What would we do without Oil

Some one recently said to me, how can you as an Albertan feel good about the tar sands impact on our environment.  I responded, how as a Canadian would you feel about relying on the turbulent, hot tempered middle east countries for your fuel, heat and plastics...Want to know what that would feel like?  Just look at the USA...they consume triple the amount that they can produce per year...so they are very reliant on middle east oil...and that, I believe is why they have to stick their noses into those countries politics...fund their armies and generally kiss ass....We don't have to do that...because we produce more Oil and Gas than we consume. 

Now don't get me wrong...I am not happy about the way the tar sands are being developed, I believe there are way better ways to handle the waste sludge and tailing's ponds that they produce up there...but the problem stems from demand for our product and the speed at which the whole thing took off...not enough time was given for developing those more environmentally friendly methods. It was all about getting the thing into production and worry about what to do with the waste later...unfortunately later hasn't happened yet...just ask all the birds that died there two years ago... my worry is what about all the shit that goes on in the rest of the country that we DON'T hear about...

The poisonous water leeching into the lakes and sloughs around northern Quebec, from an old mine...dead babies, birth defects, cancer...don't hear anything much about that whole fiasco anymore...
Then there's the whole toxic waste management site in Swan Hills, here in Alberta...which is only about a two hour drive from here.... A few years ago they actually banned hunters from eating the game they shot in that area...you can shoot for trophy antlers (cause they have some freaky antler growth up there) but don't eat the meat....fish by all means but don't actually eat the fish...or berries. There have been a couple of incidents where a hunter has shot a deer that had three ears...and a moose with a fifth undeveloped leg...now THAT is scary... they are going to shut that site down...the huge concrete pits that they were holding the toxic waste in developed cracks only a few years after it was built (which is the nature of concrete in these cold climates) and waste water has been leaching into the water system up there and the ground...

So the tar sands are not nearly so scary...sure the oily sludge that sits in open tailing's ponds is a sure death to migrating birds that land on it...but they do have some measures in place to make sure that that doesn't happen...the canons broke down that one time and voila...it made the national news..

This whole environmental activist thing is a bit baffling to me. I am all for people feeling strongly about stuff...but use some common sense.  After all if it wasn't for oil and gas how would they get to the places they want to protest...did they walk, I think not...what about the plastic signs they hold up in protest...and if there was no oil industry...we wouldn't have fuel for our cars, no airlines to wisk you away to your winter tropical holiday destinations...no plastic...and if you think about deleting all the things derived from oil...you would feel like you were living in the dark ages, plastic..for instance, think about all the things you use daily that are made of plastic...and now imagine life with out them... so ya the oil and gas industry has a ways to go to improve their impact on the environment...but at least we won't have to invade another country to achieve our commute or heat our house in our Canadian winter... and I can honestly say that no one in my immediate family profits from working in the oil and gas industry... but I just don't want to be one of the thousands of hypocrites who use the products but poo poo the process....

You can bet your booties that when, the whole middle east goes into a tail spin (and there is definite signs of that happening even now) our knees won't be knocking... we'll be fine...our cars will still move, our homes will still be warm, but we may have to worry about being invaded by the USA, for our oil....hahahaha...cause you can be assured that when their middle east tap is shut off they'll be looking northward...

The Americans may think of us as bumbling backwards idiots but we're bumbling backwards idiots with a lot of oil and fresh water....