Having fought forest fires as a young man in our Canadian military, we well understood the serious concerns for life and property recently in northern Alberta. The rapidly shifting winds that suddenly endangered the 80,000 citizens of Fort McMurray and gave them so little time to get out of town were well understood.
But the ugly scars on that once pristine and rugged landscape caused by open pit tar sands mining and the hundreds of hectares of tailings ponds are not forgiven. Premier Rachel Notley can beg for leniency and for us to ignore the environmental scourge all she wants but bitumen from the tar sands cannot be the answer to the failing Canadian economy.
Tar sands exploiters cannot expect thinking Canadians to ignore the shipping of seriously polluting bitumen to third-world countries as the answer to recovery in Alberta or Canada. Not after Canadians in all parts of the country have clearly shown their support and concern for the people of northern Alberta in this time of crisis.
There can be no back door in the Canadian conscience for pipelines that will push highly corrosive, diluted and heated bitumen at high pressure to tide water. It is too much to ask of our Canadian environment and our world’s environment. Canadians cannot save the world by themselves but they can certainly do their part.
The other day, Premier Notley announced that tar sands companies are working to get their employees back on the job. She pointed out that the production out of Alberta was down by more than a million barrels per day. She used the word ‘oil’ but made no distinction between ‘oil’ and ‘bitumen.’ When you think about it, she obviously meant bitumen. A person who cares about our environment does not make that mistake.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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