High gas prices? How’d the heck that happen?

AP: Gas Prices, Oil Rise to New Records
Gas prices at the pumps are officially the highest they’ve ever been in North America, even higher than during the oil crisis of the 1970s when adjusted for inflation. Yet for many, the concept of higher gas prices seems to be coming as a cold shock. Complaints abound, along with accusations of price fixing, and complicated websites have popped up to share information about where the cheapest gas can be purchased. These efforts are akin to rearranging the furniture on the deck of the sinking Titanic.  The reality is that many have seen these prices coming for decades, the prices will only continue to rise, and despite lots of warning we’ve done almost nothing to prepare for it.

The only proper solution is to reduce our reliance on oil, which means driving less and making the necessary changes to our lifestyles, cities, suburbs and transit systems in order to facilitate this. Yet even last year, truck and SUV sales rose, and suburban sprawl continued right up until the Great Mortgage Collapse. It seems we don’t learn any lessons until we are absolutely forced to; and by then, they could be some very harsh lessons indeed.  High oil prices filter through almost every area of our economy, hurting every single one of us — even those of us who don’t drive.

When did all this happen? Probably when you were watching American Idol and laughing at Britney Spears.

File under “why bother”.

Bloomberg: Canada Requiring Oil-Sands Projects to Store Carbon
The Canadian government today announced a plan to limit the carbon emissions from the booming oil sands development in Alberta. How? By requiring any new oil sands development projects after 2012 to sequester their carbon. That means another four full years of wholesale carbon emitting, followed by a weak-kneed law that already presents obvious loopholes (my first thought: what exactly constitutes a “new project”?) The oil sands industry is the largest carbon emitter in Canada, itself one of the worst carbon-emitting countries in the world. It is embarrassing that amid so much wealth there is so little interest in offsetting the damage the extraction causes.

Even worse than you might think

MSNBC: CO2 output must cease altogether, studies warn
As weary as you may be about all the “global warming” news, truth is the problem is actually much more daunting than most believe: to seriously stop climate change, we need to stop nearly all CO2 emissions in coming decades.  A few piddling cuts here and there — driving a smaller car, adding some ethanol to gasoline, turning off a light when not in the room — will not save us.  If anything, they will only create a false impression of “doing something” and end up worsening the problem. These studies are more in line with many other more blunt climate assessments such as George Monbiot’s excellent book Heat.

Rising temperatures, rising tensions

AFP:  Climate Change a new factor in global tensions
With both the oil shortage and climate change crises worsening before our eyes, there are plenty of new reasons on the table for international war and conflict.   This is one reason why the smugness of some countries — Canada included — is greatly misguided.  Some cynics say Canada will have a net benefit from a warmer climate, and I suspect that our slow response to the problem is at least partially due to this attitude.  Warmer winters, more agriculture, what’s not to like, right?  The problem is, Canada does not exist in a vaccuum, and even friends can rapidly turn to enemies in a desperate situation.  Clearly the time to resolve climate change issues peacefully and sensibly is rapidly running out.

Confirming the obvious

Toronto Star: Tories flunk green audit
An auditor confirmed today what most people already knew:  Canada’s conservative government has an abysmal record in almost every aspect of environmental protection.   They outright flunked in 9 of 14 areas, and this article doesn’t even mention the devastation of the Alberta Oil Sands.  In all, this is an embarrassment for Canada.  It is inexcusable that one of the world’s wealthiest nations does so little to protect the very land from which we have derived most of our wealth.

Fighting for their right to pollute

MSNBC: Tighten smog rules? Industry fights proposal
As the US government prepares to introduce new tougher limits on smog emissions, various industries are actively fighting back.  As usual, they argue that making the required changes will cost money and hurt the economy.  Health experts point out that thousands of lives would be spared and millions of dollars saved on health care and missed days of productivity.  If it was terrorists killing thousands of Americans each year instead of smog, you can bet the problem would be taken slightly more seriously.

Black rivers and flattened mountains

Toronto Star: Coal mining ravages Appalachian mountains
I often read dreary stories about environmental disaster, but this one made an unusual impact. The scale of destruction nearly incomprehensible, with entire mountains razed, floodwaters black with coal debris, and houses rendered uninhabitable. Just as shocking are the stories of those who are being attacked, threated, and intimidated for simply trying to protect their own homes.

The brake lines on her truck were cut. Her dog was shot and left at her 17-year-old son Jessie’s school bus stop. Last October, 200 bullets coming from the mountainside splattered around her in her yard, she says. She gardens now in a bullet-proof vest.

Cold War v2.0: Oil & Gas Edition

Financial Times: Gazprom steps up Ukraine gas war
Russia is reducing natural gas supplies to Ukraine, claiming that the country has not paid its bills. Ukraine claims it is trying to negotiate but Russia is not responding. Because crucial gas pipelines between Central Asia and Europe pass through Ukraine, the EU is alarmed, and shortages could soon spread. It is unfortunate that we now find that much of Europe’s energy stability in the hands of Russia, a country with a freshly entrenched dictator who is delighting in the renewed power oil wealth brings his nation after a decade of humiliating poverty.

Pollution needs no travel visa

Telegraph: China’s pollution closes South Korea schools
Having one country’s environmental recklessness affect another is nothing new (North Americans drive SUVs which contribute to the droughts that kill millions of Saharan Africans; US rust belt auto manufacturing creates acid rain that falls on Canada) but this is a new one: this week, dust storms laced with toxic pollution blew from China into South Korea, forcing them to close schools and alter their lifestyles. Yet another potential cause for future wars?

Denial: not just a (shrinking) river in Egypt

WSJ: Heating up the Global Warming Debate, If There Still Is One
Like heads of a hideous hydra, every time you think the climate skeptics have finally given up their game they come back more desperately than ever.  This week it’s a “global warming is not a crisis” conference in New York, where the various shills for oil and industry have gathered together to denounce climate change as a fraud, roast Al Gore (because if you don’t like the message, blame the messenger, right?) and generally dredge up those same old long debunked pseudo-arguments to spread doubt about climate change.  Thanks, guys, for making a very difficult task even harder.

All our kernels in one basket?

LA Times: Corn is king
As any studious reader of Michael Pollan knows, almost everything in the North American food supply chain starts with corn. Now, by subsidizing the growing of corn for use in biofuels, the US has inextricably linked our food and fuel economies. That means that a drought in the US midwest — not an unlikely occurrence — could now have disastrous consquences that touch nearly every area of our lives.

The great (vegetable) oil shortage

International Herald Tribune: The other oil shortage
Prices for all edible oils — palm, soy, corn, and others — have been skyrocketing, in large part due to Western subsidies of oils used for production of biofuels. Like most environmental issues, sadly, what is a mere inconvenience in the supermarket for Western consumers is a life-or-death issue for those in poor countries who rely on oil to cook their food, and cannot afford the drastically higher prices. Even worse, many of the subsidies originally created to “help the environement” are actually encouraging the destruction of rainforests, as growers clear land to grow now lucrative oil palms.