New Media

Canada continued to get thrashed at the Copenhagen environment summit this week. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s not-so-green reputation preceded him and his political opposition have been quick to capitalize on the bad press. But Vancouver’s Mayor and successful green entrepreneur Gregor Robertson was also on the scene, a safe distance away.

Will we be best served by his separateness from the federal leadership at this summit when it comes time to ask for federal resources to fund our green schemes? Perhaps a more united front from the Canadian contingent would have worked better.

I expand on these ideas in my new Granville Online article, Mr. Happy Planet versus Darth Vader. Enjoy.

The Conservatives’ Top-Secret Plan for, um, Saving the Planet?

Climate change and Alberta’s oil sands are on the agenda for Canadian premiers meeting in Vancouver. But will anything of substance be accomplished?

Economic and environmental realities make it pretty unlikely they’ll even be able to cobble together crude principles. BC Premier Gordon Campbell can lecture his Albertan political counterpart all he likes on the dangers of greenhouse gases (although given BC’s record to date on cutting greenhouse gases, that might be a bit odd), but there’s a thirst for Albertan oil out there.

The world needs ever-increasing amounts of oil and Alberta has a big chunk of the planet’s known reserves. That’s going to be a tough reality to face down.

But the way the tar sands oil gets extracted is the cause of a large percentage of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Pressure needs to be put on Albertan oil companies by politicians to ensure that they don’t turn much of western Canada into a polluted desert in return for all the petrodollars they’re earning.

While the title above is simply a sophomoric shot-in-the-dark SEO optimization tactic, I did actually want to put a spotlight on the fine work they’re doing at the Green Blog. As a recently-minted convert to the environmental cause and an entirely self-declared expert on sustainability issues on the west coast, I salute thee.

Nice work on the Bali conference updates, catastrophic climate data links and even a thoroughly disgusting yet visually appealing anti-whaling ad photo. Am I guessing right that the Green Blog is based right out of big green giant Vancouver, or am I just projecting?

Now, if they could just throw in a disclaimer that Kyoto and conferences like Bali are really just a symbolic cover for signatory nations to do nothing at all (and that efforts of nations like Canada that may or may not be trying to put pressure on other countries to actually walk their talk are pretty much moot thereby), that would make my day.

Nuclear energy good, nukes bad.

Given the rising panic over global warming, that really ought to be a simple message to get across. The more nuclear reactors we build, the fewer carbon-pumping coal plants we’ll have to keep running. That could mean the difference between visiting Shanghai fifty years from now and swimming in it.

Canada is looking at building its first nuclear reactors in a quarter century. This is good news for those who want to keep their electricity bills down and have an ample supply of power for our use and export. We’d also be pumping less carbon into the atmosphere.

British Columbia just committed to becoming energy self-sufficient by 2016 and cutting greenhouse gas emissions 33 per cent by 2020. Unfortunately, provincial officials also ruled out nuclear power for helping to achieve those goals. That combination of announcements has the potential of making laudable goals laughable.

Alberta is spending $396 million into oil sands production hub Fort McMurray to relieve social ills caused by the breakneck pace of development.

That’s just poor strategic planning. Alberta is already debt free and making money hand over fist from its energy sector. It’s citizens have some of the highest wages and lowest tax regime in the country.

But the goose that laid the golden egg is also the source of huge environmental damage. The amount of water waste alone that is necessary to extract oil from the oil sands is already in the process of turning Alberta into a desert. Very soon, Alberta could have a lot more in common with Saudi Arabia than just it’s main export product.

If anything, development needs to slow down, not triple (as the oil companies have planned).

But slowing it down requires no government intervention of the kind that turned Liberal into a dirty word in the oil patch. All government needs to do is lay off and let market factors determine production. If the market can’t sustain itself at its current levels, then it will have to slow down – or at least force the oil companies to pony up for social services and environmental protections, instead of forcing taxpayers to cover their unsustainable practices.