Now running for the leadership of the Liberal Party, Justin Trudeau said something especially depressing today:
“There’s not a country in the world that would find 170 billion barrels of oil under the ground and leave them there. There is not a province in this country that would find 170 billion barrels of oil and leave it in the ground.”
Days after Thomas Mulcair expressed support for an east-west oil sands pipeline, Trudeau’s comments demonstrate how virtually the entire spectrum of Canadian political opinion favours imposing dangerous and potentially catastrophic climate change on future generations, because today’s politicians cannot bear to forego the short-term profits associated with oil sands extraction. At a time when climate science is making it increasingly clear that we are putting humanity’s very existence at risk, our politicians lack the courage or the imagination to propose much other than the status quo: banking fossil fuel profits while ignoring the long-term consequences of our choices.
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This is good news…. for the Green party.
In a first-past-the-post system, the Greens will never be able to do much beyond alter the content of the debate.
We really need the major federal parties to start taking climate change seriously.
That is too bad; I was hoping that Trudeau as a new face in politics would make a paradigm shift regarding the environment.
Canadians won’t accept the possibility that the oil sands bounty cannot be monetized. No matter how environmentally harmful it will be to extract, Canadians will do it anyway.
This is also super depressing: Raw Video: Obama and Romney square off on energy
Both candidates are desperate to stress how strongly they favour unlimited fossil fuel production.
Romney: “The right course for America is to have a true all-of-the-above policy. I don’t think anyone really believes that you’re a person who’s going to be pushing for oil, and gas, and coal… I will fight for all coal and natural gas.”
No mention of climate. We can only hope they are both telling the kind of lies they believe to tell in order to win the election.
Coal is the enemy of the human race
Oh yes there is! We would just leave it! Only because money isn’t our God! Justin you are just another money hungry lying politician! Remember the name!