I'm feeling a little achey, a lot of tired...and I'm still connecting dots in my head. Also, feeling a little rant-minded. So, if you'll forgive me?
New issues of
National Geographic,
Canadian Geographic and
The Walrus came out in recent weeks, and there's a topic linkage in that: oil and its consequences.
National Geographic was covering the wake of the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill, including a foldout map of the Gulf of Mexico complete with federal exploration leases actively explored/exploited, pile lines, wildlife refuges and so forth all marked out clearly. To call it an extensive network is probably to damn myself for understating the situation.
Walrus had a feature on the Albertan oil industry's push against the Northwest Territories to get onside with their perceived needs for the McKenzie River Valley watershed. A lot of people in the NWT are not all that pleased with the push. However, being a territory and not a province still has more than a few political and financial drawbacks for the NWT. And those could end up creating some ecological headaches for future generations.
Canadian Geographic's October 2010 issue is devoted to the direct consequences of climate derangement for Canada as a whole. Desertification of the South Saskatchewan River basin, loss of harbourfront real estate in old downtown Halifax (and likely, its counterpart in the former city of Dartmouth right across the harbour as well ), overheated cities(with Montréal as an exemplar of where we could be headed with or without remedial and preventative measures)...
You see where my brain is going tonight?
When I stumbled onto the last of these at
Mags and Fags, that news-stand on Elgin Street, late this afternoon, I muttered something about "climate derangement" - my phrase for the situation many - most? - of us are scared of. A guy standing next to me who'd chuckled moments earlier about some novelty item proclaimed by its packaging to be "made of real poo" - I have my doubts on that one - responded on automatic that "I don't believe it. It's all a scam by people looking to bring carbon taxes."
I suppose it's an inevitability. Live in Ottawa long enough, you'll run into all kinds. Sometimes it only takes a month, sometimes a quarter-century. And you'll have to live next to them, work with them, and occasionally marry into each others' families. If you - and they - are lucky enough and careful enough, you'll figure out a way to not only co-exist, but thrive in concert. Someday. Preferably sooner than later.
Anyway.
I told him flat: if it's my lungs or someone else's cars? I'm siding with my lungs. So if that means carbon taxes? Go, carbon taxes, go!
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