Elections & the Environment

Kyoto, climate change, environmental degradation and Species At Risk legislation are off the issues list during Canada’Äôs election campaign but they should be number one.

Canadian voters are in deep denial about the state of the world environment. According to this writer we’Äôre past the point of no return. There’Äôs probably nothing we can do to save most of humanity and the world as we know it today. The demands of consumerism have propelled the industrial juggernaut to a momentum which apparently can no longer be stopped. The low spark and high heeled boys on Wall St. have won.

If you live in the city, it’Äôs seems to be pretty easy to forget that anything is wrong. The price of gas is a bit too high and that’Äôs a drag but hey, there’Äôs still lot’Äôs of cheap food in the grocery stores and tons of stuff (nobody really needs) on the shelves at Walmart. Global warming means put on more sunscreen.

But if you can overlook the environmental degradation in the city, it’Äôs getting pretty hard to ignore out here in the hinterlands, you know, Canada’Äôs great vast wilderness a.k.a. the lungs and heart of the country. You always thought that no matter how bad things got in town, you could always come out to the country and find clean air, water and unspoiled wilderness. Right?, Not any more. Sure, you’Äôve heard about polar bears that are falling through the ice and drowning because it’Äôs not thick enough soon enough. About the BC Sockeye runs that collapsed because our rivers got too warm. So we lose a species or two’Ķat least you’Äôve got your 4X4 pick-up and you’Äôre headed to the bar tonight to watch the game on TV’Ķ. just a regular working guy’Ķwho can’Äôt save the fish or the bears.

You no longer need to go to the poles to see the effects of climate change. Right here in the Discovery Islands, British Columbia there are major problems. The Coast Mountain glaciers are receeding at an unprecedented rate. Lot’Äôs of things depend on the water that melts off the glaciers, like salmon and a hundred other things up the food chain. Last year 3 major sockeye runs on the central coast completely collapsed defying all predictions. And this year, for the first time in any one’Äôs memory, the massive Chum run on the Orford river collapsed leaving 45 grizzlies hungry a critical time before hibernation. An increased mortality for the grizzlies this winter is a certainty. The Western Grebe whose numbers ranked in the thousands around Quadra Island only a decade ago appear to be completely gone from the region today. Something really bad is happening and nobody seems to notice or care.

But in the words of Bob Dylan ’ÄúIt’Äôs alright Ma, everybody must get stoned!’Äù

Ralph Keller
Coast Mountain Expeditions


Green Party of Canada
Government of Canada
Coast Mountain Expeditions