Neal Bernard Hancock, better known as Bernard the Roughneck, is now Bernard the Ex-Roughneck.

Hancock is the young man who appeared at a news conference on Parliament Hill two months ago dressed in blue coveralls and red hardhat, streaks of what appeared to be grease visible on his face, to declare he was "just an average roughneck."

"I'm not a guy from Calgary in a suit. I’m not a guy who's knowledgeable about public policy or the processes that go on in buildings like this," Hancock proclaimed at the event, which was organized by the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors. "I'm a roughneck…"

Scientists worldwide accept that Earth is warming at an unusually rapid rate, that humans are primarily responsible, mainly by burning fossil fuels, and that the consequences for humanity will be disastrous if we don't take immediate, widespread action. The U.S. Defense Department calls climate change a security risk "because it degrades living conditions, human security and the ability of governments to meet the basic needs of their populations."

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.

If anything's become clear while watching the star-spangled spectacle unfold south of the border, it's this: nature -- in this case, human nature -- abhors a vacuum.