Tag Archives: Big Oil

Fear and Loathing at Stephen’s House – Part 4: Selling Out Our Natural Resources

Posted by Nukes of Knowledge on

Who owns our natural resources?

Does our country own them?

Do the individual provinces own them?

Do our citizens own them?

Do the corporations who buy or lease the land on which they are found own them?

If you’re not sure of the answer – which scenario seems to be most appropriate?

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Lets use oil as our first example.

Canada produces 3.6 Million barrels of oil per day (or 1.314 billion barrels per year). This equates to about 37 barrels of oil per year per Canadian citizen.

By contrast, the United States produces around 9.4 Million barrels of oil per day (or 3.431 billion barrels per year). We did the math, and in the United States, this comes to around 11 barrels of oil per year per American citizen.

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Why do these numbers matter? They matter, because I believe that our country (and all that it contains) belong to all of us.

Why does American gasoline cost less than gasoline purchased in Canada?

Sure… ‘world markets’.

In what world is selling out our country in the form of pissing away our natural resources a good idea? By allowing multinational oil companies to enjoy the profits while Canadian citizens endure the high-cost of heating oil, gasoline, and diesel – we’re allowing our economy and Harper’s oligarchy to prolong our dependence on fossil fuels and curb any advancement toward the greener technologies that we all need.

When new technologies reach the consuming public – the cost of those goods goes down as they are more widely adopted. Personal computers are a prime example – as they became more widely available, the tech improved and the cost went down. The same thing will happen with green technology. We could operate on micro-grids. We could all run self-sustaining households. But large corporations (with the aid of oligarchies around the world) prevent that from happening.

Stephen Harper sold out our country. Supported by the omnipresent public-service oligarchy operating in the shadows; the good things that the Harper administration has done for this country will never outweigh the bad things that his arrogant system of governance has done to destroy our nation.

Our nation; and in essence our world; needs leaders that tell the truth. We need leaders that answer questions; instead of dodging them. We need leaders that are more concerned with engineering a blueprint for the next century than continuing to play partisan politics in the arena of public opinion to cement a legacy of manufactured sound-bites for future generations to suckle on.

RESOURCES

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PART 5

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What Canada’s Oil Sands and The Tobacco Industry Have in Common: Part 2 – The Electronic Cigarette Strategy

Posted by Nukes of Knowledge on

Before you read this; make sure you read What Canada’s Oil Sands and The Tobacco Industry Have in Common: Part 1.

Part One focused on the oil and gas industry. Lets explore my thoughts about the strategies and end-game of the tobacco industry in regards to electronic cigarettes. Strategies that I would argue are similar to those used by the oil industry.

In the end, it all comes down to the bottom-line. Especially for a tobacco CFO sitting in a corner office atop a lofty building in a major city centre.

How many quitters would it take for them to notice?

How many people in Fort Chipewyan with cancer until we say, “Let’s try something else.”?

In Canada – it took about five thousand smokers on the East Coast to quit for them to notice. Five thousand individuals who walked away from hanging a burning coal at the end of their lip. Five thousand individuals who chose a safer alternative method of nicotine delivery.

As I noted in Part One; I’m not a doctor. I’m an objective observer of the world around me. Using common sense and a touch of basic research – I compared the ingredients and chemicals in electronic cigarettes to those common in tobacco cigarettes.

As a former smoker; I was familiar with the benefits of ingesting nicotine.

I quit several years ago after my child was born with the aid of the Nicorette Inhaler. Essentially I inhaled a nicotine-laced vapor from a tiny tube that resembled a female sanitary product.

It tasted awful; but it worked. Sort of like Buckleys.

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Before we get started; have you done your research on the topic of electronic cigarettes?

If yes; skip the links.

If no; check some of the links – you may learn something new.

SOURCE: http://www.ecigarette-research.com/
SOURCE: Let me Google that for you.
SOURCE: Welcome to the world of the internet. 

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Electronic cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes are not the same thing.

If they treat them that way:

  • The tobacco companies get to capitalize on it and crush the independent businesses that built this niche market.
  • 5000 people in Canada could smoke again if their ability to vape was hindered; $10/pack. Most of them every day.
  • Most of that money will land in bank accounts of companies that were built on selling you a product, at a premium, that you literally can’t stop buying. That also kills you slowly.
  • Not to mention all of the extra time sucking back tar, benzene, carbon-monoxide, polonium.

They push for strong and immediately implemented legislation that calls for research; without doing a bit of research themselves.

Honestly, the thing feels like your smoking a cigarette. In your lungs. But it tastes better. It’s awesome. But there are only three or four ingredients that you are inhaling and there is no smoke involved.

DOWNLOAD: Characterization of chemicals released to the environment by electronic cigarettes use

Nothing ever got better because the government jumped in prematurely and with the wrong information.

-Oblivious