Miscellaneous

by Laurel Beauprie

It wouldn't be news if I told you our planet has its environmental problems. Sure, we're making some progress in controlling what we put into the air, put into our landfills and even put into our oceans. But we're not paying enough attention to what we are taking out of our oceans - sharks - and they're being killed at the rate of up to 73 million per year. That's million with a capital M and it refers to the number being killed only for their fins and almost entirely to make shark fin soup. You may not really care much about sharks but our oceans account for about half of the planet's oxygen supply and sharks play a key role in maintaining the health of those oceans. 

I have to admit that until recently I didn't know much about sharks, or care to. Then I saw the television documentary "Sharkwater" and it changed forever the way I look at sharks. So I decided to do some research myself and, low and behold, they weren't exaggerating a bit; the bulk of the shark population is being depleted for their fins.

by Ian McAllister

In April, the BC government once again opened the gratuitous sport hunt of bears in the Great Bear Rainforest and across BC. The genetically distinct Haida black bear is being targeted as well as the monarch of the rainforest - the grizzly. Even the coastal black bear that carries the recessive gene that produces the pure white bear, or Spirit bear, can legally be killed in over 98% of its range. 

In 2007, 430 grizzlies were killed in BC, 363 of them by sport hunters, making the year the highest rate of hunter-caused mortality of this iconic bear since records have been kept. In 2009, approximately 300 grizzly bears were killed. These sad statistics put the lie to the provincial government's own description of grizzlies as "perhaps the greatest symbol of the wilderness" whose "survival will be the greatest testimony to our environmental commitment." Many of these bears are killed within the 60 provincial parks and conservancy areas where it is still legal to trophy hunt bears and a disturbingly large percentage of the bears killed are reproductive -aged females. 

by Delores Broten

Download a pdf of the Party Chart

With a provincial election coming up on May 12th, the Watershed Sentinel decided to do its civic duty, and a simple run-down on the party platforms for the environment. Of course, it turned out to be anything but simple, although each party did reveal its nature in the responses to our questions. Actually, our questions consisted of an entirely unscientific list of topics of eco-concern, with the questions, "What are you promising to do about it?" And "Is there anything else you want to add?"

compliled by Delores Broten

To download a pdf of this article, click here

The most important outcome of the May 12th BC provincial election will not be which party forms the government, but the results of BC's second referendum on changing to a proportional voting system.

 A very similar referendum question, in 2005, was very narrowly defeated, with "yes" coming in at 57.69% of the total valid votes cast instead of the required 60%. The rules also required at least 48 of 79 electoral districts to approve the change by more than 50%, and in 2005, 77 out of the 78 ridings did so. The results were so close to passing that Premier Gordon Campbell decided that BC's Single Transferable Vote (STV) should have a second chance, in the 2009 election.

by David Orchard and Michael Mandel

Four years ago the US and Britain un­leashed war on Iraq, a nearly defenseless Third World country barely half the size of Saskatchewan.

For twelve years prior to the invasion and occupation Iraq had endured almost weekly US and British bombing raids and the toughest sanctions in history, the “primary victims” of which, according to the UN Secretary General, were “women and children, the poor and the infirm.” Ac­cording to UNICEF, half a million children died from sanc­tions related starvation and disease.

by Anne Sherrod

According to the Canadian Association of Profes­sional Apriculturalists, Canada lost 29 per cent of its honeybees last winter. The previous aver­age national loss was 15 per cent. There have been many claims in Canada that these losses are not from Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the mysterious malady that wiped out tens of billions of bees in the US last winter. However, some Canadian beekeepers have reported losses on the order of 50-80 per cent, and some of them say they are seeing symptoms of CCD.