Funny how we don’t hear much from James Cameron about the oilsands anymore. He came, he saw, he shut up.
In advance of his arrival, many were ablaze with anticipation that with his technological mind, his Canadian roots and his environmental passion he would prove that his Avatar movie was right. Oilsands bad. Eco-nuts good.
But somehow, once he’d toured the oilsands and seen examples of reclamation, he left. He’s quiet. He’s intelligent and no one’s pawn.
Not so Robert Redford. Another Eco-llywood ‘expert’ who has made his living off movies vastly fuelled in all ways by fossil fuels (undoubtedly many of them from the oilsands he now denounces), he is now calling for both Americans and Canadians to stand up against this scourge.
What’s the scourge, Bob?
That the oilsands operators take naturally sandy oil, remove the mass of oil using boiling water (and a solvent that dissipates in short order) and return the less oily goo to the place from whence it came?
Wow. Bob says we can see it from space.
Got news for you. You can see New York from space, too. And Chicago. And Toronto. And the beaver dam up in Northern Alberta — so while we’re standing up to those nasty oilsands guys, let’s crush that beaver, too.
You know, the problem with Eco-llywood stars like Redford and more recently Daryl Hannah is that they are not accountable.
All the oilsands folks are. If you are an engineer or a geo-technician or geologist, you can’t just flop down any idea on paper for your oilsands project. You can’t just say or do anything you want. Everything you do actually has to withstand extreme conditions, be safe, be reclaimable, be operable within set parameters deemed safe by several layers of authorities.
Think of the legal liability if your design fails!
Not only that, an engineer has to work to objective professional standards, that don’t include schmoozing members of the Academy prior to Oscar night.
If you are an oilsands scientist, you have to use scientific principles when coming up with solvents or solutions. You have to make sure things don’t blow up or corrode.
And if you are a journeyman tradesperson working on welding pipe on an upgrader or steam injection unit, you have to make those welds to a certain professional standard that will stand the test for temperatures below-40C and above 40C too.
But no one ever listens to these real people who have to be accountable to objective standards.
Because none of them ever won an Oscar for pretending to be someone other than who they are.
The oilsands cast of thousands of accountable professionals just go to work every day, perform to professional standards and because of that, we are all warm, can drive cars, and everything we need gets produced or delivered using fossil fuels — a lot of which comes from the oilsands in Alberta.
So, Bob, glad that you suddenly noticed Canada has beautiful natural resources, but you better head back home and clean up your own backyard before telling us what to do.
According to the Desert News (March 11, 2011), Forbes magazine recently labelled Utah as one of the most toxic states. And guess what Bob? According to Utah’s Division of Air Quality, 38 per cent of Utah’s pollution problems come from cars and trucks.
Sounds like you’ve got your own scourge to contend with. Leave us well-enough alone — we at least have accountable professionals working on managing our environmental issues 24/7.
PS. When leaving Vancouver, make sure you walk.
Michelle Stirling-Anosh is a Ponoka-based freelance columnist.