William Marsden is an author and investigative journalist who
bravely took on the Hell's Angels biker gang in a series of books
and columns. Now he's after a bigger, richer, and far more
deceptive foe… the Canadian oil industry. Marsden goes to the
physical and metaphorical heart of Canada's oil country to provide
an incisive examination of an environmental catastrophe effected by
a manipulative oil industry in denial and aided an impotent and
incompetent system of governments.
Marsden begins by supplying a great deal of informative historical
background of the oil sands project, including a bizarre scheme in
the 1950s to extract oil via controlled nuclear explosions. He also
provides an inside view of the immense scale oil sands excavations
by visiting the projects and talking with the workers. This sets
the stage for the critique to come.
The two primary targets polemically identified by Marsden (the
"stupid" ones of the title) are the oil industry and governments
within the province of Alberta.
Marsden describes a heavily subsidized industry that flouts the
rule of law, uses propaganda and intimidation to achieve its ends,
is deliberately deceitful, and remains astonishingly ignorant of
the long term effects (environmental, social, and financial) of its
activities. He illustrates how time and time again the massive
public relations machine of the oil industry obscures facts and
keeps citizens in the dark (for example, by stating that the toxic
petrochemical-related products suddenly infusing wells and land are
naturally occurring).
The second side of the problem rests with an impotent and largely
incompetent provincial government. This is not a government that
serves its citizens; rather, it is a veritable plutocracy under the
sway of corporations and addicted to royalties delivered by the
ever-increasing prices of crude oil. The politics of ignorance
appear to be the central creed of the Alberta government, and there
is little or no desire by elected officials to listen to citizens
or take their concerns seriously. As such, Marsden takes it upon
himself to visit concerned citizens and report their stories, and
they are not pretty. He reports of a government bought and paid for
by the oil industry and who remain astonishingly oblivious about
the effects of the industry on the citizens of Alberta.
Marsden concludes that the results the industry and government
action/inaction have resulted in boreal forest depletion of a
massive scale, a significant and possibly catastrophic depletion of
the water table, and destruction of wildlife and rural agriculture.
If continued unchecked, the Alberta of the future will be a bleak
monument to uncontrolled avarice, and yes, stupidity.