Tar Sands

Author : Andrew Nikiforuk
Publisher : Greystone Books Ltd
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2010-08-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781553656272

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Tar Sands by Andrew Nikiforuk Pdf

Tar Sands critically examines the frenzied development in the Canadian tar sands and the far-reaching implications for all of North America. Bitumen, the sticky stuff that ancients used to glue the Tower of Babel together, is the world’s most expensive hydrocarbon. This difficult-to-find resource has made Canada the number-one supplier of oil to the United States, and every major oil company now owns a lease in the Alberta tar sands. The region has become a global Deadwood, complete with rapturous engineers, cut-throat cocaine dealers, Muslim extremists, and a huge population of homeless individuals. In this award-winning book, a Canadian bestseller, journalist Andrew Nikiforuk exposes the disastrous environmental, social, and political costs of the tar sands, arguing forcefully for change. This updated edition includes new chapters on the most energy-inefficient tar sands projects (the steam plants), as well as new material on the controversial carbon cemeteries and nuclear proposals to accelerate bitumen production.

Author : Paul Anthony Chastko
Publisher : University of Calgary Press
Page : 339 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781552381243

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Developing Alberta's Oil Sands by Paul Anthony Chastko Pdf

Alberta's oil sands represent a vast and untapped oil reserve that could reasonably supply all of Canada's energy needs for the next 475 years. With an estimated 300 billion barrels of recoverable oil at stake, the quest to develop this natural resource has been undertaken by many powerful actors, both nationally and internationally. Using research that integrates the economic, political, scientific, and business factors that have been influential in discovering and developing the sands, this book provides a comprehensive history of the oil sands project and a window on the nature of the complex relationships between industry, government, and transnational players. This book is the first comprehensive volume that examines the origins and development of the oil sands industry over the last century.

Author : James G. Speight
Publisher : Gulf Professional Publishing
Page : 577 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2016-02-24
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780128018750

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Introduction to Enhanced Recovery Methods for Heavy Oil and Tar Sands by James G. Speight Pdf

Introduction to Enhanced Recovery Methods for Heavy Oil and Tar Sands, Second Edition, explores the importance of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and how it has grown in recent years thanks to the increased need to locate unconventional resources such as heavy oil and shale. Unfortunately, petroleum engineers and managers aren't always well-versed in the enhancement methods that are available when needed or the most economically viable solution to maximize their reservoir’s productivity. This revised new edition presents all the current methods of recovery available, including the pros and cons of each. Expanded and updated as a great preliminary text for the newcomer to the industry or subject matter, this must-have EOR guide teaches all the basics needed, including all thermal and non-thermal methods, along with discussions of viscosity, sampling, and the technologies surrounding offshore applications. Enables users to quickly learn how to choose the most efficient recovery method for their reservoir while evaluating economic conditions Presents the differences between each method of recovery with newly added real-world case studies from around the world Helps readers stay competitive with the growing need of extracting unconventional resources with new content on how these complex reservoirs interact with injected reservoir fluids

Author : Ian Thomas Urquhart
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 379 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2018-01-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781487594619

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Costly Fix by Ian Thomas Urquhart Pdf

"Costly Fix addresses core questions about the Alberta oil sands boom that started in the 1990s: Why did this flood of investment pour into the oil sands of northern Alberta? What role has government played with respect to the oil sands rush, and why? Who benefited and who or what has paid the costs of exploiting the oil sands? By analyzing the interest, ideas, and institutions involved in the oil sands boom, Ian Urquart charts its development from the beginning to the present. In this process, we learn about the state's role in making the oil sands profitable, the environmental dimensions of oil sands development, and First Nations' roles in both opposing and supporting the industry. The final chapter examines the extent to which Alberta's new NDP government, in its first eighteen months, altered the legacies they inherited from the Progressive Conservatives on royalties, tailings reservoirs, and climate change."--

Author : Ezra Levant
Publisher : McClelland & Stewart
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2011-05-03
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780771046438

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Ethical Oil by Ezra Levant Pdf

