Alberta’s Response to the Criticism of the Oil Sands
With the advancement of technology, we have a created a world that runs on fossil fuels, particularly oil. The world is hungry for it and running after it madly. The thirst for it can be seen presently in an issue over oil sands in Alberta.
Beneath the pristine boreal forest of Alberta, Canada is the world’s third largest oil reserves just after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The reserves the governments of Alberta and Canada and almost every major oil company in the world want to exploit – despite the risk of climatic changes and a local ecological disaster.
Alberta responded to oil sands criticism and proclaimed that how little progress has been made to address the environmental impacts to date and, more significantly, to ensure that development in the future is responsibly managed. There have been incremental steps to voice this issue. These issues are relatively small, subject to backsliding or lackluster implementation or simply not up to the scale of the impacts, they are meant to address. Much to the surprise for the people that they are often dismissed as mere “greenwash.”
The damage is shocking, whether it is growing greenhouse gas pollution, global warming, threats to freshwater or endangered species of birds and wildlife. It has become an environmental disaster zone of colossal proportions. Not only is the land in the critical condition but the weather systems are also badly affected. Thus, the Canadians and Americans alike don’t believe the environment is being adequately protected.
It has been noticed that the expansion of oil sands development, combined with factors such as Canada’s lack of progress on its international GHG abatement commitments; the absence of a national strategy on energy and the environment; and the lack of federal government leadership on major environmental policy initiatives, have meant that Canada’s international reputation on environmental issues is increasingly shaky. The world critics look at Canadian government with suspicious eyes still waiting to check what steps will be undertaken to solve this issue.
Alberta’s renewable energy communities think that a variety of approaches are required to drive a social and technology transitions, such as the shift towards a green energy system. The issue of oil sands has led many green energy companies to invest tremendously in renewable energy sources and energy conversation efforts in Alberta.
In the nutshell, a war of words won’t solve the problem and until the people address the underlying gaps in Alberta’s regulatory regime, Alberta is going to continue to be criticized for mismanaging oil sands development. Fortunately, we can minimize those criticisms if we rethink our response.
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