes of oily sand a day from a deep open cast mine in northern Alberta in western Canada.”

John Vidal heads to Canada to ask some tough questions of the oil industry and its intentions in northern Alberta in this Guardian video report. This video is backed up by this report. Some of the photos of the plant and equipment being used are truly stunning - I will certainly be using this when I teach about economies of scale next autumn. The size of the oil sands exploration is astounding and the economic boom hitting this northern wilderness in places such as Fort McMurray beggars belief. But so too are the environmental consequences of this black gold rush

“The downside is ecological devastation and soaring greenhouse gas emissions on a scale that is beginning to alarm Canadians and other western countries trying to reduce the intensity of their carbon economies to counter climate change. Canada, alone, of developed countries, is expecting to increase emissions for 30 years and ignore its commitments to Kyoto.”

Peter Day looked at this issue a couple of years ago and his In Business report is still available on the BBC web site

Image from creative commons licence on Flickr.com

Investment in Energy Infrastructure [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Current Account of the Balance of Payments [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Using the Cost-Benefit Principle [30 Apr 2012]
Tullow Oil and African Development [25 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Externalities - Deepwater Horizon 2 Years On [21 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Balance of Payments in 2011 [4 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Cartels [31 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Inequality - The Rise of Fuel Poverty [15 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Sovereign Wealth Funds [4 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Might Oil Prices Bring another Recession? [4 Mar 2012]
The Economics of Climate Change - Stern 5 Years On [21 Feb 2012]
China bans its airlines from paying EU carbon tax [5 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Carbon Emissions and Growth [26 Jan 2012]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Zondle Game: 10 Question Quiz about OPEC [11 Jul 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflation [24 May 2011]
A2 Micro: High and Low Marginal Cost Products [19 May 2011]
AS Micro: What´s really behind the oil price rise? [10 May 2011]
AS Micro: Importance of Elasticity of Supply [23 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: The volatile price of crude oil [9 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Aggregate Supply Shock [6 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Bubble [4 Apr 2011]
OPEC oil revenues set to surge above $1 trillion in 2011 [30 Mar 2011]
The New North - Population Shift [23 Mar 2011]
Progress towards low carbon economic growth [18 Mar 2011]
Timetric: UK Balance of Trade in Oil [6 Mar 2011]
The US-China Trade Deficit [14 Feb 2011]
Ghana becomes a producer of crude oil [15 Dec 2010]
Tacit collusion between oil producers and consumers? [12 Dec 2010]
October Edition of EconoMax now Available [3 Nov 2010]
The Market for Potash [30 Oct 2010]
Potash - a battle for grey dust that has become gold dust [26 Aug 2010]
AS Macro: Extreme weather hits Russian economic growth [26 Aug 2010]
Australia divided on a mining super-tax [4 Jun 2010]
AS Macro Revision: Cost Push Inflation [31 May 2010]
Economics of the EU Revision - Carbon Taxes [26 May 2010]
AS Economics Revision - Stocks and Prices [22 May 2010]
AS Economics Revision - Oil and Petrol Prices [22 May 2010]
Issues and Prospects for the UK Economy in 2010 [25 Apr 2010]
UK Economy Revision: Inflation in the last few years [1 Apr 2010]
RES Competition: A New World Currency? [31 Mar 2010]
Bill Gates on Energy and Carbon [9 Mar 2010]
New House of Commons research report on carbon trading [21 Feb 2010]
Slumpflation? UK inflation jumps to 3.5% [16 Feb 2010]
Is hitch-hiking the most carbon efficient form of transport? [17 Jan 2010]
Assorted Links (5 Jan 2010) [5 Jan 2010]
Is UK manufacturing turning a corner? [4 Jan 2010]
Assorted Links (3 Jan 2010) [3 Jan 2010]
Assorted Links (1 Jan 2010) [1 Jan 2010]
Impact of global recession on developing countries [18 Dec 2009]
Green gold in Tanzania [14 Dec 2009]
Fast growing developing countries may mean end of era of cheap oil [11 Nov 2009]
Peak oil theory and economic implications [25 Oct 2009]
Speculators and Exceptions to the Law of Demand [23 Oct 2009]
Norway - your guys take a lot of beating! [21 Oct 2009]
Gloomy summary [13 Oct 2009]
Explaining the Malthusian Trap [8 Oct 2009]
Explaining the Malthusian Trap [5 Oct 2009]
Are the Japanese the latest victims of a strengthening currency? [28 Sep 2009]
Managing a global business in turbulent times [23 Sep 2009]
Olive Oil Producers Suffer from Falling Prices [16 Sep 2009]
The Big Question looks at peak oil theory [7 Sep 2009]
Falling oil prices hit oil exporting nations [10 Aug 2009]
OPEC compliance dips with the oil price [26 Jul 2009]
Surplus carbon credits - consumer subsidise the polluters [23 Jul 2009]
Recession and cheaper pound help to cut UK trade deficit [12 Jul 2009]
Petrol-Diesel Price Difference Narrows [30 Jun 2009]
Q&A: What is hedging? [1 Jun 2009]
Grey Skies for BA as Revenues Fall and Losses Take Off [24 May 2009]
Norway - Shallower Recession and Better Placed [18 May 2009]
Australia delays carbon trading because of recession [4 May 2009]
Global airlines nudge towards carbon emissions trading [10 Apr 2009]
Economic slump cuts EU carbon emissions [4 Apr 2009]
Mexico - a rough deal from NAFTA? [27 Mar 2009]
Trade Imbalances - Presentation [12 Feb 2009]
Globalisation and EU labour law [3 Feb 2009]
2008 - A Year when Bubbles Burst [31 Dec 2008]
World Oil Market in Review - 2008 [30 Dec 2008]
Economics of energy - over a barrel [22 Dec 2008]
OPEC’s biggest cut [17 Dec 2008]
Coal and CO2 emissions - Poland [12 Dec 2008]
Crude oil prices and rig counts [12 Dec 2008]
The Costs of Cutting Carbon [5 Dec 2008]
Stagnation and other breakfast reading [29 Oct 2008]
The Folly of Growth [26 Oct 2008]
The Credit Crunch in Charts [23 Oct 2008]
A great example of how to get fingers burned trading in oil [23 Oct 2008]
Sharp fall in commodity prices [9 Oct 2008]
Not just for profit - a new breed of social entrepreneur [7 Oct 2008]
Back to the cave or a brave new world? [22 Sep 2008]
Another upward spike in inflation [16 Sep 2008]
Windfall gains for the biggest polluters [13 Sep 2008]
Crude oil heads below $100 a barrel [9 Sep 2008]
Investing the proceeds of the oil bonanza [8 Sep 2008]
Economic cost of fuel subsidies [17 Aug 2008]
Some Good Radio Programmes [17 Aug 2008]
Oil - a coming supply crunch? [8 Aug 2008]
Drax feels the heat of rising carbon prices [6 Aug 2008]
Tim Harford on carbon negativity [25 Jul 2008]
Light at the end of the pipeline? [16 Jul 2008]

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