So, another week at CalgaryUrbanite, another revelation I have to share with everyone. Last week I mentioned how we are all driving the Oil Sands business whether we like developing them or not. Well this week I drop an even bigger bombshell (We are entering the Fall sweeps season after all). Forget the latest Ponzi-Scheme bust in Calgary, we are part of the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.
The Ponzi scheme according to Wikipedia (so yes, there might be a few swear words vandalized into the definition) is:
A fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned.
So basically the first "investors" get massive returns on their "investment" by being given the money from the newest investors who are convinced that the whole thing is for real. When the whole system implodes, the newer investors never get their investments back, and people's lives are destroyed. We like to think we're smart enough that we will never be duped into such a scam, but the scary thing is, you and I just invested in one.
Continue reading (4 comments) | Add comment
Hey, so guess what I did today? I dug up some bitumen in the Fort McMurray Oil Sands. I've done it a bunch of times actually. I had surgery to remove a wisdom tooth yesterday morning and I still did it! You know, now that I think about it, I haven't even been north of Edmonton yet I've still managed to do it! You've done it too. I don't even know you, but I know you've done it. Greenpeace went up to Fort Mac to protest Oil Sands development, and you know what? They've dug up bitumen too.
Continue reading (5 comments) | Add comment
Plan It Calgary recently released news they would build a bridge through Edworthy Park as part of their 40-year plan. The bridge would be constructed within the next 10 years and would see buses run down it every 10 minutes for 15 hours a day. In response to this, I emailed the city the following letter:
Continue reading | Add comment
With a name for this article like 'politicians let me down again' this may be an ongoing series, but yes, they have let me down again. Now, I know it's tough for politicians, because they're not typically scientists or environmentalists, they're bureaucrats, and yet their job is to legislate over science and the environment. That's exactly why I'm going to hold their feet to the fire, and why everyone else should too. And honestly, politicans get an easy ride. Sure, we all criticize them, but for every person like me attempting to hold them to a higher standard (in my case, by writing articles on a site they'll probably never read, sigh), there's about ten people who just don't care or follow what they do. So for the most part, they're far too free to make decisions that may or may not lack the common sense from which a decision should be made. The latest bone headed decision from Calgary's city council is seemingly minor, yet to me, that makes it all the more significant. The unnecessary dependency on bottled water has reared it's ugly head again.
Continue reading (4 comments) | Add comment
So it’s been 2 months since I’ve returned from an almost 3 year experience in Pakistan and India. So much has changed for me, that even still I find re-adapting to the Canadian culture difficult.
I suppose some of the experiences I had will never leave me, some truths you cannot just sweep under a carpet. Now that I am back in Canada, the hardest part is trying to share those experiences I had in a way that help people understand these truths that I have seen: poverty, exploitation, corruption, dishonesty. I guess this feeling is shared by anyone in the field of sustainability. The question eludes me, while I find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place. The worst of all, for me, is falling on deaf ears to the ones that are supposed to be closest and most beloved to us: our family.
Continue reading | Add comment
...Plastic bags that is. I still very much need my debit & credit cards to go grocery shopping.
As you may or may not know, city council has been looking at the possibility of banning plastic bags at store check outs. Now we all know why plastic bags are bad: they don't degrade for hundreds and hundreds of years, except their chemicals photo degrade and leech into the eco system and ultimately our food chain; 4 to 5 trillion bags are used each year filling our landfills and our oceans (and in many places they fill the streets); they require oil to be produced only to be thrown away; all that bad stuff. If you didn't know why plastic bags are bad, now you're up to speed. I'm here to talk about a possible future without plastic bags.
Continue reading (10 comments) | Add comment
Imagine voting everyday. Terrible thought isn't it? Well I hate to break it to you, but that is exactly what we are doing, except for maybe those lazy Sundays where even rolling out of bed seems like an insurmountable challenge. But before I start thinking about the weekend, I have to finish this article as it's something I've discussed a bunch lately but never put the pen to the page on, er, keyboard to the (web)page. We vote every single day. It's like a federal election every 24 hours, except with higher turnout. Allow me to explain...
Continue reading (4 comments) | Add comment
