Climate Change is a tragedy of the Commons issue

Harrie Vredenburg

Published

3 weeks ago

2 minute read

Harrie Vredenburg: “…The role of the United Nations in Climate Change goes back to how we think about Climate Change.

Climate Change is a tragedy of the “commons” issue and our thinking about Climate Change goes way back to the early 1800’s when in England there was a concern about over-grazing of commons pasture land.

People would graze their sheep on the pastureland and there was concern that the pasture would disappear altogether. So somebody said I’m not going to graze my sheep there, but the problem was that if their neighbour increased the amount of grazing on their land, the problem wasn’t solved, but only the first farmer who didn’t graze their sheep there was hurt.

Same thing with Climate Change. It’s a global “commons” problem. And that’s why it needs the United Nations and why the UN has made several efforts to do so.

The first effort was the Kyoto Protocol and it was an effort to regulate globally climate issues. It was essentially a failure. It was agreed in the 1990’s and then upon that agreement first of all, the United States opted not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Canada did ratify it but then opted not to execute on it, and then other countries dragged their heels and nothing was done about it … so the Kyoto Protocol was essentially a failure…”

Harrie Vredenburg, Professor University of Calgary Suncor Energy Chair

Producer’s Note:

Thoughtful and intuitive metaphor here by Harrie with the tragedy of the commons using sheep as a metaphor to describe climate change. I often ask myself, wouldn’t it make sense if the world is going to use the oil anyways – does it make sense to use Canada’s oil?

Click here to for more of Harrie Vredenburg’s stories and videos on Todayville.

Click here to connect with Harrie on LinkedIn.

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Alberta declares outbreaks at university in Edmonton, hospital in Calgary

Published on September 21, 2020

The Canadian Press

EDMONTON — COVID-19 outbreaks have been declared at a hospital in Calgary and a university in Edmonton.

Alberta Health Services says 10 patients and two staff members have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at the Foothills Medical Centre.

All at-risk patients in the three affected units are being offered testing, and contact tracing is ongoing.

Visitors may not visit patients on the units except in end-of-life situations.

In Edmonton, an outbreak at a student residence on the main University of Alberta campus means no varsity athletics for the next two weeks.

The university says in a statement that five members of the men’s residence at St. Joseph’s College have tested positive for COVID-19.

They are isolating, along with 14 other men living at the residence, and the university says it is sanitizing and deep-cleaning areas the five may have been in.

The website for the residence says, along with spiritual direction and daily mass, it is also a leader of the university’s intramural sports program.

The university says it doesn’t know which sports may have been affected, but is shutting down in-person varsity athletics for the next two weeks.

It says individuals who may have been exposed will be contacted by health officials.

The statement says all other residences at the University of Alberta are considered safe and at low risk of exposure.

Alberta’s last COVID-19 update on Thursday reported 1,424 active cases and 255 deaths.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2020

The Canadian Press

Alberta

Obsidian Energy formalizes share swap bid for Calgary rival Bonterra Energy

Published on September 21, 2020

The Canadian Press

CALGARY — Obsidian Energy Ltd. is formalizing its hostile takeover bid for rival Bonterra Energy Corp.

It says it will offer two Obsidian shares for each Bonterra share until Jan. 4.

The share-swap offer is the same as the proposal in a declaration of intent made in late August, despite Bonterra shares continuing to trade for more double those of Obsidian.

On Friday, Bonterra stock closed at $1.22 per share, about 2.1 times the value of Obsidian stock at 57 cents.

In a news release, Obsidian says the takeover would create a “Cardium champion” by combining the two companies’ assets in the region, while providing financial strength to add to that base by buying other Cardium lands.

It says the merged company have production of 35,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, three times the size of Bonterra in the second quarter.

“Since we publicly announced our interest in a combination with Bonterra, we have received encouraging feedback from a significant number of shareholders of both companies and other interested parties that reinforces our view that the combination of Obsidian Energy and Bonterra is in the best interests of both companies and their respective stakeholders,” interim Obsidian CEO Stephen Loukas said.

Bonterra didn’t formally respond to the initial Obsidian approach, but said it would continue to pursue financing from the Business Development Bank of Canada, in co-operation with its existing syndicate of lenders, that would allow it to restart its suspended capital program and allow it to bring production back to last year’s levels.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BNE, TSX:OBE)

The Canadian Press