Original Photos from Alaska in Pictures and CBC
Let’s not go all Chicken Little over the fact that the Transmountain pipeline expansion will increase the number of tankers entering Vancouver Harbour from one a week to one a day.
But That’s Seven Times the Danger!!!!!
When you’re trying to rouse public support, it’s always more useful to have a red flag to wave and an ultimatum to shout. Everybody loves a scene, and the general public find it far easier to throw a tantrum and scream, “NO,” than to actually think, figure out the real dangers, and do something about them.
An Example to Demonstrate
It’s pretty certain that there’s going to be a major earthquake here in the next 50, 100, or 1,000 years. But do we see everyone pressing the provincial government to upgrade the schools? Not a chance. We’d much rather sit on our duffs and allow the provincial Liberals to use seismic upgrading as a weapon in their continuing battle to underfund the school system. Saying “I told you so,” over the bodies of a few hundred dead school kids is not going to be a very satisfying experience.
The Real Problem
Since we are all thoughtful people, let’s keep that human tendency in mind when we consider the chances that oil is going to harm our environment, and how it’s most likely going to happen.
You wanta play statistics? There are 12,000 ships per year passing through Juan de Fuca Strait. Kinder Morgan’s plan is to increase their tankers per year to about 350. That’s 0.03%. And that 0.03% will be the best equipped, most heavily controlled and safest of the vast gamut of oil-filled hulls floating around, with two local pilots and three tug operators doing their best to make their navigation pretty well foolproof.
But every single one of those other 11,650 ships out in the Salish Sea is carrying enough fuel oil to cause serious environmental damage. No one can be sure that those owners haven’t been cutting corners. In fact, we can be certain that some of them are. And then there’s all the smaller, local boats. Like the BC Ferries, that log millions of kilometres a year.
What About the Exxon Valdez?
Causes of that spill and the environmental damage that still persists:
- US Coast Guard had cut back on its ship inspections and downgraded the ship-tracking system in the area.
- The Valdez collision avoidance radar had been inoperable for a full year. The ship was under-crewed, and the crew over-worked.
- A lack of equipment and crew slowed the cleanup efforts.
What Can We Learn?
The Exxon Valdez spill was a combination of operator error, owner greed and government cost-cutting. Since nobody can guarantee that private enterprise will voluntarily spend money to keep their equipment up to scratch, the onus falls double on our government agencies to make sure everything is done Bristol-fashion.
Of course, if we can’t depend on our government to do that…if we think they’re too busy cutting costs to benefit their business friends…then we’re in for a series of spills, large and small, and the tiny percentage of extra tanker traffic is going to make a miniscule difference. On the other hand, the extra attention these dangerous ships bring to cleanup technologies and navigational aids might be instrumental in lessening the impact of the hundreds of smaller spills we know are going to happen in the next few years.
If you want to be active, get on the provincial government to do their job to protect the environment and the people of their province without destroying our livelihoods at the same time.
Because, while a major oil spill is a possibility, shutting down oil production in Canada is a sure way to cause a huge dip in our economy. Which, one might predict, will cut government revenues, which will lead to government cost-cutting, which will make oil spills even more likely and dangerous.
The Bottom Line
If we fall prey to the statistics of the ultra-conservationists, we miss the real danger. The chance of an Exxon Valdez-sized oil spill happening in the Salish Sea is negligible. However, the fact of some kind of oil spill happening in the Salish Sea is certain. There was one 18 months ago big enough to report. There are hundreds of small spills go unreported every year. And that’s not counting the oil that two-stroke engines leave behind wherever they run.
What’s Worse?
More worrisome are the reports that BC is not ready for a major spill. The fact that the federal government has tied the Kinder Morgan project approval to a whole bunch of money earmarked for creating a state-of-the-art oil spill response system ought to have environmentalists rubbing their hands in glee. I’m sure Mr. Trudeau and his Liberal cronies hoped so.
Take No Prisoners!
Of course, for the All-or-Nothing segment of the conservation movement, it makes no difference. If they had their way, there would be no oil wells dug, no trees cut down, no automobiles on the road. We could live the happy, environmentally-friendly life of the “Noble Savages” touted by the Romantic poets of the early 19th Century. Who were as ignorant of how the First Nations people really lived as Donald Trump’s supporters are of who they actually elected. These delusional people created an image in their minds of what they needed, looked around and found an idol to hang that image on and proceeded to worship it. And they didn’t let the practicalities of the world tell them otherwise.
The Middle Ground
Not that we don’t need environmentalists. The David Suzikis of this world are a great counterbalance to the businessmen whose idol is cash, cash and more cash. It’s just that calmer heads are needed in the middle to find a common ground. The federal Liberal Party has put up its hand as the leader of that group, and it remains to be seen whether they’ll succeed or not.
It wouldn’t hurt to remind the protesters who are so enamoured of their First Nations ways that one of the basic precepts of that lifestyle is the art of compromise. Nobody gets what he or she wants. Everyone has to meet somewhere in the middle. Oil has to move if the Canadian lifestyle is to continue. We can pat ourselves on the back about how wonderful we are to refugees, but only as long as our economy can continue to support them and find them jobs. Remember, if the oil doesn’t move by pipelines it will move by train, which is even more dangerous. Need I mention Lac-Mégantique?
The Kinder Morgan pipeline is a less disruptive way to keep the economy running until we can phase out our use of oil. Activists who really want to be useful should turn their energies towards influencing the provincial government to do their duty and make the transport of oil as safe as possible. We do have a provincial election coming up, you know.
I’m sorry if that sounds too boring. And too democratic.
Photos:
http://www.alaska-in-pictures.com/data/media/17/exxon-valdez-tanker_3195.jpg
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/elizabeth-may-green-party-leadership-1.3728225