Today, readers are discussing rising tensions over a proposed natural gas pipeline that would run through the traditional territory of B.C.'s Wet’suwet’en First Nation. Readers are also responding to a well-read column urging readings not to fall prey to the cult of wellness.
The arrests Monday took place at the Gidimt’en checkpoint on a forestry road south of Houston, B.C
Loud minorities with special interests should not be running the country. The pipelines need to be built. - Daniel F Hebert
In response to Daniel F Hebert:
Why do you not view the oil and gas corporations as a loud minority with special interests? All of us, every single Canadian, faces the risk of a rapidly and irreversibly deteriorating environment due to climate change. The global population of climate scientists, across every field of climate science study, have informed us again and again that we are rushing headlong toward a perilous and potentially unsurvivable future, within decades, not centuries. Report after report shows we are causing mass extinctions of numerous bird, aquatic and animal species. We are currently suffering increasingly expensive climate-related disasters, such as floods and raging wildfires. Climate change will cost us all very dearly, economically and in terms of health and security.
Oil and gas corporations have been stalling real action on climate change for decades beyond when we should have begun to act. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report advises we need a marked reduction in fossil fuel burning within just over 10 years, or will experience markedly greater harms and losses. We don’t need pipelines. We need leaders and citizens who respect science; policy based on fact; and investments shifted to renewable energy. - Cycle West
In response to Cycle West:
Oil and gas companies on their own are a minority, but you're forgetting the thousands of employees and jobs associated with the industry. The Green Revolution has not come to pass. I am not disagreeing with scientists, but you're deluded if you believe double-talk on LNG vs. heavy oil matters to the Earth. Denying a pipeline on a resource we haven't stopped using has only displaced the the oil onto rail cars, which are far more dangerous, costly and inefficient. Additionally, the use of rail is displacing enormous amounts of grain which is hurting agriculture, our largest renewable resource sector.
Renewable sources are not going to fill in the demand gap in the time period we need to meet our energy needs. Our fear of nuclear energy (no emissions) forces us into a no-win. Artificially constraining the economy denies our ability to invest in those renewable sources. If we really were serious, we'd build the pipeline, invest the dollars into research and development and the development of a real Green Revolution plan, not just some nonsense with no real economic clout. Then we could actually plan our way towards a green economy. This current situation is not a plan. This is a disaster. - Daniel F Herbert
What else readers are talking about:
Don’t fall prey to the cult of wellness
Great article. What strikes me most about all this is the incredible self-absorption the cult of wellness fosters, the relentless anxiety of the flesh. - Gizella
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Excellent article, with excellent advice. I cannot believe that in 2019 publishers -- Canadian ones among them -- are still churning out "detox" cookbooks and health guides. Such a sham. - Tkennit
Excellent article. I really don’t care what folks want to spend their money doing but I am alarmed that this movement is encouraging people to ignore scientific evidence and turn their back on proven treatments. I am well into my 70′s and lived through horrible polio and other infectious disease epidemics and am terribly troubled that people now in their 30′s and 40′s who never experienced these events are now turning their backs on vaccinations and seeking cures with no scientific basis. The result is that diseases that were almost eradicated are now making a comeback. - doug5985
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