Fossil fuels have been such a huge part of our lives for so long that it can be difficult to imagine a Canada without them. Perhaps one way is to picture what it would not look like.
Picture our coastlines free from the threat of oil spills; Our landscape unmarred by leaky pipelines; Northern lands left unperturbed by the ravages of fracking-induced earthquakes; Indigenous peoples free from fending off corporations seeking to exploit their lands, and farmers free from the same; Our cities free of choking pollution; Picture Canada without the real and symbolic stain that is the tar sands.
Of course, climate change trumps all the other fossil-fuel-burning consequences that have long bedeviled Canadian society. But, if we are able to successfully enter a new clean-energy economy, it is important to remember what it is that we will all gladly be leaving behind.
Paul and Dona Grace-Campbell, Kaslo