Dear Steve,

Happy first day of Copenhagen!

I know you and the Globe and Mail, believe that the tar sands should not be on the table at the UN Climate Change Conference. The tar sands create 5% of Canada's greenhouse gases (as well as lakes of sulfuric acid and other toxic pollutants, which we delightfully refer to as tailings ponds) and yet they account for only 1.5% of Canada's GDP. To be clear, we are contributing to a potential climate catastrophe for a lousy 1.5% of our GDP. What is the price of catastrophe? Is 1.5% of our GDP worth it? Should we ask my son? His generation will be cleaning up the environmental disaster when those bloody dams holding the tailings ponds fail and the toxins are leached into the Athabasca and its watershed. Suncor et al will run for the hills and the Canadian taxpayers will foot the bill for clean up. Will 1.5% seem worth it then? Somehow I doubt it.

So, Steve, if you can please get your head out of the tar sands and do the right thing in Copenhagen.

Cheers!
Karen