Over the last few weeks I have been writing about the Social Science and Humanities Research Council's (SSHRC) future challenge questions. This will be my last in this short series but I will continue to refer to the six critical questions as they are all central to the understanding of global, national and international politics. Today I want to look at the question: "What effects will the quest for energy and natural resources have on our society and our position on the world stage?" Let us examine a recent story that illustrates the potential breadth and depth of this question.
On Aug. 4, Bill Bennett Minister Energy and Mines released this press statement: "In the early morning of August 4, 2014, the tailings pond dam at the Mt. Polley Mine site breached and released an estimated 10 million cubic metres of water and 4.5 million cubic metres of fine sand into Polley Lake. Hazletine Creek flows out of Polley Lake, and the flow may have continued into Quesnel Lake. This is a serious incident that should not have happened. We are devoting every appropriate resource working with local officials to clean up the site, mitigate any impacts to communities and the environment, and investigate the cause of the breach. We will determine the cause of the event and we are determined to prevent an incident like this from happening again."
The long-term consequences of the breach are not really known because this is a complex eco-system. The impacts may not be understood for many years to come. Bennett has said that this is not an environmental disaster and water tests will show that mercury, arsenic and other contaminants are at acceptable levels. According to the Vancouver Sun, a representative of the David Suzuki Foundation said "while there's little doubt the dam collapse was bad and that it will require longer-term monitoring to determine its effects, he saw little use in arguing whether it was an environmental disaster."
In terms of politics though, the Mount Polley mining incident is a potential disaster. All of the complexities of the issues over land certainty and the development of trust between extraction companies and communities are evident in this one story. One First Nation's community is even looking to evict the company from their territory.
There is also the question of the livelihoods connected to the resource. The CBC reported that United Steelworkers Local 1-425 President Paul French said that the mine would lay off 42 workers and that he added, "...the mine actually has an effect on the entire region. You've got over 380 unionized employees and I think the spinoff from that are probably close to 1,000 indirect jobs with contractors, suppliers and everything else. So, it's huge." Northern, rural and remote communities know all too well that sometimes the resource is the community.
This story may appear to be confined to a remote region of the province (although those who live there don't see it that way) but the impacts of incidents like these spread easily into the global arena. The SSHRC question extends to what impacts the quest for resources will have on our position on the world stage because the world watches how advanced liberal democracies balance the need for economic growth with their social responsibility for environmental stewardship. In the past our practices of resource extraction have come under scrutiny and have been challenged by global actors that are powerful in their capacity to sway public opinion. During the 1990s the war in the woods led to significant change primarily by multinationals who responded quite rapidly to European opinion about clear cutting. More recently there has been an active international "end the tar sands" campaign that is caught up in the deep divide over the building of pipelines including Keystone. The difference between the 1990s, 2014 and the future is that the world stage continues to shrink. The Mount Polley mine breach story probably reached halfway around the world within hours of it happening. The fact is that our quest for energy and resources is not a national debate. It's a global debate.
And we must be to ready to answer how it will affect our society.
