Reddit mentions of The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands

I haven't actually read this book, but it got good reviews as offering a balanced and informative perspective:

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https://www.amazon.ca/Patch-People-Pipelines-Politics-Sands-ebook/dp/B01N1U29AH

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"The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands" by Chris Turner

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>Bestselling author Chris Turner brings readers onto the streets of Fort McMurray, showing the many ways the oilsands impact our lives and demanding that we ask the question: In order to both fuel the world and to save it, what do we do about the Patch?

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>In its heyday, the oilsands represented an industrial triumph and the culmination of a century of innovation, experiment, engineering, policy, and finance. Fort McMurray was a boomtown, the centre of a new gold rush, and the oilsands were reshaping the global energy, political, and financial landscapes. The future seemed limitless for the city and those who drew their wealth from the bitumen-rich wilderness.

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>But in 2008, a new narrative for the oilsands emerged. As financial markets collapsed and the scientific reality of the Patch’s effect on the environment became clear, the region turned into a boogeyman and a lightning rod for the global movement combatting climate change. Suddenly, the streets of Fort McMurray were the front line of a high-stakes collision between two conflicting worldviews—one of industrial triumph and another of environmental stewardship—each backed by major players on the world stage.

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>The Patch is the seminal account of this ongoing conflict, showing just how far the oilsands reaches into all of our lives. From Fort Mac to the Bakken shale country of North Dakota, from Houston to London, from Saudi Arabia to the shores of Brazil, the whole world is connected in this enterprise. And it requires us to ask the question: In order to both fuel the world and to save it, what do we do about the Patch?

I'd suggest something like this:

1. Lack of trust. My impression is that lack of trust - in government, mainstream media, scientists and experts - is particularly high among Conservative supporters. So they're not necessarily going to believe anything you say.
   
   
2. Opposition to taxes. If you talk to economists, they're pretty much unanimous that the least costly way to reduce consumption of fossil fuels is with a revenue-neutral carbon tax, i.e. you put a sales tax on fossil fuels and use the revenue to cut income taxes. That's pretty much what BC did back in 2008, under the centre-right BC Liberals, and what the current federal government is planning to do with their carbon floor price (although they're leaving it to the provinces to decide what to do with the revenue). Conservative voters tend to think that taxes are too high and government is too big, and they don't trust governments to follow through with cutting existing taxes, so naturally they'll resist any new taxes.
   
   
3. A big factor in Canadian politics is regional interests. Alberta's economy depends on the oil sands. Naturally people there will be especially resistant to criticism of fossil fuels. (That said, the election of the Alberta NDP in 2015 is a major turning point: their stance is to continue exporting oil and to accept carbon pricing, steadily reducing Canada's consumption of fossil fuels. We'll see if that holds up!) For a sympathetic history of the Alberta oil sands, see Chris Turner's recent book The Patch.