Listened to @AJWVictoriaBC on the @CBCStephenQuinn and the number of errors he made was stunning. Alberta oils aren't even the dirtiest oil in North America that comes from California (Placerita oil field). The dirtiest oil in world is Nigerian (Bass oil field) #bcpoli#abpoli 1/
He keeps claiming that diluted bitumen is "not oil". That is simply wrong. Certainty bitumen is an unconventional oil but by every definition under the sun it is a type of crude oil. I'm not sure why he keeps making such a demonstrably wrong statement. #bcpoli#abpoli 3/
I will admit he likes to add qualifiers like how he talks about sediments in water but the Burrard Inlet is known to be low in sediment as is virtually all of the Salish Sea. The only area of significant sediment is in the direct plume of the Fraser River #bcpoli#abpoli 4/
His argument that there is "no reward for Canada" is also demonstrably wrong. The oil patch contributes to our tax revenue and the people in the patch also do so. This should not be a surprise to a Canadian politician #bcpoli#abpoli 5/
@ghoberg Fascinated by the language, content and references in this syllabus. It almost appears like it is designed to elicit a specific response from the students. It is interesting what information is missing and which references were chosen to represent the info. 1/
@ghoberg Let's start with the activist's favourite starting point. Any document that starts introduces the project with the term "Texas-based oil and gas company"...is bound to have issues. 2/
@ghoberg Then introducing the project you somehow forget to note that Line 1 is intended to supply refined fuels and light crudes, instead implying that it will be used in the same way as it was when there was only 1 line. 3/
Scientists are supposed to get the science right in articles like this. Yet this piece misinforms about the relative effect on the boreal forest; on the toxicity of dilbit; on spill response; and on shipping and processing. #bcpoli#cdnpoli#abpoli@sjmuir 1/
The article implies that mining is a risk to the Boreal Forest. The area it is technically possible to mine oil sands represents less than 0.02% of the Canadian Boreal forest, less that 0.01% is being mined. More area burns most years than is mined #bcpoli#cdnpoli#abpoli 2/
The article gets the chemistry of dlibit completely wrong. Dilbit has much less benzene than a typical light crude oil and diluent is almost entirely aliphatic in nature. Don't get me started on her use of the word "tar" #bcpoli#cdnpoli#abpoli 3/
The real problem with the @TransMtn file is that the people involved have allowed themselves to be misinformed on so many levels This Guardian piece is the result of years of misinformation piled up on itself. It is hard to fight this type of message #bcpoli#abpoli@keithbaldrey
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Diluted bitumen is not the most toxic type of oil, an analysis of the relative risks of the alternatives to the TMX (yes we do have to consider the alternatives) mean much higher risk to the Salish Sea, but we don't hear that because that is not the story the activists tell 2/
The activists pretend that if they stop the pipeline then magically all fossil fuels will stop. But the Puget Sound and BC will still need fuels and they will be coming in less safe means because they won't have the new NEB requirements 3/
"I just think you suffer from reductionist thinking"
As a practitioner in the natural sciences that is like being told you "suffer from being too attractive and too popular". As insults go it is one I can wear #bcpoli#abpoli#cdnpoli 1/
In the field of energy and pipelines thinking in a reductionist style means recognizing that we will still need ambulances and firetrucks in any energy future so any solution I come up with needs to include those types of services #bcpoli#abpoli#cdnpoli 2/
Being a reductionist (and a pragmatist) means acknowledging that sometimes you have to make the best of a number of imperfect choices because choosing not to make a choice is actually a choice, a choice to do nothing #bcpoli#abpoli#cdnpoli 3/
I find the most frustrating thing about talking to activists is that since none of them have any reasonable education in the field of environmental science/history that we don't have a common baseline for a reasonable dialogue 1/ #bcpoli#abpoli#cdnpoli
These film students and political scientists don't understand the language of toxicity, they have no grounding in empirical science and have no understanding of what we have learned from the past. They imagine they are the first to have had ideas 2/ #bcpoli#abpoli#cdnpoli
We advance science and other empirical fields by incremental advances in the knowledge-base. We build on ideas and research carried out in the past. This knowledge-base is passed on through environmental education 3/ #bcpoli#abpoli#cdnpoli