Anyone who follows the news from the United States will know that the environmental movement there is gearing up for the mother of all battles to kill the Keystone XL pipeline. Over the mountains in British Columbia, it’s pretty much the same around a proposal to build the Northern Gateway. The debate is less intense because no decision is imminent but the rhetoric is familiar – dirty oil, tarsands bad, tarsands evil, global warming, planet threatened, etc., etc.
Let’s be clear: The Earth is getting warmer and human activity is a contributing factor. On these points, the science is beyond dispute. It is also true that the oilsands produce greenhouse gases and other pollutants that affect the surrounding land and water. But to suggest – or state baldly, as some do – that the oilsands are akin to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is nonsense.
In global terms, Canada is a bit player in the greenhouse gas game and the oilsands are a fraction of that. If you want the baddest fossil fuel on Earth, the one that’s generating more carbon dioxide than any other energy source, it’s coal. This isn’t something that inspires a lot of protest – in fact, you rarely hear about it – but the most recent report from the Paris-based International Energy Agency paints a clear picture.
Demand for coal, the report said, has been rising steadily and sometime in the next decade will equal and then outstrip oil as the world’s top energy source. At its current pace, the world will burn around 1.2 billion more tonnes of coal a year by 2017 compared to today – equivalent to the current coal consumption of Russia and the United States combined, the report notes.
Coal consumption is increasing in all regions of the world, especially in developing countries and especially in India and China. Only in the United States, thanks to booming natural gas supplies, is the demand for coal in decline, though the irony here is that the U.S. is now exporting more coal to Europe, whose coal consumption has soared because coal is cheaper than natural gas.
Another little-known fact is that U.S. coal exporters are looking to export more coal to Asia through Port Metro Vancouver – yes, that’s Vancouver, B.C. – which is already shipping substantial amounts of U.S. coal along with the production from B.C.’s own coal industry, and that too is growing.
In fact, Port Metro Vancouver is the largest coal exporting hub on the west coast of North America and is looking at plans to expand. For the record, by 2017, the biggest coal exporter in the world will be Australia, which is investing heavily in mines and export infrastructure to meet the rising demand from markets in Asia.
None of this is to suggest the oilsands should be given a free pass. They should be held to stringent monitoring and safeguards. But in the overall assessment of problem energy sources, a little perspective would be nice.
