We 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

Oil 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

Gates 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.

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