In response to the letter from Stuart Walker, the man who doesn’t believe Big Oil has anything to do with climate change.
Although the climate changes in many ways and for various reasons, it is wrong to say that the emissions from and extraction of oil has no or little effect on our overall climate.
It is important to remember that there was once an entire hole in our ozone layer that was repaired due to outcry from “radicals.” The continuing outcry is from a very real and very scary extreme and unexpected change in climate noted to be presenting itself since well before the age of computer guesstimations, by people who work in the field of science.
Fracking oil not only releases an obnoxious amount of unusable gases into the air, it also threatens vital-to-survival ecosystems.
Water, for example, sustains a specific threat from the extraction. Water is also a key ingredient in the extraction of oil. The majority of the time, vital water systems that Indigenous peoples across the land use are the ones damaged by the fracking, extraction and transportation of oil. It is us white folk who are lesser exposed because our colonial government and capitalist society feel that they can use these valuable resources for their money, while blatantly disregarding who they deem unworthy of their spoils. I suggest you research Grassy Narrows Reservation and see the strife caused by a similar issue.
You should also be made aware that a whopping 72 per cent of all fires from the 2023 summer were found to be naturally caused, with only 25 per cent determined to be human-caused, as reported by the government of B.C.
Moreover, the extraction of oil removes the oil from a layer of the earth’s deepest layers where imperative processes take place. This isn’t just some taking of an unused resource – the planet is kept alive in the process of decomposing ancient bodies. It is highly likely that sipping this money juice dry from the layers of the earth causes earthquakes and shifts in land masses because we are quite literally emptying a filled area. The earth is collapsing in on itself and you need to realize this is not OK.
Anyway, you’ll probably never read this and truly think to yourself that perhaps you were wrong. However, it is also likely that your grandchildren will not survive past the age of 70 because of what you think isn’t harmful.
Just food for thought from a radical.
Abee Armstrong
Langford
