(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Sheldon Spackman

Standing Up For Oil And Gas

United We Roll to counter-protest Thunberg climate strike at Legislature

Oct 17, 2019 | 11:25 AM

A climate strike planned for the Alberta Legislature on Friday featuring Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has sparked a ‘call to action’ by supporters of Alberta’s oil and gas industry.

Glen Carritt with Innisfail-based United We Roll for Canada says supporters of the province’s oil and gas sector will depart Gorts Truck Wash in Red Deer at 7:00 a.m. Oct. 18, and head up the QEII Highway for a rally of their own at the Alberta Legislature starting at noon.

Carritt says Alberta doesn’t need another celebrity coming to the province and criticizing our environmental standards.

“Quite frankly, Alberta is just tired of it,” exclaims Carritt. “We’re leaders in environmental standards and we’re going to continue to innovate and continue to have clean energy and continue to push for our oil and gas sector in Canada and Alberta.”

Carritt feels the misconception about Canada is that we’re a high-carbon footprint country.

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“What people don’t realize is they base it on per square footage,” explains Carritt. “What people really need to look at, and nobody ever talks about, is the carbon balance in the sense that we absorb as much carbon as we put into the atmosphere, and we have more trees per capita than anywhere else in the world.”

When it comes to climate change and pollution, Carritt says Canada is not the problem.

“We are innovators and we’re leaders in green technology and we’re going to continue to do that,” says Carritt. “That technology is going to continue to come from the oil and gas sector, so we don’t need people to come and try and tell us about our environmental standards when they’re the highest in the world. These people need to go to China and to India, Saudi Arabia and other places in the world where there really is a climate problem, and they’re trying to tote that we have a Canadian climate emergency and that’s a hoax.”

Carritt says Thunberg and her handlers need to be better educated regarding their claims.

“They’ve put a 16-year-old girl out in front of all of this to pull at heart strings and I think it’s shameful,” says Carritt. “Quite frankly, it’s acting and it’s the same as Leonardo DiCaprio or Jane Fonda or all these people that try and come up here and tell us about our climate when they really don’t know anything about it. It’s actors portraying to be activists and I’m embarrassed for the people that have put her in front of all of this.”

Carritt sees both renewable and non-renewable energy as part of Canada’s future.

“If we ever do get out of gas-powered vehicles or whatnot, that technology is going to come from the oil and gas sector,” he explains. “But we’re 30-40 years away from getting anywhere near completely out of that. We need to continue to look for renewable energies but it also has to be at an economic value.”

Carritt feels it’s important to remember that Canadians have the way of life that we do because of the oil and gas sector.

“We’re going to continue to stand up for our energy sector in Canada until these pipelines get put in the ground and they stop buying foreign oil at the rate that they do and we can get some pipelines across Canada and start using our oil and gas,” Carritt says.

“This rally is also a peaceful, family orientated rally that I feel if the schools can bring their kids out of school to protest for a Canadian climate emergency hoax, I feel parents can take their kids out of school to support the very way of life that they know and are fighting for.”

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