Pipeline madness has overtaken Alberta and threatens to infect the rest of the country. Despite gambling and losing $1.3 billion on the Keystone XL pipeline, our provincial government is now investing $14 million to promote an aspirational pipeline.

The premier has given the provincial energy minister a mandate to “secure agreement and approval from the federal government for the construction of a new bitumen pipeline to the northwest coast of British Columbia.” Her mandate is based on a plan to double Alberta oil production by 2035.

In a previous post, I wondered if the Trump administration’s switching the U.S. from a climate change fighter to a climate change promoter would influence Canada. Well, Premier Smith is all in, following the Trump agenda to the letter. She has weakened the province’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while promoting the production of ever more fossil fuels. And she is taking her message nation-wide, appealing to Ottawa to support more pipelines and recently encouraging Quebec to develop a natural gas industry of its own.

When I read in the media about small Pacific island countries being swallowed by the sea, or populations suffering increased food or water security, or other catastrophes effected by global warming, I cringe in the knowledge that this is the work of almost no one more than we Albertans.

Canadians are among the industrial world’s worst emitters, along with the Americans and Australians. Per capita we are responsible for far more emissions than people such as the Germans, the Brits or the Japanese, twice as many per person as the average Chinese.

According to Carbon Brief, a UK-based website covering the latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy, Canada is number one in per capita cumulative emissions from 1850 to 2021. We are truly the villains in the story, and the most villainous are Albertans, we of the pollution province.

We profit mightily from exporting the problem (we export more emissions than we create at home) while Pacific islanders and other victims lose everything. Still we demand that Ottawa help us build yet another pipeline to peddle yet more bitumen generating yet more emissions … and yet more suffering.

Unfortunately, Canadians as a whole support the madness. According to an Angus Reid survey, a firm majority of us, including majorities in every region, support another pipeline from northern Alberta to the northwest B.C. coast. And a solid majority now prioritize the economy over the environment in contrast to surveys in 2016 and 2921 when the opposite was true.

Perhaps the oil industry is just irresistible—too many jobs, too much profit, too many royalties and taxes. Or perhaps Canadians are just being their usual nice selves. Our Alberta neighbours want a pipeline, so they must have one. Unfortunately, being nice on pipelines is being not very nice at all on humanity’s future.

I had hoped that Mark Carney would bring the responsible leadership needed to both the environment and the economy. He has in the past called for strong climate action and green finance, once referring to the sustainable transition as the “greatest commercial opportunity of our time.” And he was, after all, the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance.

But now he must promote “nation-building” projects to confirm our sovereignty and create more economic separation from the U.S., to say nothing of playing nice with Donald Trump, a president virulently opposed to climate action. It will be a challenge to confine the major infrastructure projects to environmental restraints.

Some Liberal MPs have formed an environmental caucus to re-emphasize the importance of climate change as a key issue for the government. Hopefully they will ensure their party keeps its climate change promises.

The pipeline madness must end. It’s time to start taking responsibility for our actions.