Canada's "no. 1 defender of freedom of speech" and the bestselling author of Shakedown makes the timely and provocative case that when it comes to oil, ethics matter just as much as the economy and the environment. In 2009, Ezra Levant's bestselling book Shakedown revealed the corruption of Canada's human rights commissions and was declared the "most important public affairs book of the year." In Ethical Oil, Levant turns his attention to another hot-button topic: the ethical cost of our addiction to oil. While many North Americans may be aware of the financial and environmental price we pay for a gallon of gas or a barrel of oil, Levant argues that it is time we consider ethical factors as well. With his trademark candor, Levant asks hard-hitting questions: With the oil sands at our disposal, is it ethically responsible to import our oil from the Sudan, Russia, and Mexico? How should we weigh carbon emissions with human rights violations in Saudi Arabia? And assuming that we can't live without oil, can the development of energy be made more environmentally sustainable? In Ethical Oil, Levant exposes the hypocrisy of the West's dealings with the reprehensible regimes from which we purchase the oil that sustains our lifestyles, and offers solutions to this dilemma. Readers at all points on the political spectrum will want to read this timely and provocative new book, which is sure to spark debate.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Rocky Mountain Books Ltd
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Photography
ISBN : 9781771600545

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Beautiful Destruction by Anonim Pdf

The Alberta oil/tar sands are a place of superlatives, of awesome beauty and equally awesome destruction. They are a kaleidoscope of contrasts, colours and patterns keeping time with the seemingly unstoppable movement of machinery, smoke and effluent set in an immense boreal landscape with its own immutable patterns, cadence and cycles. Beautiful Destruction is a large-format, high-quality photography book that uses over 100 stunning, full-colour aerial photographs to transcend the polarities that dominate public discourse of the largest industrial project in North America: the Alberta oil/tar sands. With short essays by renowned personalities Bill McKibben, Charles Wilkinson, Duff Connacher, Elizabeth May, Eric Reguly, Ezra Levant, Jennifer Grant, Rick George, Gil McGowan, Allan Adam, Megan Leslie and Francis Scarpaleggia from both sides of the oil/tar sands debate discussing the artistic, industrial and environmental perceptions of northern Alberta's petroleum-based mega-project, Beautiful Destruction is one of the most ambitious, provocative and unique photography projects to be published in years.

Author : Chris Turner
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2017-09-19
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781501115097

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The Patch by Chris Turner Pdf

"In its heyday, the oil sands represented an industrial triumph and the culmination of a century of innovation, experiment, engineering, policy, and finance. Fort McMurray was a boomtown, the centre of a new gold rush, and the oil sands were reshaping the global energy, political, and financial landscapes. The future seemed limitless for the city and those who drew their wealth from the bitumen-rich wilderness. But in 2008, a new narrative for the oil sands emerged. As financial markets collapsed and the scientific reality of the Patch's effect on the environment became clear, the region turned into a boogeyman and a lightning rod for the global movement combatting climate change. Suddenly, the streets of Fort McMurray were the front line of a high-stakes collision between two conflicting worldviews--one of industrial triumph and another of environmental stewardship--each backed by major players on the world stage. The Patch is the seminal account of this ongoing conflict, showing just how far the oil sands reaches into all of our lives. From Fort Mac to the Bakken shale country of North Dakota, from Houston to London, from Saudi Arabia to the shores of Brazil, the whole world is connected in this enterprise. And it requires us to ask the question: In order to both fuel the world and to save it, what do we do about the Patch?"--

Author : David Martin
Publisher : NeWest Press
Page : 96 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2018-04
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1988732182

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Tar Swan by David Martin Pdf

Tar Swan is a multi-voiced reckoning that surveys the mythos of the Alberta oil sands with an approach that is both lyrical and experimental. The poems feature four voices: an oil sands developer (in public and in private), his plant mechanic, an archeologist excavating the remains of the operation years later, and a mythical swan. David Martin's debut collection is comprised of expansive and richly written poems, built on a lore-laden language, which explore the human and environmental cost of drawing too much from the land. As the three humans come into contact with the otherworldly swan, the voices bubble and churn together, and what is distilled is the human psychological breakdown paralleling the violence done to the earth.

