I quit the NDP

Dear Mr. Mulcair,

I'm writing today to let you know that I will no longer associate myself with the federal NDP, until the party takes a clear stand to oppose the existence and expansion of the Athabasca Tar Sands industrial complex, along with all the pipelines that would act as enablers for it (including Northern Gateway, Keystone XL and Line 9).

It will probably disappoint you to know that I was an NDP party activist, who dedicated his time to canvas heavily for the NDP during the previous federal (and Ontario provincial) elections, as well as additional volunteering. I would like to volunteer for the NDP again, but my conscious will not allow me to do so while the NDP party leader supports such a destructive project.

I am exceedingly disappointed with your decision (and it is your decision) to ally yourself with the most damaging industrial project on the planet. As James Hansen famously stated, this project will result in game over for the climate.

Many international agencies have been reporting on what this would mean, including (generally anti-environmental) economic and energy agencies such as the IMF and IEA. In case you haven't read the reports, I'll summarize them for you:

Game Over == The End of Civilization

Maybe it's worth pointing out the irony of the situation we're in: those who benefit the most from the status quo (the mega rich) are generally working to undermine it, whilst it's the environmentalists and indigenous peoples who are working the hardest to prevent the coming collapse. However, the coming collapse will be no laughing matter, as global food harvests would fail, resulting in famine on a scale that we've never seen before. It may have once been that environmentalists were seen to be idealists and those in business dealt with the 'real' world, but is now clear that it is the business world that is living in an idealism of limitless growth, and that it is environmentalists who are the ones with the strongest grip on reality. Indeed, with the consequences of climate change becoming clearer and more horrendous by the year, we cannot afford the dangerous fantasies of the business world any longer.

We have recently seen the coming to light of the Keystone Principle:

We must categorically cease making large, long-term capital investments in new fossil fuel infrastructure that “locks in” dangerous emission levels for many decades.

To support the Tar Sands in any way, including supporting pipeline construction (and reversal), is to actively work to destroy civilization as we know it.

Climate change is already responsible for 400,000 deaths each years and costs us $1.2tn/yr. Both of these numbers are set to double in the short term and increase by an order of magnitude in the mid term (if business-as-usual, and the tar sands continue). Therefore supporting the tars sands makes you directly culpable for genocide at an international scale. There will come a time when ecocide is considered to be an international crime against peace, and those who continue to support the tar sands would be taken to the ICC. I certainly hope you are not one of those people.

Not only are the tar sands environmentally suicidal, they are economically insane. They have already destroyed 500,000 (mainly NDP) jobs in manufacturing in Ontario, and are proving to be financially fragile and unstable. The tar sands put Canada at great risk, with only temporary and insignificant benefits. It is now cheaper is several countries of the world to produce energy using wind and solar technology. This is the direction our country should be heading. While we continue to invest in the tar sands, we are losing out on billions of dollars we could be getting from these sustainable energy sources.

Innovative wind and solar technology would provide Canada with a secure and stable economy, both in the short and long terms, and would provide tens of thousands more jobs. It's probably worth pointing out that the Keystone XL pipeline is estimated to only provide 50 permanent jobs (after the initial two years of construction are over). The oil industry is heavily automated, so it brings very little to the job-debate: far less than the renewable alternatives.

The tar sands are a dead end, with the emphasis on 'dead'. I call on you to condemn the tar sands, and to categorically reject its expansion, along with all of the pipelines that threaten the future health of Canada.

Yours sincerely,
Stuart Basden