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  • Subsidies For BC Forest Firms
    BC, BC Forests, Forests, May-Jul-2005-Vol15-No3

    by Jim Cooperman

    In its February budget, the BC government announced that it is increasing its $275 million handout to the forestry sector by another $266 million.

    Even though there has been out­rage over the brutal reductions in pub­lic services, no one seems concerned about this give-away of tax dollars to a booming forest industry. Perhaps it is because the public has been hood­winked to believe in the myth of a BC forestry sector struggling to survive the softwood lumber war? The reality was best stated by forestry consultant Peter Woodbridge in the latest issue of Truck Loggers Magazine, “Improved business levels are generating the profits needed to justify recent high rates of corporate consolidation and funding for mill and

  • Crofton Pulp Mill Downplays Toxic Pollutants
    Air Pollution, BC, Health, Land use, Vancouver Island, May-Jul-2005-Vol15-No3

    by Delores Broten

    Ableman was speaking at a sombre public meeting on the eve of Earth Day in Crofton BC, the site of the controversial Norske Canada Crofton kraft mill. At the meeting, the CACG released a damning 122-page report prepared by RWDI AIR Inc. of Vancouver and Pioneer Technologies Corp. of Olympia WA. The report, commissioned by Reach for Unbleached! with proceeds

  • Monetary System Has Changed Society's Meaning of Poverty
    Economy, Market, Wealth, Society, May-Jul-2005-Vol15-No3

    by Don Malcolm

    The world’s most powerful governments are proud to declare that they are fi ghting a global war on poverty. They back their rhetoric with foreign aid in the form of massive expenditures of public money, surplus goods, and often, military assistance, commonly known as peacekeeping. 

  • New Air Pollution Studies - Affects Child Development
    Air Pollution, Children, Health, May-Jul-2005-Vol15-No3

    by Francesca Lyman
    Published in The Green Guide (NewYork, March 2005) www.thegreenguide.com

    You are what you eat, so they say. According to a number of new studies, however, you are also what you breathe — and even what your mother breathed. Recent research shows that air pollution of various

  • CFIA Promotes GMO Food, Not "Safety"
    Canada, Farming, GMO Food, Health, GMO/GE, May-Jul-2005-Vol15-No3

    by Brewster Kneen

    The CFIA came into being April 1, 1997, and it has been a bad – and costly – joke ever since. It was set up to make it appear as a credible, independent agency of the Canadian Government, to “consolidate inspection, and animal and plant health services of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Health Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada,” reporting to the

  • Government Re-spins Old Eco-Announcements
    BC, Forests, Land & Forests, Land use, May-Jul-2005-Vol15-No3

    Government has merely re-spun old ecoannouncements. Don't get fooled by spinners.

    by Joe Foy

    I turned fifty not long ago. I guess a couple of side effects of that is - one – I think about the past more and - two – I’m more grumpy. I’m especially grumpy around things or people that mess with nature.  

    I suppose my road to grumpiness began a long time ago whilst hanging out under a bridge, beside a

  • Research Reveals Sea Lice From Fish Farms
    Fish farms, Health, Salmon, Fish, May-Jul-2005-Vol15-No3

    A new study published in the March 30th edition of the prestigious scientifi c journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B (a publication of the UK’s national academy of science) shows that the transfer of parasitic sea lice from salmon farms to wild salmon populations is much greater and more extensive than previously believed. 

    This quantitative analysis of parasite transfer is a scientific milestone in a contentious debate. It is the first to isolate and measure the impact of a fish farm on sea lice outbreaks in wild salmon.

  • UBC Residential Housing Threatens Wreck Beach in BC
    BC, Housing, Land & Forests, Land use, Vancouver, May-Jul-2005-Vol15-No3

    by James Hickling

    World-famous Wreck Beach, located in Pacific Spirit Park on the tip of Point Grey in Vancouver, is now threatened by a controversial plan to develop residential housing at the University of British Columbia campus. 

    Recognized as a clothing-optional beach since the 1920s, Wreck Beach is renowned for its wilderness- like setting, pristine viewscapes and unique social culture. Steep cliffs and huge old-growth trees shelter the shore from urban pressures, making the beach a refuge for all kinds of marine and avian wildlife, as well as for people of all shapes and

  • Locals Stand Up Against Logging in Haida Gwaii
    BC, Canada, Forests, Land & Forests, Land use, Logging, May-Jul-2005-Vol15-No3

    by Islands Spirit Rising

    Major logging on Haida Gwaii ground to a halt on March 22, 2005. Checkpoints were raised as islanders stopped the traffi c. What happened? What did it take to push the people of Haida Gwaii over the edge? This is not really like us. We’re generally pretty laid back up here, content to live our lives and enjoy this amazing place. 

    Well, it takes years and years, decades really, filled with legal challenges, broken promises, political whitewashes and dubious delaying tactics to get Haida and other Islanders alike, to come together and say loudly — “Enough is enough!” To stand up and say again to the provincial government and industry that this is no way to treat the land or the people of these Islands.

  • Climate Change and BC’s Forests
    BC, Climate change, Forests, Climate Change, Sep-Oct-2005-Vol15-No4

    A workshop report by Jim Cooperman

    Climate change is quickly moving from theory to reality, with impacts ranging from warming oceans killing off the salmon, glaciers melting, and ski hills closing, to even the many hurricanes cutting paths of destruction across the Atlantic coast. In April of this year, the impacts that global warming are having on southern BC forests were the topic of a 2-day workshop held in Revelstoke. Sponsored by the Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology, the event featured talks

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"This is it. It's done!" was the message in Alaska in 2008, 19 years after the Exxon Valdes oil spill.  Dave Janka, who runs Auklet Charters in Prince William Sound, ran his boat over to Smith Island to snap this photo.  Dave says, "It's far from done!"

W.L.M. (Bill) Wilson writes: 'Attached is my rewrite of Anne Feeney’s “Have You Been To Jail for Justice”. Anne granted permission to do non-profit performances of this Enbridge version.' Video by Ester Strijbos.