Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds in Climate Change Circles

CHRIS NELSON, FOR THE CALGARY HERALD

Port Metro Vancouver is the largest coal shipper in North America. Columnist Chris Nelson ponders

whether India could charge the B.C. city for its environmental impact. POSTMEDIA

Wonder if I can pick up a fat finder’s fee from some on-the-ball environmental law firm based in Mumbai, looking to pull in a cool billion bucks from the deep pockets of Vancouver city council? One per cent seems fair.

Because that same B.C. outfit just voted to go after various oil companies — mostly based in Alberta, of course — for a hefty share of expected costs due to predicted climate change. They reckon a billion dollars would be reasonable compensation for future damages.

So they can’t complain when cities across India return that favour and request similar big payouts, considering Vancouver is North America’s largest coal exporting port and the latest lucrative market for that environmentally nasty black stuff is — yep, you guessed it — India.

Is it any wonder the saintly David Suzuki feels so at home in B.C., with his handful of fancy homes? That province ranks first, second and third in the hypocrisy Olympics, combining an endless bleating about the dangers of oil pipelines with a grubby cash grab from exporting coal.

Because Vancouver didn’t get atop the exporting coal heap simply by flogging the megatonnes mined in B.C. and Alberta. Oh no, that wasn’t enough for them. Instead, they’re merrily, if somewhat sheepishly, importing massive amounts of this major carbon-emitting fuel from the United States.

It seems mines in landlocked Montana and Wyoming have similar issues to Alberta in getting their product to overseas markets: they need co-operation from the two neighbouring states that have coastlines.

But the environmental lobby in Oregon and Washington has blocked that route to potential Asian riches, thereby providing a golden opportunity for the Port of Vancouver to step in and offer a suitable export solution, one to be rewarded with sizable moolah.

What a crazy world we live in when protesters and 3 levels of government fight tooth and nail to prevent Alberta from getting its oil to tide-water, but quietly goes around Washington and Oregon environmental laws to get Montana and Wyoming coal to port. This is utterly astonishing in its hypocrisy.

The nerve of these folk is absolutely stunning. It would make Justin Trudeau’s eyes water if they weren’t already in a state of perpetual liquidity.

Vancouver was already exporting 36 million tonnes of coal a year — both the metallurgic and thermal kind — with China the major market. But they’ve landed India as well because the Aussies, once a major supplier, have reliability supply issues.

So while we are intent on destroying our own energy industry in a move that won’t matter a jot to the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, we’ll simultaneously provide the coking coal allowing India to double its current steel production to 300 million tonnes by 2030. Imagine the extra global emissions arising from that.

Oh, and how does this coal get to India? Is some Lotusland version of Star Trek’s Scotty beaming it there? Nope, it will go by big tanker ship — strange, as an increase in that type of vessel when carrying oil is deemed a destructive noise threat to the region’s orcas.

Heck, I knew orcas were smart critters but never imagined they could see through tanker hulls so to reassure their collective pods there’s no need to worry about any racket from that one over there. No, kiddy killer whales, that ship’s only carrying coal.

Anyhow the good people of India have every right to clean air and a stable climate as us lot so it seems only fair Vancouver shell out big time for sending dirty coal — both the Yanks’ and ours — enabling the subcontinent’s future CO2 emissions to explode.

And India’s a big country with many cities. Maybe I’ll retire in style on all those future legal finders’ fees. Heck, with the proceeds, I could buy four luxury homes next door to David Suzuki’s various abodes.

Nah, I prefer the clean smell of an 1,100-square-foot Calgary bungalow and the knowledge our household’s carbon footprint is tiny. Actions rather than words — wasn’t there once a popular saying along those lines? Maybe it never made it across the Rockies.

Chris Nelson is a regular columnist for the Calgary Herald.