Tar Sands coming to Utah
 

I saw this some time ago, now it seems to get very concrete (Beginning of 2012 - that is getting closer now. And the XXL pipeline will probably also be a factor, I assume)
http://www.emagazine.com/images/size...st-250x179.jpg
Digging a Deeper Hole |EMagazine.com

...so are you for or against the extraction of this oil...

Is that a rhethorical question? I think the image in the post and the content of the article linked are pretty clear (even if you'd not know what I think anyways)

It would not be difficult to rebuild a desert to its original condition. :P

You have no idea how difficult that would be, Clarke....
Harsh environments are also the most sensible, really. Try to rebuild alpine ecosystems where trees take hundred years to grow to the size of a bush, or permafrost ecosystems where it takes centuries to develop a forest cover. Or arctic ecosystems where small changes can mean the extinction of whole species. Or desert ecosystems for which basically all of these apply. Have you been to Utah or the Rockies? I have. There are plants there - if you break off a small branch or pluck some moss-sized plant from the ground, you destroyed what life created in your lifetime.

To me, there's a certain kind of beauty in Utah's deserts. That's not something you can easily rebuild and replicate. :\

:shock: You might be able to replicate a desert, but not this desert exactly as it is. The environmental effects of this, to my knowledge, can't be anything but negative.

We need oil though.

Yeah, and C. - a person I knew some time ago who worked in a PR company - needs his cocaine daily. Even if it may cost him his family, his house, his car. Even if it would (which I did not observe because we lost contact) eventually lead to him stealing from others or breaking into houses. And I think quite obviously the oil economy is approaching that latter state now.

Do you drive a vehicle or use public transportation ever?

You said the o word... O_O

A good portion of public transport is run simply on electricity, which may be generated in a number of ways.

I never said, that I'm not an addict myself :P - so yes of course being (still) part of this society, I need to go to work and get there somehow, hence I use transportation. I even took an airplane this year to go to a job-related conference to give a talk.
So I guess the stage I am in is to show up at the first addicts meeting and say "Hello, I am Aurora and I am an addict". That does not mean that I am pure or have managed to do anything but reduce or somehow control my addiction, but at least it is a first step away from being completely indifferent or even in denial of the addiction.

Sorry if I stick too much to that analogy, but I think it fits quite well in terms of what is, what should be and what ones personal position in that reality is.

BTW - found a link to a series of Photographs from the Alberta Tar sands. Not to be viewed on an empty stomach.
Hells gate is a fracking joke against this project! :,(

Garth Lenz

Oh, isn't that just wonderful. :facepalm: