---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Better World Club" <
marketing@betterworldclub.com>
Date: Apr 21, 2013 8:12 AM
Subject: Driving Change - KXL and EarthDay
To: "Dan Stafford" <
aquarianm@gmail.com>
Cc:
| |
Earth Day 2013 Canadian Environmentalists, Where Art Thou? Has China hired a master illusionist to make all the environmentalists disappear? Much of the discussion over the future of the Keystone XL pipeline has focused on the issue of potential oil spills. It has been nearly three years since the Deep-water Horizon disaster, two years since the massive oil spill in the Kalamazoo River (both still in clean up), and barely a month since the Pegasus pipeline ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas, and congress still seems to be edging closer to nothing major could possibly happen along the nearly thousand miles of Keystone XL pipeline.
But at its most fundamental level, even though the Pegasus pipeline spill in Arkansas dumped hundreds of thousands of tar sands oil into Mayflower, AK, the issue isn't really about oil spills. It is about the tar sands oil itself.
Thomas Homer-Dixon, who teaches global governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, reminds us,"Tar sands production is one of the world's most environmentally damaging activities. It wrecks vast areas of boreal forest through surface mining and subsurface production. It sucks up huge quantities of water from local rivers, turns it into toxic waste, and dumps the contaminated water into tailing ponds that now cover nearly 70 square miles."
Also, compared to conventional crude oil, bitumen returns less than half the energy value, four to six joules compared to 15 joules of conventional crude. But money is flowing into Alberta, working to squeeze out this toxic and wasteful energy.
Last month, Chinese National Offshore Oil Company, or CNOOC, purchased NEXEN, a small but strategic player in the Canadian oil industry, and China's oil import demands are expected to rise from 60 percent of oil used to 75 percent over the next twelve years.
At a time when 60 percent of the remaining "open to market" oil development is found in the oil sands region of Albert, it makes perfect business sense for China and others to edge into the North American oil market. But tar sands are one of the worst polluting energy sources that shouldn't even be excavated for use.
So, where are the Canadians who oppose this development? And where is Canada's environmental community opposing the use of tar sands?
Read More  |
A Million Comments Against Keystone XL It's Earth Day's virtual conga line of change!  On March 29th, ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline spilled at least 157,000 gallons of tar sands oil into the town of Mayflower, Arkansas.
As our friends at 350.org explain, "This spill highlights the risks of building the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would carry 9 times more oil than the pipeline that broke."
350.org is asking you to speak out, and they are working to submit 1 million comments to the State Department to stop Keystone XL.
Add Yours Voice |
Three Foot Rule Is Back! California Cyclists Ready for Another Race with Governor Jerry Brown  Yes, cyclists or not, Californians can rise up once more and pedal their hearts out to catch up to the other 22 states that have already enacted 3-foot passing measures for passing cyclists on the road. Hollywood is full of stories the little (liberal) guy coming from behind to win the race, right?
Steven Bradford of Gardena, California introduced yet another attempt at a safe passing law by amending Assembly Bill 1371. California Bicycle Coalition is also submitting an amendment to Senate Bill 1464, SB 910.
While the language about three feet minimum distance while passing cyclists remains the same, more precise language on how motorists should and should not pass when they're driving past a bicycle has been added as well as changes to rules governing dense urban areas to accommodate the objections of Governor Jerry Brown. As you recall, AAA lobbied heavily against instating three foot laws in California.
Cyclists in California now call any hit-from-behind collision against a cyclist a "Jerry Brown," in honor of Governor Jerry Brown's vetoes of the two past attempts at a three foot passing law in California. Only Brown and Texas Governor Rick Perry have vetoed safe passing laws submitted to them.
22 states now have a safe passing law on the books, and Ohio is working towards being the 23rd! Come on California, Come on Ohio! We want to see you race! Safely, of course.
We know some of you are competitive and may want to pull Jerry Brown, but please don't pull "A Jerry Brown."
Find out more and lend your support to the CA 3-foot rule!
Find out more and lend your support to the OH 3-foot rule!
Contact your State Officials |
Giving Directions Australia can go 100% renewable energy by 2030  Australia is a big producer and user of coal.
Black and brown coal represented over 75% of the country's electric power generation in 2008-2009, and vast quantities of the black stuff is exported out of the country, mostly to China. But it doesn't have to be this way.
A peer-reviewed study by researchers at the University of New South Wales shows that the country could go 100% renewable by 2030 if a price of $50 to $100/tonne was put on carbon, making the country's vast wind and solar resources more than competitive with fossil fuels
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