Whole cities are rising out of desert sands overnight.

The Alberta government and the oil companies that influence it would upgrade tar sands to oil sands, apparently thinking that a better name somehow silences environmental critics.

Even oil supplies are likely to be significantly boosted by non conventional sources like tar sands.

Yet not even this will suffice if we are to build on rock and not on sand.

These are sand from near the Great Lakes, and you can see that it's filled with minerals like pink garnet and green epidote, all kinds of amazing stuff, and if you look at different sands from different places, every single beach, every single place you look at sand, it's different. Here's from Big Sur, like they're little jewels.

Her stall is far from ideal with every gust of wind, sand and dirt blow over the meat.

Despite its meager beginnings in the sandbox of the Holy Roman Empire, the Hohenzollern Kingdom of Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the creation of the German Empire in 1871.

Otherwise, disputes about fulfillment of this or that provision will lead the entire process back into the familiar quicksand of Middle East futility.

Despite all the oil and gas below the desert sand, growth lagged and unemployment soared.

Yes, Dubai, with its man made islands, hotels simulating Venice, and roof top tennis courts, is a real world castle in the sand.

Important energy technologies will include conversion of coal to liquids (such as gasoline), use of tar sands and oil shale, and growth in non fossil fuel energy sources.

I'm always surprised by how little people outside of Canada know about the Alberta Tar Sands, which this year are projected to become the number one source of imported oil to the United States.

Junkies find veins in their toes when the ones in their arms and their legs collapse. Developing tar sands and coal shale is the equivalent. Here are just a few of the investments that I personally think make sense.

the party vanished, overnight, as if all of a sudden a giant sponge had drained the entire sea, Adriatic and Austral, leaving litter and clots of mud, and all the boats stranded.

The latest figures show that the old model is not working. There are a lot of great investments that you can make. If you are investing in tar sands or shale oil, then you have a portfolio that is crammed with sub prime carbon assets.

Consider the hyperbolic debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, which would funnel oil from Canada s Athabasca tar sands in northeastern Alberta to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Trade distorting subsidies, high import tariffs, and export restrictions act as sand in the gears of the transmission belt and make it more difficult and expensive to bring food to the market and thus to the family table.

Despite all the oil and gas below the desert sand, growth lagged and unemployment soared. Young men and women throughout the region found their hopes dashed, and sometimes turned to militant Islam as the only alternative to a repressive state.

Mounting imbalances in the US were the mirror image of those in China a massive shortfall of domestic saving, unprecedented current account deficits, excess debt, and an asset dependent economy that was ultimately built on speculative quicksand.

But it's a hard hurdle because we got into this legal quicksand because we woke up in the 1960s to all these really bad values racism, gender discrimination, pollution they were bad values. And we wanted to create a legal system where no one could have bad values anymore.

Whole cities are rising out of desert sands overnight. China is building more roads, airports, and bridges every five years than Europe and the US combined build in 20.

Aside from banning bottom trawling and establishing a global fund for avoided deforestation, we should designate a global network of protected marine areas, in which fishing, boating, polluting, dredging, drilling, and other damaging activities would be prohibited.

Yet a mechanism of this kind can only work if a third party (the US, the US plus, or the Middle East Quartet) is available to monitor the agreement. Otherwise, disputes about fulfillment of this or that provision will lead the entire process back into the familiar quicksand of Middle East futility.

These are the Athabasca tar sands, and there's an enormous amount first of mining, the largest trucks in the world are working here, and then you've got to pull out this black sludge, which is basically oil that doesn't flow. It's tied to the sand. And then you've got to use a lot of steam to separate it, which only works at today's oil prices.