Book description
What if Canada 's so-called environmental nightmare was really an
engineering triumph and the key to a stable and sustainable future?
For years, Canadians have been hearing nothing but bad news out of
the Athabasca Oil Sands. From 20th Century economists decrying it as a
perpetual money-loser in the face of more easily-extracted foreign oil
to green groups around the world declaring it the world's worst
industrial enterprise, sometimes it seems as though no good could ever
come from this so-called dirty resource.
But what if developing Canada's Oil Sands was the key to bridging the
gap between current petroleum-based economies and the alternative
energies that aren't ready for market yet? What if it meant
eliminating the threat of Peak Oil and providing economic stability
not just for Canada and the rest of North America, but for the world?
And what if the environmental costs of the resource were both not
nearly as dire as some would have you believe, but currently better
than many other options with the industry already making huge advances
in sustainability, energy use and water reclamation?
That's exactly the case that Alastair Sweeny, author of BlackBerry Planet
, argues is at the core of the Athabasca Sands: a bright future. By
digging into the past, present and future of oil sands technology,
Sweeny cuts through the hype and hysteria and makes a solid and engaging
case that the Sands aren't the environmental boogeyman set to destroy
humanity, but rather our best hope for a truly stable and sustainable
future. Alastair Sweeny
is a veteran writer specializing in business histories and leading-edge
technologies. He has produced and written five corporate histories of
leading companies in the energy, financial services, technology and
retail sectors, and has produced digital and book content for both Apple
Inc. and Microsoft Inc. He is the author of BlackBerry Planet: The
Story of Research in Motion and the Little Device That Took the World
by Storm
, published by Wiley in 2009.
