The shelter melter

I’m sure by now we’ve all seen the meme running through facebook like a bad case of the misinformed. – Yeah, that enbridge one. You know. About the horrible oil spills and how they’ve had 804 spills in 12 years and (insert random larger than life number here) of oil spilled.

This is not only a case of misinformation, it’s a case of people blindly sharing what they don’t fully understand.
Funny how this pops up at a time when Canadians are divided on topic of installing a large pipeline through their country. Interesting timing? Impeccable coincidence? I think not. It’s aimed directly at those who haven’t decided and/or just don’t know any better.
So let’s dissect this meme piece by piece until we get to the bottom of it:
804 spills in 12 years!
What you -the brainless consumer- fail to realize is that enbridge policy states "any liquid contamination fluid/fuel or otherwise touching the ground larger than a loonie in size must be reported and logged" SO, any amount of anything that comes into contact with the ground larger than a LOONIE in size is reported as a spill. Folks, I spill more oil on the ground when I change the oil in my car, and I certainly don’t report it. These spills are recorded, reported, and cleaned up (probably with little paper towels). THIS IS A SAFETY PROTOCOL and not something to be used against a company that cares enough to report this kind of stuff. It’s not required or enforced by law, they do it because they give a shit.
50 kajillionbillion litres of oil spilled!
The actual number on the meme is 6,781,950 Gallons.
While I won’t point out that "gallons" is an american term and that we in Canada speak in litres (oops, looks like I pointed it out) I will have to factually say that this is a completely fabricated number. It’s fuckin’ make believe. Someone mashed the number pad with a sweaty, american hand and called it pie. While the actual number in litres is fairly smaller, it does fall into the ballpark of 400,000 litres spilled.
Sure, it sounds like a lot, but what you -the brainless consumer- fails to realize is that 399,999.99 of those litres were cleaned up. It’s not like these oil companies just spill oil and leave it there.
Share if you agree that enbridge is not fit to build pipelines
Actually, they’re probably the best company out there fitted to build a pipeline. A company that cares enough to report itty bitty spills, puts out billions in cleaning up not only their own but OTHER companies messes, and has a spotless safety record. They say the best person for the job is the most qualified, and I don’t think any other company is more qualified.
In conclusion:

The problem lies in the human dilemna – Everybody wants change, and more of this, and faster that, and progress – but no one wants to pay for it. Oil spills DO happen. Every precaution is made so that they don’t, but they do, and when they do, it’s generally minimal. With the invention of pressurized pipeline monitoring, spill detection, leak awareness systems and more solid materials, oil pipelines are probably the safest they’ve been in 100 years. All of this information, and more, is available at your fingertips – just look it up.
As for the Canadian pipeline, I don’t see a problem with it. Jobs are good, revenue is good, shipping our oil to countries that need it is good. Ruining our wild? We have over 2 billion hectares of nothing BUT wild in Canada. Trust me, it’s not going anywhere.