Tamara Harbar
Going Green

So much oil has spilled this spring and summer, I’m starting to imagine the oil is trying to escape and return to the wild.

April’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill started the barrel rolling, as it were, followed by Egypt’s Red Sea spill (June 17), China’s Yellow Sea pipeline explosion (July 16), Enbridge’s pipeline leak into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River (July 26) and Mumbai’s cargo ship collision (Aug. 7).

So you could say I had oil on the brain when my husband and I drove to Michael Bublé’s “Crazy Love” concert in London on Aug. 9. Bublé’s thrilling performance made use of a powerful sound system and a pyrotechnic display of lights and images. The air conditioning, cranked up to the “human icicle” setting, helped the packed crowd at the John Labatt Centre chill and enjoy the show.

In spite of Bublé’s luscious vocals, I couldn’t help thinking how much oil was involved in that concert. According to the Ontario Power Authority, only 16 per cent of Ontario’s electricity comes from oil- and natural-gas fired energy, but the cars, SUVS and buses that brought people to the concert, including Bublé’s two massive tour buses, were made with and fuelled by oil and gasoline products.

Of course, almost everything in our lives is a petroleum-based product, including fertilizers for crops, cleaning products, plastic bags, contact lenses, medicines, umbrellas, the synthetic fibres in the clothes on our backs and anything else you can think of. You’ve probably heard the view that we’re all oil addicts.

I disagree oil addiction is the problem. Sure, humanity may be behaving like a “gimme more” addict, demanding to be supplied, accepting the disastrous consequences of feeding the habit and even risking health and life. But as I listened to Bublé crooning, I wondered if the people whose sign said they’d travelled 1,000 kilometres to see him wanted to spew toxic fumes into the air as they drove or flew to London.

Did they deliberately choose a fuel source that risks oil spills, threatens ecosystems and contributes to asthma and cancer? And would anybody in the audience have minded if the Labatt Centre were powered by clean energy instead of polluting energy?

Of course not. None of us wants to spread toxins and pollution every time we turn on the air conditioner, drive to get groceries or pick up the kids from school. If we could heat and cool our buildings, travel, cook, produce the things we need, and enjoy a little entertainment through clean, affordable and harmless energy, who would prefer dirty energy sources instead?

The real problem is we don’t have another choice, another means to achieve our ends. But let’s not confuse the ends with the means.

Even the oil getting loose seems to be saying, “You really don’t want an old fossil like me, so I’m making a break for it whenever I can.”

Here’s hoping the damage this oozing black goo is causing to human and non-human life, to jobs and economies, will push the development of healthier options before our crazy love for crazy oil does us in. We need alternatives so we can let the oil – and ourselves – break free.

Then maybe thoughts of fossil fuels wouldn’t come between me and Michael Bublé anymore, either. That would be a good thing, too.