31 December 2006
Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig’s War Against Big Oil by Andrew Nitiforuk
Posted by Greig under: Updates; book reviews .
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This is the story of Weibo Ludwig’s struggle against the oil and natural gas industry in Alberta. Distraught by the health effects of “sour gas” (H2S), Ludwig refused to allow various oil companies to construct wells on and near his ranch near Beaverlodge, Alberta. The industry vehiemently denies any connection between the installation, flaring, and occasional leakage of sour gas onto local landowners’ properties and negative health effects despite piles of scientific evidence to the contrary and scores of complaints from landowners and their families suffering from abnormal rates of cancer, miscarriages, stillbirths, and chronic effects from various levels of exposure to sour gas. Nikiforuk puts tremendous effort into finding the details of the story, objectively recounting the tragic events that unfolded as Ludwig and his family took matters into their own hands.
 The beginning of the book starts with a history of the Ludwig family and others around Grand Prarie, Hythe, and Beaverlodge, Alberta. One thing they all had in common was an urge to live quietly, insulated from society. Controversy seems to have followed Ludwig nearly all his life due to his arrogance and narrow-minded attitudes towards women’s role in society, homosexality, the public school system, and different religions, just to name a few of the buttons he liked to press. I found him a remarkably unlikeable character and at the beginning of the book had little or no sympathy for him. Yet as the book progressed I found myself sympathizing more and more with his plight. The oil companies in Alberta needed someone as hard-headed as Ludwig to stand against them.
This book reads like mystery-thriller and Nikiforuk won the governer-generals award for non-fiction writing for it. I can’t recommend it enough, as it objectively sheds light on the ugliness of the big oil industry and emphasizes, I believe, the ridiculousness of the real estate / mineral and oil estate dichotomy.
11 April 2007 at 3:32 pm.
What has happened since this activity in
Trickle Creek? Have there been any improvements ?
12 April 2007 at 12:12 pm.
Hi,
I haven\’t heard/read much. My brother lives in nearby Dawson Creek and says Weibo is sometimes seen around. My cousin says there is still a strong community resentment towards him and his family. There\’s been a made-for-TV movie/documentary about the story. It seems the shooting of the joy-riding teenager eliminated any chance for redemption in the public\’s eye for the Ludwigs.
3 May 2008 at 3:17 pm.
It would appear that weibo was a hero for the little guy that stood up to big oil. It is very tragic and unfortunate that the teenage girl died as a result of the joy ride on his farm, and that destroyed his integrity with the community. Was big oil behind that tragedy as well? Why was no one ever charged? Big Oil continues to destroy our environment and countless lives in the name of money and our economy. I hope that the world gets more men like Weibo and David Suzuki to expose the corporate criminals that are detroying our childrens future.
20 June 2008 at 7:19 pm.
You “hope the world gets more men like Weibo….??” I am born and raised in a small town not far from Trickle Creek farm and I know for a fact that you would not make statements like that if you were from here. The only compliment I will give Weibo is he is a smart man. He has successfully warped the minds of many with his rants and accusations (including yourself). He has terrorized our community and murdered my friend
3 August 2008 at 9:56 pm.
Hear, hear- the man is a thug, plain and simple. Regardless of where you stand on the issues related to the oil patch-executing a teenager is not the way to express your view. Everyone in his cult knows who pulled the trigger that night-but there can be no prosecution until someone speaks. Perphaps everyone in the compound should be charged with obstruction of justice.
As to the pseudo science of Suzuki-let us not forget that in the 70’s he was using his bully pulpit on CBC to warn us of the coming catastrophe of global cooling-his theory then being that smog was blocking out the sun and cooling the earth. A change in temperatures necessitated a quick change in apocalyptic theories.
