It’s a beautiful sunny day in early July.  It’s probably anywhere between 20-30 degrees out, and I’m sitting here in my girlfriends car in front of where she works while I wait for her shift to end.  I’m listening to the new Coldplay album; Viva La Vida.

As you can probably surmise, it’s pretty warm in the car, but nothing too unbearable, especially if you can go get some water or something.  Never the less, living in Calgary means that you get this kind of weather a lot.  And I mean, a lot.  In August the temperature can go from nearly 0 degrees (celcius) to 40 in a matter of hours.  We get some pretty wacky weather here, and it only keeps getting wackier, all because of this wonderful thing we like to call “Global Warming.”

If you don’t know, I should come beat you with a bright orange stick and educate you about it.  If you don’t believe it, then fine, I don’t have a problem with your belief, but don’t go trying to convince myself of your belief.  For me, there is plenty of evidence to support the overwhelming fact that global warming is here, and it is a problem we face now, and it is something we need to do something about now.  Not 20 years from now, when we realize how much we really have fubared our planet.

However, I digress.   There is rhyme to my madness, and the instigator of this fell handed rant is quite possibly the simplest thing on the planet.   In the parking stall in front of me there is a small car with which seems to be some engine troubles, most likely due to the heat.   Nothing overly worrisome, he’s obviously called a tow truck, or a repairman of some sort, since he’s standing there, doing not much.  Again, nothing overly worrisome, but he calls his wife/girlfriend/confidante/mistress/sister/femalecompanion/partner in world destruction/whatever, to sit with him while he waits for whomever is coming for the car.  Now, this wouldn’t be as much of a problem, if it was another car of comparable size, or if they were just going to sit there.   But no, we are treated to the both of them, sitting there,  in their late model, mid size, SUV, idling there, so that they may keep the air conditioning running.

This drives me nuts.

This is literally, one of the simplest things you can do to make even the smallest difference in the face of global warming.  It’s a wonderful new idea called,: “The 4 Step Program to Staying Cool in Your Car!”

Roll.

Down.

Your.

Window.

Call now for your free copy!  Only 9.99!

Sigh.

Living in Calgary, the self-proclaimed oil capital of Canada, I can see why this mentality is hard to understand.  I mean, for us, oil isn’t a big deal.  We have al lot of it, and all those people in the rest of the world buy it from us, so why should we worry about it?

Because it pollutes our atmosphere?  Because it’s a non-renewable resource?  Because we’re addicted to it?  Because we don’t seem to care about that?  Because our provincial government seems intent on completely devastating over 20% (by my calculations; Source) of our natural countryside, forests, wetlands, and farm land for the oil sands project.

“I saw on a commercial that they were working towards not doing that, because, like, they cared, and like wanted to go and like save the environment and stuff.”

Right.

And do you believe that commercial about Shell wanting to use the bendy straw idea to get at all those oil pockets in the Caribbean in order to save the pristine landscape?  Please, they did it to save money.  Do you think that they would have thought twice about building ten times the number of rigs if it was cost effective, you bet they would have.

Open your eyes people, think for yourselves, think about what you’re reading, don’t believe the propaganda. 

Keep Shifting,

-Ryan Hoye

P.S. Maybe I should just write a book.