Back in 2022, I was complaining to my spouse—Chris, from the Alberta’s Eastern Tales episode—saying “I am trying to save the company from itself, from its own misleading, but they will not listen to me. Chris, responds with “your trying to be ‘the tenth man’. I grabbed the clip he was referring to—from the 2013 film, World War Z—as the introductory video to this blog.
Let’s begin with our 2022 understanding of the message in this clip (focusing on 0:53-1:18). Chris continued with, “you’re providing the opposite point of view, the one where 9 out of 9 oppose. But because you’re not even in the ‘the Council’ they don’t see you as the tenth person worth listening to.” When Chris is right, he is right. This was the crux of the issue at the time. My unpopular opinions—and those of anyone willing to look behind the curtain with me—were dismissed as unpopular and therefore not worth investing in. Differed maintenance was the majority rule and continues to be the industry rule today. More on this to follow.
My 2026 interpretation of this scene, however, begins at 0:00 and has much deeper meaning than either Chris or I understood at the time: the country of choice to survive the zombie apocalypse—in a US film—is Israel. Mossad agents relay threats to a 10-person council in Israel who decided—beginning in 1973—to make a change. If they all agree there isn’t a threat, they would create a threat and fight anyway. This 1973 decision—to not let other nations challenge Israel’s hegemony ever again—is coming to a head, and the majority rule is that Israel is the one to blame, not Iran, and certainly not Palestinians. And what is the Israeli council doing with this information?
It seems like they’re treating us like zombies, fighting us all with their: illegal wars (and genocide); AI data centres (pipelines, carbon capture and storage, oil and gas expansion); two-tier healthcare; private misleading education; private service and private good agendas. Threating functioning societies and a livable planet. Anyway, back to, let’s call it, “The Tenth Person Principle” (TTPP).
In a world of a failing majority rule—where the economy no longer represent our reality—TTPP is a crucial counter-strategy. When the head of the system is the issue, the woke, not zombie majority, need to present—and act upon—a different way forward. It’s not enough to say “no” to their agenda. It’s not enough to present them with a different strategy. Instead, seeking out and providing alternative council is needed to combat the energy and water crisis. No longer relying on the corporate and political class who created this crisis to begin with. TTPP calls on us not only to present the risks but to take the reins in executing the alternative plans we know will lead us to safety: land stewardship enforcement while developing a clean, local food and public service system for the common good.
A great example of a failing majority rule, and need for TTPP to rein, is playing out with Alberta’s First In Time First In Right (FITFIR) freshwater licensing system. FITFIR is a priority-system based on when a water licence was issued. Meaning, the first person to have capitalize on water here won, and so on. Water for you and your family is NOT the priority, and First Nations communities come LAST. Further, the system includes a “use it or lose it” clause. Meaning, if you decide to conserve water, not make use of it but rather let it stay in the system, you stand to lose your share. The system does not distinguish between borrowing or removing. Water that reenters our sewage treatment system, for example, was borrowed water. But the 310 billion liters—added to the 1.7 trillion liter tailings ponds or injected into productive formations in 2024 alone—is never expected to return, at no cost to the user. TTPP calls on us to build and enforce a water system which aims to restore water quality and security for all. It is not enough to fight changes to the Water Act, imposed by this Alberta Government, that further exasperate its inequity.
A clip from Water In Southern Alberta, Episode 3, “The Laws and Market”, Arlene Kwasniak explains the gaps in Alberta’s Water Act and FITFIR system.
The second area to invoke TTPP is to oppose the mandate of the leaders in the fossil fuel industry. For decades they have demanded more and more from the taxpayer, while differing maintenance and causing mountains of environmental liabilities. Their plan includes a fantasy solution to expansion: carbon capture and storage will never be deployed at a meaningful scale, and even if it were it doesn’t address systemwide methane venting, flaring, and leakage.
What’s worse, these heads are now actively destroying the global refinery system. First, they have been reducing Russia’s refined capacity to the point where they have had to limit diesel exports and now banned gasoline exports through 2026. Then they closed the Strait of Hormuz, reducing refined products by another ~10%. And now, they are removing another ~10% by creating a blockade in the Red Sea. The USA has taken advantage of these restrictions, selling almost every last drop in the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) system, “If inventories slip below tank bottoms at enough facilities, the WTI delivery mechanism itself starts to come under strain. That is not a theoretical risk anymore. It is the reality sitting in the data right now, and the market is pricing accordingly.” Meanwhile, their expansion plans have more limits than ever before:
Reservoir quality and access is depreciating: more resources, like freshwater, are needed to extract less valuable reserves.
More sensitive habitats, causing greater environmental harm, are what’s next to be exploited.
Supply chain limits, such as a lack of gas turbines until 2030.
Private investment capital unavailable: the tech bros have joined the fossil fuel companies in being cashflow negative now!
Alberta oil companies themselves doubt their ability to deliver.
Where is the courage within our political and corporate class to call out these limits and invite alternative plans to redirect us accordingly? For decades, scientists like Dr. Brad Stelfox, have been showing the cumulative impacts on the landscape and expressing the need for land stewardship laws to be enforced, at scale, where it matters most. The corporate and political class have demonstrated their allegiance to the heads of our system, despite the majority rule or their inability to deliver, and are committed to denying these realities it seems. It is up to you and I to have the courage to be a tenth person saying, “No thank you, AND here’s what we should do instead.” Work up your solution, find allies who will improve upon them and spread the word. Embrace your ability to rebel, never doubt your desire to be woke, and not a zombie for system which serves no one, not even the Israeli council.
