Don and Marg Wieben have lived side-by-side with the oilpatch for 45 years. 

“We accepted it at the time as part of our public responsibility,” Don explains from his kitchen table when photographer Amber Bracken and I visited their family home near Fairview, Alta. 

“Like if you had a new highway go through, some people were going to have to give up land for the good of the community.”

Don Wieben talks about the pipelines crisscrossing his family’s farmland at home near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

The location of pipelines crossing under the Wiebens’ fields is often obvious because of crop degradation. Those pipelines are likely to remain there forever, and there is no timeframe on when companies need to obtain reclamation certificates. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

That commitment to what they felt was the public interest came with some downsides — like the spills.

There was the time their daughter-in-law, Bev Wieben, found herself getting headaches from a strange smell in the air. She went out for a walk and found the source of the fumes was a pipeline break. Then there was the time Marg was out checking the cattle, and found another break. And the gas they saw bubbling up at the surface.

Bev Wieben stops to visit her cattle near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

And there have been what Don considers to be the small inconveniences. Sinkholes, where pipelines have been buried, that the farm equipment gets stuck in. The noise. The traffic.

“You can’t say it was all bad though,” Don says. “There were positives to it.”

As part of the arrangement, the family received annual payments for wells drilled on their property, and one-time payments when companies wanted to obtain a right-of-way to put a pipeline under the family’s land. 

Don and Marg Wieben look out over the Peace River from their family’s land near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Little did they understand at the time, as they signed agreements with a landman who made regular trips to their kitchen table to broker deals, that those pipelines — and the company access to their land — could last “in perpetuity.”

That means the numerous pipelines buried under their land will likely remain there forever. 

“It’s junk,” Don says of the pipelines left behind. “It’s garbage. It’s like going on a picnic and leaving all your trash in the bush.”

Don Wieben surveys the family land near Fairview, Alta. “We had a real nice quiet corner of the world down here,” Don said. “The oil patch changed that somewhat.” Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

‘Indefinitely’

According to Natural Resources Canada, there are 840,000 kilometres of pipelines of various types buried in the ground across the country. 

In Alberta alone, there are more than 400,000 kilometres of oil and gas pipelines weaving under the surface of the province — a distance, as the Alberta Energy Regulator points out, greater than between the earth and the moon. The majority of those pipelines, nearly 60 per cent, carry natural gas.

Seldom are those pipelines certified as reclaimed, the process that marks the completion of environmental cleanup.

Alberta’s pipeline network as of 2016. According to the Alberta Energy Regulator, there are over 400,000 kilometres of pipelines criss-crossing under the province. Map: Brad Stelfox, Landscape Ecologist

Oil and gas infrastructure on the Wieben family land in Fairview, Alta. Farmers are provided annual compensation for well pads on their land, but are granted just one-time payments for pipelines installed under their fields. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Sharon J. Riley interviews Don Wieben and his daughter-in-law Bev on their land near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

A search of the Alberta Energy Regulator’s website revealed 807 reclamation certificates related to pipelines, dating back to 2014. 

Meanwhile, the regulator reports having approved approximately 12,000 new pipeline applications in 2018 alone.

The 807 reclamation certificates refer only to pipelines listed as part of a certificate for other facilities. Shawn Roth, a spokesperson for the Alberta Energy Regulator, told The Narwhal by email that there are more reclamation certificates that have been issued for pipelines alone, but that he could not say how many. “Due to ongoing data verification efforts, we are unable to provide that information,” Roth wrote. 

Because of this, he added, any information about pipeline reclamation from prior to July 2018 is “subject to change.” 

The regulator has, however, frequently advertised the numbers of new pipeline licences it issues.

A video produced by the regulator to introduce its online system, OneStop, boasted that automation of approvals enabled “25,000 pipeline applications processed annually — automatically.”

A company installing a pipeline has no legislated obligation to remove the pipeline, or to reclaim — the process of returning the land to an equivalent state — within any designated time frame. 

