Hayden
Albertans have grown accustomed to the periodic boom-and-bust bravado from our government — belt-tightening living beyond our means and getting our house in order.
Yet I contend that our leaders have failed to recognize or perhaps chosen to avoid some inconvenient truths at the core of how we live in Alberta — our fossil fuel dependence our addiction to stuff the failed promise of economic growth and our fundamentally dysfunctional and disenfranchising democracy.
The inconvenient truth is that the fossil fuels that power Alberta’s economy — the cornerstone of our way of life — are making our planet uninhabitable. The Oil and Gas Reliance Index developed by Sustainable Calgary suggests we are more dependent on this resource now than we have ever been.
If we stop or drastically reduce the exploitation of fossil fuels the economy we’ve relied upon for the past 50 years withers. If we do not then the climate sweet spot that has allowed our species to thrive on this planet unhinges.
Despite abundant warnings of rough seas ahead after 45 years we have no rainy day fund to bankroll a transition. Norway of course is awash in rainy day money.
Another inconvenient truth: if every person on the planet lived like the average Albertan we would need four planets to provide the food wood products energy and manufactured goods we consume annually. Talk about living beyond our means. But have you ever heard a politician voice this dilemma? Some don’t believe or understand it. Others are afraid that therein lies electoral suicide.
On a finite planet there is a direct connection between our voracious consumption of the Earth’s resources; the phenomenon of terrorism; our government’s assertion that we need to send Canadians to die in places like Afghanistan and Iraq; and the cringe-inducing image of former Foreign Minister John Baird tweeting a selfie as he fawns over Egypt’s brutal ruler Al-Sissi.
To live as we do requires us not only to turn a blind eye but also to actively maintain an unjust global economy.
It is an inconvenient truth that to live as we do results in the degradation of human life support systems on a global scale — the continental shelf coral reefs temperate tropical and boreal forests biodiversity and fresh water. National Geographic reports that humans have accelerated species extinction to 1000 times natural historic rates. The United Nations warns that almost every ecosystem type on the planet is in decline.
I’ve seen the results of these inconvenient truths first hand — the near enslavement of the cotton pickers in Tajikistan and sugar cane cutters in the Philippines. I’ve listened to the stories of Guatemalans exiled in Mexico witnesses to the torture and brutal murder of their loved ones by CIA-trained death squads. I’ve witnessed the destruction of the mountainous forests and coastal mangroves of the Philippines; the smouldering remains of southern Brazil’s tropical forests to make way for soybean and cattle pasture; and the decimation of the northern cod stocks in my native Newfoundland.
The irony is that those who berate us for living beyond our economic means remain silent in the face of the rampant destruction of the natural world that ultimately sustains any kind of human economy.
After decades of robust economic growth in Alberta it is an inconvenient truth that most indices of inequality and of poverty have either stagnated or worsened. Homelessness has increased near tenfold in the past 15 years food bank usage is at an all-time high.
The last time the minimum wage was sufficient to cover the most basic of needs for food and shelter in Calgary was 1978. Calgary now stands as the most unequal jurisdiction in the country.
Political leaders lack the fortitude to acknowledge this inconvenient truth even though research demonstrates clearly that beyond a rudimentary level of material wealth it is a societal level of equality that is the most important indicator of well-being.
Finally our leaders are unwilling to face the fact that our democracy has been tossed in a dumpster all but lacking a perceptible pulse. Over the past six elections the governing party has won the support of barely 25 per cent of eligible voters — only 51 per cent of those who actually voted — but gained between 60 and 90 per cent of the seats in the legislature. We desperately need a system that encourages engagement and robust debate and delivers to the legislature a fair representation of Alberta’s diverse political views.
Some may think these assertions provocative or unpalatable. Perhaps but they are also true. We pride ourselves as living in one of the best places on earth — educated entrepreneurial worldly straight talkin’ problem-solvers. If not our political leaders then who among us will speak these inconvenient truths?
Noel Keough is a co-founder of Sustainable Calgary assistant professor of Sustainable Design at the University of Calgary Faculty of Environmental Design and the Alberta Green Party candidate for Calgary-Klein.
