Do you ever wonder where your beef comes from? Whenever I am in Costco, enjoying the best this modern hunter-gatherer society has to offer, I take note of the beautifully shrink-wrapped beef and wonder just where that bovine came from. Is this meat full of hormones? Was the animal raised on feed or grass? Did he have a decent life before he headed off to the slaughterhouse? Such things aren’t reflected in the price.
Pondering these questions makes me admire hunters. I think a lot fewer of us would actually eat meat if we gutted our own cattle. I think many of us would have trouble putting a steer down with a mechanism that fires a bolt into its brain stem. I think many of us would have trouble with where our beef came from, if we really pursued it.
What about our oil?
It’s easy to buy Middle Eastern crude. In fact, Canada imports 40% of its oil for domestic uses. Sure we know it generates less C02 than bitumen-based crude. When you fill up your tank with gasoline, do you ever wonder how many women have been oppressed by oil-financed fundamentalist societies? Have you wondered how many lives are lost each year due to oil-related violence in Algeria, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Iraq?
This is the silver lining in the clouds over Fort McMurray. Yes, the oil sands are ugly. Yes, they hurt the environment. But, in a manner similar to 9/11, it ‘brings the violence home’ and forces us to confront the impact our consumption of this resource has on our environment. No longer is oil a NIMBY issue that can be shuttered away, out of mind, out of sight.
Will Ontarians and Eastern Canadians ever stop to consider where their oil comes from? Contrary to popular belief, it is not coming from the tar sands. It’s coming from OPEC nations. Gord Laxer:
Indeed, Alberta has plenty of oil, more than enough to meet Eastern Canadians’ needs, and export surpluses. But Alberta cannot supply Eastern Canada, even if a crisis hit and they were freezing in the dark, because NAFTA reserves Alberta’s oil for Americans’ security of supply. Although Canada is a net exporter of oil, we import almost one million barrels per day to meet 90% of Quebec’s and Atlantic Canada’s needs, and 40% of Ontario’s. At the same time, Canada exports 63% of its oil and 56% of its natural gas production to the US.
I almost expect the Stelmach government to counter its sullied oil image with a media blitz showing pictures of Eastern Canadians filling up their gas tanks with the oil of dead Iraqi babies.
