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| ANWR - America's Next Oil Frontier |
This is especially true of right wing-media outlets that down play the climate science and use freak snow storms as anecdotes to debunk the ‘global warming’ craze. Frankly, month long floods in New Brunswick, devastating floods in Australia and Pakistan, freak snowfalls in the UK, hurricanes in Newfoundland, heat waves, hyper active storm systems are all a consequence of a changing climate - a more hostile climate, a less livable planet.
For too long the Canadian federal government, specifically that of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have pretended our nation only works in an economic environment as his decisions demonstrate a disdain for our natural wealth. His government was to present a report on the tar sands in 2010, but for no reason at all it was scrapped. Recently, Jim Prentice left his post as the federal Minister of the Environment to take a luscious position with CIBC. This past week, a new gentleman was appointed to the position of Canadian Minister of the Environment.
Canada’s new leader on Environmental policy is none other than former right-wing reporter and news man Peter Kent of CTV fame.
This is incredibly aggravating as someone who is a true fan of Canada and a huge fan of a livable planet. For his career, when issues of climate change came up, Peter Kent was tasked with the duty of spinning the message, raising questions and making Canadians fear a responsible economy by discounting real science and rejecting sensible alternatives. Federal climate policy is not lead by scientists, it’s lead by news anchors. In America, the Energy secretary is a nobel laureate.
On the first day of Mr. Kent’s appointment he commented that tarsands oil is “ethical oil”. I don’t mean to sound like a pipeline bombing radical environmentalist, but no oil supply around the globe is ethical.
Middle Eastern oil fuels massive wealth gaps making enemies of western states richer, those men (exclusively) are paid with western debt of ballooning deficits and federal indebtedness. Our government is investing our children's future on paying for the oil addiction of baby boomers when they could be building the infrastructure of a vibrant, clean economy not built on non-renewable resources. If that oil doesn’t come from war zones or nations belonging to the ‘axis of evil’, it comes from wells miles below the surface. Deep water drilling is pushing the limits of engineering for drops of oil to feed an addiction news media treats as safe, sensible, sustainable and worth investing in.
Canada is proposing a oil and gas pipeline to now serviceable arctic ports (#thanksclimatechange) to transport oil to our Asian creditors, interrupting migration paths of majestic herds of wildlife. The Arctic National Wildlife Reserve is a target of US republicans to be strip mined, drilled and destroyed in the name of todays hyper consumptive economy, leaving NOTHING for tomorrow.
There is only so much oil. We’re clearly running out. If not for the carbon emissions associated with the combustion of the material, consider the foolishness of building a society on a resource that is finite and dwindling rapidly. Global peak oil production will occur before 2015, prices will rise. Petroeconomic governments like Canada will ruin this country borrowing to participate in a market that is clearly toxic and painfully expensive.
Canada now has a TV star as our environment leader, expect to spin a lie on sustainable tar sands, a suggestion that all is well. Expect the most despicable deciet from the most destructive government in Canada’s history. Do not expect a science based approach to managing climate - expect opinions, anecdotes, lies and bullshit.
Good night, and good luck.
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