Ignorant Eco-Nuts take aim at Alberta Tourism

The latest assault by the legions of ignorant zombies on Alberta is a pledge to stay out of it.  Its good news to me.  The best place on earth is no place for an environmentalist idiot.

This Rethink Alberta website is pretty slick.  Monies donated to these eco groups do not help the environment at all but go to fund massive PR campaigns that are often ill informed and exaggerated.  These groups seek to destroy unrelated industries such as tourism because they fail at boycotting Alberta oil itself.  Its like economic terrorism.  They will be putting up signs in the US and the UK in the next while says their director, an M. Marx.  I have a sneaky feeling that revenues and interest is declining in light of the BP oil spill.  This is likely a desperate attempt to recapture the focus of their eco-flock.  

I actually met one of these idiots on the Columbia Icefields once.  This environmentalist was our tour guide and a liar.  While she was driving the bus she went through extraordinary lengths to link the water running off the glacier to the water being used by the oil sands.

A Twisted Guide to Alberta

If you have ever been to the Athabasca Glacier and taken the bus tour, you know the huge buses that drive up and down the Glacier for 9 hours a day.  There about 10 buses that are constantly shuttling people all day long.  Another tour departs every half hour.  Its a busy place.

A huge Snow Bus

The lodge is where tickets are sold.  Its a grand looking building with a restaurant and lodgings and an interesting interpretive center.  Its closed in the winter because roads are impassible.  There are also no power lines to the lodge, so without diesel the whole operation has to shut down.


The entire Athabasca Glacier experience is fueled by the Alberta Oil Sands.  The fleet of giant buses runs on diesel.  The lodge is powered by diesel generators.  There is no part of this operation isn't fueled by the oil sands at all times.

A Giant Bus waits for fuel.  6 other buses deliver passengers to the ice field in the background.

During my trip up the Glacier in one of these buses the driver who also playing tour guide felt the need to misinform us that the "tar" sands used ten barrels of pure Athabasca melt water to make one barrel of oil.  A complete lie.  I checked Wikipedia (a pretty progressive knowledge base to begin with) and the Oil Sands use 2 - 4 barrels of water to make one ex-situ barrel of oil and its getting better all the time.  Half of that water is recycled.  The various in-situ recovery techniques that are the future of oil sands production only use 0.2 barrels of water and its 95% recycled.

What you see and hear from eco-nuts are lies and exaggerations about problems that have already been solved.

Of course this pissed me off.  I could see other passengers holding their tongues too.  I wrote a scathing comment in their customer survey.   For all I know it was crumpled up and thrown away.  What business does a thirsty consumer of Alberta Oil have with trashing the oil sands?  -Not just trashing oil sands, but trashing Alberta to people visiting Alberta.

If Alberta tourism wants to fight the various attacks on Alberta and tourism it should start by cleaning up its own house.  Infiltrators should not be allowed  to spread their own twisted message to visitors.  If you ever come across this sort of thing, film it.  You don't have to cause a scene.  Film it and ask questions.  I'll be taking this tour again soon and I'll be watching for more lies.  I won't be filling out a little suggestion card either, you'll see the video here.

Stand up to these people where ever you find them.  Be polite but firm.  You are just a citizen fighting propaganda.  You have every right to speak and you should do so with out fear.  Don't forget the boycott on Bed Bath and Beyond.  Fight back with every weapon you have.  Fight with your wallet.  Fight with your words.  Fight with your minds.

We aren't going to let champagne socialists from the hypocritical left coast USA push us around.