This Post contributed to NAL by Karl Dockstader
Is oil the only thing left of value these days? Is cheaper better? Do we need to ram through our Mother the Earth’s abundant resources so we can “compete” with cheap overseas products? When will enough be enough?
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There is so much to be grateful for in the land for many of us, and yet we are eating out of boxes and bags fixed with a logo marketed just for us, instead of demanding healthy tasty local food. We are filling up landfills with our Timmies cups after our lengthy idling in line in the drive through. We are paving through forests to populate areas like the Muskoka’s with our SUV and generators for second and third homes.
We are all contributing to this destruction.
You, me, Stephen Harper and David Suzuki are all contributing in one way or another to this endless cycle of exponential growth. It defies math, reason, ethics and spits in the faces of those who made sacrifices before us to help us attain all these comforts. We are doing a lot of things, but stopping the chase of the unattainable “dream” is not one of them.
It seems to never be enough. Why not? Who has agreed to this?
The back of this giant turtle is rich with beauty. We are living in paradise. We have it all: food, water, clean abundant energy, academic institutes to nourish our minds, technology to build the things we need, we have advanced modern medicine in brilliant ways. It is heartening to know that there is land, forests and water to sustain our way of life into the future. We have what we need and then some but instead we are encouraged to want more.
Instead of appreciating what we have, the dye is cast for us to focus on what we don’t have.
If you are on a street corner sparing for change you need to get a real job. If you are living pay cheque to pay cheque it is a mighty struggle to “get ahead,” and you need to work more. If you have steady work and a good income now it’s time to look at that cottage, buying a bigger home or getting more. Whatever you may have, you haven’t got enough.
The “economy” must grow all the time.
Yagis, depicted with a tanker in his mouth by artist Ian Reid of the Heiltsuk Nation in Western Canada.
This is what we are being sold, but do we have to buy it?
Is it possible that moving resources can serve the greater good and improve the quality of life for everybody and everything in the world? Of course. Has technology and resource development ever helped people in the past? Yes. Have all sides of the pipeline and the growth of the tar sands extractions industry truly been weighed for their net benefits and drawbacks? The answer is no.
The process is as transparent as the Athabasca River. Bill C-45 was never debated openly. The NEB has no accountability to anybody other than industry. The conversations about the future are happening behind closed doors.
This can’t happen anymore. It’s time to start to take the power back. It’s time to start saying #NoEnbridge.
People interested in joining the chorus of opposition to the unchecked promotion of dangerous pipelines such as the local Line 9 reversal are welcome to join fellow community members this Saturday, July 26th at 1pm at 2895 St. Paul Ave, Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Karl Dockstader is a resident of Niagara Falls, Turtle Island. He is a father, husband, and lover of all of creation and contributes to Niagara at Large hoping to spark the conversations that lead us down the path to positive change.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who dare to be accountable and share their first and last name with them.)
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Pipeline remains the best means of transporting oil; and it will be transported, one way or the other, whether we like it or not. I’d much prefer the tap method myself, far ahead of the inefficiencies and increased dangers of delivery by rail or tanker trucks. That we live in a paradise may be somewhat of an exaggeration, but it’s true we abide in a superb biosphere of which Canada remains a showcase part; all merely a speck of dust in the vastness of space, and arguably unique in its life-supporting properties, divinely orchestrated within the increasing probability of the existence of extra-terrestrial ecosystems as our own knowledge and awareness climbs the graph of inclusiveness. Human beings are actually parasites of their own environment, on scales both personal and collective. Some nations show more responsibility to the endowments and preservation of nature than others and it seems that the most industrially motivated countries are the worst transgressors. Until alternative energy sources make the grade and are transitioned into the economy, it is an unfortunate fact of life that the oil-rich corporations will prevail, again whether we like it or not. If I’m accused of resigning myself to the status-quo, so be it, but I have always failed to see the logical reasoning for opposing every major project which can help our economy and keep our standing strong in world affairs. The over-amplification of negative environmental impacts is merely an expression of distrust toward our governments, in particular the current federal administration, no matter what they attempt to do. If we’re going to say “NO” to everything, then what is the alternative? The Garden of Eden was long ago compromised, so we must make the best of what we’ve got, and manage it all in-balance, responsibly, including the books.
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