Babel-on-the-Bay intended to run a very sincere support today of Justin Trudeau’s eulogy for the late Cuban Leader Fidel Castro. It was ready for posting. And then we learned that the damn fool had announced approval of twinning the American-owned Kinder-Morgan TransMountain pipeline. All the kind words are off the table.
Justin Trudeau’s timing is terrible. It is as though he is in a snit because he does not seem to be getting the support he wants to end first-past-the-post voting. He is like a child striking out. He just blew every effort his government has made to protect our environment. The Kinder-Morgan twinned pipeline will add tons of carbon to the world environment every year. There is no carbon tax high enough to alleviate the damage.
It is absolute hypocrisy to think that you can send the output of the tar sands to other countries and not be responsible for the extremes of pollution destroying our planet. Exploiting the tar sands, itself, is damaging the environment in Alberta and Saskatchewan. And that is only the beginning. Converting that tar sands gunk to synthetic crude oil produces huge piles of carbon known as bitumen slag. It can be burned for more pollution. And that is before this now ersatz crude oil is refined into further polluting products.
Many of the opponents to the Kinder-Morgan pipeline are concerned about the environment from over the Rockies, across B.C. and on to tankers headed through the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Remember that these pipelines will now be high-pressure, heated pipes to move more of the tar sands output. It is never the question of if there is a spill but when.
We suppose it will be the same for the approved Enbridge Line Three that will carry the tar sands output south into the American pipeline network and to the Texas Gulf coast where it can also be loaded on ocean-going tankers.
What we would like to see at the next sitting of the House of Commons is B,C. MPs rising in their seats and asking to be seated with Green leader Elizabeth May. At least she knows how to fight this stupidity and greed.
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And a footnote:
There was one paragraph in the planned item for today. It is worth passing on:
“And anyone who has read German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s condolences to the Cuban people will appreciate its diplomatic mastery. She has probably never met the man nor visited his country but said everything necessary and nothing untoward.”
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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