Blame Canada!

As one listens to the final days of the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, the picture emerging is one that can be considered disturbing. It appears that the majority of the carbon which is now in the atmosphere, causing all the environmental degradation is from one source and one source only, and that Source is Canada.

Well, come on you would think so by the way this fair Dominion is getting slammed by everybody with an agenda and a press badge. To give an example, Maude Barlow, the head of the Council of Canadians has declared the Athabasca Oil Sands as "Canada's Mordor".

Canada, it seems, is being reviled because of the development of the Oil Sands, which is being inspired by such nations as the USA, which wants a near-by source of oil that is owned and operated by a country which doesn't export terrorism, with the possible exception of hockey, and is friendly. As well, China seems to be in on the deal, providing the finances for future development.

It is safe to say that the Oil Sands are nasty. They are a major source of greenhouse gases as well as environmental degradation. A lot of places it becomes an open pit mine, so the forests are, obviously, destroyed with the loss of natural life as well.

From one article it appears the Oil Sands is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases in the world, so if Canada wants to meet any sort of target, it has to look carefully at the CO2 emissions from the Oil Sands Project. It just has to.

It is because of this, Canada is taking it on the chin. There are protests against Canada in Copenhagen, for example, attacking us on the Oil Sands.

On top of it, Ontario and Quebec has called for strict standards. I found this article in the National Post, talking about the sanctimonious claptrap from the former "Have Provinces".

Never mind that when the Liberals were in power in Ottawa, the Liberal government of Ontario extracted a pledge from the feds not to include emissions from automakers in the national caps required to meet our Kyoto commitments, and to put a larger burden on energy-producing provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan. We don't recall Ontario and Quebec squawking about emissions "fairness" then.

Another article points out the Oil Sands produce 5% of Canada's CO2 emissions, most of what we produce comes from transportation, in comparison.

I suppose it is simple to say the Oil Sands are now the cause celebre of all that is wrong with the world. I would suspect that it is true, there are problems with the Oil Sands, basically because it's part of the entire Carbon based fuel economy which needs to come to an end. We have to stop our dependence on Carbon products to produce energy to run our global economy. It is now the 21st Century, we need to stop relying on energy that was developed in the 18th century.

So am I in favour of Oil Sands or what? The quick answer is 'no'.

What does annoy me is when people take pot shots at my fair Dominion.