Fishy investments

Gates and Buffet to invest in tar sands and spawn more two-headed fish? 6

Two heads are apparently not better than one -- certainly not for fish and apparently not for the super-rich either.

If you thought that the two richest Americans got that way by being green -- or had suddenly become green because they are now giving their money to charitable causes -- you were mistaken. The National Post reports that last week that the two gazillionaires "quietly flew into northeastern Alberta on Monday, where they took in the oil sands, apparently with awe."

Who wouldn't be awed by the "biggest global warming crime ever seen" -- an investment so tempting even BP is selling out its environmental credentials to invest in? Who wouldn't be awed by Canada's version of liquid coal? Who wouldn't be awed an environmental blight so unprecedented that last week a mutated two-headed goldeye fish was found downstream? George Poitras of the Mikesew Cree said,

People were in disbelief. Here they saw a fish that we suspect is very much linked to tar sands development and contamination of the Athabasca River. Our elders tell us that what happens to the animals and the fish is just a sign of what is going to happen to human life.

As for the other two exotic heads found in Canada last week, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, who made a presentation to the dynamic duo, said:

They were exercising curiosity, basically saying, "Wow, this is neat."

I'm gonna have to say that I seriously doubt that Buffett used the word "neat" although I suppose Gates might have, especially if they served him the fish, Simpson's style. (Note to my many nuclear-radiation-supporting readers -- I am mostly fully aware that the Simpsons is fiction.)

One source said Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffett, who in recent months said he favours investing in the Canadian oil sands because they offer a secure supply of oil for the United States, visited the booming hub to satisfy "their own curiosity" but also "with investment in mind."

I can understand the desire of any smart investor to make money off of peak oil. But these guys not only have more money than many countries, they have pledged to devote most of that money to the public good. And that means investments in the tar sands -- or liquid coal or a Hummer factory -- must be considered off the table for them.

Buffet in particular carries a lot of weight in the investment community given his astonishing track record over the decades. Heck, even though oil prices have been declining recently, "Canadian energy shares have reportedly risen as much as 7.5 percent since Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and world's richest man Warren Buffet 'secretly' toured oil sands properties by Helicopter this week." That is precisely why they should publicly state that the tar sands is a socially irresponsible investment.

Shout out to Lloyd Alter at Treehugger.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Joseph Romm is the editor of Climate Progress and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

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  1. sindark's avatar

    sindark Posted 11:40 am
    25 Aug 2008

    Oil sands ethicsWe are now at a juncture in time where we understand the magnitude of the threat posed by climate change, as well as the growing role the oil sands are playing in Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. It is simply immoral to assert that just because a resource is under your feet, you can exploit it regardless of the harm that does to others. While it is theoretically possible that future technologies will reduce the harm caused by oil sands extraction and upgrading, such technologies do not exist today and cannot serve to justify the destruction that is ongoing.
    If Gates does decide to invest, he will be adopting a deeply hypocritical position with respect to good global citizenship and the challenges facing the global poor. The IPCC and others have stressed that it will be many of the world's poorest people who suffer most from climate change. Projected impacts include droughts, famines, storms, and the increased spread of some infectious diseases. Hopefully, the actual sight of boreal forest being stripped mined and rendered toxic through greenhouse-gas-spewing industrial activities will put him off the investment idea.
    At present, oil sands operations are a bit like those who forge cash. The governmental position seems to be: "Maybe the cash forging does hurt everyone in the long run, but making them stop would destroy their business and have a dire short term impact on the local economy. We have to let them carry on."

    a sibilant intake of breath

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  2. Bart Anderson's avatar

    Bart Anderson Posted 12:08 pm
    25 Aug 2008

    Good newsOil sands visit was not a shopping trip, says Buffett (Reuters): Warren Buffett toured Canada's oil sands with his friend Bill Gates this week to understand how the resources are developed, but the billionaire investor said on Friday he had no plan to buy into the sector. They must have been listening to you, Joseph!

    Bart


    Energy Bulletin

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  3. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 2:09 pm
    25 Aug 2008

    Gates, Buffet -- The New PoorGates and Buffet are really the beginning of a New Poor Class emerging from the post-90s billionaires.   They have no way to keep their income flowing in the manner they are accustomed.  They have overspread their assets...much of it in declining real estate and commodities.   They have been basically idle for most of their lives and cannot connect in the world of small blogs and web 2.0
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/us ...
    Meanwhile, the Average Guy is finally getting his turn at bat:
    Oil boom is changing the landscape and finances of North Dakota
    His ranch sits two miles above the 365 million-year-old Bakken shale formation that holds the largest contiguous onshore oil deposit ever surveyed in North America - a sticky black "sea" of up to 4.3 billion recoverable barrels stretching across 25,000 square miles.
    The complicated geology meant that it was not viable to extract the oil until spiralling commodity prices and major advances in horizontal drilling technology combined during 2006. The first royalty payments started to roll in last year and some amazed beneficiaries even contacted the oil companies as they presumed their cheques had too many noughts.
    Oil prices currently stand around $115 a barrel, well above the $60 cut-off below which the viability of Bakken extraction would come into question. And there are few complaints about roller-coasting prices from the Kuppers.

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  4. caniscandida Posted 6:57 pm
    25 Aug 2008

    all kinds of ethical issues hereThis is cute, from the last line of the Canadian article:
    <<

    The man said he kept the body, which he ate. He later said he wished he had kept the fish intact and had it mounted for posterity.
    >>
    According to the photo, the body of the double-jawed fish looked quite edible, and indeed potentially tasty.
    There was however no photo of the man who ate the fish, so we cannot tell if he too is edible and potentially tasty.
    Nice of him, though, wasn't it, with a burp, and a swipe of the napkin, as he lowered his wineglass, to take a bit of thought for posterity: human posterity, we may assume, and solely human.
    The spokesman for the Mikesew Cree, Georges Poitras, is himself no sage.  "Fish" are "animals"; and what happens to "animals" has already happened to "human life," whether human beings realize it or not.



    Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

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  5. katakanadian Posted 12:10 am
    26 Aug 2008

    Bikers against the tar sandsI've seen the tar sands myself and they are anything but "neat".
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    The air got noticeably worse as we approached Fort Saskatchewan    "Cancer Alley" where Premeir Stelmach has his constituency office to issue a statement on the unsustainability of the tar sands.
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  6. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 2:58 am
    26 Aug 2008

    Nice protest guys. We need more of this



    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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