"The Earth Needs a New Operating System"

Here is a link to a website that carried Paul Hawken's Commencement Address to the Class of 2009 at the University of Portland. It is practical, and poetic and ponderful and all at the same time. I recommend that you read it. I guarantee it will engage you....

OK so "ponderful" is not a word, but after reading Hawken's address, it should be.

(Hat tip to @Parker Hogan, @AllieW and @Mike Soron for the lead to the link)

Alberta's Guide to Education is More Enlightened Than Bill 44

The ATA is responding with advice to teachers on what to do in the face of a Bill 44 complaint against them.

I love the excerpt from the Alberta "Guide to Education" they posted in this notice. It says:

"Studying controversial issues is important in preparing students to participate responsibly in a democratic society. Such study provides opportunities to develop the ability to think clearly, to reason logically, to open-mindedness and respectfully examine different points of view and to make sound judgements ....Controversial issues that have been anticipated by the teacher, and those that may arise incidentally during instruction,should be used by the teacher to promote critical inquiry and/or to teach thinking skills."

Isn't that a better world view of the kind of province we want Alberta to be? Doesn't this offer a more mature and inclusive society than the narrow-minded, institutionalized ignorance model of public education being promoted and defended by the Stelmach government in Bill 44 and now being entrenched in our so-called "Human Rights Act?"

The Day the Media Died

Here is a video that will amuse and bemuse you. It is clever, creative and perhaps more prescient than we would like it to be. It is about the demise of mainstream media advertising in the face of the Internet. The times are a-changin'. Word of mouth and the means tom make it happen in social media is an amazing shift that is just starting to resonate. Who knows where this will all end up!

Students in Medicine Hat Demonstrate Against Bill 44

The political fallout of Bill 44 continues and the opposition to it's darkness and danger grows. In the immortal words of Buffalo Springfield, "Something's happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear. Think it's time we stop, Hey what's that sound, Everybody look what's going down."

Well in Medicine Hat yesterday the "sound" about Bill 44 from 200 high school students was silence. A group of students from Crescent Heights High School in Medicine Hat acted as engaged citizens yesterday. They staged a protest by taping up their mouths with the message "I've been silenced by Bill 44." They are right at so many levels. The really cool thing is that a group of high school students get it about their role and responsibility as citizens. They are showing the rest of Alberta, by this protest, that we have to dust off our citizenship and re-engage in the political and public policy culture of our society.

Once again we see the power of social media in gathering like-minded people into a community to make their voices heard. Daniel Jessome and Dylan Beyak started a Facebook group and put up posters around the school about the protest. There is a very powerful Facebook group "Student Against Bill 44" that has over 7100 members as I write this. It started just 10 days ago encourage you to join.

These students rightly fear that their teachers "...will start holding back in class for fear of being hauled up in front of a human rights tribunal." They get it when they say "It's going to affect our education, because we're not going to have those sporadic discussions in class anymore." "If we can't talk about the issues of today, how are we supposed to learn anything" is another accurate observation by these student leaders.

Congratulations to the students of Crescent Heights High School in Medicine Hat. You are right. Your freedom of speech has been diminished by the backward thinking that is the basis of Bill 44. Your actions speak louder than your words ;-) Thanks for showing up and not opting out. You set a good example for the elected representative that form your government. Keep up the good work!

Lougheed Confirms Albertans Own the Oilsands But Says We Better Start Acting Like Owners.

With all the turmoil going on in the world - and in my province of Alberta in particular, to read the top Editorial from this morning's Globe and Mail was a gift of clarity and common sense.

Former Alberta Premier, Peter Lougheed cuts through the fog and frustration and states the fundamental truth for Albertans. That is that the citizens of Alberta are owners of the oilsands - not the energy industry. The energy industry companies who are developing the resource are welcome as tenants but only as tenants. This issue of Albertans needing to act like owners of the oilsands was the key message coming from the Royalty Review Panel Report last year as well.

The old-boys back-channel industry model of dealing with and influencing government is over and that will be confirmed this November when the Lobbyist Act finally get Proclaimed into law. The government has to rethink its mindset around oilsands too. It has pandered and capitulated to the industry demands on royalties and taxes and subsidies for generations but as the proxy holders for citizens, the government has to remember whose best interests they are supposed represent.

Shareholder interests can no long trump the interests of Albertans. If certain energy companies wants to leave, the resource is not going away. Others will come to replace them. We know there is lots of international interest to invest in Alberta's oilsands. the big selling features are that we have a know and enormous proven oilsands resource. We have a stable government with the rule of law, a strong investment climate and reasonable accountability controls and no corruption. We have the best proximity of any oil supplier to the largest energy market on the planet and an international treaty with that customer to provide some certainty in the marketplace.

The energy industry is in turmoil too, given the recession, restricted access to capital, volatile commodity prices and issues around cost control and royalties. I haven't even begun to talk about the new environmental standards they will face in the immediate future as we get into a post-Kyoto world soon to be emerging out of the Copenhagen Climate Change meetings come December.

Lougheed says Albertans, as owners, need to insist on a more "orderly development" as we come out of this recession. That means one project at a time to reduce costs, contain inflation and allow for adaptations for environmental and social impacts of oilsands development. Lougheed also says oilsands upgrading has to happen in Alberta, something we at Cambridge Strategies have been advocating as well.

Lougheed says Albertans also need to expand our oilsands markets into Asia and not just depend on the US market. This is another issue we at Cambridge Strategies have been pushing and actively working on. You can review the Cambridge Strategies work in our Economic Outlook 2009. We also have called for the GOA to invest in a merchantile upgrader in our recent Budget Analysis.

Lougheed laments that previous calls for a more sustainable and focused development of the oilsands "...have mostly fallen on deaf ears." The Editorial goes further to the heart of the matter stating: "There has been an unwillingness of the Alberta government, and not enough pressure from the public, to exercise greater restraint."

The old-boys of the energy sector have effectively convinced themselves that the new Royalty Regime is the NEP of the 21st century. They have vilified the Alberta government in the process. Both the industry and the government seems to have forgotten who really call the shots here, the Alberta citizenry as the owners of the resource. The attitude in the pubic is that both industry and government have forgotten their place and have lost their way in the need to create a responsible, reasonable and sustainable oilsands development approach.

The close of the Editorial is what was the most encouraging comment for a Monday morning. It goes to the governance of Alberta and to the roles and responsiblity of Albertans as owners of our natrual resources. Will Albertans take back the power of politicla governance and exercie their proper proprietray ownership obligations in the oilsands? Lougheed is hoepful and so am I.