We hear many climate-change arguments for “getting off oil”. We also see as many arguments the other way: “oil is reliable… steady… has a distribution network in place”.
Or even that a petrol-cousin, LNG, gas is somehow non-polluting and the solution to, to what, to the profit statements of petro-investors like Canada’s banks? Pro-oil’s big claim is that it supports jobs in Canada; but anti-oil’s unbeatable argument is that very oil is destroying our climate, and hence, it’s destroying us. We won’t live through the destruction we clearly see heading our way, given our present lifestyles, or big appetite for convenience. And so far, “technology” – carbon capture, hydrogen conversion, etc – has not given us solutions; so far these remain ideas, absolutely unproven within current budgets.
However, today’s news presents one more reason to back off oil, a very big reason. Early this year, the Baltic states, along Russia’s northwest border, revealed clear evidence of a massive Russian military build-up. About one-third of Russia’s national budget is now going to modernize and expand their clunky but already-massive military.
This is not just bad news for the Ukraine – that war’ll be over by the time we actually see Russia flex this expanded muscle. Russia has other targets: Canada, for one. It’s “our” big piece of the Arctic they claim to already own by historical precedent. Sound familiar? Yes, Russia already claims substantial areas there, especially its seafloor, rich with oil and minerals, all of this standing nose-to-nose with Canada.
Agreed, we have NORAD, our northern military alliance with the USA. That’ll provide some breathing room, but when we consider how easily the US has dropped its supposed allies – think of the Kurds who sacrificed thousands to repel Saddam Hussein. When they became uncomfortable for the Yanks, when their alliance was no longer facing a tin-pot dictator, but oil-rich Iran, backed by Russia and China, the Kurds were dropped at the curb.
At our top-of-the-world front door (for the Russians) our few troops on their brand-new skidoos aren’t going to cut it. We’re still mulling over newish, super-expensive fighter jets – the Yanks have a sale on a model which doesn’t operate well in Arctic conditions. The (Unprogressive) Conservatives think they’re fine.
So let me put it to you, you with your hand on the self-serve gas pump, you still committed to oil in your automobile and heating, especially, but also you who still flies across the continent, or cruises up the Alaskan coast, you, madam/sir, this oil you are buying enriches – Russia. Russia’s military buildup begins at our gas pumps.
Much of our oil does enrich the American corporations operating in Alberta, but in terms of the world market in oil, it is Russia which is counting our dollars. And Iran, Saudi Arabia, the ‘stans – dictatorships everywhere. The world market is where oil’s profits ultimately flow.
Climate change is our massive challenge. But Russia’s military (already on our northern border), plus the world’s most corrupt regimes everywhere, are massive, too. You and I have got to stop being so dim-witted. So oil-stupid.
