At the time of this writing Canada’s forests are on fire, fuelled by climate change (source), wild-fire smoke is choking much of Toronto, and the population centres of the eastern seaboard. Apocalyptic images fill social media, and the cause is well known. A casual survey suggested that most people know climate change is to blame. But where is the intense suggestion that we ought to stop burning stuff? And actually do something about it. No, apparently we need to pour more money into the cause of the forest fire problem, fossil fuels.
Canada is warming much faster than the global average, since the 1950’s, Canada has warmed by 2.4 C, quite a bit faster than the global average of perhaps 1 C over the same time-period (source). Somehow the Arctic is warming three times faster than the rest of the planet (source). Global warming results in more extreme and more frequent heat events, which set the stage for drastic forest fires, the nature of the Canadian Boreal forest also plays a role (source). All that wildfire smoke then hitches a ride on the jet-stream, which can pass by Toronto on its way to the population centres along the eastern seaboard (see image below).
Public opinion surveys also show that the public gets the climate change story (source), e.g. fossil fuel use => warmer climate => whole lot of forest fires. Even Mr. Trump feels like polluters should pay (source), although perhaps somewhat misguided since Mr. Trump wants Canada to pay, even though the US has pumped 10 times the emissions Canada does (source), but I must give Mr. Trump credit for insisting on polluters paying for the mess, on that front, he seems to be ahead of Mr. Carney (source).
What is curiously missing from the discussion is a call to action. Why are we not buying more EVs? Installing more heat-pumps, renewable energy and solar? What happened to the carbon tax?
Nope, the Canadian government wants to go all in on fossil fuels, spend more taxpayer money on an oil pipeline to carry expensive oil to markets in Asia, even though China for example, does not seem all that interested in buying oil these days (source, and source). Sure there are other countries in Asia, but few have the refining capacity of China (source). Not that the Conservatives are proposing anything different, if anything, they would like to build more pipelines (source).
Canadian oil is both expensive and very carbon intense (source). It costs about $30 USD to produce a barrel of Alberta’s finest (source), another $10-20 to ship it to market, and we are “breaking even” at a west Texas intermediate of $40-$50 per barrel. That barrel, produces about 100 Kg CO2 equivalent, about 25% of the 400 Kg CO2/barrel when said barrel is burned (source). By the way, the Saudi’s usually can produce the same barrel for USD $10, and 30 Kg CO2 eq. And yes, none of these figures factor in the cleanup cost, that sizeable liability gap that nicely sinks the idea the the Oil sands are profitable, its more like a loan actually, get cash now, let our kids deal with the hangover later (source).
All of this has me rather puzzled. Where is the call for action? The “stop-burning-stuff” cries? Do people care about the environment at all?
Apparently they do. Recently, a local Toronto group ran a successful campaign to continue banning jets at Toronto City Center Airport, despite the $9B claimed economic benefits (source). After much pressure, the federal government cancelled the Ford provincial governments plans to allow Jets at Billy Bishop (source). Suggesting that Environmental concerns, even at the cost of economic benefits, do matter to voters.
Some might say the problem with climate change has to do with complexity, keep it simple, they say, while “stop burning stuff” is simple, it also sounds a bit like stop enjoying life. Of course, nothing is further from the truth, try an EV, and you might discover all the silliness of internal combustion cars. Press the accelerator and you accelerate right? No first we have to change to a lower gear, then reach optimum RPM, and then…. silliness, in an EV you just accelerate!
So why not go with EVs => Cheaper, better, faster. The last two have been true for some time, but we are seeing some movement on the first (source), say what you want on Chinese EVs, but Canadian shoppers can now get themselves into a brand new EV for less than 40k Canadian. Oh and no need to limit yourself to the Fiat 500e at $29 990 (source), the Chevy Bolt ($35k) and the EV 4 ($39k) are there too, with more to come.
Electric car adventures 