'Crisis puts climate fight back on the back burner'
'Public is tiring of climate change fight, poll finds'
The above two headlines ran together on the same page in today's Vancouver Sun.
To some extent I understand the apathy and amnesia about what is happening to the environment as the global financial and economic crisis hits home. What I don't get is why the old economy always seems to trump the environment. Without clean air and water, without productive land, we cannot survive. We are talking about our health and well-being, not only that of some nebulous "environment".
Let's take a look at a few more headlines from the last week:
'Complete fishing halt won't save cod: study' -- in today's National Post. Do you like fish and chips? How about 'Gulf cod are doomed, DFO finds' -- the same story in the Sun.
'Aquatic food webs at risk' -- on the same page as the two headlines that started this blog post.
Yesterday's Sun -- 'Abbotsford mushroom farms fined for dumping toxins: Waste caused destruction of salmon-bearing stream'
Well knock me down with a feather! It took nearly two years, but enforcement and fines actually happened. What about the guy who was caught wet-booted pouring chemicals into John Mathews Creek in the watershed that I live in? How many more years will we wait for action on that blatant poisoning?
'Boy died from spraying too much deodorant: Solvent in can most probably cause of death, coroner finds' -- Vancouver Sun, Nov. 21.
So you think all those cleansers and beauty products in your house, and pesticides in your garage, are fine because they are "approved", eh? Think again...
'Declining gas prices could derail surge in transit use' -- Vancouver Sun, Nov. 21.
'Way cleared for farmed fish to be labeled as organic' -- Vancouver Sun, Nov. 21. And what about all those chemicals used in the process?
'Scientists assail easing of rules for natural gas exploration: Planned changes cited as path to ecological crisis in boreal forests' -- Vancouver Sun, Nov. 21.
I've got more articles cut out of the paper in the last week or two, but I think the trend is clear. So why don't we get it? Are we so self-absorbed and selfish that we'll just continue to consume and spray and clear cut and mindlessly "develop" and the hell with our own health and the prospects for our children and their children?
Posted by Paul at November 28, 2008 09:23 AM