Sunday 24 November 2019

Another change in a life full of changes.


Another change in a life full of changes.

Being old is not everyone’s favourite thing, but it offers some benefits. As events happen, you have experiences that serve as reference points. Things happen and you don’t get excited. I have seen it before, you say, and you know that you did. When I was a child, for example, people still used horses where I was. Horses for farming, transportation and for sports and racing. At some point, tractors arrived and cars and trucks became common. The new technology changed our lives.

The change was overwhelming and those in favour outnumbered those who wanted to hang on to the past. An easier life with more things has its allure. New developments made a great difference, especially on the farms. One person could do the work of many, more grain was produced, easily transported and prices fell.

People had to change their way of life and many were not happy about it. The changes are too many to name, but each time fear for the future had a great effect and there were significant alterations to the economy. The problem with change is that too many happen at the same time and the reaction to change can cause more problems than the change itself. I must admit that even while enjoying the fruits of change, like the computer I am typing on, I feel like having some rest.

I was here in Alberta when it became an oil province instead of a farming center. I remember the City of Calgary before the oil boom and I see it now. I thank the Lord that I existed here mostly when times were good and witnessed the growth. It was exciting. Just when it looked as if we would enjoy prosperity forever, oil prices dropped due to new technology. Regardless of the political games, our period of rest is finished. While we are playing with new ideas about how to transport our oil another reality dawned.

Some of our brightest intellectuals have been predicting major trouble that would arise from the new lifestyle but failed to realize the catastrophic effects until it became almost too late. Humanity became addicted to the use of fossil fuels faster and in increasing numbers, more rapidly than we dreamed it could. The problems of polluting the atmosphere dwarfed the pollution from overproduction. Now I am facing another major change in my lifetime.

Being in a province that uses oil as its currency, I fear a slowdown in the economy that I learned to depend on. I look at other places that sustain and even grow economies without oil and I envy their ingenuity and creativity. I recently heard a well-known author columnist say, “the hydrocarbon economy is finished.” As much as I wish him to be wrong, he is not.

The question that remains unanswered is, will we be fighting it and suffering the consequences of war, or will we find peaceful ways to solve our problem. Judging by my experience, we will fight. People don’t solve problems by negotiating and giving in to reason. First, they ignore the problem, wishing it to go away, and later they resort to violence.

Most admit that there is a problem and we all know that there will be a transition period. Those who wish to save humanity from the catastrophic disaster awaiting us from inaction are trying hard to speed the transition while those heavily invested in the hydrocarbon economy wish us to take our time. The fossils industry people want to keep growing it while saying, calm down, we are working on it. The weapons industries don’t care who will win as long as there will be conflict.

Personally, I am most concerned with the wellbeing of those who will come after my time is done. I was born right after a great war and know well what fighting causes. I lived through some wars and I thank the Lord for where I am and for the opportunity that oil provided for me and so many others. We will never go back and the new world will be a better place than it was in my youth.

I watch the news and see the pro-oil and gas people buy political elections and press for fewer regulations and I cringe. Opposite from them there are young people and always first nation folks (not the leaders) who have a real concern over the health of the planet. My mind goes over the possible solutions. I witnessed great changes and I have the benefit of knowing how things turned out. There were always winners and losers and people had to make changes.

This time is no different. The world goes in some direction and then it is overdone and corrective action takes place. Empires grow and revolutions take them down. Plagues kill and new medications are invented. What we can hope for is that the damage caused by the change will be minimized. That is the job of a good government.

From where I see it now, with the benefit of many experiences, we should embrace the change and guide it to go with the stream, while educating people about reality unobstructed by political affiliations and business interests. Our aim should be to make the transition quick and painless. Our elected representatives should set up a course and then apply themselves to the wellbeing of the people.

The biggest problem these days is employment which provides an acceptable level of living and rewarding people for extra efforts. It is not hard to do. The older folks still remember the time after the second world war when all the soldiers came home. I and my generation are the outcomes.

I have faith in people and I know that when there is a will there is a way. We need hope and we must use our best people to run the show. There is no need for a war to teach us how.

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