COMMENT
A4
THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014
Use the F-35 as leverage TIME TO STOP PLAYING SUCKER TO THE U.S. ELEPHANT WHEN IT COMES TO TRADE MATTERS BY DOUG FIRBY SPECIAL TO THE ADVOCATE Canada and the United States have had a long and mostly fruitful trade relationship. But don’t ever consider for a moment that we’re equal partners. More often than not, the elephant we sleep with, as Pierre Trudeau once called our neighbour, is a gentle giant that comes with a lot of heft. Hence, we enjoy the illusion of being a truly independent nation — as long as we don’t mind a Hollywood-dominated movie industry, U.S.-based auto manufacturers in our “Canadian” industry and NHL finals in our “Canadian” game playing on behalf of two of the U.S.’s largest cities. See what I mean? Once every decade or so we get cocky and come up with a winner invention that threatens our neighbour. Some of us are still old enough to remember the story of the Avro Arrow, a fighter plane developed in the 1950s that was, by all reports, destined to be a world-beater. That is, until the U.S. took a look at it, realized this Canadian product was not part of its domestic military-indus-
trial complex and announced it would not buy. Canada was much too decent (and smart) to sell its masterpiece to America’s enemies, and thus the project died. Of course, not every Canadian flop is the fault of the U.S. Sometimes we do it to ourselves. BlackBerry really was a worldbeater for a time, and ultimately failed largely because their chief executives took their eyes off the ball. Can’t blame the U.S. for that one. Which brings us today’s trade standoff. Canada is sitting on a massive reserve of bitumen in Alberta’s oilsands. Although the U.S. has had recent success developing its own domestic oil and gas supplies, there is no question that over the longer term it will need what we have. And yet, the current U.S. administration treats oilsands producers as though they are pariahs, to be ridiculed for their flagrant destruction of the environment. Think of the irony: this condemnation comes from a country — even if it is successful in meeting recently announced coal-sourced carbon emission reductions — that will still put out greenhouse gases at a higher multiple that what comes out of Fort McMurray.
But then, who needs to hear the facts when there’s a handy stars-and-stripes narrative to wrap yourself in? Just as was the case with recent trade disputes over Canadian softwood lumber and later Canadian beef, Canada can howl at the injustice but find very little genuine recourse. If the U.S. wants to reject our bitumen, then there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop them. We can, however, choose not to be suckers. Which is where the ill-advised F-35 fighter plane enters the picture. The F-35 is a controversial aircraft — not just because of the announcement in recent days that it is a danger for having only one engine. There are plenty of other reasons, including the fact that over its lifespan, it will be the most expensive fighter aircraft ever built and it still can’t deliver all the versatility our military says it needs in a fighter. In short, it’s a bit like buying a Rolls Royce to commute to work — expensive to own and maintain, and actually less useful than a Nissan Rogue. So, why haven’t we written this lemon off already? We are not privy to the truth. Who knows what intense backdoor lobbying
is going on, even as you read this? As I said, when the elephant rolls over, if you don’t stay nimble, you’re in danger of getting squashed. I’m not suggesting we start a trade war — that’s a zero-sum game. Our relationship with the U.S. works well on many levels and we should keep it that way. That said, if they don’t want our bitumen, then we are easily entitled to conclude — and, to be clear, not as petty retaliation — that the F-35 is a very bad deal for our country. As for selling our oil, there are markets farther afield that would gladly buy it if we could get it to them. But it seems we can’t have a mature conversation between provinces about how to do so in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. On that score, then, if we don’t fully realize the potential of the oilsands, we have only ourselves to blame. Ultimately, this little trade spat may be good for us. If it forces us to develop new trade partners, we will certainly be better off — and economically more independent — as a nation. Doug Firby is editor in chief and national affairs columnist for Troy Media (www.troymedia.com).
