30 Fairmont Park Lane S
Lethbridge, AB
T1K 7H7
Phone: (403) 328-1804
Saturday, November 12, 2005
The Editor
The Lethbridge Herald
P.O. Box 670
Lethbridge
AB, T1J 3Z7
Dear Editor,
Re: Sierra Club slams province over CO2 pipeline plan, 05/11/09, A6
The Sierra Club believes human induced climate change from carbon dioxide emissions is a looming disaster for humanity. We should thus be puzzled that John Bennett, the Sierra Club’s policy advisor, claims it is “criminal” to even talk about a plan to avoid carbon dioxide by using it to help recover oil. Instead, Mr. Bennett advises we should become “more efficient with our vehicles and homes and oilfield operations”.
It is certainly a good thing to improve energy efficiency to increase the benefits we obtain from its use. However, Mr. Bennett should know that logic and history demonstrate increasing energy efficiency in a free society leads to increased overall energy use. It becomes more affordable for more applications and also contributes to population increase by improving health and increasing food supply. Of course, in combination with efficiency improvement, the implementation of additional draconian policy to strictly control population and dictate energy use could lead to reduced emissions. Maybe that is what Mr. Bennett has in mind for the longer term.
There are many reasons to doubt the climate change catastrophe that the Sierra Club and others promote. Still, the use of carbon dioxide, alleged to be the cause, by injecting it underground to enhance oil recovery instead of releasing it to the atmosphere could be one way to a workable solution. We need to be very wary of the motives of those who prescribe palliative care while castigating serious initiatives of those who consider cures which just might be needed.
Yours truly,
Duane Pendergast