I have no idea what Stephen Harper must have thought when he saw the oily flames of hell engulf the little town of Lac-Mégantic.
But I'm sure it wasn't pretty eh?
For while on the one hand it might have crossed his mind that the tragedy could help sell his pipeline projects.
On the other hand he must also realize that those hellish images can only make more Canadians understand to what kind of Big Oil nightmare he would condemn us.
For in the tragedy of Lac-Mégantic are assembled all the horsemen of the coming apocalypse.
The oil that came from fracking. Now more dangerous than EVER.
Pumping water underground at geothermal power plants can lead to dangerous earthquakes even in regions not prone to tremors, according to scientists.
The water injection appears to prime cracks in the rock, making them vulnerable to triggering by tremors from earthquakes thousands of miles away. Nicholas van der Elst, the lead author on one of three studies published on Thursday in the journal Science, said: "These fluids are driving faults to their tipping point."
Flooding the market. Fracturing the earth.Torching the planet.
And in a small Quebec town, vaporizing the people...
Then there's the ruthless global corporate shark.
Burkhardt was named “Railroader of the Year” in 1999 by an industry magazine, but his cost-cutting measures over the years as he bought and sold railways and slashed staff have raised concerns from rail workers and safety experts.
Who plays with real railroads, and real lives, like other people play Monopoly.
And his chorus of corporate criminals.
The deeper evidence about this event won't be found in the train's black box, or by questioning the one engineer who left the train before it loosened and careened unmanned into the heart of this tiny town. For that you'll have to look at how Lac-Mégantic was hit by a perfect storm of greed, deregulation and an extreme energy rush driving companies to ever greater gambles with the environment and human life.
Who squeeze their workers for every penny, and sear the earth, for ever greater profit.
And are aided and abetted in this country by Stephen Harper.
The crazed leader and pathetic pimp of Big Oil...
Who would turn Canada into a rogue petro state.
The author of this transformation is Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a right-wing policy wonk and evangelical Christian with a power base in Alberta, ground zero of Canada's oil boom. Just as Margaret Thatcher funded her political makeover of Britain on revenue from North Sea oil, Harper intends to methodically rewire the entire Canadian experience with petrodollars sucked from the ground.
Aided in turn, by the insane shortsighted greed of so many Canadians.
Liberal critics like to say that Harper's political revolution caught many Canadians, generally a fat and apathetic people, by surprise -- a combination of self-delusion and strategic deception. That may be true, but though Canadians live in high latitudes, they're not above baser human instincts -- like greed.
With nearly three-quarters of Canadians supporting oil sands development in a recent poll, Harper seems to be selling them on the idea.
Who act as if they love their cars more than the future of their children.
Oh boy. I must admit, I don't know how we are ever going to solve that last one eh?
But I was at the beach the other day, watching Seb harnessing the wild wind of yet another approaching thunderstorm...
And from the strange electricity in the air, and after the weirdest weather I have ever seen, it was clearer than ever to me that SOMETHING is happening out there.
Climate change is not only here, it's barrelling down the tracks at us like that hellish oil train descended on Lac-Mégantic.
And of course, clearer to me than ever that we don't stand a chance of slowing down that runaway train, until Stephen Harper is removed from office.
Now, like never before, join forces to defeat him.
Before his Big Oil dream becomes our Big Oil nightmare.
Before his delusions lead us to disaster.
Before he torches our future...
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There is a great attempt afoot to convince the public this terrible happening isn't the fault of federal deregulation.
ReplyDeleteRaymond Lafontaine, a local resident of Lac Megantic who lost three family members in the rail disaster and who appears to have some prominence in the wake of the disaster, has stated that if the federal government fails to ensure public safety, he will organize a local blockade of future hazardous rail shipments to ensure the safety of local residents.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that many environmentalists and political activists would join in such a campaign, and given the current political climate and her own sympathies I doubt Quebec Premier Marois would dispatch the QPP to defend the rail and oil interests versus the local populace.
The stock market has already taken note and factored in disruptions and political protests raising the costs and risks of oil shipment by rail. Harper can't dodge the issue for long and will eventually have to answer for government policies on rail safety...