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Mining on the moon: gold, fuel, and Canada’s possible role in a new space race – by Peter Rakobowchuk (Winnipeg Free Press – February 26, 2012)

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

The Canadian Press

MONTREAL – Canada could play a key role in a new international space race, with the next sprint to the moon gearing up as an extra-terrestrial gold rush.

Industry insiders will be watching closely this week as the heads of the world’s five biggest space agencies get together in Quebec City, where the partners on the International Space Station will discuss more than just the future of the orbiting lab.

They will also address an idea gaining currency in business and scientific circles: that within human reach lies an unfathomable wealth of resources, some of them common on Earth and others so exotic that they could change the way we live.

Canada could figure prominently in any discussion about lunar exploration, with nearly one-quarter of the world’s top mining companies headquartered here and this country also known for robotics like the famous Canadarm.

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Cool It (Environmental Documentary – 2010)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming is a book by the Danish statistician and political scientist Bjørn Lomborg. The book is a sequel to The Skeptical Environmentalist (first published in Danish in 1998), which in English translation brought the author to world attention.

Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars without the same return on investment, often are based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may have very little impact on the world’s temperature for centuries. Lomborg concludes that a limited carbon tax is needed in the First World as well as subsidies from the First World to the Third World to help fight ongoing humanitarian crises.

Media

The New York Times says

“ In his short new book, “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming,” Mr. Lomborg reprises his earlier argument with a tighter focus. He tries to puncture more of what he says are environmental myths, like the imminent demise of polar bears. ”
—The New York Times, [1]

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An Inconvenient Truth (Environmental Documentary – 2006)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he has given more than a thousand times.[citation needed]

Premiering at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opening in New York City and Los Angeles on May 24, 2006, the documentary was a critical and box-office success, winning 2 Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song.[4] The film also earned $49 million at the box office worldwide, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing documentary film to date in the United States.[5]

The idea to document his efforts came from Laurie David who saw his presentation at a town-hall meeting on global warming which coincided with the opening of The Day After Tomorrow. David was so inspired by Gore’s slide show that she, with Lawrence Bender, met with Guggenheim to adapt the presentation into a film.

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Not Evil Just Wrong (Mining Documenatry – 2009)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Not Evil Just Wrong (2009) is a documentary film by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer that challenges Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth by suggesting that the evidence of global warming is inconclusive and that the impact global-warming legislation will have on industry is much more harmful to humans than beneficial.[1] The movie was filmed in 2008 and was screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam[2] and at the Right Online conference in 2009.[3]

Despite earlier screenings at conservative political conferences, filmmakers promoted a “premiere” on October 18, 2009.[4] The film attempted to break a World Record for largest simultaneous premiere, which is currently held by the documentary The Age of Stupid, another global warming documentary.[5] The film’s website claims that there were 6,500 U.S. screenings and 1,500 foreign screenings and reached 400,000 people.[6]

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Ottawa’s focus on Alberta oilsands is killing manufacturing jobs in Eastern Canada, economists say – by Antonia Zerbisias (Toronto Star – February 26, 2012)

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

You know that old saying, “When the U.S. sneezes, Canada catches a cold.”

It still applies. The United States remains our biggest trading partner. What happens there affects everything from our tourism to our exports. But now, Canada is facing a bigger threat to its economic health.

It’s called Dutch Disease — and it’s complicated by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s newly acquired China Syndrome. Stung by U.S. President Barack Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, Harper is looking to China’s government-owned oil companies.

Dutch Disease isn’t about tulips or wooden shoes or even sick elm trees. It’s about Canada’s steady conversion to a petro-state, fuelled by the rapid development of Alberta’s oilsands. It means that, more and more, Canada’s economy will be subject to the price of oil.

Coined by The Economist in 1977, “Dutch Disease” describes what happened to the Netherlands after natural gas fields were discovered off its shores. The little country became so economically entangled with its resource industry, its manufacturing sector tanked.

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Canada Mining Corruption: Survey Finds Canadian Provinces Seen As Riskier Than Parts Of Africa – by Daniel Tencer (The Huffington Post Canada – February 24, 2012)

This article is from: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Corruption in Canada’s mining industry is worse than in some African and Latin American countries, says a new survey from the Fraser Institute.

Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories all ranked in the survey as more corrupt than Chile and Botswana. The remaining provinces and territories ranked better than any developing country, but were still seen as more corrupt than many U.S. and Australian jurisdictions.

The study notes that Chile and Botswana have the fastest-growing resource sectors on their respective continents, suggesting a link between economic growth and lack of corruption.

The Northwest Territories ranked as the most corrupt in Canada, with fully 16 per cent of respondents saying corruption would keep them from investing in the area.

Sweden, Norway and Finland, as well as the U.S. states of Minnesota and Missouri, were ranked as the least corrupt in the survey that looked at 93 countries and sub-national areas and surveyed 802 mining companies worldwide.

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The new Canadian gold rush [Detour Lake, Northern Ontario] – by Renata d’Aliesio (Globe and Mail – February 25, 2012)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

COCHRANE, ONT.— Scott Ulvstal had pretty much given up on the idea of settling down in his hometown in northeastern Ontario. He left with his girlfriend, Rosanna, a decade ago, hitting the road in a rented U-Haul truck after finishing his studies in graphic design.

There were few job prospects to keep them in Cochrane, a small blue-collar town surrounded by rugged wilderness, the last stop on a 755-kilometre rail line from Toronto. And the young couple were looking for adventure somewhere west.

Visits home over the years offered Mr. Ulvstal little hope of moving back. Shutdowns and layoffs at the sawmill and plywood plants had become routine. Grocery stores, restaurants and clothing shops closed as the community’s population dwindled. The town’s once-grand winter carnival had faded to a small gathering of residents.

“It was like a ghost town down there,” Mr. Ulvstal recalls of Cochrane’s main street. “I didn’t think there would be any work for us here.”

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How Green Was My Valley (Mining Movie – 1941)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 drama film directed by John Ford. The film, based on the 1939 Richard Llewellyn novel, was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and written by Philip Dunne. The film stars Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards,[1] winning five and beating out for Best Picture such classics as Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Suspicion and Sergeant York.

The film tells the story of the Morgans, a close, hard-working Welsh family at the turn of the twentieth century in the South Wales coalfield at the heart of the South Wales Valleys. It chronicles a socio-economic way of life passing and the family unit disintegrating.

In 1990, How Green Was My Valley was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

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NEWS RELEASE: “Patently Unreasonable” Vale Breaks Ontario Labour Law

Media release

Labour Board Ruling Vindicates Steelworkers In Case of Fired Employees
SUDBURY, 24 February, 2012 – Mining giant Vale engaged in “patently unreasonable” conduct and violated provincial labour law by firing nine Sudbury workers without recourse to arbitration, the Ontario Labour Relations Board has ruled.

“This ruling is another concrete example of Vale’s blatant disregard for workers’ rights, for our laws and for our country’s labour relations traditions and culture,” said United Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard.

“This is a major victory for our union, for the working families who have been adversely affected by Vale’s unlawful conduct, and for unionized workers throughout the province,” said USW Local 6500 President Rick Bertrand.

“It is shameful that the affected families have suffered in limbo for more than two years due to Vale’s illegal decision to deny workers their right to independent arbitration,” Bertrand said.

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Former Vale worker vindicated by OLRB ruling – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 25, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Brian Miller has lived in Sudbury since 1979, but, for the last two years, he has felt like an outcast. Miller, 42, was one of nine Steelworkers fired during the union’s year-long strike against Vale Ltd. from July 2009-2010. (One retired after the strike.)

Miller worked his last shift as a development miner at Frood Mine on May 28, 2009. He had 13 years with the company when his union went on strike July 13 of that year.

He was fired Feb. 23, 2010, in the midst of the most bitter labour dispute to rock the Nickel City in decades.

Miller was pleased to learn Friday the Ontario Labour Relations Board had ruled his dismissal, and those of Steelworkers Ron Breault, Mike Courchesne, Adam Cowie, Dan Labelle, Mike French, Jason Patterson and Patrick Veinot, will go to arbitration.

