Sue big oil for their contributions to climate change? Horse pucks! If no one did anything but live their idyllic life, the climate would still change. That’s the nature of our world. Change is the one constant.
Big oil provides a product. Now politicians are no longer favouring big oil products and the employment opportunities the natural resources sector provides. Is now the time to turn against big oil and slam them for all the benefits they have provided to their employees and the facilitating governments?
Is big oil solely responsible for climate change? How much responsibility do politicians own for their role in facilitating exploration and development of oil reserves? It’s OK to point the finger at one sector, but we have all participated in the complexities of climate change.
A few years ago, the CRD encouraged us to reduce our consumption of water. We obedient consumers responded magnificently. In fact, we responded so well that the CRD declared there was a shortfall of money from that line item to pay the costs associated with water delivery. They retaliated by increasing the prices they charged for water and the delivery thereof. Has that increase ever been reduced? Is now the time to reduce that cost?
So why go after big oil? They are nothing without us. We support them. Can an electric vehicle be produced without big oil products? Not likely. Can the CRD pump water to users without depending on some oil products? Not jolly-well likely!
Big oil is a facilitator. The question is, has big oil been more supportive of, and a bigger contributor to society than our collective of politicians?
Why would any right-thinking quasi-political body give a thought to legal action without first approaching the said companies to determine if there is a means by which the parties might work together on a mutual solution? Big oil isn’t alone in creating climate change. We have a shared responsibility. Now suppose big oil is found culpable in a suit contemplated by the CRD. If big oil is to react in a manner similar to that of our CRD with water conservation, we can anticipate yet another reason for an increase in oil prices – at the pumps and for home heating oil. Who wants to encourage that?
Perhaps it’s time to slow the escalatory cycle of prices where one party blames the other for some perceived damage and claims retribution. Can we really afford to continue that economically disruptive lock-step practice?
Neil Lensen
Sidney