Yea been forever since I posted but this has been pissing me off for along time.
My husband works for the oilsands, yes the one everyone says is dirty oil. The one that causes various celebrities to fly/drive down here to bash us. The same one that always shows the same picture when our town is mentioned. Clarification to anyone seeing those pictures, WE DON'T LIVE THERE. We are a distance from them, and our town is actually quite nice. Well....not as nice as it use to be, we are still rebuilding from the fire last year. That didn't stop a visit back in January, to bash us yet again.
Of course then there are the birds, blue herons this time (well 2 yrs ago) and before that ducks that landed because of an unexpected storm. Am I happy about that, hell no but steps are being taken to try to stop them from landing in the ponds, are they 100% probably not but they do try.
Do I think the oil companies are perfect oh hell no, but the are cleaning what is essential a natural oil spill. In some areas you can pick up a handful of 'dirt' and squeeze it black liquid comes out, animals can't live there. When they are done in an area it is put back to a natural state. We even have a herd of bison living on reclaimed land.
I've even had people treat my husband and I differently when they find out where we are from. The last one just radiated hostility. In my mind that is fucking ridiculous, to those people I wanna say get over yourself. Do you drive a car? if you say no, it doesn't matter the list of items made from petroleum is extensive. Just google it, products made from Petroleum. People have no fuckin clue about what's made, and well it wouldn't help their argument so why would they look, as for the birds you think your wonderful windmills are the solution think again, have you seen the birds they kill?
I'm not saying the environment isn't important but I'm tired of the bashing. Frigging tired of celebrities coming here in there planes (private or other wise), then touring in a helicopter to look at the area and then make a judgement. Of being referred to looking like Hiroshima, seriously what the hell. That was back in 2014, hell should have came in mid 2016 then maybe a bit closer but don't be an ignorant ass. Even in May 2016, we had people saying we deserved the fire that hit our community, REALLY?!?!?! what kind of people even think like that. We are fortunate that we only lost 2 people, ironically a lot of that has to do with the companies here and how people are train, also the big bad oil companies running into town to help with the battle. Offering shelter to those running, and when needed got planes in to fly people out.
You wanna make a point about the oilsands then get off you high horse and stop using anything made from Petroleum products. Until then seriously fuck off and leave us alone!
*takes a deep breath*
I could go on but for now I feel better!
Mara
