Blog 3- Alberta Tar Sands Reflection

This would be the most controversial issues of today. It is even hard for me as an environmental student to say that I want the Alberta Tar Sands to be completely stoped. Of course I want them stoped but if done so bruptly there would an immediate world crisis.

I want to begin by explaining my only reason why I think Alberta's oil industry cannot be stoped. It is simply an economical reason, I have worked for a certain Alberta oil company therefore I have met many men and women who have made a living doing this. These people come from across the country and some from the Filipines because there are no work opportunities like this back home for them. Alberta offers well paying jobs for people to be able to support themselves and their families. This is the number one concern for them, they need this industry because it is the only way for them to make a living. Many of these people were unfortunate in their lives and could not afford to go to university, therefore they chose a path that would they could live a comfortable life. For example, many of these people come from the east coast. Their ancestors thrived from the fishing industry, but now that it is no longer booming, there is no work for them. They chose to move to Alberta, not so much they want to but because they have no other choice. Another example of a common person I have met in Alberta would be one of many Filipinos. These men came up here to Canada, putting themselves in debt and taking a risks by leaving there home land. The reason they have done so is so that they can send money back home to their families and community. In the Philippines they could barely feed themselves. A third example of person in Alberta would be the McMillan family that I have worked with. There were 3 out of 4 brothers that I worked with. They were all scaffolders, their uncle was my foreman, all their uncles, their dad and grandfather were also all scaffolders. Now these 4 brothers knew only this, it was a part of them, a part of their familie's past.

Taking the Alberta Tar Sands industry away we need to replace it with something as equal. We all know life is expensive, and we need to work to make a living. So far, Alberta has provided many opportunities for people who had none. We need to work with these companies and not against them in order to make changes. In order to have a strong economy and a healthy environment together is simply to give a man a job, give him something to be proud of.
We are making small changes to our fossil fuels intake. The newest one would be the fact that the Hummer SUV has been discontinued. The Hummer was the most inefficient SUV on the market, now we simply need to target the other inefficient vehicles.