Rethinking Lifestyle

A major news item recently has been the plight of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan’s third largest city. That city normally draws its water from the North Saskatchewan River, but the North Saskatchewan has been contaminated by an oil spill from a ruptured pipeline. Fortunately for Prince Albert the South Saskatchewan River is accessible from that city, and it has been possible to set up a temporary 30 km. pipeline to bring clean water to Prince Albert.

According to SASKOIL an independent website devoted to monitoring the effect of oil on Saskatchewan, the pipeline that ruptured is a minor pipeline delivering oil from an oil well to a facility near Lloydminister where the oil is upgraded before it is loaded onto larger regional and intercontinental pipelines.

As far as spills go, this has been a small spill: 1,570 barrels. The 2010 Enbridge pipeline spill into the Kalamazoo River was 20 times as big. According to SASKOIL, spills are part of the everyday operations of the oil industry. Since 1990 there have been over 18,000 oil spills in Saskatchewan. Most of those attract no attention, but this one did because of its impact on the Prince Albert water supply. Moving oil is inherently risky.

But we are told we need these pipelines because pipelines are the safest means of transporting oil. I have no doubt they are, but is that the correct question? Should we be asking which is the safest way of transporting oil, or should we be asking whether the benefits of transporting oil are worth the risks involved?

We are addicted to oil. We depend on oil for transportation and heating. The synthetics we use, from construction material to clothing, are oil derived. Our food system, is oil dependent. Happily, alternatives are emerging. Wind power and electric cars offer exciting new possibilities, and I anticipate trends in that direction will continue.

But can greater efficiency in energy use ever be enough? Consider the many places where we unthinkingly use oil energy, because that has become the norm. Think of holidays. Do we really have to travel to exotic locations to have a holiday? Houses today are bigger – bigger because we can afford it. But the bigger the house, the more energy it takes to heat it. We take our car to work, and then exercise in the gym. We want lettuce and tomatoes in February. And so on.

Essentially we need risky pipelines so we can continue wasting energy in this way. Are we, as a people, really so stupid that we cannot change our corporate behaviour? I think we could do it by increasing the price of oil.

How about a mere tax shift. How would your behaviour would change if the taxes you now pay based on your income, you would instead pay based on your consumption of oil. Your disposable income would not be affected. No doubt we all would find interesting ways of living consuming less oil.