On being a Canadian.

I came to Canada in 1975 and have thoroughly enjoyed my time here.

But I find that I am becoming a little embasrassed being a Canadian, especially in view of our Government's policy regarding global warming.

The Oil Sands may or may not be to your liking, depending how naive you are about the statistics being published around the economy and the job market; but one thing's for sure and that is that the cost of making a barrel of oil is becoming farcical.I am talking about the amount of fresh water that is being used up, not to say poisoned, in order to produce a barrel of oil.

Initially we were told that it took three barrels of (potable) water to make a barrel of oil, and I have no doubt that that is still the case at Fort McMurray and its environs. However, the Wilderness Committee has just put out a report about the delightful newish practice of Fracking. Our magnificent Rocky Mountains are now being 'fracked', as usual in order to make money for a few corporate execs and their shareholders.

Now, I have nothing against a good bit of capitalism, but I would like to see a reasonable amount of this wonderful planet left for my grandchildren to explore.

'Fracking', which by the way has been banned all over Europe and in several States in America, involves pumping large quantities of potable water mixed with chemicals, some of which are carcinogenic to the point of having to be held afterwards in yet more tailings ponds, at very high pressure down concrete lined pipes running deep into the ground, in order to break the rocks and allow the natural gas to be released so that it can be pumped to, guess where? Yes, the oil sands production units. But do you know how much natural gas is needed on a daily basis by these oil producers? 29,000,000 cubic metres per day!!

That's right 29,000,000 cubic metres per day, and that was a few years ago in 2007.

Good God, how much water does it now take to produce a barrel of oil? Oh, I know, the water is free. Really? What about the fact that there is less water around the more we burn oil and thereby increase the atmospheric temperature of our planet?

Of course this has nothing to do with the mining of Asbestos (Watch this space) which has been banned, not only around most of the world, but also in this country; but then we are only going to sell it to a third world country, so what's all the fuss about?.

And what about the idea of opening a new open-cast coal mine on Vancouver Island? Yes, that's the latest idea that is now going through the environmental test to see if enough cash is being promised by the company concerned when it comnes to election time. Haven't we just been over to China (at tax payers' expense) asking them to reduce their coal burning emmissions? But still it is worth going through the environmental exercise according to the Federal Minister of the Environment who recently sent me an email on the subject.
May be I should just hide my face and buy shares in these companies whose execs are clearly not concerned about their grandchildren. The trouble is I am concerned for mine.