Suncor Energy Inc. T.SU

Upside Down World

[Experienced]

Please take the next few sentences not as bragging but as backgorund for what I will say later.

I am over 70 years old.  I have more money than I can possibly spend for the rest of my life.  I have four successful children.  One is a CFO, another is a partner in a large independent securities company. Another is a business owner and the fourth is a VP of her company.  None of them need any of my money.  They are all sucessful in their own right.

I have great health and have been an athlete all my life and can still beat many who are decades younger than me.

With that said, I should be able to sleep soundly at night - mission accomplished -  but I can't. 

Why?

Because despite the fact that I consider myself a conservative today, I am a child of the 60s.  During the 60s I protested the war in Vietnam and went to school with people who served there and saw and suffered first hand the horrors of that war.  Along with others I staged a sit-in at the office of the President of our university for a week to complain about the quality of the hamburgers sold in the cafeteria at the student centre.  The list goes on.

When I look at what is going on today, I worry about my generation's legacy and in particular mine. Sure --- I have personally have nothing to worry about and don't need to worry about whether my kids will be successful (they already are) but I worry about future generations and the current world leadership and the stupidity I see around me.  It is different than the 60s.

Back then the world leadership were not saints but there was some semblance of common sense and integrity and desire to do the right thing.  Frankly, I don't see that now and it worries me.   What I see now are leaders who are zealots.  Zealots are by definition blind to the consequences of their actions - their beliefs are more important than common sense.

As one example, yes we have a big and real concern over climate change.  Over my life I have seen the climate change.  In the last year we have seen several "once in a hundred years" climate events.  Yes, we should all be concerned about that.

The problem is that the world political leadership and business leaders following their example are in too big a hurry to solve the problem and as the old axiom says "haste makes waste" and I am convinced that they will make the problem even worse. Reminds me a statement that a military General friend of mine once said "Hurry up and wait".

They are passing laws outlawing future use of gasoline such as the recent laws in California banning gas powered lawn mowers in a few years in favour of electric mowers.  California is already experiencing electricity grid brownouts.  Where is this extra electricity going to come from in this short time period when it takes years to build out the grid if that is even feasible?

These and many other laws will guarantee future electrical grid failures and will result in inflation and a lower standard of living for future generations - or worse yet a total collapse of the system.

In regards to SU, politicans need to admit that the right now the world economy is dependent on oil and that fact is not going to change overnight or in the next 10 or 20 years (like it or not).  The plan needs to realize this and find sensible ways to change that fact over a period of time so that the cure is not worse than the disease.  They also need to recognize that oil production by companies over time will produce less and less GHG and reward firms that do this - not punish them.

They need to realistically look at the pros and cons of alternatives - destruction of habitat of endangered things by vast solar energy fields - the killing of birds by windmills etc

I could go on but I will stop here.

[quesea]

I believe that the 3rd world will not stop GHG since they want/deserve better lives through burning fossil fuels. For many it means an 2nd pair of shoes or high school for their children.  Nobody can expect 3rd world people to return to subsistence farming to save London, New York or Europe from flooding & interrupting the Fantastic lifestyle !!! Golly the 1st world has been brutally

[mrbb]

it didn't happen by chance, it was planned and implemented by in the cold.  We the west thought we won but the enemy is pecking away for the ultimate win. this is a short version of interview taken in the 1980's, complete version exist in youtube.  Former KGB Agent, Yuri Bezmenov, Warns America About Socialist Subversion - YouTube    

[mrbb]

[MigraineCall]

Good post. I as well have done things in the past similar to your protest about the bad hamburgers at school.  I am wiser now, and my solution to the problem today would not be to protest, but to start up a good but cheap hamburger joint for the students right across the street. Agreed, the world is messed up with fake news, and a brainwashed population, where those that scream and cry the

[ManitobaCanuck]

Great to hear from you Guys/Old Timers who build up this great Country and its great industry infrastructure . The present generation is enjoying fruits of your labour . I am an immigrant ,came here in 2010s , worked/retrained for 2 years and currently I am a senior position making about 500k a year before taxes.I was struck by the animosity and ignorance of EcoWoke Generation who live in their

[Chad123]

Unfortunately politicians do not work that way. They do the total opposite. Even if another country learns the hard way when the next country tries to do it they do it pretty much the same way with the thinking that it would not happen to them because they are different. NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY ARE WARNED! Politicians always have a hidden agenda. Case in point: Trudeau appoints Steven Guilbeault