I see that Sue Rickards recently passed away. As cited in the CBC article, she "was a teacher, educational innovator, mentor, an outreach worker, a government hack, community organizer, advocate, activists, highly respected newspaper columnist, mother, neighbour, and friend to all."
Politicians who ignore local politics do so at tremendous risk to themselves and the country. Alberta will not put up with losing their oil revenues because they can't. Rules, laws, contracts, the constitution are all dependent on the parties' agreement at any given moment. Without sugar-coating, and taken to its extreme, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec could break Canada apart, destroying its legitimacy, forcing it to go hat-in-hand to the U.S.
Global warming is certainly an issue in Canada... ask any Canadian in January how they feel about a three degree rise in temperature and they will say, "Bring it on!" As winters in Canada become less severe, the golf season begins earlier and ends later, and Canadians pay more for less, they will be harder to convince. That reasoning also applies to the highly populated northern U.S., most of Europe, and most of the developed world. The people most negatively affected by climate change live in under-developed countries that have contributed close to nothing to global warming but have no power. The war in Ukraine is killing more people in Africa through starvation than it is civilians in Ukraine, but it's not good form and doesn't sell air time to mention it.
Coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear are the major energy sources we have now, and cleaning up their act, getting them to or close to zero is a shorter, more achievable goal than chasing dreams like renewable batteries that will charge in a few minutes, cheap energy storage that will make windmills and big solar viable, and nuclear fusion. The people are not as stupid as politicians sometimes think they are; they know that a carbon tax will increase the price of everything they use, and those who don't will soon see it. Electric cars are expensive and the money for subsidies comes from the people who can't afford them. Steadily raising taxes on gasoline will soon come home to roost with the government in Ottawa. Once the country tips, the backlash will be impossible to stop. A 'conservative, even reactionary' government looks possible, and gets closer to inevitable every day. A split in the country is looming large, too large to ignore.
Eventually, if we don't listen to people in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and elsewhere, we will lose more than our cheap transportation. If we don't fight climate change with financially viable solutions like natural gas and nuclear on a large scale, we will be too late to the party and the cost of catching up will overwhelm the economy. The oil industry is not the evil we are told it is; it is at least part of the solution. Idealism won't fix this. Put the "someday" solutions aside and do what works now, not what we might be able to do in the future, if only.... Our country depends on it.
Re: your Brunswick News column.
Politicians who ignore local politics do so at tremendous risk to themselves and the country. Alberta will not put up with losing their oil revenues because they can't. Rules, laws, contracts, the constitution are all dependent on the parties' agreement at any given moment. Without sugar-coating, and taken to its extreme, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec could break Canada apart, destroying its legitimacy, forcing it to go hat-in-hand to the U.S.
Global warming is certainly an issue in Canada... ask any Canadian in January how they feel about a three degree rise in temperature and they will say, "Bring it on!" As winters in Canada become less severe, the golf season begins earlier and ends later, and Canadians pay more for less, they will be harder to convince. That reasoning also applies to the highly populated northern U.S., most of Europe, and most of the developed world. The people most negatively affected by climate change live in under-developed countries that have contributed close to nothing to global warming but have no power. The war in Ukraine is killing more people in Africa through starvation than it is civilians in Ukraine, but it's not good form and doesn't sell air time to mention it.
Coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear are the major energy sources we have now, and cleaning up their act, getting them to or close to zero is a shorter, more achievable goal than chasing dreams like renewable batteries that will charge in a few minutes, cheap energy storage that will make windmills and big solar viable, and nuclear fusion. The people are not as stupid as politicians sometimes think they are; they know that a carbon tax will increase the price of everything they use, and those who don't will soon see it. Electric cars are expensive and the money for subsidies comes from the people who can't afford them. Steadily raising taxes on gasoline will soon come home to roost with the government in Ottawa. Once the country tips, the backlash will be impossible to stop. A 'conservative, even reactionary' government looks possible, and gets closer to inevitable every day. A split in the country is looming large, too large to ignore.
Eventually, if we don't listen to people in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and elsewhere, we will lose more than our cheap transportation. If we don't fight climate change with financially viable solutions like natural gas and nuclear on a large scale, we will be too late to the party and the cost of catching up will overwhelm the economy. The oil industry is not the evil we are told it is; it is at least part of the solution. Idealism won't fix this. Put the "someday" solutions aside and do what works now, not what we might be able to do in the future, if only.... Our country depends on it.