Canadians want their government to develop a national energy strategy that would protect the environment and help the country reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
That's the takeaway of a recent national poll, published earlier this month in the trade magazine Alberta Oil. But it's received little attention anywhere else.
This past winter, Leger Marketing randomly selected more than 1,400 Canadians from every region of the country except the North, and asked them a series of questions regarding their views on energy, including their appetite for a national energy strategy.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford has recently come out in support of a Canadian energy strategy. In January, she told the Economic Club of Canada that, while clean energy and efficiency would be important elements of such a plan, it should at its core enable new pipelines.
"Forging stronger links with Asia will be a key part of any Canadian energy strategy," Redford said.
The Alberta Energy survey is the first strong indication that Canadians are not only ready for an energy strategy, but that they feel it should help transition the nation to cleaner energy. Key findings:
Earlier this year, my team hosted a series of workshops across the country with business, academic and other non-government leaders. They told us that if we want Canada to remain strong and prosperous, we must make a plan to shift from the oil-focused economy we have today, to the clean energy economy we want and need tomorrow.
The Alberta Oil survey findings suggest that the general public is, to a large degree, on the same page.
Tangled Roots is a book of interviews examining important yet marginalized intersections of social and ecological issues. Bringing together some of the most powerful interviews from five years of Healing the Earth Radio, this book breaks down barriers between subcultures and social movements, and seeks to educate, engage, and inspire.
Here are well-crafted and interesting interviews that expand the conversation—some will make you uncomfortable, which is okay. You don't need to agree with everything, but you do need to know what people who aren't like you are thinking.
Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, Deep Economy, and Hope, Human and Wild
http://healingtheearthpress.org/
High-grading our resources for quick cash was never a respectable or smart move in the mining or forestry sector. So why the rush to exploit the Tar Sands? You would think that we would have learned by now.
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2012/01/canadas-oil-sands-are-we-exporting.html
The Harper government's endless moves to turn Canada into the world's next petrostate are misguided at best.
Yeah, no kidding and here's the 411 on that goal.
The energy companies are just that - energy companies. The gas company that I worked for had several engineers who had taken their houses off the electrical grid and some built their own batteries connected to the solar panels.
Guess who's investing in alternative energy ? it aint Greenpeace or Tides Canada !
History is filled with stories of horse and buggy makers and bicycle makers converting their businesses into the new fangled horseless carriages. The same process is at work now with one exception , the technology developed so far is still inefficient and far too expensive. Every European country that plunged into the green pool is now getting out because the cost is horrendous and the return is almost nonexistant on a large scale. When it becomes feasible in terms of cost and efficiency it will be done and guess who will be selling it ? - the energy companies !