Action must be taken now to deal with peak of oil
Jan 05, 2008 04:30 AM
Tyler Hamilton raises three crucial points in his article:
Gasoline prices, the Canadian-U.S. dollar exchange rate and crude oil have all passed a critical benchmark over a short period of time.
Not only is this a sign of fundamental changes within our economy, it is unfortunately very much beyond control of the Canadian consumer.
It is high time for the government to realize that the world oil peak is imminent and that necessary adjustments will require years to impact our energy economy.
The Canadian tar sands, a global commodity, do not and will not contribute to Canadian energy security. In fact, our economic base is very fragile with regard to oil supplies, particularly the manufacturing sector. This is amplified by the fact that we are large per capita consumers of crude.
This issue of global and national oil supplies will be the dominant problem facing Canadians in the near future, not climate change. While we have failed to grasp the implications of climate change in time, will we do better when it comes to the global oil peak?
Peter Berg, Faculty of Science,
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/291102
