THE DECADES OIL PROPHECY OF MANY GETS BOGGED DOWN
IN CANADIAN SANDS
For decades we heard it repeated over and over again from the
fundamental Christian prophets: OIL in the Middle East would
bring the battle to end this age and take us into the Great
Tribulation and the return of Christ.
Books were written on it - Telicasts produced on it - Christian
prophecy news shows spouted it: fighting over the oil of the
Middle-East would bring about the 3rd world war, the end of this
age, and the coming of Christ.
For THREE decades now I have shouted IT IS NOT SO!!! Oil, and
fighting over it will NOT be the ingredient to bring about the
last world war, and the Great Tribulation.
The oily-prophecy guys SHOULD BY NOW KNOW CANADA HAS PUT THEM TO
SILENCE!!
Keith Hunt
THE BOOK "BLACK BONANZA"
Canada's Oil Sands and the Race to
Secure North America's ENERGY FUTURE
by Alastair Sweeny
ON THE BACK COVER:
For years, Canadians have been hearing nothing but bad news out
of the Athabasca Oil Sands. From 20th Century economists decrying
it as a perpetual money-loser in the face of more easily-
extracted foreign oil to green groups around the world declaring
it the world's worst industrial enterprise, sometimes it seems as
though no good could ever come from this so-called dirty
resource.
But what if developing Canada's oil sands was the key to bridging
the gap between current petroleum-based economies and the
alternative energies that aren't ready for market yet? What if it
meant eliminating the threat of peak oil and providing economic
stability not just for Canada and the rest of North America, but
for the world? And what if the environmental costs of the
resource were both not nearly as dire as some would have you
believe, but currently better than many other options with the
industry already making huge advances in sustainability, energy
use and water reclamation?
That's exactly the case that Alastair Sweeny, author of
"BlackBerry Planet," argues is at the core of the Athabasca
Sands: a bright future. By digging into the past, present and
future of oil sands technology, Sweeny cuts through the hype and
hysteria and makes a solid and engaging case that the Sands
aren't the environmental boogeyman set to destroy humanity, but
rather our best hope for a truly stable and sustainable future.
......
On the inside FRONT COVER:
VARIOUS GROUPS ARE CAMPAIGNING HARD AGAINST MINING THE
ATHABASCA SANDS. BUT DO WE WANT OR EVEN NEED TO CURTAIL WHAT MAY
WELL PROVE TO BE THE GREATEST ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENT OF THE LAST
OR COMING CENTURY?
What started out as a resource no one thought very much of has
become an economic powerhouse and an abundant source of easily
accessible energy. From the pioneering days in the middle of the
20th century through the booms and technological breakthroughs of
the 1990s and 2000s and the constant political wrangling along
the way, the Alberta oil sands are showing their promise as the
most abundant source of petroleum available to us now and into
the next century.
While there have been environmental challenges. Black Bonanza
breaks down the myths surrounding the development of the oil
sands and the harvesting of this "dirty oil;" and shows people
the real state of affairs in Alberta, Canada. Panicked naysayers
are insisting all activity be shut down immediately under the
banner of environmentalism, but the truth of the matter is that
not only is oil production from the Sands cleaner than other
major energy options such as coal mining, its impact is
relatively mild and geographically minor. The producers are
continually improving sustainability, using fewer resources per
barrel and governments are now requiring them to speed up the
reclamation of old mining sites. Best of all, new technologies
are increasingly moving extraction underground, where the
environmental footprint is much smaller. This is opening up a
brand new bonanza -- the 90% of the Sands that can't be mined --
amounting to a breathtaking trillion barrels of oil or more.
Despite gains made in solar, wind and tide energy generation, we
still live in a petroleum economy, and the Athabasca Sands will
allow the world enough time to make a smooth sea change to
sustainable solutions while avoiding the risks of dealing with
undemocratic and unstable petro-states.
Sweeny presents a compelling and contrarian case that while there
are still serious issues that need to be addressed, Canada's oil
sands represent the best hope for energy stability and
responsible economic and environmental growth in the future.
......
In the next Meltdown I will bring you much of the "Introduction"
from this book by Sweeny. A book that once I started to read I
could hardly put it down. Yes for a while yet, we are still in an
oil based world; it will one day be a thing of the past, as we
move fully into space-age technology, but that is probably a good
30 to 40 years away (if this age continues that many years before
Christ returns). We need to NOW REALIZE Middle East oil is
something we shall move away from, more and more with each
passing year. The Canadian Oil Sands has finally opened the door
to North American independance from Middle East oil.
Keith Hunt
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