Pizza NOT Pipelines: De-Bunking Fossil Fuel Narratives Over a Slice
Written by Sharon Lindsay, Community Engagement Lead
On Thursday, May 14th we hosted Pizza Not Pipelines Pizza: Toxic Trivia Night, generously sponsored by 350 Canada. Enthusiastic participants ate delicious pizza and tested their knowledge as we debunked Big Oil’s propaganda machine. Here is an example question to mull over as you read more (answer at bottom of article):
Who famously warned in a 2015 speech that, if the world is going to meet its climate goals, the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves will become “stranded assets” - unburnable and worthless?
(A) David Suzuki
(B) Al Gore
(C) Mark Carney
(D) Naomi Klein
Kevin throwing out a toxic trivia question, while resisting another slice of pizza.
Our myth-busting pizza event could not have been more timely since just a day later, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met and signed an energy agreement paving the way for a proposed West Coast oil pipeline. According to the Federal Government, this is a landmark agreement that will “diversify our exports, lower emissions, and build a stronger, more sustainable economy for all”. Right.
The 350 Canada toxic trivia game we played together confronted many of the false narratives that Big Oil billionaires and their political buddies are trying to persuade us to believe. And seemingly, they have our government in their back pockets: In 2025, in Carney’s first 100 days in office, oil and gas lobbyists had 986 meetings with the government. Compare this to environmental advocacy groups Environmental Defence, EcoJustice, MiningWatch, and Nature Canada who all reached out to the Prime Minister’s office in his first 100 days and were all refused (Environmental Defense, The Narwhal).
Sherry, Amy, Reghan and Bethany: “we’ve got this team!”
While Carney and Smith are celebrating this agreement as “good for all,” NDP Leader Avi Lewis said the deal marked “the Carney government’s official surrender to the oil and gas lobby.” As far as being an “elbows-up” independence strategy for Canada, Rick Smith, president of the Canadian Climate Institute dispels that myth, stating that “Friday’s carbon pricing deal puts Canada’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 “well out of reach.”
A question in our trivia game, sourcing data from Environmental Defense, Macleans, The Walrus notes that building a new pipeline will take over a decade to build and the earliest it might be operational is 2040. Trump will be long gone by then and the age of oil will have long passed with global oil demand expected to peak by 2030, if not earlier.
While the fossil fuel industry is pushing these false narratives, participants at our trivia night pushed back against the fossil fuel agenda armed with the facts, and they had fun doing it.
Toxic Trivia winners — damn, sees right through the fossil fuel b.s.!
And, if you’re wondering what the answer is to the trivia question at the top of this article, here it is: (C) Mark Carney. In 2015, as Governor of the Bank of England, Carney became known for taking the climate crisis seriously and sounding the alarm that much of the world’s oil reserves will have to be left in the ground if global temperature increases are to be kept to within the 2-degree limit. However, since becoming Prime Minister, Carney has rolled back many climate regulations and opened the door for fast-tracked fossil fuel expansion.