UNBC's professor Keith Egger wrote an excellent editorial in the Citizen recently calling out the Art Betkes of the world for cherry picking examples in their vain efforts to rebut the scientific consensus around human-caused global overheating.
Betke and his ilk might be less likely to spread their poisonous half-truths if everyone were financially liable for the views they promote.
I would be willing to be fined if global overheating turns out to have no cost to humanity, so long as Betke and the oil industry were fined if there is a cost.
And financial incentives may actually have a role here. We have known for years that death industries like lead and tobacco undermine public discourse by paying scientists and other citizens to lie about the risks of those industries.
We now know that Russia has also been paying people to act as trolls.
How do we know that Betke isn't an agent of foreign influence, either for the oil industry or Russia? He may not even know he has been duped, like the unwitting Trump supporters who were tricked by the Russians into staging anti-Clinton events.
In this wicked environment of trolls undermining public discussion of important issues, how are we to know what to believe? One way is to find public-interest journalism, like the Narwhal. These are journalists paid by you and me to investigate stories that affect our lives.
For example, one such journalist, James Wilt, recently published a piece on how much oilsands revenue is returned to the citizens who own the resources. It turns out that Albertans receive 32 per cent of profits from the big oilsands companies.
This may seem like a lot, but it turns out that Albertans are getting a poor deal compared to citizens of other countries: Australians get 58 per cent of oil profits, Chinese 64 per cent, Norwegians 78 per cent, and Saudis 85 per cent.
If Albertans were paid the Norwegian rate, they could have paid off their entire deficit in one year.
My advice? Leave the trolls under their bridges and seek out authentic journalism that delves into issues on behalf of all citizens.
Stephen Rader
Prince George