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
More ways to reduce cancer risk The Red Deer Advocate on Friday, June 6, printed an article, Cancer risk in Alberta can be reduced by up to 50 per cent, outlining a number of ways to reduce the risk of developing cancer. Remarkably, the article omits to mention the importance of reducing the level of smoke in urban air. The smoke from residential wood and coal burning appliances is so highly carcinogenic that it was the first cause of lung cancer to be identified, centuries before it was realized that the much milder cigarette smoke could cause lung cancer. Unfortunately, this is an unpopular reality and organizations that claim to care about cancer are not prepared to warn the public of the dangers. Even the schools refuse to include the topic in the curriculum. After thee centuries of concerns, pre-dating “germs” and cigarette smoking as causes of disease, there is no shortage of information. Simply Googling “wood smoke and cancer” will provide an outline of current concerns. Each exposure to wood smoke is a concern, particularly for young children or during pregnancy. Each year, there is more wood burning and exposure can be from a neighbour’s fireplace, stove, outdoor wood furnace, pellet stove, chimenia, fire pit, outdoor pizza oven, a visit to a city park or a campground. Multiple small exposures can add up to a significant cancer threat. There is no known way of reducing emissions from a wood-burning fireplace but the EPA/CSA approved stoves were claimed to have significantly lower carcinogenic emissions. In reality, the emission-reduction features are only marginally effective and now seven American states are suing the Environmental Protection Agency for their failure to protect the public. There can be a price to pay in terms of various cancers for having a wood-burning appliance in a home as one of the attractions of having a wood-burning fireplace is that it gives a home the traditional aroma of stale smoke and powerful carcinogens. Incredibly, the Air Quality Health Index is a poor indicator of the health impact of air pollution as it does not identify carcinogens. We have to borrow from the British, who do monitor for cancer threats and have found elevated levels of carcinogenic smoke along urban truck routes. This is troubling as British diesel trucks have filters on the exhausts so we can only guess at the cancer risk to Albertans who live or work along truck routes as diesel trucks here are not required to have filters. Hopefully, the various organizations that are concerned about cancer will support measures to reduce the cancer threat posed by wood and to a lesser extent, by diesel smoke. Alan Smith Alberta director, Canadian Clean Air Alliance Red Deer
Looking for global warming truth While we can appreciate the regular reportage by this paper and others on matters pertaining to climate change and global warming, it would be at least modestly appreciated if there could at least be a little coverage of newsworthy items that will allow the educated reader to determine for his or her self whether there is justification for the billions of tax dollars being dedicated to the cause of fighting supposed climate change. For example, we are routinely told that the increased frequency of damaging Atlantic storms on the Eastern seaboard and Atlantic provinces is a result of global warming. In light of this, why did so
CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER Published at 2950 Bremner Avenue, Red Deer, Alberta, T4R 1M9 by The Red Deer Advocate Ltd. Canadian Publications Agreement #336602 Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation Fred Gorman Publisher John Stewart Managing editor Richard Smalley Advertising director
few mainstream media outlets fail to report that it has now been over 3,100 days since a Category 3 or greater storm has made landfall in the continental U.S.A.? Some environment reporters routinely refer to 2012’s “superstorm” Sandy, which was only a Cat 2 storm. Not only was it eclipsed in intensity by storms that hit the New York region in 1938 and 1944, the greatest degree of storm damage occurred in areas that were no urbanized until well after the great mid-century storms. Strom reportage also fails to account for inflation when describing storm damage in historical terms. (http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress. com/2014/05/hurricane_drought_2014.jpg) We are also told that increasing wildfires, especially in the American West, are a symptom of global warming. Interestingly, the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center has recently published a 10-year graph that indicates that shows anything but a pattern of increasing wildfires. The same agency also indicates that some 75 per cent of all wildfires are human caused. It only takes a vacation drive through Montana, Wyoming and Utah to again understand how property damage from such fires is on the increase, though. The years 2013 and 2014, to date, are record low years for tornado activity on the Great Plains, yet almost all tornado event news coverage mentions global warming and climate change. We are routinely told that climate change will bring greater and more enduring drought to large parts of the globe. Again, news outlets have failed to inform the public that the area of the globe enduring drought has remained constant or even shrinking slightly for decades. (http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/05/22/interestinggraph-fraction-of-the-globe-in-drought-1982-2012/) In the same vein, Americans and Canadians who vacation in the southwest are routinely apprised of the impact of global warming in exacerbating the already dry conditions of the Colorado River Basin, yet the geological record shows that multi-decade mega-droughts have been endemic to the region for over 500 years, and that the late 19th to the mid-20th
Scott Williamson Pre-press supervisor
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century were exceptionally wet for the region. (http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/05/02/worstdrought-of-this-century-barely-makes-the-top-10/) Global warming activists routinely point out that 97 per cent of scientists support the idea that global warming is occurring at an unprecedented rate. What they don’t tell you, and nor do most news outlets, is that the 97 per cent figure amounts to a total of 79 climate scientists who chose to respond to a questionnaire, and that the chair of the IPCC himself roundly debunked the “97 per cent” figure in testimony before the U.S. Congress. Again, few major news outlets carried any mention of his testimony. (http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/05/30/un-leadauthor-michael-oppenheimer-admits-to-congressclimate-science-not-settled-the-question-of-exactlyhow-warm-the-earth-will-become-as-a-result-of-rising-co2-thats-not-settle/) We are also often told that we must expect increasing numbers of deaths from the effects of intense summer heat. This in spite of the fact that thousands more Britons died from cold-related issues this past and the previous winter, than will die in all of Europe in the coming next few years from the effects of intense heat. (http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/06/02/which-isresponsible-for-more-u-s-deaths-excessive-heat-orexcessive-cold/) There is also far too little reportage on the fact that the U.S. Weather Service has recorded more temperature records related to colder temperatures than hot over the last few years. In spite of near breathless reportage of summer high temps last year, there were a record low number of 100F and higher temperature recordings in the continental U.S. Global warming activists are demanding that our society commit the very real act of economic, social, and cultural suicide in order to forestall the very hypothetical effects of a completely hypothetical issue. Our news media owes the paying public considerably more of the whole story, not facts cherry picked to support a politically driven agenda. Bill Greenwood Red Deer
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