Gussow Conference Archives
2009 Gussow Geoscience Conference
Engineering Sustainable Oil Sands Development
October 5-7, 2009
The Banff Centre – Banff, Alberta
The 2009 CSPG Gussow Geoscience Conference, Engineering Sustainable Oil Sands Development, brought together geoscientists, engineers, environmental scientists, regulators and policy makers worldwide who are working on the complex technical and environmental issues related to energy recovery from heavy oil and bitumen deposits. This year the conference focused on discussion of the complex technical and environmental issues related to energy recovery from heavy oil and bitumen deposits in the context of the restricted economic climate and public concern over C emissions and safe disposal of CO2.
2008 Gussow-Nuna Geoscience Conference
Geoscience of Climate Change
October
20-23, 2008
Banff Centre – Banff, Alberta
The history of Earth's climate is one of continual change. Many natural processes contribute to this change, including long-term forcing related to the movement and elevation of the Earth's continental plates, changes in the amount and distribution of solar radiation received by the Earth driven by regular changes in the earth's orbit and by changes in the sun's activity, and climatic modulations driven by periodic and episodic oscillations in the pattern of oceanic and atmospheric currents.
There is a global consensus amongst most scientists that the climate is now also being forced by the anthropogenic addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is now greater than at any time in the past 500,000 years. However, it remains unclear what is the balance of forces in driving current changes in climate.
One of the most important ways to evaluate current models of climate change is to thoroughly explore the record of change through the last few million years of Earth history. This is an exercise for the geosciences, and it is the first of two major objectives of this conference to examine this record and work towards a better understanding of what it tells us about the dynamics of the climate system at all physical scales and time scales. There is a rich record of paleoclimatic variability and an array of techniques for evaluating climate history, based on the study of landscapes, preserved sediments, soils, cave deposits, marine and other drill cores, ice, and other records. Only by working from such an understanding can we reliably evaluate the contribution being made to climate change by anthropogenic processes.
The major cause of greenhouse gas increases is the combustion of fossil fuels, and there is an increasing realization that means must be found to increase the efficiencies in our use of fossil fuels and bring about substantial net reductions in their use in the coming decades. This presents a two-part problem: Worldwide economic growth is increasing rather than reducing the use of fossil fuels, and such growth is leading to an accelerating depletion of these resources, with many experts predicting a decline in the availability of inexpensive oil, natural gas and coal within the foreseeable future. Similar problems are emerging with the other crucial natural resource: water. Impending shortages therefore comprise a second equally important reason for reducing the use of fossil fuels, and it is the second major objective of this conference to review the state of the supply, to discuss energy sustainability, and to examine energy alternatives and some possible technical solutions.
The 2008 Gussow-Nuna Conference was held in conjunction with the International Year of Planet Earth.
2007 William C. Gussow Geoscience Conference on
Arctic Energy Exploration – Present
and Future Development
October
15-17, 2007
Banff Centre – Banff, Alberta
(Chaired by: Benoit Beauchamp; Technical Chair: Gerry Reinson)
More than half of Canada's Northern and Arctic regions are underlain by sedimentary basins. As conventional supplies in Western Canada dwindle, industry is once again looking north. Northern Canada offers a wealth of possibilities, some demonstrated from an earlier round of exploration during the 1960s and 1970s, and many more that remain untested to this day. This renewed interest is taking place at a time of unprecedented change in the North as a sparse, yet growing, population finds itself in the eye of a perfect storm brought by climate change, increased stress on the environment, ground-breaking political developments and a desire for a sustainable resource-based economy.
The 2007 GUSSOW Geoscience Conference jointly organized by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG) and the Arctic Institute of North America (AINA) will look into the many possibilities for Northern and Arctic oil and gas development in the 21st century, while examining how exploration, development and business should be conducted in a complex and fragile world that is changing before our eyes.
