A lot of people really support Alberta's oil industry, and thats because we love the money it brings.
Unfortunately if we put our faith in industry vs the welfare of the land we have a history to show us how we will only be left with polluted land after the industry runs dry.
While we will still need oil for many things the truth us that technologically, Oil is on its way out. It will be replaced by cleaner technologies due to neccessity of restoring our planet back to a comfortable balance with c02 and oxygen.
But even so, we need to look at the true history of all industry. They come to plunder, and they abandon the people once their earnings run dry leaving the land a disgusting unusable mess...
One living fossil of this history:
One needs to look no further then northern NewBrunswick who holds many sad examples this story.
Waterside land now unusable, due to pollution and the government being left to cover thr costs of cleaning it all up after the company closed out. (Yet being too poor to be able to afford to do so)
As many residents from these towns have also followed work out west the local economies have run dry as well....
What can be done:
Tourism could be doing so much for these now small ghosts towns, but people seem to care about the money not the land...
Just a thought, but if thr people don't care,
Maybe it should be given back to the ones who originally cared for it?