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Vale firings breached act: OLRB – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 25, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A provincial arbitrator will decide if the firings of eight Steelworkers during their yearlong strike against Vale Ltd. were justified after a ruling Friday by the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

The board directed arbitration of the men’s dismissals on a just cause standard more than two years after their union, United Steelworkers, filed a bad-faith bargaining complaint against the Brazil-based miner.

The original complaint was filed Jan. 13, 2010, at the six-month mark of a bitter strike by 3,400 USW members in Sudbury and Port Colborne.

The complaint changed during the two years from one about Vale refusing to collectively bargain to whether the firings of nine men during the strike should be sent to arbitration.

(One of the fired men retired at the end of the strike.)

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Matewan (Mining Movie – 1987)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Matewan (1987) is an American drama film written and directed by John Sayles, illustrating the events of a coal mine-workers’ strike and attempt to unionize in 1920 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia.[1]

Based on the Battle of Matewan, the film features Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, David Strathairn, Kevin Tighe and Will Oldham.

Plot

It was 1920 in the southwest West Virginia coal fields, and, as the narrator recalls, “things were tough.” In response to efforts by miners to organize into a labor union, the Stone Mountain Coal Company announces it will cut the pay miners receive, and will be importing replacement workers into town to replace those who join the union. The new workers are African Americans from Alabama and are coming in on the train, but the train is stopped outside town and the black men are told to get off. Derided as “scabs”, they are then attacked by the local miners, but manage to get back on the train and continue their journey.

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West Virginia’s Mine Wars

This article is from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History website: http://www.wvculture.org/index.aspx

Compiled by the West Virginia State Archives

On March 12, 1883, the first carload of coal was transported from Pocahontas in Tazewell County, Virginia, on the Norfolk and Western Railway. This new railroad opened a gateway to the untapped coalfields of southwestern West Virginia, precipitating a dramatic population increase. Virtually overnight, new towns were created as the region was transformed from an agricultural to industrial economy.

With the lure of good wages and inexpensive housing, thousands of European immigrants rushed into southern West Virginia. In addition, a large number of African Americans migrated from the southern states. The McDowell County black population alone increased from 0.1 percent in 1880 to 30.7 percent in 1910.

Most of these new West Virginians soon became part of an economic system controlled by the coal industry. Miners worked in company mines with company tools and equipment, which they were required to lease. The rent for company housing and cost of items from the company store were deducted from their pay. The stores themselves charged over-inflated prices, since there was no alternative for purchasing goods.

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Harlan County, USA (Mining Documentary – 1976)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Harlan County, USA is an Oscar-winning 1976 documentary film covering the “Brookside Strike”,[1] an effort of 180 coal miners and their wives against the Duke Power Company-owned Eastover Coal Company’s Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1973.[2] Directed by Barbara Kopple, who has long been an advocate of workers’ rights, Harlan County, U.S.A. is less ambivalent in its attitude toward unions than her later American Dream, the account of the Hormel Foods strike in Austin, Minnesota in 1985-86.

Synopsis

Kopple initially intended to make a film about Kenzie, Miners for Democracy and the attempt to unseat Tony Boyle. When miners at the Brookside Mine in Harlan County, Kentucky, struck in June 1972, Kopple went there to film the strike against Duke Power Company and UMWA’s response (or lack thereof). The strike proved a more interesting subject, so Kopple switched the focus of her film.

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There is a way to clean up ‘dirty’ oil’s problems – by Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail – February 25, 2012)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Canada’s bitumen resources have a problem, and neither the companies that wish to exploit bitumen or the governments trying to help them seem to understand it.

Bitumen, from which oil is produced, takes more energy per barrel to get at than conventional oil pumped from the ground. Because it needs more energy, bitumen-derived oil produces more greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming than conventional oil.

That gap – between bitumen-derived and conventional oil – is the problem the industry and governments don’t seem to get. And that gap will widen as more steam-driven in-situ production comes on line, since in-situ uses more energy than open-face mining of bitumen.

There’s not much the oil industry can do about opponents who don’t like any fossil fuels and seek their elimination. These opponents are going to do what they can in an open society to stick spokes in the industry’s wheels.

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