Constructing a new pipeline across Canada in order to ease the flow of yet more petroleum from the oil sands is a great idea – if your only interest is in short-term profits at the expense of, well, everything else.

However, at a time when we know that long-term prosperity and wealth (financial and non-financial) will come to those countries that spend their time, money, and effort trying to solve the very problems already caused by unsustainable and destructive processes like the oil sands, instead of exacerbating them, to suggest that we undertake such a project isn’t just irresponsible, it’s also absurd. As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman once admonished, yelling “drill, baby, drill” today is essentially the same as yelling “typewriters, baby, typewriters” on the eve of the internet revolution.