Sixteen years ago, on this day, March 3rd, 2010,
RBS bankrolling tar sands protest
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 390ppm. As of 2026 it is 428ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The broader context was that Canada has been looking at exploiting tar sands for a long time. Though they weren’t, largely, economically viable, however they became so for various reasons, technological advances, willingness to pollute the crap out of everything. And therefore protest movements sprung up to try and stop this insanity. There’s not much else to say.
And here is a google search…
Key Impacts on Oil Sands Development
- Equalization of Tax Treatment: Before 1996, in-situ projects (which use wells) were treated differently than open-pit mines. The 1996 changes aligned them, allowing both to benefit from rapid capital write-offs, which encouraged the development of complex in-situ technologies like Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD).
- Investment Surge: Combined with Alberta’s 1995 generic royalty regime (which featured a low 1% royalty until costs were recovered), the 1996 federal tax change helped trigger a 300% increase in capital investment in the oil sands after 1997.
The specific context was that we are dumb as a rock. I am sure there is other specific context, but I can’t be bothered to look, and the key thing is that we are as dumb as a rock.
What I think we can learn from this is that our leaders chase the money and are wholly owned subsidiary Meat Puppets, for the most part.
What happened next
The protest went ahead. In all probability A few skulls got cracked, a few cops got their jollies, got their rocks off. A few people got charged. Maybe some even got convicted, and the emissions kept climbing.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
March 3, 1980 – International Workshop on the energy climate Interactions in Germany
March 3, 1990 – The Science Show on the “backlash to Greenhouse warnings”