NAFTA and The Tar Sands

http://environmentaldefence.ca/pressroom/viewnews.php?id=764

A coalition of environmental organizations and citizens filed a citizens’ submission today with the environmental side-body of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The submission alleges that the Canadian government is failing to enforce the anti-pollution provisions of the federal Fisheries Act by allowing the tar sands tailings ponds to leak contaminated materials into both surface waters and groundwater in the Athabasca watershed.  The citizens’ submission documents cases where contaminated tailings leakage has reached surface waters in addition to the ongoing massive and increasing leakage from un-lined tar sands tailings ponds into the region’s groundwater. The Fisheries Act prohibits the discharge of substances harmful to fish, yet the federal government has never prosecuted documented infractions nor has it enacted regulations that would permit the discharge.

A very interesting tactic!  Let's hope it works .  Think of the long term implications to industry if they  are forced to accountand pay for their "externalities."   Gee , clean water and viable ecoysystems for the rest of us versus theri profits - I know which I prefer!

It is shameful that the Canadian government doesn't enforce its own regulations.  Particularly when a paper published in the peer reviewed Proceedings of the National academy of Sciences concludes that " oil sands development is a greater source of contamination than previously realized."

Wonder if the BC Government Is LIstening?

http://www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/scottish/3107-salmon-and-trout-association-condemn-current-fish-farming-practices-as-totally-unsustainable.html

THE Salmon & Trout Association (S&TA) has published a summary report on scientific studies into the environmental impact of current salmon farming operations.

The organisation says it reveals a devastating catalogue of malpractice in the way salmon farming is impacting wild salmon, sea trout and the marine environment, and provides incontrovertible proof that it is a sword of Damocles suspended over some of Scotland’s most iconic natural resources. It accuses the multi-million pound salmon farming industry of precipitating an environmental disaster, and calls for a nine-point survival plan to be actioned immediately.

The report’s main findings claim that:
•Fish farm parasites can kill young wild salmon and sea trout
•Salmon farming could force wild salmon into extinction
•Salmon farming sewage can poison the sea bed

Paul Knight, CEO of the S&TA, states: “Aquaculture practiced sustainably can offer enormous benefits to mankind and significantly reduce the pressure on our precious wild oceanic stocks. But the scientific literature unequivocally demonstrates that fish farms, as presently constructed and operated, are having a disastrous impact on native fisheries, the wider environment and the many public benefits associated with it.

How many million fish went missing in the sockeye run last year?  Perhaps we should stop permitting fish farming in open net pens and do something about climate change which warms the waters the salmon return to.  Please send Gordon Campbell a letter on farmed salmon requesting that the provincial government shut down open net pens.  One could alos stop eating farmed salmon.

Are Profits The Most Important Thing?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/18/worlds-top-firms-environmental-damage

The cost of pollution and other damage to the natural environment caused by the world's biggest companies would wipe out more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable, a major unpublished study for the United Nations has found.  The report comes amid growing concern that no one is made to pay for most of the use, loss and damage of the environment, which is reaching crisis proportions in the form of pollution and the rapid loss of freshwater, fisheries and fertile soils.....Another major concern is the risk that companies simply run out of resources they need to operate, said Andrea Moffat, of the US-based investor lobby group Ceres, whose members include more than 80 funds with assets worth more than US$8tn. An example was the estimated loss of 20,000 jobs and $1bn last year for agricultural companies because of water shortages in California.

Are profits the most important thing in the world?  More important than healthy ecoysystems?  Just in case no one else has noticed, I'd like to point out that the economy is a subset of the environment, not the other way around.   We have no Planet B  - so let's work for a velvet climate revolution  - a world that is sustainable and more democratic than  the one we live in now. 

A Surprising Effect of Global Warming - Toxic Fish

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/mackenzie-rivers-fish-contaminated-with-dangerous-toxins-scientists/article1462248/

Scientists studying burbot in the Mackenzie River, one of the country's most pristine rivers, have been surprised to discover that mercury, PCBs and DDT in the fish are rising rapidly, a finding they say is linked to climate change....Dr. Stern said researchers do not know whether contaminants are increasing in fish elsewhere. The burbot were caught near Fort Good Hope, where temperatures have risen an average of 1.9 degrees since the early 1970s. But he has been part of a wider research effort that has found strong hints that warming is driving a rapid increase in biological activity in the north, with the potential to increase harmful chemical residues in animals.

A commenter on the site had a question:
"I have a question to all the climate change deniers out there. What natural calamity\catastrophe would it take to convince you all that climate change is real? "    I hope whatever calamity convinces climate change deniers that they are wrong actually hits that portion of the world in denial - the Anglosphere.   Bangladeshis, Kenyans, those Indians building ice dams in Ladakh, Tibetans, Nepalese, the Inuit, et al are convinced and are working hard to cope.   How long will we live in denial?

Water Consumption Woes

Why worry about conserving water?   Looking at the above photograph from the Interior of BC, we have plenty of water - right?  Short answer: no. Canada is already suffering from water woes: the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservaton Council is warning "In British Columbia, and elsewhere, water managers are faced with the challenge of balancing competing demands for water. Limits in supply or high demand create situations of water scarcity where not enough water is available for both human (out-of-stream) and ecological (instream) needs. As well, governing laws, institutions, or managers often do not to recognize that instream needs have a prior, or at least equal, right to water comparable to other users. In some situations water is allocated to out-of-stream users first, with instream needs being an afterthought or only if “excess” water exists. Current trends in B.C. suggest that balancing needs for water will become increasingly difficult in the future: the population is growing; rates of water consumption are among the highest in the country and the world; water use is currently in conflict with instream needs in many locations; climate change is increasing water scarcity; and populations of freshwater reliant fish species, such as Pacific salmon, are in decline. "
http://www.fish.bc.ca/
Remember that damage to ecosystems the OECD worries about if we waste water?  It rather looks as if a dubious future is upon us.