From Grant G. The Straight Goods We had a chance to change the world but Canada chose to enable stagnation and steal future generation`s birth rite!
As a country we are enormously wealthy, most of the world`s fresh water, a diverse population that`s relatively well educated, thousands of miles of open prairies capable of growing huge quantities of food, we have world famous boreal forests, rain forests inhabited with spotted owls, spirit bears and species still undiscovered, we`re a nation blessed with pristine coastlines that are home to wild salmon, Orca, oysters and countless other delicacies of the sea, our air is still invigoratingly fresh,
As present day caretakers of this great Nation isn`t our number one duty to pass on a country as clean or cleaner than the one we found?
For, after all, isn`t that all we really are, caretakers, thousands of generations of civilization. And Canada is prepared to roll the dice. In a nano second of earth`s time Canada`s current caretakers are prepared to burn and exhaust every hydro carbon we have – a grand short sighted experiment with the potential to melt the world and possibly bring mankind itself to extinction.
Change must happen. It`s inevitable. For hydro carbons are finite. Continued expansion and growth is unsustainable, a folly of futility or stampeding buffaloes heading for the cliff, take your pick, but either way the ending will be the same. Will we be a country with pipelines zig-zagging every which way – Kinder Morgan proposes a double pipe to Burnaby plus a line North – Enbridge wants a Northern pipeline crossing 1200 streams and rivers and plans are for pipelines through the arctic.
And let`s don`t forget the XL Keystone pipeline south to Texas. Here in British Columbia our temporary caretakers want 5 LNG(Liquified Natural gas) plants that will require almost as much electrical energy to operate as the energy we 4 million inhabitants use.
5 LNG plants all needing their own pipelines; 5 LNG plants selling our finite gas as fast as they can, would exhaust all our natural gas in three decades. What kind of educated, thinking society would steal every hydro carbon from future generations before they`re even born? Tales of peak oil,if true paint a scenario where, if the tar sands were to supply the world`s oil we would need an additional 50 pipelines.
Solid banks, modern cities, educated work-force, many world innovations and medical breakthroughs routinely come from Canada. We have a vast under-used manufacturing sector that`s capable of producing the smartest products in the world. We are a civil society that`s already extremely wealthy in comparison to most of the world.
We are country that has no reason to roll the dice with the future,
My kind of caretaker tells the world that there will be no tar sand expansion, no destruction of groundwater. A wise caretaker tells the world that Canada is moving towards the future and will only maintain current hydro carbon extraction levels. And what better way to drive innovation and change the direction of mankind than by removing the crutch of supply. We aren`t broke. We are extremely wealthy. So the need for unabated exploitation of finite raw resources isn`t required. My gawd how selfish can we be.
Canada has a chance to drive change, a chance to be a leader. Day after day our current caretakers tell us we are the wealthiest nation in the world and if that is true there is no urgency, no need to panic, no need to spend our finite resources in a nano second of time.
We owe it to Stephen Harper`s grandchildren to preserve and protect the water, the air, the land. We owe it to everyone`s children to safeguard the future.
Canada could have forced the world headlong into the 22nd century but unfortunately Stephen Harper, Canada`s current caretaker, has chosen to sellout all future generations for the sole purpose of greed. Unabated greed driven by oil companies,. Our caretaker runs tar sand promotional ads that show pristine eco-systems in a sick and twisted campaign designed to distort and deny, a caretaker hell bent on muzzling scientists and voices of reason while hiding damning evidence of a rapidly deteriorating environment and the only conclusion any reasonable person can come to is..
Greed, power and mental sickness have infected the minds of Canada`s current caretakers and without immediate intervention the sickness will prevail to the detriment and possible extinction of mankind itself.
Originally published on The Straight Goods.