By Plain Rhetoric

Pipeline opponents and supporters should agree: fossil fuels are running out

May 1, 2018 | 5:00 AM

I CRINGE with almost every conversation and social media post about the Kinder Morgan pipeline as inevitably someone, thinking they are quite witty and original, will say something like: “Well if you’re against oil and pipelines so much then stop driving your car, heating your home or using plastics.”

It is said as a put down, a braggart’s claim intended to heap shame upon the supposed hypocrisy of those who do not support the expansion of — or product to be carried in — the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

However, whether you are for or against the pipeline, do we not eventually have to end our dependence on these fuels? Would you not like to see a future world where you could drive your vehicle and heat your home without having to worry about exorbitant costs, lack of supply or possibly even killing our planet?

So in reality, when the unimaginative, overused and unhelpful “don’t drive your car” card is played, nothing is being contributed toward solutions or a better world for that matter.

Whether or not you believe in climate change or the pipeline or that we may be killing the planet we live on, there is one certainty about fossil fuels that no one denies: it’s the undisputed fact of life and a hard reality that we will eventually run out of fuel to burn.

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The supply is limited, as evidenced by our willingness and need to extract from Alberta’s tar sands the most toxic and expensive-to-produce oil in the world. It’s just another indication that eventually, driving your car or heating your home will become so expensive as to be out of reach for most and ultimately impossible as there will be no more fuel.

In fact, your sample pack of limited supply and high costs was delivered earlier this week in the form of $1.60+ per liter for regular gas. Imagine what it will be like when it gets really expensive. When we think a $1.60 was the good old days and there are lineups and rationing at the gas stations that are still open.

The running out will not happen in our lifetime. However, the cost part has already kicked in, is trending upward and will continue to accelerate. Again, this has nothing to do with your political or climate-based beliefs. It’s all about supply and demand and an ingrained corporate model that is based on the unrealistic theory of continuous growth.

Knowing that, and again I stress this is not about climate change, should we not be looking at ways for people to find innovative systems to reduce and eventually eliminate our dependence on oil? Is that not a good thing for all of us and should we not be putting more investment into new solutions that will benefit us down the road?

Those opposed to the pipeline, the ones that are ridiculed, seem to be thinking about that future more than those who ridicule. Yes, I admit the short term benefits from a pipeline have a certain and limited appeal. But it is not a long term strategy that will help us and the generations to come.

The “don’t drive your car or heat your home with fossil fuels” is exactly where we have to go and where those some poke fun at want to take us. It is not hypocrisy to recognize that we’re in trouble, have waited too long and need to find ways to avoid or at least mitigate those coming troubled times. If anything, we should be thanking and encouraging those willing to say what some don’t want to hear.

Maybe if we had invested in alternate and renewable sources of energy to the extent we now propose to do with fossil fuels, comments about not driving your gas-guzzling truck would be unnecessary.

History is littered with tragedies resulting from eras in decline. From empires to religions, to economies and technologies, none have survived the test of time. The fossil fuel era will be no different, but maybe this time we can do a better job of being ready.