Canadians need to take a hard look at events that continue to unfold
Frants Attorp
Special to Times Colonist
Monday, June 30, 2008
It’s time to rewrite Canada’s history books. Not because our children shouldn’t learn about Louis Riel, the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway or the two world wars, but because the most significant events — the ones that eclipse all others — happened just recently and continue to unfold.
THESE INCLUDE:
- The collapse of the East Coast cod fishery. Five hundred years ago, explorer John Cabot returned to England from the Grand Banks with news that codfish ran so thick they could be scooped up in wicker baskets. He had discovered the most amazing fishing grounds the world had ever seen, waters so teeming with life that many colonies were established just to harvest the incredible bounty.
Whenever residents of Edmonton, Alberta flush their toilets after 2012, some of their sewage will find its way to a Petro-Canada plant northeast of the city that converts bitumen-like oil sands into crude oil.
Petro-Canada has promised that the first phase of the Fort Hills Sturgeon upgrader, consuming 15.8m litres of water a day, will not only run entirely on treated wastewater, but will then send the used water back to Edmonton for further recycling.
The Fort Hills initiative is one of many environmentally friendly processes companies are trumpeting in response to a widening chorus of concern about the damage caused by oil sands extraction and upgrading on water supplies, wildlife habitat and the atmosphere.
Oil giant blames consumers, not speculators, for soaring prices
Shaun Polczer
Canwest News Service
Monday, June 30, 2008
MADRID - Much-maligned speculators aren’t to blame for soaring oil prices, the head of Anglo oil giant BP PLC said Monday.
Rather, it’s consumers who have pushed demand for energy to new heights that are the cause of runaway crude prices, Tony Hayward told the inaugural session of the 19th World Petroleum Congress.
The rookie CEO of the world’s second-largest oil company said sky-high crude prices are “completely based on fundamentals,” and characterized speculators as “investors” rather than profiteers.
