Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Ship the Oil to China, Save the Earth!
Yesterday, a very liberal friend of mine who works as a climate scientist posted the following on Facebook:
Putting aside the "huge threat" nonsense, I want to focus on the part about the Keystone XL Pipeline having a negative impact on climate change mitigation. Does she believe that if Keystone isn't built, the Canadians will leave the oil in the ground? Obviously that's not going to happen (though maybe it's not so obvious to many liberals). In fact, it has been widely reported that without Keystone, the Canadians may build a pipeline to their west coast, load the oil on supertankers, and ship it to China or other markets. I assume the Chinese, or any other importer, would actually use the oil. Does this not contribute to climate change? Or, is it that only oil that is consumed in the US, or the West, contributes to climate change?
I suspect for a significant number of radical environmentalists, none of this really matters. If something harms the American economy, they will be all for it.
Hey, Nebraska friends!! The Keystone XL Oil Pipeline isn't just very bad for mitigation of future climate change, it's also a huge threat to the Ogallala aquifer. Don't let Big Oil poop all over your beautiful state.
Putting aside the "huge threat" nonsense, I want to focus on the part about the Keystone XL Pipeline having a negative impact on climate change mitigation. Does she believe that if Keystone isn't built, the Canadians will leave the oil in the ground? Obviously that's not going to happen (though maybe it's not so obvious to many liberals). In fact, it has been widely reported that without Keystone, the Canadians may build a pipeline to their west coast, load the oil on supertankers, and ship it to China or other markets. I assume the Chinese, or any other importer, would actually use the oil. Does this not contribute to climate change? Or, is it that only oil that is consumed in the US, or the West, contributes to climate change?
I suspect for a significant number of radical environmentalists, none of this really matters. If something harms the American economy, they will be all for it.