An abandoned pipeline on the Wieben family land in Fairview, Alta. In Alberta, there are no timelines when an abandoned pipeline needs to be reclaimed. Photo Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Contracts, like the one the Wiebens signed, specify that companies “shall restore the said lands to the same condition, so far as may be practical to do so, as the said lands were prior [to the pipeline’s installation],” — but include no time frame for when that needs to be done. 

Landowners are typically granted a one-time payment when a pipeline is first constructed, but do not typically receive annual compensation like they would for oil and gas wells.

And once the pipeline is there, it will likely remain there forever.

Contracts include a clause about never removing the pipeline — “provided however that the grantee may, at its option, leave and abandon the said pipeline or pipelines in place.”

Signs denoting the presence of multiple gas pipelines on the Wieben farmland near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

The Farmers’ Advocate Office of the Government of Alberta makes it clear: “The default is for the pipeline to remain in the ground.”

“When a pipeline is abandoned, it is permanently deactivated and it is not intended to allow possible future use. A pipeline can remain … indefinitely.”

Don is concerned about this, and also that the company can retain the right-of-way on the land, meaning that the land needs to remain clear of buildings and faces other restrictions — restrictions he says are also unfair to pass along to future generations.

Revenue was ‘certainly helpful’

The Wiebens first moved to the Peace Country in northwestern Alberta in the early 1970s. They had fallen in love with the landscape: the huge, active skies, the snaking Peace River in the valley beside their farmland, the black bears feeding on saskatoon berries alongside their fields, the pairs of deer ears just visible in crops of canola.

A view of the Peace River from the Wieben family’s land near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

When Don, now retired at 76, used to go out to check the cattle in the night during spring calving season — around February — he remembers looking up at the sky and being awed by the vastness. On clear nights, he’d lie down in the snow and watch the colours of the northern lights dancing above him.

Don and Marg moved to Alberta from Ontario, in pursuit of a life in farming. “We didn’t know the difference between a steer and a heifer,” Marg jokes now. They took on a big mortgage to buy 10 quarters of land and move to a place they’d never been, along with their four kids.

The Wieben family farm near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

The land was beautiful, they thought, “an awful nice part of the world,” Don says, though it came peppered with a few gas wells and small pipelines to connect them. The Dunvegan gas field was just getting started. Together, their family now owns about 40 quarters of farmland in the area.

“We can’t say that the revenue from the wells and pipelines was not helpful,” Don says. “It certainly was.” Without it, their mortgage may have been impossible. 

Looking back, though, that money came with downsides. 

“We had a real nice quiet corner of the world down here,” Don says. “The oil patch changed that somewhat.”

Don Wieben stands next to canola that is close to oil and gas infrastructure — noticeably shorter than chest-height crops elsewhere on the farm — near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Marg Wieben, Don Wieben, Greg Wieben and Bev Wieben gather next to oil and gas infrastructure in the middle of a canola field on their property near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

‘Lessening the yields of farmers across the country’

Farmers have experienced myriad concerns when it comes to crops grown above pipelines. 

Some farmers report that the friction of a substance moving through the pipes causes soil to warm up, meaning snow melts more quickly over pipelines, findings that have been supported by research in other parts of the world. That can make crops mature sooner in the warmer soil — so when it comes time to harvest, crops above pipelines are over-ripe.

Tom Baumann, an associate professor of agriculture at the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, who is himself a farmer living with pipelines, has studied the effects of pipelines on crops. He says the effects are obvious. 

“All of the sudden, when you’re harvesting, you encounter a part of the crop that’s overripe — because there’s been heat.”

The presence of pipelines can be clearly seen from above farmers’ fields near Fairview, Alta, where crops are markedly less productive when growing in soil disturbed by a pipeline. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Bev Wieben and her father-in-law Don Wieben survey their farmland, and the pipelines criss-crossing it. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Baumann is a member of the Collaborative Group of Landowners Affected by Pipelines — a group of farmers who describe themselves as not anti-pipeline, but who seek to be “full partners” in planning for development and lessening damage to valuable crops.

“That’s a major thing for us,” Baumann told The Narwhal.

Back in the 1980s, Agriculture Canada put out a report called “Impacts of installation of an oil pipeline on the productivity of Ontario cropland.” 

