Robert Redford: Don't lose your balance!

Robert Redford, I love your movies, but please give us a balanced break when it comes to the Alberta oilsands.

Redford says the oilsands are producing 'enough carbon pollution to wreak havoc with our climate for decades to come'.

Well, Bob, before you throw stones, let's look at your own country's glass house.

There are several states in the US, each of whose coal-fired electrical generation greenhouse gas output far exceeds the Alberta oilsands' collective annual output.

West Virginia's 3 largest coal-fired power plants produce the same amount of CO2 as Alberta's 3 largest oilsands plants, and one of those produces more than Alberta's largest oilsands operation (2006 figs for US, 2010 for Alberta).

In fact, West Virginia's 20 power plants alone produce 75% as much greenhouse gas emissions as Alberta's 153 largest emitters in all industries (and believe me, when you get down the list as far as 153 in Alberta, you're into peanuts in terms of annual emissions, like 50,000 tons compared to 15,000,000 tons!).

And finally, the 7 largest-emitting power plants in the US collectively out-pollute Alberta's 153 largest emitters hands-down!

So go ahead, have at it, Bob. Make your arguments against the oilsands industry, but for heaven's sake keep things in perspective and stop acting like an NRA advocate speaking to Fox News about gun control!

Take a look in your own back yard before you let your rage loose on people who don't deserve it as much as your own country's citizens, corporations and governments.