If you protest against mining, out of a sense of moral consistency, you should throw away your iphone. And how likely is that?

Toronto has been the venue of choice for the annual convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. It is the largest of its kind and draws up to 25,000 industry or industry- related people to the many delights of downtown T.O. No surprise at that number. Mining and energy are the very foundation of modern life. All the systems that give us both comfort and security — all communications, transportation, construction and technology begin and end with the resources of mining and energy. It is a huge industry at the heart of industrial and technological civilization.

So naturally, when the mother of all mining conventions comes to a very modern city there will be, there was, a scattering of protesters in front of the convention centre decrying the existence of both industries. I take it nowadays to be an axiom that whenever there is a gathering of people who actually contribute to the quality of modern life, and as a bonus offer employment to thousands and hundreds of thousands, there will be a fringe subset howling them down and calling them quite horrible names. What the subset has to offer by contrast is not at all clear.

The protest has the usual standard of intellectual vivacity we expect from these things. The signage was frequently inventive: “Health workers against corporate mining” caught my fancy. Presumably the health workers in question decline the use of scalpels, X- ray machines and MRIS, and instead of working in modern high- tech hospitals prefer seeing their patients outdoors in unheated tents. Where they stitch up wounds with twigs, and fall back on chanting for the more serious emergencies.

Nor will it be said their spokespeople lacked a sense of drama. Asked why she attended, one activist — a very Mandela in the making — offered that she was there “in solidarity with every community around the world that has faced down the barrel of a gun for daring to say no to a Canadian extractive project.”

The usual ironies marked the protest. Iphones were ubiquitous, and of course without a whole sackful of minerals, some common, some rare and mined only with the greatest difficulty, these the brand gadgets of our time would not exist. You could not text. You could not tweet. You would have to learn to spell again. Who could face such a world?

However, if you protest against mining, out of a sense of moral consistency, you should throw away your iphone. And how likely is that? The immortal refrain of Buddy Holly and the Crickets “that’ll be the day” supplies the answer.

The “demands” of the protesters, as they always are, were moderate. Shut down the mining industry neatly captures their reasonableness. Which happens to perfectly parallel their instructions to the energy industry, which they wish to see shut down as well. It’s a puzzle why such tranquil demands are not immediately heeded, and why the 25,000 or so attendees, from 131 countries mind you, didn’t — upon hearing them — shut down the conference and head back at once to their own homelands. Preferably for the majority of them by raft or horseback.

A highlight of this conference was an appearance by our prime minister, Justin Trudeau. To be clear he was not at the protest. He was there underlining his government’s first priority, the movement toward a net- zero carbon emissions economy by 2050. He was there to hail “the transition” in the mining industry that must take place, the same transition he has promised the oil industry, if that utopian goal is to be met.

He warned that this will be a “big adjustment for many industries, including yours.” It will require a “transformation.” And he underlined this message with the now familiar paradox, also much favoured by the former climate change minister, Catherine McKenna, that “we can only create a better stronger economy for everyone if we are fighting climate change at the same time.”

Events of the past couple of weeks nationwide, and events in Alberta for at least the past five years, might have alerted the prime minister that opposition to the energy industry ( and now mining) is most often under the banner of “fighting climate change.” That challenges to these industries — the protests, blockades and campaigns — all find their most powerful dynamic in the claim that they will reduce carbon dioxide emissions. That environment is always pitted against the economy as we now have it.

Further that when government talks about transition and transformation what it really translates to is — an eventual — shutdown of both industries. Thus, though Mr. Trudeau was not there to protest, his speech had harmonious resonance with the group outside. They differ only in timing.

The real equation is not climate change AND the economy. It is climate change OR the economy. You have to choose. Paris or Calgary.

The immortal refrain of Buddy Holly and the Crickets ‘ that’ll be the day’ supplies the answer.