Thank you for reading. I know are many climate/energy/economy blogs out the happy you have taken the time to visit mine.
Why am I writing this? First and foremost, this blog is directed to my students in that Natural Resources, Energy and Environment (NREE) programs at Alberta School for Business. I hope to inspire as passionate about energy and environmental issues as I am. Beyond that blog this reader at large, and I hope can challenge and engage your think about issues in different ways or that least to argue about my thinking on them. Finally, this blog for me. I hope it will useful way for solidify thinking policy issues and subject thinking peer review from you.
I hope you will enjoy reading this blog and look forward your participation.
Andrew
Andrew, just wanted to pass along my congratualtions on your site. It’s a very worthy and thoughtful addition to the blog scene .. If you’re interested in expanding your readership by doing an occasional post for Economy Lab, let me know and I’ll send you the details… Btw, I used your latest post as the lead item today in my aggregate. http://tgam.ca/BhJr. Regards, Rob Gilroy, Editor, Economy Lab.
Rob, sorry I missed this and thanks for reading. I would certainly be interested, and have re-posted all of your links.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
much enjoying the blog, glad I have found it. I have come across an interesting column from the Calgary Herald and thought it might interest you?
http://communities.canada.com/calgaryherald/blogs/corbellareport/archive/2010/09/03/by-popular-request-my-fairy-godmother-column.aspx
Jon
Hi Jon,
Thanks. Glad you are enjoying it. I have read this column, and I think it makes some valid points. I am certainly in favor of an informed debate on environmental policies across the country. Having lived in Quebec for 3 years myself, I can appreciate that there is a great deal of disconnection from Western Canada in their politics. I can also see the same being true here. Oilsands are a national issue, operating largely under provincial jurisdiction. There are clearly national benefits, and the province needs to do a better job of making those clear. We also, as a province, need to understand the realities of our geography and our political system, and come to see that the oilsands resource is more valuable when all regions of the country support its development, instead of a situation where the relationship is adversarial.
Andrew
Don’t know how to contact you Andrew, other than here, so feel free to delete this post after you read it.
I am quite impressed with the blog, and it seems as if the ranks of the readers is growing. I do have to say though that I find the Twitter feed cheapens your efforts. While that is just my personal opinion, I have to think back to April 7 of this year on the CBC National. Andrew Coyne and Chantal Hebert were commenting on social media and how much garbage was being reported by the MSM about the election. Ms. Hebert referred to those “who get a sense of engagement from the very instant gratification of Twitter or Facebook”, to which Mr. Coyne followed with how “the immediacy of social media … greatly enlarges the significance of incredibly trivial moment to moment events”.
I had to write to Ms. Hebert – I had been struggling for the words the two of them found so easily. I ended my e-mail with this – take it for what it is worth:
“To be honest, seeing a Twitter feed on the side of a blog or newspaper column, for me, conjures up the image of a slack jawed fool focusing on his PDA as he unwittingly wanders into traffic, excitedly ignoring what is appearing on his device in anticipation of providing the world with his next 144 characters of acronymous fecal matter.”
I might be a dinosaur who doesn’t understand evolution, or maybe not.
Sure, Twitter is full of meaningless garbage. But that goes for the Internet (and all media) as a whole. The benefit of Twitter for those who harness it is that it is a steadily-monitored portal to actual information. If you look at the Twitter feed on this blog, for instance, most of the tweets aren’t actually 140-character messages; they’re simply summaries of what the reader will find at the site. Twitter certainly has some utility that you just can’t get from a blog alone.
Much as I enjoy this blog, the “frog” title seems to be based on the false assumption that the frog stays in the pot. In fact, it’s been shown that the frog jumps out.
James Fallows and many others have written extensively about this false, but very popular, analogy.
Probably too late to change, but maybe it needs an asterisk.
Thanks for the excellent account of the EEDC oil sands symposium yesterday.
Bob
Thanks Bob. I thought about this in titling the blog – the best competing suggestion for a title was “Big Red on Green,” and I’m still not sure what is the right choice. Here’s a piece I put on the “About” pages about the boiling (or not boiling) frog metaphor http://andrewleach.ca/about/why-rescuing-the-frog/
. Thanks for reading and for your kind comments about my EEDC write-up.
[…] […]
I’m working on a major documentary project on global energy looking at everything from oil sands to alternatives. We are partnered with (so far) U of C ISEEE, University of Waterloo Institute of Sustainable Environment and Canada West Foundation. I think you might find this of interest. I’ve launched a crowdfunding campaign to gather support. We plan to start production early next year,
http://www.indiegogo.com/Unintended-Consequences?a=258544&i=addr
Matt Palmer
Thanks for reading Matt. Good luck with your project.
Andrew
[…] About […]
Re Northern Gateway. Saw your interview on BNN, but I think everyone has missed a new black swan in the debate – the foundering of the Italian cruise ship. Yes! Coming after the Queen of the North, Sundancer and Exon Valdez this could easily be the final bit of ammunition need by the environmentalists. Remember this is BC where they overturned the HST. I moved here from Ont 6 years ago and I can tell you there is a different mentality. It is a big mistake to underestimate thr tree-huggers. Roger Green.
Hello Andrew,
I found your interview last week on “Q” with Jian Gomeshi re Neil Young’s current activities very informative, clear and seemingly without bias or emotional pandering. Thank you.
I was just wondering what your thoughts are on Jeff Rubin’s take on all things “Oily” and “Economic”, specifically re his books “Why Your World is About to get a Whole Lot Smaller”(2009) and “The End of Growth”(2012)?
If you haven’t read them just go to his websit/blog http://www.jeffrubinssmallerworld.com to get his thesis although the books are quite interesting interms of not just his ideas but how he expresses then given his backgound as the insanely successful Chief Economist of CIBC World Markets for 20 years!?!
Looking forward to your further contributions to the subject but especially about Ruben’s most recent work since leaving the Banking World in 2009.
Keep up the good work and thanks again.
Sincerely yours in the spirit of clairty,
David E. Brown
Hi David,
Sorry, was away from my blog for a bit. I have read lots of Rubin’s writing – I think he’s too perfectly hedged most of the time (oil is going to 200, unless it doesn’t) and his predictions about a smaller world have ignored productivity issues which are making the world, in his parlance, larger.
Andrew