In your heads, raise your hands if you have ever heard this question in a whining voice: "But why do we gotta learn that? We'll never use this in real life!"
The subject of the whining varies, of course; many students whine about the math they have to take, particularly the more complex sort of algebra one takes in high school, or some science course like Chemistry 30 or Biology 30, or, yikes, Physics 30.
Granted, in the pressure cooker of school as you sweat bullets about making a test, or the course itself, especially if it's a mark that might pull your average down or affect what scholarship you get, it's sometimes hard to see the relevance of high-level math or chemistry.
Last week, I visited the Kerr farm south of Weyburn to learn what researchers from the International Performance Assessment Centre for Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide (or IPAC-CO2 for short) are doing to find out whether or not there are problems occurring on the Kerr farm due to oil industry activities. The farm lies due south of the Cenovus plant, near Goodwater.
One truth I've learned as a member of the media is there is a difference between perception and reality; sometimes stories can be made of the perception of truth, but it takes real work beneath the surface to find out what the reality is, or if you prefer, the "truth" of a matter.
Even the "truth" can be somewhat subjective, as any political pundit or hack knows, particularly during election time; it's all in how that "truth" is spun.
In talking to the scientists, who are from The University of Texas at Austin, about the testing and research they are undertaking at the farm, they noted that CO2 is naturally-occurring in the soil. The challenge then is, how do you tell the naturally-occurring carbon dioxide from what Cenovus has injected into the ground, for example?
Believe it or not, kids, knowledge of geology, chemistry and biology are all part and parcel of what these scientists are using to do their research work. So if your area of interest happens to be what the oil industry is doing, those are areas to bulk up on in your courses.
As far as what the final report will say, we have to wait until Dec. 12 to find out. Meantime, the original story saying there were all kinds of problems at the farm has been tracked in the media all over the world, and there are projects being delayed in other countries, because of what is being investigated here at the Kerr farm near Goodwater. Don't let anyone tell you what goes on here is not important; there are a lot of people waiting on the results of this research.
