Null?

What does one do when the assigned job is overly depressing? I am an environmentalist by nature (a tree hugger, an earth-lover, whatever you want to call it), and I have chosen to actually work in the area that my passion centers on: preservation and conservation. ... and the science behind all of this, of course ('cause there's nothing I am if not nerdy).

But this science/environmentalism passion often ends up leading me down dark and disappointing corridors. What do you do when Al Gore's extended PowerPoint presentation and chosen project collection (Climate Crisis) is old hat to you? What do you do when things like this movie Home make you feel like the world is starting to take notice but that it will all be too little too late? What do you do when something like this soon-to-be-shown-in-my-home-town movie Collapse feels more like the appropriate next step to take and that following Al Gore or the seemingly eloquent francophone Yann Arthus-Bertrand on their madcap fossil-fuel-guzzling international promo campaigns about climate change and human destruction of the planet? ... not that I'm necessarily ready to go all hermit-like and dig a foxhole of my own to avoid the impending market destruction Michael C. Ruppert is forecasting.

Ok, enough blather. My point is this: I am writing a report on the state of the environment (in all its many guises), and the resounding consensus I have gathered from the scientific literature and my peers is that our future is decidedly grim. Our wildlife, our natural ecosystems, our entire resource base is facing serious hardship in the near future. I'm skimming reports for other jurisdictions and coming up with the same general feeling. There is little hope when the status levels are "declining" or "undetermined" or "poor", trends are "?" or "-" and the stated confidence level is "ø". Seriously, " ø". Null?

I know, I should be glad that we are finally taking notice and that Canada is actually taking steps to recognise that there are problems with what it sees as the "True North Strong And Free" ... Because it is not so free any more, it is girded by industrial development, and stained with the disasters of past indiscretions. We can only move forward by acknowledging our failures and trying to remedy them before it is too late... and we have to hope that it is indeed, not too late. I still can't get over the null confidence though. There must be hope somewhere. Perhaps that will be my personal goal during this assignment: find the silver lining, the hope amid the looming shadow of failure and despair.

And hey, it says something that our own government is no longer muzzling people over the use of such sticky phrases as "cumulative effects" and "climate change". Progress is being made!

no. 16: look what we've allowed to happen

it saddens me that I come from a place that has allowed this to happen:




where the extraction of oil comes at a cost of one barrel of oil for every two removed. where human life is marginalised to the point that young rig workers are being housed in sub-standard prison-like conditions, drug use and prostitution run rampant, and the people who used to live happy lives in these cities and towns prior to the boom now fear for their lives while driving the highways, and can’t go out at night without worrying about being molested. where our political leader electioneered a promise to look into down-stream health concerns (of massively elevated incidences of cancer) only if we voted for him. where the strip mining can be seen from the moon. where the world’s largest sulfur pile is not even visible in these photos. where propane cannons explode at regular intervals to prevent birds from landing in the oil-slicked sludge. and where the revenue from these ’investments’ is being taken out of our country by the big companies, and what revenue we, the people living here, are supposed to be getting has been mis-managed, not collected, and hardly at all invested.

I am ashamed.


From TreeHugger:

Environmental Defence just released a new report on the Alberta Oil Sands, calling it the most destructive project on Earth. DeSmogblog gleaned some facts from it:

-Oil sands mining is licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary uses in a year.
-At least 90% of the fresh water used in the oil sands ends up in ends up in tailing ponds so toxic that propane cannons are used to keep ducks from landing.
-Processing the oil sands uses enough natural gas in a day to heat 3 million homes.
-The toxic tailing ponds are considered one of the largest human-made structures in the world. -The ponds span 50 square kilometers and can be seen from space.
-Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil.

More pictures here, courtesy of the Globe and Mail, and Edward Burtynsky.