Olds resident Jim Schulz says the provincial government's carbon tax is not going to alleviate climate change because he says carbon creation is not a problem.
In fact, Schulz says in some cases we don't have enough carbon in the atmosphere.
"I've taken a lot of science. I've run things by science teachers and people I know that are in the know in science," he said during an interview with the Albertan.
"CO2 is not a problem. We have four-and-a-half tenths of one-tenth of one per cent of CO2 in our atmosphere. Do you know how small that is? That is tiny.
"When guys are inside the submarines, they're breathing three and four times that in CO2. CO2 is not a problem," he added.
"Canada as a whole is a carbon sink. The forests in Canada absorb way, way, way more carbon than we ever produce. And somehow our government has got it into their heads. It certainly isn't based on science.
"Carbon dioxide is life to the planet. Carbon dioxide is life."
Schulz says the provincial government's idea that because it has imposed a carbon tax, other Canadians will give Alberta the "social licence" to build pipelines is "full of crap."
He said people in Central Canada and elsewhere in the country will never go along with a pipeline "no matter what we do."
"They just believe whatever the mainstream media shoves in their faces," he said.
Mothballing coal-fired plants in the province is short-sighted, according to Schulz because he said they're some of the most efficient coal plants in the world and a byproduct of coal is fly ash, which is used in concrete.
"If you want to sequester bad stuff, you sequester it inside the concrete. I don't know what concrete companies are going to do when they can't have fly ash," he said.
Schulz sent a series of questions about carbon dioxide to the provincial government and also to CHQR in Calgary in response to a program they aired. But when interviewed, he had not received a response from either.
"I know they (the provincial government) won't respond because I know the answers to the questions and if they had to answer those questions it would not be a good idea for them," Schulz said.
"They couldn't go ahead with the carbon tax -- not for the reasons they're doing it. They just want to tax us."
The province's response to Schulz's concerns about the carbon tax are provided elsewhere in this edition of the Albertan.
