Danielle Smith’s not-so-great adventure

Poor Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. She went to what she thought would be an oilfield convention and a climate conference broke out. Besides the federal government announcing at COP28 it plans to put an emissions cap on Canada’s oil and gas sector, the feds also targeted methane reductions.

And then the cheeky devils in the activist ranks at the UN conference gave Alberta the “Fossil of the Day” award — a satiric prize awarded, usually to a national government, to the entity doing the most to oppose fighting climate change.

Finally, the nearly 200-nation conference in the oil capital of Dubai agreed the time was right to begin transitioning away from fossil fuels, although the full meaning of the 10,000-word declaration will undoubtedly be debated in the weeks to come.

It must have been a nightmare at times for Smith — although she painted the ultimate communiqué as a victory for common sense oil producers such as Alberta.

But take this quote from her news release, jointly issued with Environment and Protected Areas Minister Rebecca Schulz upon her return from Dubai: “Although (federal Environment and Climate Minister Steven Guilbeault) ultimately failed in his ambitions to include language in the final COP28 agreement regarding the elimination of oil and gas production, Albertans will not forget his continued treachery against our province and millions of other Canadians.”

She called for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fire the one-time Greenpeace activist.

But consider the following if you’re an Albertan worried about climate issues:

What if you don’t like seeing huge swaths of forest burning up, with massive plumes of acrid smoke carrying carbon skyward and settling in over Alberta’s cities? Alberta burned, on average, 190,000 hectares per year from 2018 to 2022. In 2023, that jumped to 2.2 million hectares — a more than 10-fold increase.

To Smith, this had nothing to do with climate change. The premier is sadly uninformed.

Do you enjoy the classic Alberta pastime of fishing for trout in the streams of the Eastern Slopes? Do you remember that for many days this past summer, the government issued warnings not to fish past 2 p.m. because water temperatures warmed to the point where the trout were threatened?

Calgary’s Bow River, one of the world’s great trout fisheries, saw its flow rate at about half its historical norm this summer. It’s a glacier-fed river, and glaciers are under serious threat from climate change.

Drought worries extend to the fields and pastures. The government has said the situation in many parts of the province is Stage 4. What’s an emergency? Stage 5, where, among other things, there is significant risk to “human health and safety due to insufficient water supply.” With a bone-dry November and above-normal temperatures, a serious drought is in the forecast for 2024.

Sorry to tell you this, farmers and ranchers, but decade after decade, for the foreseeable future, it’s quite likely to get progressively worse — all because we’re addicted to fossil fuels.

When oil was first discovered, it was a blessing. It helped power industry and people, giving us a disproportionately high standard of living in Alberta. But all that once-buried fuel is ending up in our atmosphere, making it trap more heat and leading to all sorts of problems that will not only be expensive, but potentially dangerous and unsolvable.

This climate conference was the first to really tackle the potential phaseout of fossil fuels in its final communiqué. About 100 countries wanted language that talked of a phaseout of fossil fuels but couldn’t get it past a determined bloc of oil producers (UN communiqués must be unanimous).

Those who pushed for a phaseout will be judged to have been on the right side of history. This side will include Guilbeault. Canada wanted strong language regarding the transition.

The fossils on the wrong side? Step forward, Danielle Smith-led Alberta. You won your award fair and square. Wear it.

Bill Doskoch is a retired journalist living in Edmonton with a strong interest in climate issues. He likes trout fishing in Alberta’s Foothills.