Synopses & Reviews
A bestselling investigative journalist takes a tour of the Alberta oil and gas industry, revealing how Canadas richest province is squandering our chance for a sustainable future.
In its desperate search for oil and gas riches, Alberta is destroying itself. As the world teeters on the edge of catastrophic climate change, Alberta plunges ahead with uncontrolled development of its fossil fuels, levelling its northern Boreal forest to get at the oil sands, and carpet-bombing its southern half with tens of thousands of gas wells. In so doing, it is running out of water, destroying its range land, wiping out its forests and wildlife and spewing huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, adding to global warming at a rate that is unrivalled in Canada or almost anywhere else in the world. Its digging, drilling and blasting its way to oblivion, becoming the ultimate symbol of Canadas - and the worlds - pathological will to self-destruct.
Nowhere has the world seen such colossal environmental destruction as is being wreaked on Alberta. At one point the province even went so far as to consider a scientists idea of nuking its underbelly to get at the tar sands. Stupid to the Last Drop looks at the increasingly violent geopolitical forces that are gathering as the worlds gas and oil dwindle and the Age of Oil begins its inevitable slide towards oblivion. As Canadians deplete their energy reserves, selling them off to Americans at bargain-basement prices, no thought is given to conservation or the long-term needs of the nation.
In this powerful polemic, William Marsden journeys across the heart of a province seized by the destructive forces of greed, power and the energy business, and envisions a very bleak future.
About the Author
William Marsden is co-author of the international bestsellers Angels of Death and The Road to Hell. He is an award-winning senior investigative reporter for the Gazette in Montreal.
Table of Contents
PrologueWe Have the Technology
Part ITechnology and Mutual Destruction
Chapter 1Highway to Heaven
Chapter 2Manley Natlands Fantasy
Chapter 3Early Signs of Madness
Chapter 4 Breaking Albertas Atom
Part IIThe Politics and Business of Oil
Chapter 5Washingtons Doomsday Politics
Chapter 6Roll Call
Chapter 7Getting the Jump on the Energy Game
Chapter 8The Mauling of Big Bear
Part IIIAlien Invasion
Chapter 9Life on Mars
Chapter 10Hello! Is Anybody Out There?
Chapter 11Heaven on the Moon
Chapter 12Down North
Chapter 13The Last Cowboys and Cowgirls
Epilogue To the Last Drop
Index
Acknowledgments