Stable environment should be priority for government
Re: Pipeline issue has turned into a national identity crisis — April 19
The Record’s editorial offers a detailed analysis of the present interprovincial impasse where Alberta wants the Trans Mountain pipeline so it can sell its oil on the international market, while British Columbia is opposed for environmental reasons, with Ottawa in between and claiming paramount “national interest.” All this takes place under the threat of an ultimatum by Texas-based Kinder Morgan. The editorial concludes that B.C. does not have a leg to stand on and that Ottawa must now demonstrate leadership to reassure international businesses wishing to invest in Canada.
In the same issue of The Record, on a back page, we find an analysis of the freak weather that we have been experiencing lately with ice storms in mid-April. According to climatologists, a likely reason is the progressive warming of the Arctic while the ice cover vanishes, causing erratic swings in the jet stream that push arctic air masses south. This may become the new norm. So, as strange as it may sound, the reason for the crazy weather is global climate warming, with more (and possibly worse) to come.
If we connect the dots between these two stories, it is clear that the Trans Mountain pipeline, if built, will over the long term encourage more oilsands development, hence more CO2 blown into the atmosphere, more global warming, more instability and more weather extremes.
In 2014, our then Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Gord Miller, predicted exactly this scenario to happen unless we reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In his report, he concluded that some of our fossil fuels will just have to stay in the ground. Unfortunately, nobody listened to Miller. Maybe now, with proof in hand, it’s time to listen.
Would it not make more sense for Ottawa, rather than buckling under the Kinder Morgan ultimatum, to help Alberta diversify its economy and wean off its oil addiction? Would a stable environment and atmosphere not be in the national interest?
Emil Frind
Waterloo