Description
Canada's "no. 1 defender of freedom of speech" and the bestselling author of Shakedown makes the timely and provocative case that when it comes to oil, ethics matter just as much as the economy and the environment.In 2009, Ezra Levant's bestselling book Shakedown revealed the corruption of Canada's human rights commissions and was declared the "most important public affairs book of the year." In Ethical Oil, Levant turns his attention to another hot-button topic: the ethical cost of our addiction to oil. While many North Americans may be aware of the financial and environmental price we pay for a gallon of gas or a barrel of oil, Levant argues that it is time we consider ethical factors as well. With his trademark candor, Levant asks hard-hitting questions: With the oil sands at our disposal, is it ethically responsible to import our oil from the Sudan, Russia, and Mexico? How should we weigh carbon emissions with human rights violations in Saudi Arabia? And assuming that we can't live without oil, can the development of energy be made more environmentally sustainable? In Ethical Oil, Levant exposes the hypocrisy of the West's dealings with the reprehensible regimes from which we purchase the oil that sustains our lifestyles, and offers solutions to this dilemma. Readers at all points on the political spectrum will want to read this timely and provocative new book, which is sure to spark debate.
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"I was at a low moment, and beginning to fear that our adversarial culture was dying and the open society was losing its will to resist, when Ezra Levant showed that every citizen has the birthright of a little spark, and a grown-up duty to kindle that spark into a flame. Let the bureaucrats do their worst: the tongue and the word are chainless and nothing is sacred except this freedom above all." Christopher Hitchens"...puts everything on the line in the way the best Canadian journalists always did." Ottawa Citizen"[An] effectively argued wake-up call." National Review"The most important public affairs book this year." National PostFrom the Author Hailed As "Canada's No. 1 Defender of freedom of speech" (Rex Murphy, Globe and Mail) comes a book about one of the most pressing issues of today: oil. With his unique candor, Ezra Levant enters the debate, examining the ethical cost of our addiction to oil.While many North Americans may be aware of the financial and environmental price we pay for a gallon of gas or a barrel of oil, we often fail to factor in ethical considerations, Levant argues. In this controversial argument with those who offer their support to the anti-oil sands movement, Levant asks hard-hitting questions: With the oil sands at our disposal, is it ethically responsible to import our oil from the Sudan, Russia, and Mexico? How should we weigh carbon emissions against human rights violations in Saudi Arabia?Levant dispels common myths about Canada's oil sands; examines what would happen if America stopped buying oil from Canada; investigates the reality of environmental protection; and reveals the role of the media and groups such as Greenpeace in the anti-oil sands movement. Separating the propaganda from the facts, he builds his case that it is time we took a moral inventory of the oil sands. "The real test of ethical oil," he writes, "is not in comparing oil sands oil to some impossible, ideal standard but comparing it to its real competitors."Ethical Oil is a timely, engaging examination of Canada's oil sands that makes for provocative reading on a subject that is in the headlines every day.
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