Author : Andrew Nikiforuk
Publisher : Greystone Books Ltd
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781553655558

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Tar Sands by Andrew Nikiforuk Pdf

"A scathing critique." Green Inc. The New York Times "An astonishingly entertaining read that raises your hackles while raising your awareness." Sustainablog "Required reading for every citizen." The Georgia Straight The Alberta tar sands could make Canada the world's second greatest oil exporter by 2050. Although growth has been tempered by the global financial crisis, U.S., Asian, and European investors are still pouring billions of dollars into the megaproject. To extract the world's ugliest, most expensive hydrocarbon, we are polluting our air, poisoning our water, destroying vast areas of boreal forest, and undermining democracy itself. In this new edition of his provocative bestseller, Andrew Nikiforuk assesses recent developments, refutes industry's claim that steam plants are a "greener" way to extract bitumen, and argues more convincingly than ever that it is folly to stake our future on dirty oil. "Nikiforuk has a point, and he has guts...Buy this book." Edmonton Journal "A slashing indictment of politicians in the back pockets of energy megacorporations, of regulators cowed into acquiescence, and of all of us who look the other way as we fill our gas tanks," Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Upside of Down

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2011-09-22
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0080868614

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Bitumens, asphalts, and tar sands by Anonim Pdf

Bitumens, asphalts, and tar sands

Author : Matt Hern,Am Johal
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 227 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2018-03-30
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780262037648

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Global Warming and the Sweetness of Life by Matt Hern,Am Johal Pdf

Seeking new definitions of ecology in the tar sands of northern Alberta and searching for the sweetness of life in the face of planetary crises. Confounded by global warming and in search of an affirmative politics that links ecology with social change, Matt Hern and Am Johal set off on a series of road trips to the tar sands of northern Alberta—perhaps the world's largest industrial site, dedicated to the dirty work of extracting oil from Alberta's vast reserves. Traveling from culturally liberal, self-consciously “green” Vancouver, and aware that our well-meaning performances of recycling and climate-justice marching are accompanied by constant driving, flying, heating, and fossil-fuel consumption, Hern and Johal want to talk to people whose lives and fortunes depend on or are imperiled by extraction. They are seeking new definitions of ecology built on a renovated politics of land. Traveling with them is their friend Joe Sacco—infamous journalist and cartoonist, teller of complex stories from Gaza to Paris—who contributes illustrations and insights and a chapter-length comic about the contradictions of life in an oil town. The epic scale of the ecological horror is captured through an series of stunning color photos by award-winning aerial photographer Louis Helbig. Seamlessly combining travelogue, sophisticated political analysis, and ecological theory, speaking both to local residents and to leading scholars, the authors propose a new understanding of ecology that links the domination of the other-than-human world to the domination of humans by humans. They argue that any definition of ecology has to start with decolonization and that confronting global warming requires a politics that speaks to a different way of being in the world—a reconstituted understanding of the sweetness of life. Published with the help of funding from Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan fund

Author : James G. Speight
Publisher : Gulf Professional Publishing
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2012-10-23
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780124045521

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Oil Sand Production Processes by James G. Speight Pdf

The combination of global warming and peak oil has made finding alternative sources of energy more important than ever. Written in an easy-to-read format, Oil Sands Production Processes provide the reader with an understandable overview of the chemistry, engineering, and technology of oil sands. The various chapters have been written to include the latest developments in the oil sands industry, including evolving and new processes as well as the various environmental regulations. Overview of the chemistry, engineering, and technology of oil sands Updates on the evolving processes and new processes Evolving and new environmental regulations regarding oil sands production processes

Author : Alastair Sweeny
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2010-05-13
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780470675830

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Black Bonanza by Alastair Sweeny Pdf

What if Canada 's so-called environmental nightmare was really an engineering triumph and the key to a stable and sustainable future? 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.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2016-06
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1926476123

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We Still Live Here by Anonim Pdf

Author : Tony Clarke
Publisher : Lorimer
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2008-10-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1552770184

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Tar Sands Showdown by Tony Clarke Pdf

Canada's oil patch is booming. The Alberta tar sands have become the next big oil source for the United States, replacing Saudi Arabia. Within the next 15 years, Canada will be pumping four times more crude than today from the tar pits of northern Alberta into the US market. The tar sands are key to the claim that Canada is the new "energy superpower." As the new backbone of Canada's economy, the tar sands are bound to define and shape Canada's role and destiny as a nation in the 21st century. What is lacking is independent, reliable information and thoughtful analysis on the host of questions raised by the tar sands. What is the real cost to Albertans and to Canadians? How far are we willing to go to fuel America's oil addiction? What will the ecological and social impacts be? What can be done to build an alternative energy future in an age of global warming? Tar Sands Showdown provides a tool for stimulating public discussion and debate about these important issues.