The study found that crop yields were reduced by 50 per cent in the years following the installation of a pipeline, and the effects on crop productivity continued to be felt for years.

There are other potential impacts as well — a 2014 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health noted “early warning signals about soil heavy metal pollution” that can occur in farmers’ fields when pipelines are constructed.

But most often, concerns about farming over pipelines are often linked to issues with soil. Soil that has been dug up to install a pipeline is likely to be more compacted than surrounding areas, and therefore less conducive to healthy crops. A 2015 study in the journal Soil Use and Management noted “severe compaction of the subsoil can be caused during the installation of pipelines.”

Baumann said that careful removal of different layers of soil during pipeline installation — for reuse once the pipe is in the ground — can help mitigate effects on crops, and that putting “public pressure” on companies has helped him and other members of the Collaborative Group of Landowners Affected by Pipelines lessen the impacts on their crops.

But the impacts on soil from installing the pipeline can go on for years — impacts that Baumann said are starkly visible in crops. “You can see the difference because of the disturbed soil — and that goes on for thousands of years.”

“For half a century, it’s been lessening the yields of farmers across the country.”

Don, Marg and Bev Wieben out for a drive around their family land near Fairview, Alta. Photo Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Leaks

Baumann is also concerned about leaks. Once pipelines are no longer in use, they’re supposed to be washed and plugged — known in the industry as abandoning. But Baumann said he’s “absolutely still concerned” about leaks, even after pipes have been plugged. 

“There’s still residue,” he said. And, he added, that residue can leak into soil, especially as pipes age. 

Whether in ten years or 100 years, he said, the pipe “will eventually deteriorate.”

Of the more than 400 pipeline “incidents” reported in Alberta last year, roughly three quarters were the result of leaks or ruptures.

A shut-in well on the Wieben family land near Fairview, Alta. Shut-in wells may one day be reactivated. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Bev and Marg Wieben look over oil infrastructure on the family land. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Bev and Greg Wieben look over a field on their property, which is heavily trafficked by pipelines just beneath the surface near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

A video put out by the regulator notes that the top cause of incidents is internal corrosion, representing 38 per cent of reported incidents.

As a result of those pipeline incidents reported to the Alberta Energy Regulator, approximately 3.5 million litres of substances were released, the majority of which was “non-fresh water.” Non-fresh water can include highly saline water, which can be damaging to crops, natural vegetation and wetlands. 

Don is frustrated by leaks from faulty or aging pipes. “We as landowners should not bear the responsibility of the oil patch being sloppy in not putting in pipelines that would last long enough to do the job,” he told The Narwhal.

The Farmers’ Advocate Office notes that the regulator “generally does not recommend [pipe]line removal because it can cause an unnecessary and significant disturbance to soils and the environment.” 

That leaves a complicated conundrum — dig up the land again to remove the pipe, further disturbing the soil, or leave the pipe there forever? 

‘Hidden Danger’

The Farmers’ Advocate Office defines an abandoned pipeline as one that has been disconnected from operating facilities. Its open ends must be plugged or capped. The line must be cleaned, purged of any remaining oil or gas and “left in a safe condition.”

“To say that a pipeline isn’t going to hurt anything in the ground, that’s just not the case. … It’s a hidden danger, period,” Don says. “It’s the things you can’t see that are wrong.”

The Farmers’ Advocate Office in the Government of Alberta echoes that sentiment in a publication called “Pipelines in Alberta: What landowners need to know.”

The document encourages farmers to act as if any pipeline buried in the ground could be potentially dangerous, whether or not the company says it has been safely discontinued.

“To maintain safety, [farmers] should always treat a pipeline as if it is operating.”

The Farmers’ Advocate Office did not respond to The Narwhal’s requests for comment on landowner concerns with pipelines.

Shawn Roth, spokesperson for the Alberta Energy Regulator, wrote by email that “pipelines that are no longer needed are often left in the ground to ensure the land and soil are not disrupted further.”

“However, the [regulator] requires pipelines that are no longer needed to be taken out of service safely following the Pipeline Rules. This includes ensuring they are emptied, purged, isolated and left in a safe condition so there are no risks to the public or environment.”

