B. McPherson

The emerging Nanaimo branch of the Sierra Club hosted a presentation by Dr. Riki Ott at the Vancouver Island University Thursday night. Dr. Ott is a marine biologist and toxicologist who happened to be one of the first on the scene 23 years ago when the Exxon Valdes ran aground in Prince William Sound. She has become a tireless campaigner for positive change.

While she campaigns for environmental protection from the toxic effects of petroleum pollution, she is also campaigning for commitment to clean energy sources. Last night’s talk was much about the positive actions that people can make in their communities. She pointed out the obvious to people, obvious once they have it pointed out. Concerted, positive action by a united group of people can change the direction of even the ship of state.

The proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline would stand a chance of being built with a united peoples’ opposition. With a united and determined population, turning away the supertankers that would infest our coast in British Columbia would also be child’s play.

While the lecture theatre was full to overflowing with a wide range of ages and enthusiasms, I was a little saddened to hear some of the young crowd flinch at the idea of civil disobedience. Memories of the 60’s activism drifted back. Ott pointed out to the audience that women’s vote, abolition of slavery and many other ‘givens’ in our modern society were hard won by people standing up and in some cases sitting down.

If you get a chance to listen to Ott’s inspiring lectures about empowering people in a working democracy, take it. You can also check out her organization Ultimate Civics.

Alberta Premier Acknowledges Prevention of Oil Spills Important
B. McPherson

Premier Redford of Alberta responded to criticism about the safety of that province’s oil pipelines. She was quoted as saying she “wasn’t opposed” to a change in the response to pipeline safety. In the past month more than a million litres of crude oil have spilled on the land and waters of Alberta.

Crude oil is toxic. Farms, ranches and waterways have been fouled by the sticky substance. It is estimated that there are 377 000 km of pipeline in Alberta transporting oil from extraction sites to refineries. Much of the pipeline is old. The pipe that broke and dirtied the Red River a week ago was installed about 40 years ago. Even if an outside agent like a ground slip doesn’t damage the old pipe, they become corroded over time, partly due to the chemicals needed to make the thick petroleum flow.

Safety records show that overall the number of pipeline spills per 1000 km has dropped. Some estimates put the spill at 1.5 or 2 per 1000 km. That’s a huge number of polluted sites. That figure of 1.5 per doesn’t count spills like that which happened at the Enbridge pumping station because it was contained on the oil transporter’s property.

If they clean it up, do you think that they captured the cancer causing benzene which readily evaporates?

This series of spills comes at a time when the federal government and the Enbridge consortium is pushing hard for approval of a twinned pipeline through some of the most ecologically sensitive land in N. America. The opposition to the Northern Gateway Project has garnered increasing opposition as the people in British Columbia learn of it.

Just released by lawyers for EcoJustice and published in the Calgary Herald is the news that a government compiled report dating from two years ago pointed out that at least 15 critically endangered species would be at risk if the pipeline were to go ahead. The 15 species at risk did not include data on the inevitable collisions with large vessels because the collisions are self reported. Supertankers which would be plying the coast of BC would probably be so large that they would not feel the impact when they hit a whale(or for that matter an unwary boater).

Canada and Alberta in particular is very rich in black gold. It has made some people very rich. The ability to sell oil to Asia will make more people rich. The question that the feds and oil people don’t seem to want to answer is what is the cost? To people’s lives, to clean water, to the plants and animals that share our world. Can they tell the people of BC what a Kermode Bear’s life is worth, a woodland caribou?

If you build it, it will leak.