True leaders ought to know the difference between a conspiracy theory and a scientific fact.

Having said that, ask Alberta’s Premier about the scientific fact that climate change is real and increasing the severity of fires, floods and droughts in this province and she’ll dismiss you as a radical. Ask about chemtrails – a debunked conspiracy theory – and she’ll passively blame the US military, but promise to look into it. 

According to an Edmonton Journal article, that happened at a recent Town Hall in our province’s capital. It’s hard to say which is more troubling: that the conspiracy wasn’t dismissed out of hand, or that climate change is so easily ignored.

What conspiracy theorists call chemtrails are actually line-shaped clouds of ice crystals caused by airplanes. These clouds are called contrails, which is short for condensation trails.  

Unless you’re counting the many conspiracy theories around John F. Kennedy’s assassination, chemtrails are the granddaddy of all conspiracy theories. So, what’s going on here?  Why does the Premier seemingly accept the possibility of chemtrails and not the science behind climate change and its impacts? If you said electoral politics, you win a prize. 

While the Premier has managed to do the equivalent of letting a squirrel loose at the dog park with her vague statements about chemtrails, we have a real crisis on our hands, one that impacts every single Albertan – including those who refuse to believe the science behind it. Climate change has deepened the four-year drought we are experiencing and made wildfires over the last decade more aggressive, extensive and frequent. Floods, including the 2013 disaster are making 100-year events much more frequent occurrences. 

The province of Alberta simultaneously drags its own feet, while holding the rest of the country hostage from desperately needed climate action. 

Alberta is driving out investment in the province’s once booming renewable energy industry, and making no meaningful commitments to reducing its growing greenhouse gas pollution. At the same time the province is aiming to kill the federal carbon tax, the oil and gas emissions cap, the clean fuel standard and any other climate-related actions the federal government enacts.

The result is what investors call the “flight” of capital – money – out of Alberta, and into other provinces and countries that are more stable and less conspiracy-prone. More than $30 billion have already been lost, and that’s just the beginning. Investment in what was once the province with the fastest-growing renewable industry in Canada has flatlined. 

The real impacts may be felt soon, as scientists around the world express a high degree of confidence that dangerous, and deadly weather events will worsen in the coming years. These are facts, tested against rigorous standards and validated using the scientific method. 

They are reality, one that can be seen and felt every day. 

But our leaders aren’t interested in reality. Instead, they are off chasing chemtrails, while here on earth, their constituents suffer the consequences. 

Click here to send a clear message to Alberta’s political leaders that climate change, not chemtrails, is the real threat to life, prosperity and security in our province.