Contracts landowners are asked to sign by energy companies make it clear that pipelines can remain in the ground indefinitely. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Don is adamant that potentially leaving behind a network of hundreds of thousands of kilometres of abandoned pipelines buried under the province is not the legacy he wants for his generation, nor does he want to pass along the headaches that can come along with them, like the limited farming activities one can do on the land over a pipeline right of way — or the sinkholes.

Farmers and landowners have long complained about sinkholes appearing on their land after pipelines are installed, from Alberta to Texas to Pennsylvania. In extreme cases, sinkholes may be large enough to stand in, in others, the disturbed soil may simply settle, leaving a depression where water can pool — and tractors can get stuck.

Don is adamant that with modern technology, companies should be able to pull out the pipe and restore the landscape.

“We don’t think our generation should leave junk pipe scattered over all our land for the next generation to deal with,” Don says. “I don’t think that’s correct and I don’t think that’s fair.”

Don Wieben shows a successful part of the family’s crop near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

This area of the crop is unaffected by the presence of pipelines or wells: Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

No choice

Knowing what they know now, Marg is regretful there’s oil and gas infrastructure on their family farm.

“I would have this back to its pristine state,” Marg says. “No wells, and no money coming in, if I could.”

Not that she necessarily had a choice. 

Many landowners have few options but to agree to a company wanting to build a pipeline under their land.

Marg Wieben looks over oil and gas infrastructure on the family land in Fairview, Alta. Marg “would have this back to its pristine state,” if she could, she told The Narwhal. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Landowners can try to put up a fight when a company proposes a pipeline under their land, and may have success in having it rerouted, but the company can also go to Alberta’s Surface Rights Board, a quasi-judicial tribunal, to obtain a right-of-entry order.

Don’s not so sure whether he regrets having oil and gas on their property altogether, but he is very concerned about what’s going to happen to all the pipelines left to rust in the ground — and who will pay if and when they do ever need to be removed. He wants government and companies to take action to ensure oil and gas infrastructure is truly cleaned up.

“Marg and I’s generation lived in an awful good period of time,” he says.

“It shouldn’t be some generation behind us that has to pick up the tab for taking this out.”

Don Wieben in front of oil and gas infrastructure on the family’s property near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

The Wieben family home near Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Criss-crossing lines of crop degradation

When we visit, Don takes us on a tour of his family’s land — we drive from well to well, through access roads cut through fields of canola as tall as his chest. 

He stops to check crops, point out birds and deer and to look at the signs marking the numerous pipelines cutting under the fields.

On our second day in Fairview, he offers to take us for a flight in a Cessna 172, a small four-seater plane owned by his family members. An aerial view, he says, will give us a better idea of the Peace River region, and let us really see the lay of the land.

Above the Wieben family farm in the family’s small Cessna. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Wieben family farm. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

It’s thunderstorm season and thick, black clouds gather on the horizon as the sun rises early in the morning when we take off in the Cessna. We fly up above the town of Fairview and the meandering Peace River, cut deep into surrounding fields. 

Eventually, the Wieben farm comes into view, and we see everything we saw on our driving tour the day before, this time in miniature — tiny buildings and wells scattered across a vast landscape, under an even vaster sky.

Journalist Sharon J. Riley in the Wieben family Cessna above Fairview, Alta. Photo: Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

Pipelines can be seen where crops are less productive. Photo Amber Bracken / The Narwhal

As we fly, Don is taken aback. Criss-crossing fields are clear lines — green and brown where canola should be in its blooming yellow splendour. 

It’s undeniable where pipelines cross under a field, marked by the crystal-clear crop degradation.

Even Don is surprised. He didn’t think it would be quite so obvious.

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Since January 1, 2017 there have been more than 50 accidental releases from pipelines and oil and gas facilities in Alberta. These spills and leaks, ranging from large to small, from hazardous to non-hazardous, happen almost every single day.

Don’t believe it? You can check for yourself via the Alberta Energy Regulator’s incident reporting dashboard where spills are documented and information about volume, location and response is made available to the public.

