Who Is Pushing Whom?

If Global Warming succeeds in producing any results that might be thought of as helpful in the northern clime that is Canada's - and this is being written on a relatively balmy day of minus-4 degrees Celsius, with a raging snowstorm and high winds whipping it all about on the landscape - it may be the averaging out of milder winter temperatures overall, occasioning less use of fossil fuel resources.

The good in that is less use of resources; fewer carbon throw-outs, and some fuel savings for the need-captured householder. Granted, that's a small bone to throw to people worried about the environment with all the real and perceived catastrophes just around the corner of the future.

But it's also an interesting lesson in perceptions, views of advantages, the spin on the economy and our needs, along with the anguish of corporate interests who see their profits in decline.

Less need for natural gas to heat homes and industries, means those corporate interests who revel in new finds and the opening of new starts in the gas and oilfields, resulting in a slowdown and ultimately a depressed industry and less profit. Oh, too bad, a relative tragedy for some, a bit of relief for beleaguered consumers, and a bit of a boon for the environment.

Also a bit of amusement to be had here in considering that since the province of Alberta got a trifle assertive about a higher return on its natural resources royalties through the investment of capital in extraction, corporate interests have gone all sniffy-huffy, mad-as-hell at the gross indecency of politics and social enterprise sparring with economic enterprise.

The result being they've happily slowed down investment in the province. That'll teach them. Alberta, as a result, still flush with its share of whatever extraction is ongoing, has seen its profits somewhat diminished from the year before. That's all right, they've still got plenty, and the fact that extraction is slowing down can only be good for the environment.

Drilling activity has been curtailed, however, not as a "get-even" strategy, but as the result of weak natural gas prices, slightly altered service costs, and lower demand. Global warming; lower demands, lower activity levels, lower prices, descending returns. And much hand-wringing over lower profitability.

It's a temporary situation, though. And we should be looking to the future, to our ongoing needs and be somewhat satisfied that we have a dependable pool of resources that can be relied on for extraction when it's needed.

This constant headlong rush to increase profits at any and all costs to the environment is heedless nonsense in any event.