As If The Ugly Tesla Truck Was Not Enough

[Greg A]

Numbers aside, which can be argued to infinity and beyond, at least there is positive news out of some of these countries that it is moving in a positive direction. Just have to get more participating at a high level and it might ultimately make a difference.

[yangstyle]

Seems odd to me that you can cut down trees in the USA and Canada, ship them all the way to the UK and burn them and that is considered environmentally friendly.

[emers382]

Yes numbers can be argued I agree however the push to electrify everything will never be accomplished by using solely renewables to produce the massive new amounts of power that will be required. For example staying with Great Britain Boris has said new cars sold after 2029 must not be gas or diesel powered. Now they've just come up with new homes will not be allowed after 2033 to have gas boilers but must be electric or hydrogen. Not only that but all houses after 2028 must meet a certain energy performance standard or they may not be resold.
https://life.spectator.co.uk/article...me-unsellable/

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by emers382

I still disagree with "biomass" being called renewable, yes the trees grow back but like I mentioned before most of what they use at the Drax plant in northern England comes from the southern USA and is heavily subsidised. What's the environmental cost to processing and shipping all that wood?

The trees growing back (using carbon dioxide from the atmosphere) does literally mean that they are a renewable resource, but "renewable" doesn't necessarily mean either "cost effective" or "environmentally benign". There are similar issues with every form of power production; I agree that shipping wood across the Atlantic is a significant issue.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by emers382

... staying with Great Britain Boris has said new cars sold after 2029 must not be gas or diesel powered.

That sort of plan has become popular. In Canada, B.C. and Quebec have made similar policies, with later target dates.

[Telescopist]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

That sort of plan has become popular. In Canada, B.C. and Quebec have made similar policies, with later target dates.

Is there a political will in Canada to close down the Alberta tars sands by 2029?

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Telescopist

Is there a political will in Canada to close down the Alberta tars sands by 2029?

That depends on which party you ask. Not going to make any political comments though. [emoji16]

[emers382]

Originally Posted by Telescopist

Is there a political will in Canada to close down the Alberta tars sands by 2029?

I hope this doesn't sound political however getting crude oil from the "OIL" sands is just cleaning up mother natures' huge oil spill.

[Mike Lewis]

Big wind turbines coming to offshore wind farms:

https://dnyuz.com/2021/01/01/a-monst...g-an-industry/

[Telescopist]

Originally Posted by emers382

I hope this doesn't sound political however getting crude oil from the "OIL" sands is just cleaning up mother natures' huge oil spill.

The First Nations on both sides of the 49th Parallel thank you.

[yangstyle]

Originally Posted by Telescopist

The First Nations on both sides of the 49th Parallel thank you.

Interesting reading, a lot of the source material listed is quite old and I know there have been many improvements over the later years so I hope some of the issues have been cleared up in the oil sands area.
I know that there is more insitu mining going on at the oil sands as that is far better than strip mining for the environment.
Any strip mining done brings up toxic chemicals and minerals buried in the ground and then they are exposed to the environment to possibly get into waterways etc. That goes for coal, gold and many of the chemicals used for batteries, solar panels, etc.

I used to watch a show on tv about gold miners in the North, they would just dig up ground, extract the gold and move on leaving a big mess behind them. They never showed them cleaning up anything so I assume it was not done.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by yangstyle

I know that there is more insitu mining going on at the oil sands as that is far better than strip mining for the environment.
Any strip mining done brings up toxic chemicals and minerals buried in the ground and then they are exposed to the environment to possibly get into waterways etc. That goes for coal, gold and many of the chemicals used for batteries, solar panels, etc.

Yes, but even in-situ operations routinely have a produced water byproduct, so some of the same issues exist.

Originally Posted by yangstyle

I used to watch a show on tv about gold miners in the North, they would just dig up ground, extract the gold and move on leaving a big mess behind them. They never showed them cleaning up anything so I assume it was not done.

Some of those operations are pretty marginal, but keep in mind that the thing most missing from reality TV is reality.