This is a great article by the Calgary Herald that really adds some perspective on the subject of green house gas emissions. The article itself has a bit more to do with the issue of Alberta needing representation at the Copenhagen summit but it really does under scores just how over hyped the issue of emissions from the oil sands are in contrast to emissions from power generation in North America (I would love to see a world graph that includes China and India). Unfortunately the online version didn't have the graphic so I had to scan it (sorry for it being so big, I don't have editing software on this putter).
Putting oilsands in context requires push from premier
By Deborah Yedlin, Calgary HeraldDecember 8, 2009
There isn't a day that goes by without Canada being criticized for falling below its emissions cutting goals. But, as a television ad for Canadian Pacific from the 1970s that often aired during CFL games stated, a picture is worth a thousand words.
In this case, a graphic published by Natural Resources Canada pretty much tells the whole story on Canada's role as a global emitter. And the short answer is that what this country emits, in relative terms, amounts to a hill of beans compared with what is going on south of the border. And while we are being soundly criticized for letting the country's emissions rise 26 per cent since the 1990 baseline, given variables such as the growth in the economy and population, not to mention the vast area and harsh climate, it's easy to understand why Canada's numbers have jumped.
But one can only imagine what a graph of China's coal plant emissions would look like.
What's striking, however, about the graphic is that it illustrates, very clearly, that oilsands emissions are not the problem the environmental groups want them to be.
Fixing the global emissions problem, if one accepts the anthropogenic argument in the first place, is much, much bigger than the one-tenth of one per cent of emissions that come from the oilsands.
The bigger culprit by far is coal-fired electricity generation. But because it's cheap and is aiding in the industrialization of the developing world, it's not politically correct to go there.
So, once again, Canada's oilsands were the target of protests that took place on the weekend in the U.K. that were aimed at getting governments to take action at the Copenhagen climate change summit.
And it's because the oilsands continue to be the lightning rod for global warming that it's more than a tad surprising Alberta looks unlikely to be represented in Copenhagen by its premier. By contrast, the premiers of British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec have made the trek, none of which are being targeted by global environmentalists for their respective emissions.
When Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach was in Geneva earlier this year, showcasing Alberta's carbon capture and sequestration scheme, he met with a handful of individuals residing in Europe who suggested Alberta should have formal standing in Copenhagen, staffed by both the oilsands players and government officials, with the intent of addressing the oilsands misconceptions head-on.
This advice was clearly not heeded and a perfect opportunity has been missed.
It's not out of the question one of the reasons for not mounting an oilsands offensive in Copenhagen was because of a sense of fear that whatever was held in a formal setting would be overrun with protesters and therefore stymie any attempt aimed at bridging the gap between perception and reality.
But fear is no reason to run away. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt said: the only thing to fear is fear itself.
Bridging the information gap on the oilsands is going to take a lot of work; so far, the approach has been akin to a zone defence and as the evidence shows, it hasn't been very successful.
It's time the debate about emissions was framed on how the world uses energy and not the evils of the oilsands.
It's time for an offensive line comprising the heavyweights in the business the likes of Syncrude, Suncor, Canadian Natural Resources and Imperial Oil to be struck. Think of it as the equivalent to the formidable offensive line from of the Edmonton Eskimos dynasty of the 1970s: Bill Stevenson, Ron Estay, Dave Fennell and David Boone were collectively referred to as Alberta Crude for their sheer power and were instrumental in the team's Grey Cup victories.
Copenhagen provided the perfect window to begin this offensive, to seize the communications agenda from the environmental groups and present the case for the oilsands. And that's precisely why premier Stelmach should be there, as well as strong representation from the oilsands producers, not to mention the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
Instead, Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice, his Alberta provincial counterpart Rob Renner and a handful of advisers are left holding the bag for the province and industry. It's simply not going to be enough to counter the images of dead ducks on a tailings pond. Pictures, as they say, are worth a thousand words.
[email protected]
CKA Elite 
