Betty Krawczyk - Robbing BC Blind

Wednesday January 18, 2012

Commentary

Robbing BC Blind

Are Norway and China stealing BC waters, salmon and trees?

Submitted by Betty Krawczyk, Cumberland BC

ou bet. China now protects all of her old growth forests and has made it a crime to clear cut anything that looks like a tree in China. Not that China in principal disapproves of cutting old growth forests or clear cutting anything, just not in China. China most definitely approves of cutting old growth forests and clear cutting in other countries.

In fact, much if not most of the old growth and raw logs leaving BC province is heading for China. China’s position is clear…after the massive flooding of her own denuded mountains and valleys from clear cutting, she is now more than willing to let Canada suffer the results of massive floods, soil depletion, unstable hills and mountainsides, watershed ruination and mud and rock slides. Just send China the raw logs and lumber, please. Which our BC government is only too happy to allow in order to maintain the support of domestic logging companies and developers.

And Norway? Norway is taking the same tact on open net fish arming along her shores that China does about her forests. Norway tells her fish farming companies to go ruin somebody else’s waters with the penned up, overcrowded, chemical laden, hapless fish with heir mushy, artificially dyed bodies, just keep them out of Norway as much as possible. And of course, BC has welcomed the Norwegian fish farm companies with open arms.

But a lot of BC citizens have issues with this warm acceptance of the despoliation of our own waters from open net fish farming. For instance, Don Staniford, environmental activist, is on trial right now in BC Supreme Court for calling the Norwegian (Cermaq) farm fish poisonous, like cigarettes.

But I think the Norwegians may regret suing Mr. Staniford. Because of the media attention around the law suit more people will, before the four week trial is over, equate eating fish farm fish with cigarette smoking, along with its attendant ills, than ever before.

So, who are the robbers and thieves? Countries who don’t want to spoil their own land and waters and the eventual worth of their own countries, or our own Canadian governments, both federal and provincial, who obviously don’t give a dam. I think it’s the latter.

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