Like most people, I understood that the tar sands represent both a visible scar from space and to Canada’s international reputation.  This week, I came to visit. It’s now, after smelling the noxious fumes, seeing the incomprehensible scale of destruction (and what is still planned) and listening to the voices of First Nations women dealing with profound health and social impacts, that I have come away with the conclusion that we are, as a human race, going insane.

Picture by Joanna Kerr

Tar sands oil production is draining the Peace and Athabasca rivers, poisoning the air and water, pushing First Nations off their land, and being run by workers living in prison-like camps full of drug addiction and high suicide rates.  Set to be the largest industrial project on the planet, it runs 365 days of the year on largely coal-based energy.  And this you will never really comprehend unless you visit: every thirty seconds or so you hear what sounds like a gunshot.  This is to keep birds from landing in the lake-size poisonous tailing ponds.  Apparently it doesn’t really work, but it certainly drives the workers insane.  Honestly, it feels like a war zone.
So why does this insanity prevail?  The simple answer is that a few very powerful individuals are making billions in profits able to convince regular people that without the tar sands they will be poor and jobless. Dissenters are silenced. Yet, tar sands constitute just 2 percent of Canada’s GDP.
Thankfully there is a clear path out of this hell. Renewable energy can provide the energy we need, without frying the planet. 
First, lets start with coal. We can close the highly polluting coal plants just as Alberta’s new Premierhas suggested. 
Doctors are pointing out that closing coal plants would provide enormous health benefits for Albertans and millions in savings from reduced health care costs. The rapid advance of electric vehicles means we could soon be running our transit system and private vehicles on clean electricity rather than dirty oil. Experts have plotted out how Alberta can be a leader on green energy. TheEnergy Revolution is happening now, and it’s creating good green jobs around the world.
In fact, renewable energy is now so mainstream that the banks are warning that you should join the revolution or be prepared to be left in the dust.  Ontario already has over 10,000 homes, schools and churches that operate as micro-solar power stations. In northern Alberta, Fort Chipewyan is leading the way on community-based solar power.
So, with this we start the long, long overdue move away from dirty, climate destroying fossil fuels.  Along with solar, Alberta is only using 1 percent of its wind energy potential, let alone geothermal.  Through these projects—in Alberta and across the country—we can generate thousands and thousands of jobs.  And we pay for this move by tackling the reckless spending for oil and gas: no less than 34 billion dollars of government subsidies goes to industry annually, according to the IMF.
We energize our future with renewables.  We get off of fossil fuels.  We save humanity.  How insane is that?