‘Our future is at stake’
Greta Thunberg brings climate fight to heart of oil country,
EDMONTON— The global momentum of Greta Thunberg arrived on the steps of the Alberta legislature on Friday, where the 16-year-old Swedish activist delivered an urgent message about climate change to thousands of people in the heart of oil country.
“We are doing this because our future is at stake,” she told a sea of about 4,000 people in Edmonton. “We will not be bystanders. We are doing this because we want the people in power to unite behind the science.”
Although the globe-trekking activist has gained fame for her knack of taking world leaders to task over climate change, Thunberg was careful to avoid talk of political parties or elections during her address.
“This is not opinions or political views — this is the current best available science, and the politics that even recognize this are still nowhere in sight,” she said.
“We teenagers are not scientists, nor are we politicians, but it seems many of us, apart from most others, understand the science because we have done our homework.”
In Alberta, discussions about climate change inevitably mention the province’s economic dependence on the oil and gas industry.
Experts have warned of serious environmental consequences due to Canada’s oil and gas sector.
More than a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2017 were linked to industry activity, according to data from Environment and Climate Change Canada.
But given the province’s dependence on oil jobs — and its role in supplying energy to the rest of the country — the debate has become heated.
The drone of truck horns could be heard as Thunberg spoke — the sound of the United We Roll convoy, which brought100 trucks up from Red Deer, Alta., to stage a counterprotest.
The group, criticized for platforming intolerant ideas during a cross-country drive to Ottawa this year, was on hand to defend Alberta oil.
Premier Jason Kenney, who was at the opening of a new gas pipeline an hour west of Edmonton at a TransAlta facility in Keephills, dismissed Thunberg’s visit to Alberta as a “foreign-funded campaign” targeting the province.
Elected in April on his promise to obsess over the energy sector, jobs and pipelines for oil, Kenney told reporters that “we do not live in some kind of dream world, we live in the real world.”
“Folks should learn a little bit about real practical measures that industry is taking in order to reduce emissions for the power that they rely upon every single day,” he said, pointing out that the new line will help ease reliance on carbon-intensive coal. When asked why he didn’t meet with Thunberg, Kenney said he’d received no invitation to do so and that it appeared she snubbed other politicians in Alberta as well who had extended invites.
“Here’s the truth: The climate strike and the Extinction Rebellion manifestos are opposed to progress like this,” he said, referring to the new gas pipeline.
People around the world want “the right balance between economic opportunity and environmental responsibility,” Kenney said. “That’s exactly what projects like this do.”
Kenney’s visit to the gas pipeline opening took place while the climate strike at his government’s front steps raged on, and as thousands of demonstrators chanted, at times, “Jason Kenney has got to go!”
In recent months, Kenney’s United Conservative government has ramped up its war room, an information centre operating with a $30-million budget to fire back at what the province says is a campaign of defamation being rolled out by foreign-funded activists trying to landlock Alberta oil. The accusation has been levelled by Kenney many times over the past year, but critics say his theory that rich foundations in the United States are funnelling money into Canada to hamstring Alberta’s economy amounts to a conspiracy theory.
The United Conservative government also faced backlash online last month when it displayed pro-Alberta oil and gas signs in legislature staff windows that overlooked thousands of climate change protesters in a separate rally that also drew thousands. The signs were still visible in the windows during Thunberg’s visit.
In the middle of Friday’s crowd, a small contingent of counterprotesters gathered wearing leather jackets, black “I Heart Oil and Gas” shirts and holding signs. They stood shoulder-toshoulder with many teenagers who had ditched school to be at the rally and to hear Thunberg speak.
Aside from a small and nonviolent coming together between climate change demonstrators and oil proponents after speeches had wrapped for the day, there was little friction between the two sides.
Demonstrators chanted at the oil and gas supporters, who in turn asked for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to be defeated in the next election, and also argued with environmentalists about the global demand for oil.
Police eventually stepped in and slowly separated the two sides without incident.