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Is this the road to the Emerald City?

Contributed by Jim Elliott

Wednesday, 07 March 2007

Let's put the cards on the table. We have an export-based economy and 95% of our goods are moved by the trucking industry. In the past, we have depended on 90% of our food coming from another province or country.

Is it appropriate in this era of climate change to be putting all of our eggs in one basket and spending $5 Billion dollars over ten years to rebuild the road infrastructure? The Calvert government seems to be moving in that direction. There is another path.

Peak oil, schmeak oil / Photo by SF Environment
Premier Calvert and the NDP government has recently announced planned spending of $5 Billion dollars over ten years (www.highways.gov.sk.ca) as a way to reverse the lack of infrastructure funding that has occured over the past years and build the Saskatchewan advantage, but some see it differently.

If we wish to spend $5Billion dollars over 10 years, this as an opportunity to move in a different direction towards a sustainable economy and provnce. This is an opportunity to direct our future, not propping up a crumbling past.

Serious problem

We have a serious climate change problem pushing its head above the water. We have to begin to fundamentally change how we do things here in this province and around the world. We have to find efficiencies and reductions that take out carbon dioxide of the air and/or eliminate it from ever being put into the air.

We are seeing around the world the talk of peak oil. Peak oil is the point in the Hubbert curve where the reserves of fossil fuels has not gone up, the production or the use of those reserves continues to happen or increase, resulting in the downward slope of supply of oil and gas and increasing prices and scarcity of supply (www.peakoil.net). As Richard Heinberg put it, we need to develop and implement an oil depletion protocol and begin to systematically reduce or eliminate our dependence on oil and gas.

In order to reduce our emissions in the transportation sector, we need to firstly reduce the amount of fuel and the number of vehicles used in moving goods and people around the province. We need to reduce the need for distribution of goods and people by doing it for ourselves and by ourselves. We need to move more by the rail system. Rail is so much more efficient user of fuel. Albeit that some of the railroads have been abandoned and taken away, there is still a real opportunity to return to all those rail lines.

The province has included the support of regional short lines in the mix but with 95% of the demand and use coming from the roads and the trucking industry, how much is really going to go to short rail lines or the railway sector? With the efforts to bring back Via Rail onto the main CPR line falling on deaf ears for decades, is it likely that this will be part of the mix?

We need to produce more of our goods in Saskatchewan. What would happen economically if we were to begin to reduce the food trade deficit in this province? More local jobs. More rural jobs. More local processing of those same foods. We need to begin to provide community-supported agriculture (CSAs) that have local farmers producing food for local residents in a shared risk system.

A few brave farmers

What is happening in the other goods and services sectors? If 70% of our economy is export-based, is it likely that we are totally dependent on others for bringing in our food and other goods? What would happen if the price of oil went up to $70US again? Or even higher? Would we simply pay higher prices, move away or begin to reduce our transportation demand and grow more of our own food and produce more of our goods here? Why not be proactive and start now.

We have a few brave and future-focused farmers who are now growing hemp in Saskatchewan. Prior to the petroleum industry getting into the production of cloth and clothing, many of our clothes were made from hemp. We could do that again. Again, more local jobs.

We now grow much of our flax for seed and oil. Why are we not diversifying our system and growing the flax variety useful in fiber and clothing? We could do that. Again, more local jobs.

We currently grow canola for oil. We are seeing a growing demand for bio-diesel and ethanol, locally-produced fuels. It will begin to replace the demand for fossil fuels with locally produced and closed cycle supplies of fuel. These options all bring local jobs and long term sustainability to the rural economy.

If we continue to go with business as usual as Mr. Calvert suggests and continue to spew out more millions of tons of carbon dioxide from our cars and trucks and support that by putting billions of dollars into the infrastructure, we could be living with the consequences of climate change----lack of water, lack of energy and fossil fuels and lack of employment. But, oh, wouldn't we have wonderful, smooth, big paved roads.

Comments
Written by hugo chavez on 2007-03-12 20:01:38
Help the poor Venezuelans fight the imperialist Bush, "The Devil". Buy Citgo oil, open a Citgo service station, consume Citgo oil and help defeat "Satan".

We need $100/Bbl, some drive , drive, it's not CO2. It's just sunspots do not worry. Use the trains later. Silly train advocates, this North America, drive.

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 08 March 2007 )

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