Dirty Oil and Trade
President Obama is coming to Canada for 7 hours. While the visit barely registered in the US media until today, Canadian media were all atwitter.
Trade, energy and the environment top all concerns, pitting environmentalists against economists, oilers against environmentalists, protectionism against free trade.
In the US, the few run-up reports on Obama's Canada visit centered on the dirty oil sands -
Draw a line on tar sands,Minneapolis Star Tribune,
Obama Fends Off Neighbor-Lady's Advances, Huffington Post and Exxon Opts for Oil Sands; Will Obama?, Wall Street Journal - with a short pitch for renewal of the Great Lakes Water Quality Act in the Chicago Tribune. That's it.
Today's US media single out a range of issues, from Afghanistan , trade , oil sands, the environment -as the major topics of this first Canada/US meeting.
Two articles - Energy security calls for a continental vision, Globe and Mail and Obama's Canada Trip Could Yield Lessons in Banking, Health - by Canadian Professor
John Thompson at Duke University offer food for thought.
Related Stories
The Elephant in the Room
While were busy capping,trading and subdividing CO2s,
everyone's ignoring the elephant in the room. WATER.
In the run-up to President Obama's visit to Canada economic, trade and energy policies were all examined from all angles. WATER was barely mentioned. Have we collectively buried our heads in the sand or is the subject simply too controversial?
The US is running out of WATER fast. Without proper management, Canada is not far behind.
We cannot live without WATER. It is also a major component in energy, industrial and food production. In the United States, electricity production from fossil fuels and nuclear energy requires 190,000 million gallons of water per day, accounting for 39% of all freshwater withdrawals in the nation; on the crop side, it takes 238 gallons of water to produce a mere 2.2 pounds (1kg) of corn and and there are some 85 million acres of corn grown in the US in any given year. On the food front, Americans eat on average 100 burgers a year. The production of one burger, bun and all, requires 634 gallons of water, or 63,400 gallons of water per person per year! Multiply that by 300 million people and you have just too many zeros to even contemplate.
Yet,the one problem staring us in the face, the only one we cannot adapt to, remains largely absent from the current discourse.
Just as climate and energy, WATER needs a continental approach.
A rigourous assessment of water resources across the continent, combined with an integrated management of industry, energy and farming is key to expanding our water resources and providing more clean drinking water to all.
As much as it offends our national prides, fortress North America remains the one viable solution.
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The Issues
Audio
Climate Change Impact on Water
Virginia Burkett, Chief Scientist for Global Change Research at USGS
Impending Prairie Drought - David Schindler Univ.of Calgary
Arctic Sovereignty -
Rob Huebert, University of Calgary
Shipping Pollution -
James Corbett, Univ. Delaware
Devils Lake Battle -
William J. Delmore,attorney at law for Manitoba
Canada Lagging in Pole Race -
Michael Byers, Global Politics & International Law, UBC
San Diego Water Woes - Stepehn Hoffmann, Pres. Watertech Capital
Trouble in US Southwest -
Tim Barnett, Scripps Institution
The Next Water War - Justin Wilson, attorney Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, Nashville
Oil Sands Tailings Report -
Matt Price, Environmental Defence
Carcinogens downstream from Oil Sands -
Kevin Timoney, Ecologist,Treeline Environmental Research
Alberta Oil Sands - Melody Lepine - Environment Director, Mikisew Cree First Nation
Reports
The Canary in the Coal Mine
Super Corridors -Pt1
Super Corridors -Pt2
Train Corridors
Tristate Water War
The Colorado
When the US elected Obama president, it gave the world a leader for change and hope. But habits die hard and change is hard to come by.
Routines prevail. Change now has borders, protectionism rears its head everywhere and the interests of the oil economy is pitted against the change we need to protect our planet in peril.
Will we follow through on the paradygm shift that was initiated in November 2008?
Or were we just paying lip service...
Changes, 2pac - Obama Remix- You Tube
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Obama on Water
1922 Colorado River Compact
Opening the compact would pit the seven basin states against one another in extended negotiations, instead of facilitating cooperative efforts to address water supply challenges facing the arid west," read a statement posted on Obama's Web site. "I will respect the work the seven states have done and honor the Compact."
Water Conservation
Obama wants to take water conservation measures nationwide. He has voiced support for utility pricing structures that would make wasting water a more expensive proposition: "Prices and policies must be set in ways that give everyone a clear incentive to use water efficiently and avoid waste." Obama also supports funding federal programs that would teach farms and businesses how to switch to more efficient water-use practices.
Law of the Sea
Obama has expressed his unqualified support for the Law of the Sea. He also advocates planning ahead on the fisheries front: He supports proposals to devote billions of dollars annually to state game and fish agencies to help ensure that fish and wildlife survive trends in climate change.
Coastal and Wetland Preservation
Obama has endorsed a "no net loss" policy for America's wetlands. His stated plan includes beefing up the so-called "swamp buster" provisions of the Farm Bill, which would decrease agricultural subsidies for farmers who attempt to develop wetlands, and updating the Clean Water Act to specify that it protects isolated wetlands. In 2004, as an Illinois state senator, he co-sponsored an act that provided for the conservation of wetlands within state borders.
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