To the Editor,
Re: Many B.C. residents buy into campaign against pipelines, Guest Comment, Aug. 7.
Don Olsen makes some interesting arguments in trying to spin the pipeline proposals into a nationalist issue – that opponents are either uneducated or anti-Canadian.
His assertion that Aboriginal Canadians and environmentalists do not possess the knowledge of pipelines or have access to the resources to fund an opposition campaign are especially troubling.
Is Olsen privy to the finances of either entity? How can he make a blanket statement on what First Nations know about pipelines?
I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that suggesting that one’s heritage makes you simply unqualified to speak on a matter is at best offensive, at worst some form of bigotry.
I guess I am supposed to feel some sympathy for Alberta-based oil companies and their overworked/underpaid executives when Olsen goes on to describe how ‘discounted’ Alberta oil is.
I wasn’t aware that Alberta was suffering from this crisis at all. That’s a pretty compelling reason to stop selling oil to America and sell to the Chinese.
I wonder what would happen to the U.S. economy if it was made to be even more dependent on Middle East oil. And by extension, our economy as its linked to America’s economy. Interesting scenarios come to mind.
Olsen would have readers believe that we’re all gullible and being swayed by black-ops work of the CIA and other agencies.
Maybe we just don’t want pipelines from the most destructive environmental catastrophe sending oil across our landscape – and no amount of political theatrics from Christy Clark (or others) can change that.
And there’s another issue.
When are we going to realize that the future of energy isn’t oil at all?
The power of the sun gives to the Earth in one hour more energy than all of Earth requires in a year.
The fact that we have not yet discovered the technology to harness that energy doesn’t mean that it can’t be done – it means we have failed to see past the ends of our noses when it comes to energy policy.
We spend billions of dollars on oil-energy sector subsidies while paying lip service to the new energy sources.
In case Olsen or anyone else wasn’t watching, Greenland is melting. This is a product of the climate change through human activity that so many in the Big Oil group-think choose to ignore.
Ignore all you want, but the effects of having one quarter of the world’s freshwater supply suddenly melted and released into the oceans will kill millions. Rising sea levels and altered weather patterns will put us into uncharted territory.
Yet Olsen is fixated on pipelines.
No, B.C. residents aren’t opposed to the pipeline proposals because they’re gullible or stupid, they are opposed because they are informed – and know the difference between right and wrong.
Peter Kelly
Nanaimo