In B.C., however, the provincial regulator’s pipeline incident reporting page has been offline for eight months (yes, you read that correctly).

DeSmog Canada has been reporting on the missing map since October and the issue was recently taken up by the Globe and Mail.

“In a province where the public debate over increased oil pipeline capacity has consumed so much energy, the lack of transparency about the province’s management of its existing system is surprising,” wrote Justine Hunter as politicians returned for the spring sitting at the legislature.

George Heyman, environment critic for the B.C. NDP, said getting the map back online should be a priority for the province.

“It’s shocking that the portal and the online incident report would be offline for such a significant amount of time,” Heyman told DeSmog Canada.

“This is an important mechanism for British Columbians to know if a spill has happened and to seek further information on how it might impact community health, whether the release be sour gas or crude oil.”

The B.C. Oil and Gas Commission describes its pipeline incident map as providing “timely, factual information on all pipeline incidents” to ensure “companies respond effectively and that the interests of British Columbians are protected through a 24/7, 365 day per year incident response program.”

The commission regulates more than 43,000 kilometres of pipeline in the province, 6,100 kilometres of which carry crude oil or natural gas.

In a summary report for the year 2015, the commission documented 45 pipeline incidents, indicating a slight increase in crude oil pipeline spills in recent years.

While there were three crude oil pipeline spills in 2011, there were six in 2012, four in 2013, seven in 2014 and seven in 2015. Spill volumes are not released in the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission’s annual summary reports.

A spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Natural Gas Development said the map is offline while a new system is put in place that includes “substantial improvements to the incident map.”

Companies are legally required to report spills to the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission and pipeline performance reports are released annually, the spokesperson added.

Heyman said that’s not enough to keep the public informed.

“We know there were 45 incidents in 2015, so over this eight-month period there may have been 30 pipeline incidents in B.C. that haven’t been reported to the public,” Heyman said.

Screenshot of B.C.'s pipeline incident map webpage, October 2016.

Screenshot of B.C.'s pipeline incident map webpage, March 2017.

The problems don’t end with pipelines under provincial jurisdiction.

A 2013 CBC investigation found B.C. was home to the highest number of pipeline safety incidents for federally regulated pipelines managed by the National Energy Board between 2000 and 2013.

That investigation also found the rate of pipeline incidents nationally had doubled since the early 2000s.

“Not having this information available is disappointing especially in the context of major new pipelines proposed in B.C.,” Sophie Harrison, a campaign co-ordinator at B.C. democracy group Dogwood, told DeSmog Canada.

She said at the time the province approved the federally regulated Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline the B.C. government was insistent robust land-based spill response was in place.

“It’s hard to simply trust there’s world-leading pipeline spill response in B.C. if there isn’t real time data available to people in the province.”

“Not even having this basic level of accountability I think it speaks to the issue of public trust around the safety of pipelines in B.C.,” she said. “What we’re hearing from the B.C. government is, ‘oh just trust us.’ ”

Dermod Travis, executive director of IntegrityBC, said the current government has a problem with transparency.

“It speaks to the duplicity of a government that once promised to be the most open and transparent in Canada and has since proven to be the most secretive. It also speaks to a government that picks and chooses which laws apply to it, at its political convenience,” Travis told DeSmog Canada.

In #Alberta there’s an accidental oil “release” [read: spill] nearly everyday. In BC? We’re left in the dark https://t.co/UDOflPoSxM #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/UclwXqHx7z

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) March 3, 2017

Travis pointed to the 2013 findings of Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham that B.C. failed to proactively disclose information regarding a risk of harm to the environment or public health.  The commissioner found the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations withheld inspection reports from the public that showed the 80-year-old Testalinden Dam was near the end of its life and “a hazard to people and property downstream."

“This isn't a one-off failure that could be blamed on technology,” Travis said. “This is a consistent — and seemingly intentional — failure.”

In some instances government disclosure is the public’s only means of information about pipeline spills. 

In October 2016, the public learned of a large crude oil spill from a remote Alberta pipeline owned by Trilogy Energy Corp. only after the company reported the incident to the provincial regulator, which then posted (scant) information to its incident dashboard.

