Polluters really do care about the environment

Now that President Barrack Obama officially “loves” Canada and has expressed even more political affection for it by inviting our Governor General Michalle Jean to visit his house in Washington, it looks as if this country is once again back in the good books with the most powerful man, and nation, in the world.

Unlike the past eight years where we went through an identity crisis by not being recognized for ‘anything’ worthwhile, or even our place on the globe for that matter, it now looks as if we’re once again going to be taken seriously.

And it’s about time! After all, next to Russia, Canada is the only other self-sustaining country whereby we could, if necessary, live without the rest of the world… including the United States if pushed to extremes. It wouldn’t be easy, mind you, but Canada could survive. It wouldn’t be much fun either, but theoretically Canada could exist on its own.

We have the water, we have agriculture, we’ve got lots of trees and most of all, we have plenty of minerals to make everything else we don’t eat. And topping off all of that, we also have plenty of oil and gas to keep everything running. In fact, we’d be hard pressed to use it all by ourselves.

Anyway, all of the above is possible but in reality, we do need the rest of the world and despite its economically troubled status in world rankings right now, the United States is still our best friend.

Like all friendships, however, there are disagreements and right from the start of President Obama’s reign, we have a bit of an issue with the United States insofar as our oil sands and their emissions are concerned.

Everything the President and his government have mentioned so far about our polluting oil fields in Alberta and Saskatchewan is not new but now that ‘he’ is saying them, the world is listening more intently.

Even last month’s National Geographic magazine, printed in 23 languages cirer with a worldwide circulation of more than 9 million copies, took a shot at the oil sands in a Cover Feature entitled: “The Canadian Oil Boom; Tar Sands Yield Millions of Barrels…but at what cost?”

Mining, by its very nature, is a dirty job and as hard as every worker tries, it’s nearly impossible to come home clean at the end of the day. And, at the end of that same day, it’s sometimes even harder for the people who employ those miners to come clean too.

There’s no disputing that converting a nasty mix of heavy bitumen and sand into a friendly and useable liquid takes a lot of processing and energy but when you look at the overall picture, the emissions from the various plants under the environmental microscope in the oil sands are not as bad as those coming from the back ends of most cars and trucks. Even President Obama’s “The Beast” of a car is a guilty contributor.

Sure the gasses pouring from processing plants are a concern, but what’s not making headlines is the fact that no one is more concerned about the whole situation than the people who actually work in and own the oil fields. After all, let’s face it, they breathe it… we only read about it.