Plastic words and dangerous intents
By Lethbridge Herald on July 22, 2025.
Lorne Fitch
For the Herald
The Alberta government would have us believe in impossible things, notably that it is possible to reduce red-tape while still boasting of the highest environmental stan dards. With their endlessly-repeated mantra of âresponsible resource developmentâ spewing out like hyperbolic exhaust from a rhetoric machine, language becomes ever more devoid of meaning, of evidence.Â
This grandiose rhetoric resembles the plastic building blocks made famous by Lego; a variety of words stitched together. Read many government and industry press releases and you will see a smorgasbord of words that sound impressive, but are anything but clear. Plastic words are malleable and can be made to fit every circumstance. They fill up space and glue together incomprehensible subjects to provide an illusion of clarity and honesty.
In âcommunication,â as practised corporately and politically, we are endlessly enveloped in literary alchemy. Listening to the centrifugal rhetoric might give you a similar feeling to chowing down on junk food. It appeals to the taste buds but offers no contentment.
Appropriating the words of science is an attempt to superficially make the dialogue resemble the terms of science. Reading the soup of words with some scientific terms sprinkled in, one can wrongly assume an association with rigorous science. However, the meaning is independent of the original source. It works to provide an illusion of expertise and of experts. The words become so flexible that they become devoid of any relevant meaning.
You might recognize some of the plastic words: balance, trade-offs, mitigation, monitoring, modernize (regulations), appropriate, progress, (comprehensive) consultation, responsible (resource development), stringent (environmental protection), best practices, world class, ethical (oil), state-of-the-art, sustainable, wise use, deregulation, and in the public interest.
Like Lego blocks these words can be combined, interchanged, and adapted to explain and justify a variety of actions. Putting several of these words together can give you something like this: âWe can balance growing the economy with protecting the environment and progress to world class, even state-of-the-art sustainable, responsible stewardship through cutting unnecessary red tape but ensuring comprehensive public engagement and timely consultation, informing best practices and ethical wise use with trade-offs, mitigation, and modern, stringent monitoring and environmental protection.â
We really have world class environmental rules, you say? Not so:Â Natural gas flaring is no longer regulatedâbecause industry wouldnât comply with the rules. Â
A growing list of petroleum companies is substantially negligent in basic maintenance and reclamation. A coal company caught flaunting the rules threatened provincial staff trying to make them comply. There are numerous compliance failures in reclaiming coal exploration footprints. Failures exist in following even the most minimal logging guidelines. An unwillingness to reduce logging has put several fish and wildlife species at risk, to the point where local extirpation is now a possibility. Southern Alberta rivers endure near-death experiences every summer because of government failures to even meet the absurdly low minimum flows our âworld-class regulationsâ call for. There is no comprehensive, continuous water quality monitoring in the province.Â
Plus, there is a history of government taking no action where water quality issues are noted.Â
This list is far more extensive. It doesnât square with the lofty pronouncements that all is well in the kingdom of Alberta.  Â
When the provincial government uses words like responsible, highest standards, ethical, modern, and balanced, do they mean anything? Based on the evidence, not much. Rather than setting and adhering to high standards Alberta has opted for environmental deregulation disguised with empty words and phrases. If it exists, this is the current Alberta Advantage.Â
Lewis Carroll must have been thinking of plastic words in this passage from Through the Looking Glass: âłâWhen I use a word,â Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, âit means just what I choose it to mean â neither more nor less. â âThe question is,â said Alice, âwhether you can make words mean so many different things. ââ
Karen Marie Moning, an American author, writes that âWords can be twisted into any shape. Promises can be made to lull the heart and seduce the soul.â In the final analysis, Albertaâs plastic words provide little meaning and it is actions that speak loudest. Do not be fooled by those who appropriate words and intentionally bind them together in a fog of respectability meant to change reality.
Only in a fairy tale world can you reduce the presumed red-tape on development, as Alberta has, and still proclaim âworld classâ environmental standards are being met. Words are cheap and easy. Current evidence speaks louder. And facts actually do matter.
Lorne Fitch is a Professional Biologist, a retired Fish and Wildlife Biologist and a past Adjunct Professor with the University of Calgary. He is the author of Streams of Consequence, Travels Up the Creek, and Conservation Confidential.
17-16
Highest environmental standards ? How about reasonable and responsible. The red tape and environmental standards put a chokehold on most progress . There is also the absurd expense to subsidize countless âengineers â. This applies to a coal mine as well as a simple building in town.
Nice ‘plastic word’ post, Alice.
yes, “progress” must not be thwarted by anything that gets in the way of what “progress” is in the new world order: making money, and doing so no matter the trailing effects (in the likes of alberta, we might say no matter what are the tailings effects). who cares about other living entities, and habitats, and water, and balance, and ensuring we hand off a living and thriving planet to the next generations of life. so long as the bottom line is progress seen as wealth and material crap and the artificial and superficial supplanting the natural order, we keep digging a deeper grave that just sucks in more.
another great sharing, thank you
“literary alchemy” an excellent definition of the continual word salads coming out of the mouths of politicians most everywhere, including the prmiere of Alberta and the prime minister, who freely utilize the adjective “decarbonized” in reference to coal.
In this regard, has the first law of thermodynamics been proven to be false?
The recent elimination of methane emissions limits emphasizes your point, Lorne. On top of the lack of oil and gas well remediation, the absence of coal exploration, fossil fuel activity or logging restorations, the nonexistence of any meaningful toxic tailings pond remediation, plus the plan to increase Alberta’s carbon emissions exponentially, renders any claim of provincial environmental responsibility laughable.