The company only learned of the spill after a routine helicopter inspection of the line.

B.C.’s existing pipeline infrastructure is aging, a problem some say will lead to increased incidents.

Heyman said all jurisdictions with aging pipeline infrastructure are vulnerable.

“That’s why online, real time reporting to the public is very important for releasing public information. We need to ensure the public knows what is happening so it can hold government and companies accountable,” Heyman said.

Phil Rygg, spokesperson for the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, told DeSmog Canada “the map is expected to be available online by March 31.” The commission previously stated the map would be back online at the end of 2016. 

Image: Oil spill in Dalian, China. Photo: Peter Ma via Flickr cc 2.0

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This is a guest post by David Suzuki.

Energy giant Kinder Morgan was recently called insensitive for pointing out that “Pipeline spills can have both positive and negative effects on local and regional economies, both in the short- and long-term.” The company wants to triple its shipping capacity from the Alberta tar sands to Burnaby, in part by twinning its current pipeline. Its National Energy Board submission states, “Spill response and cleanup creates business and employment opportunities for affected communities, regions, and cleanup service providers.”

It may seem insensitive, but it’s true. And that’s the problem. Destroying the environment is bad for the planet and all the life it supports, including us. But it’s often good for business. The 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico added billions to the U.S. gross domestic product! Even if a spill never occurred (a big “if”, considering the records of Kinder Morgan and other pipeline companies), increasing capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels a day would go hand-in-hand with rapid tar sands expansion and more wasteful, destructive burning of fossil fuels — as would approval of Enbridge Northern Gateway and other pipeline projects, as well as increased oil shipments by rail.

The company will make money, the government will reap some tax and royalty benefits and a relatively small number of jobs will be created. But the massive costs of dealing with a pipeline or tanker spill and the resulting climate change consequences will far outweigh the benefits. Of course, under our current economic paradigm, even the costs of responding to global warming impacts show as positive growth in the GDP — the tool we use to measure what passes for progress in this strange worldview.

And so it’s full speed ahead and damn the consequences. Everything is measured in money. B.C.’s economy seems sluggish? Well, obviously, the solution is to get fracking and sell the gas to Asian markets. Never mind that a recent study, commissioned by the Canadian government, concludes we don’t know enough about the practice to say it’s safe, the federal government has virtually no regulations surrounding it and provincial rules “are not based on strong science and remain untested.” Never mind that the more infrastructure we build for polluting, climate-disrupting fossil fuels, the longer it will take us to move away from them. There’s easy money to be had — for someone.

We need to do more than just get off fossil fuels, although that’s a priority. We need to conserve, cut back and switch to cleaner energy sources. In Canada, we need a national energy strategy. And guess what? That will create lasting jobs! But we must also find better ways to run our societies than relying on rampant consumption, planned obsolescence, excessive and often-pointless work and an economic system that depends on damaging ways and an absurd measurement to convince us it somehow all amounts to progress.

It’s not about going back to the Dark Ages. It’s about realizing that a good life doesn’t depend on owning more stuff, scoring the latest gadgets or driving bigger, faster cars. Our connections with family, friends, community and nature are vastly more important.

Yes, we need oil and gas, and will for some time. Having built our cities and infrastructure to accommodate cars rather than people, we can’t turn around overnight. But we can stop wasting our precious resources. By conserving and switching to cleaner energy, we can ensure we still have oil and gas long into the future, perhaps long enough to learn to appreciate the potential of what’s essentially energy from the sun, stored and compressed over millions of years. If we dig it up and sell it so it can be burned around the world, we consign ourselves to a polluted planet ravaged by global warming, with nothing to fall back on when fossil fuels are gone.

Scientists around the world have been warning us for decades about the consequences of our wasteful lifestyles, and evidence for the ever-increasing damage caused by pollution and climate change continues to grow. But we have to do more than just wean ourselves off fossil fuels. We must also look to economic systems, progress measurements and ways of living that don’t depend on destroying everything the planet provides to keep us healthy and alive.

Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Editor Ian Hanington.

Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

Image Credit: Burning oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Photo by SkyTruth.

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