Fossilized reveals how Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador – blinded by exceptional economic growth from 2005 to 2015 – undermined environmental policies to intensify ecologically detrimental extreme oil extraction.
Description
Thanks to increasingly extreme forms of oil extraction, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador underwent exceptional economic growth from 2005 to 2015. Fossilized investigates the environmental policy trends that supported this development trajectory, such as institutional restructuring that prioritizes extraction over environmental protection, alongside inadequate environmental assessment, land-use planning, and emissions controls. Angela Carter’s detailed analysis situates the policy dynamics of Canada’s largest oil-producing provinces within the historical and global context of late-stage petro-capitalism and deepening neoliberalization. As the global community moves toward decarbonization, Canada's petro-provinces are instead doubling down on oil – to their ecological and economic peril.
Awards
- Winner, Book Awards, Canadian Political Science Association 2021
Reviews
Carter... is optimistic. Instead of offering investments to the oil and gas industry, why not look to support a new, low-carbon economy?
- Mary Shortall, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour
[Fossilized] cast[s] a new and hopeful light on what political scientists sometimes call a super-wicked problem.
- Donald Wright, University of New Brunswick