In the event the rest of the world, especially the global environmental watchdog community, has not noticed, Canada is the world鈥檚 second largest country. Canada is also a First World community and we aren鈥檛 necessarily backward in our thinking. This country is also sparsely populated. There are fewer than 36 million of us. And, we are cold for a good portion of the year.聽
Many years ago Canadians discovered the country was blessed with a huge volume of fossil fuels, so it was decided we would use them to keep ourselves warm, and later to use these same fuels to generate electricity and other engines of growth.
Fast forward to present day.聽
The pressure is on. Saskatchewan and Canada are now being taken to task for non-performance on the carbon emission file by sundry environmental agencies and even聽 occasional B list celebrities who envision themselves as experts on such topics as global warming, economics, politics and the rescue procedures for puppy dogs and kitty cats.聽
They get to kick us, and generally kick us hard, for non-compliance with vague green house gas emission targets. Canada becomes the low hanging fruit for these people with our generally polite manners, adherence to the democratic principals of free speech, easy and fair media access, and lots of Internet tools to be deployed to point out how weak we are.聽
The fact is that Canada, and that includes the 鈥渄irty鈥� northern Alberta oilsands, emits less than one per cent of the world鈥檚 pollutants, is still the target, even within the ranks of our American friends who generally don鈥檛 pay that much attention to us, other than seeing us as a little less annoying than their neighbours to the south.
What would be nice, is for these over-rich and overwrought celebrities and environmental gurus, to climb aboard their solar powered airplanes or board their wind powered ships and yachts and head over to Beijing and Mumbai to deliver their lectures on global warming responsibilities. In other words, do the preaching where it might do the most good.聽
We warn them ahead of time, their audience might not be as embracing and attentive as their North American subjects. The leadership in China, India and elsewhere are just as concerned as they are, and as we are, about greenhouse gases. But their leaders, and our leaders 鈥� meaning politicians and industry CEOs, have to deal with the issue pragmatically and that means, not always having the benefit of ideology at their disposal.聽
Canada and North America, for that matter, has to come to grips with the realization that we don鈥檛 hold the ace cards when it comes to either oil and gas fuels, solar panels or wind turbines. The Middle East and Saudi Arabia in particular get to call the shots when it comes to oil and gas, as much as we would like to deny it, that is the fact.聽
Wind turbines come from elsewhere, not Canada, but we鈥檇 surely love to build more of them, if they ever catch on as a source of base power loads. They aren鈥檛 there yet. In fact, when they do turn, they operate at 30 per cent efficiency. In the meantime, we must fall back on what we know and can control. Solar panels? That market has been taken over by the Chinese who also control the majority of rare earth minerals. Ask the solar panel manufacturers in North America who have had to declare bankruptcy, just who holds that key.聽
We must transition, but we must do it carefully and that doesn鈥檛 mean rapid shutdowns of mines and wells just because they are deemed dirty by those wearing the rose-coloured sunglasses.
