Curious as to why the Keystone XL
Pipeline is such a big, freakin' deal? These three pieces should go
some distance to enlighten you. The POV that generates the lot of
them is, I think, plainly antagonistic toward pipeline development,
but they each contain specific, critical insights into some crucial
failures of perspective, communication, and ethical commitment on the
part of the various oil industry proponents, including our Prime
Minister.
The first is a lengthy New Yorker
profile by Ryan Lizza.
Lizza's comes closest to covering “both sides” of the debate, and
although he does not state it explicitly, he adroitly exposes the
vulnerability of the environmentalist arguments (see if you can spot
it).* At the moment, it does appear as if the environmentalist
argument has considerable sway. There are reasons for that, and among
the most notable is that under Harper, “Canada's record of keeping
its climate change promises has been deplorable.”
It
should be said that Canada's record on that score has been deplorable
no matter who's in power. But the fact that Harper can't even meet
his own sub-par promises (“Mom! I swear! I'll make 48% on the next
science test! Just please
let
me go to the skate park!”) makes him a non-negotiator. As John
Michael McGrath
points out, “There are many things Stephen Harper is good at,
politically, but negotiation has never been one of them.”
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