EDMONTON — Federal governments have been reluctant to touch Alberta's dismal record on climate change because they're scared of the consequences, says environmental activist David Suzuki.

"Ottawa kind of tiptoes around Alberta all the time, because they're afraid. The closest thing to separation is Alberta, not Quebec," Suzuki said Saturday night after a sold-out talk to over 800 people at the University of Alberta.

"So Alberta is treated with kid gloves."

The inevitable friction was almost instant when Canada's most famous climate-change crusader began the Alberta leg of his cross-country tour promoting grassroots environmental activism. The provincial economy is booming, thanks largely to development of the northern Alberta oilsands, but the industry is one of the country's big emitters of the gases that contribute to climate change.

Alberta's new premier, Ed Stelmach, has warned of "dire economic consequences" if oilsands development is reined in.

At an appearance in Calgary on Friday, Suzuki told reporters he doesn't have any hope for environmental change under Stelmach.

The premier reacted angrily.

"Tackling the issue of greenhouse gas reduction will require more than hot air and grandstanding," he told the Calgary Sun on Saturday.

"Dr. Suzuki's comments reflect the unproductive emotional rhetoric and personal attacks that distract from efforts to find constructive solutions."

After his speech in Edmonton, Suzuki said his comments weren't personal, and that he only responded to what reporters told him about "Stel - whatever his name is."

Some environmental organizations have called for a moratorium on new oilsands development. Suzuki said he doesn't know enough about the oilsands to comment on that, but something needs to be done about the downside of unbridled expansion.

"Right now, if you look at Fort McMurray, it's an economic, it's a social and an ecological disaster zone."

His problems with Alberta go far beyond what any one person may say, Suzuki said.

A drought in southern Alberta and forest fires are the result of drying, warmer summers, he said. And a major pine beetle invasion - the tiny insects have ruined huge tracts of timber in British Columbia and have now advanced into Alberta's northern forest - is the result of winters that are no longer cold enough to kill them off.

Suzuki said politicians who use the economic argument to justify a lack of intervention are ignoring research that shows climate change will eventually cause the economy to collapse.

Suzuki said research needs to be done to find a method of extracting oil from the oilsands that doesn't burn so much fossil fuel in the process.

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper "seems to think that any kind of tax imposed on the oil industry to deal with the emissions is like a socialist plot to drain money out of the economy," Suzuki lauds a call by the Alberta-based Pembina Institute for a tax of up to $1.50 per barrel of oil extracted from the oilsands.

That money would then be used to research and develop "alternative, renewable green energy," which would also stimulate jobs and trade.

Suzuki rates British Columbia and Quebec at the head of pack on environmental issues and says Ontario isn't far behind. As for Stelmach?

"I think he'll have no choice. He's going to be shamed into coming up with an Alberta plan."