Alberta gets a bad rep for all the wrong reasons! Ya, I said It!
All I seem to ever hear about is how bad Alberta is for the environment. The oilsands this, the oilsands that! Its like, if the oilsands happened to be in BC or Ontario, there wouldn't have been any oil production. Yeah right! Unfortunately, the way our system is set up, we will exploit our resources wherever they lay. What people don't understand about Alberta is that because of its oil history, the environmental legislation in the province is stricter than anywhere else in the country. Our reclamation and remediation practices are unmatched in the WORLD!!!
Yes, I will agree, the oilsands is a bit of a disaster, but that can't be blamed on us. In the spirit of South park "Blame Canada" because it is all of us that are the real culprits. The oil in Alberta contributes more to the federal GDP than any other source. It pays for our social systems and the high standard of living that we have all grown accustomed to. As long as this is the case, shutting it down is going to be a really tough sell. I'm not saying that we shouldn't look for alternative sources of energy, just that the economics speaks for itself.
I got on this tangent because I just read an article on how Alberta is going to be the first province that recycles construction and demolition materials. We are the first in many areas of environmental sustainability, but nobody ever hears about that. The community of Okotoks, in Southern Alberta, has a suburb that runs almost entirely off the grid. Hundreds of houses hooked up to geothermal and solar panels. The town of Vulcan has set clear objectives to run the entire town off of solar power. Alberta is the biggest user of wind energy. The list goes on and on!
I am a member of the Alberta community and I think we are more sustainable than you may have heard!
All I seem to ever hear about is how bad Alberta is for the environment. The oilsands this, the oilsands that! Its like, if the oilsands happened to be in BC or Ontario, there wouldn't have been any oil production. Yeah right! Unfortunately, the way our system is set up, we will exploit our resources wherever they lay. What people don't understand about Alberta is that because of its oil history, the environmental legislation in the province is stricter than anywhere else in the country. Our reclamation and remediation practices are unmatched in the WORLD!!!
Yes, I will agree, the oilsands is a bit of a disaster, but that can't be blamed on us. In the spirit of South park "Blame Canada" because it is all of us that are the real culprits. The oil in Alberta contributes more to the federal GDP than any other source. It pays for our social systems and the high standard of living that we have all grown accustomed to. As long as this is the case, shutting it down is going to be a really tough sell. I'm not saying that we shouldn't look for alternative sources of energy, just that the economics speaks for itself.
I got on this tangent because I just read an article on how Alberta is going to be the first province that recycles construction and demolition materials. We are the first in many areas of environmental sustainability, but nobody ever hears about that. The community of Okotoks, in Southern Alberta, has a suburb that runs almost entirely off the grid. Hundreds of houses hooked up to geothermal and solar panels. The town of Vulcan has set clear objectives to run the entire town off of solar power. Alberta is the biggest user of wind energy. The list goes on and on!
I am a member of the Alberta community and I think we are more sustainable than you may have heard!
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