Is this Prosperity?

CBC Radio has been doing a special series this week to honour 40 years of Conservative government in Alberta. I was struck by one of their speakers who said that Albertans are not Conservative because they’re prosperous, rather they’re prosperous because they’re Conservative.

NO! Alberta’s government deserves no credit for the province’s prosperity, except to the extent that they’ve ignored environmental and national well-being to invest in the tar sands. The tar sands, not the Conservative government, are the source of Alberta’s short term prosperity.

Meanwhile, the rest of Canada’s economy has been hollowed out by the high Petro dollar; our opportunity to develop economically and environmentally sustainable infrastructure and a national energy policy has been all but lost; the local environment, forests, and water systems, and the health of many citizens, have been severely damaged; … tons of carbon have been pumped into the atmosphere – just in extracting the oil, that figure says nothing about the carbon emissions when the oil is used for energy, whether in Canada, the U.S., or China. For more on the devastation the tar sands have wrought on our ECONOMY as well as the environment, see James Laxer’s article, as well as the most current issue of Alternatives Journal, "The Power and the Glory", and Oil Sands Truth.

An oil industry executive spoke on CBC about how the industry is working to reduce the local environmental impact. To the extent that this is even possible, it has nothing to do with the real problem – nationally and globally we cannot afford to burn fossil fuels and emit carbon into the atmosphere. As long as we continue to do so, one province’s so-called prosperity comes at the extent of everyone else’s wellbeing, including the next generations of Albertans. 

If you oppose the continued tar sands development, and subsidies and tax breaks for the tar sands, let your MP know, and join with activists and citizens on September 24 in Toronto (and around the world), on September 26 in Ottawa (if you're not busy at the Stop the Cuts rally in Toronto)!

And to see what fossil fuel prosperity is really costing the world, tune in to 24 Hours of Reality on September 14th and 15th - starts tonight!