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Hi John & All,
Are you involved in prevention and remediation also or only =
monitoring ?=20
There is much to be said for those who produce, using local =
resources, goods for which there is an export market. This kind of =
primary production is the fuel that keeps all the other wheels of the =
economy turning. In the absence of wealth production there eventually =
can be no wealth consumption.
Shortly after the cod stocks collapsed and the fishery was shut =
down, I heard an Economics Prof. being interviewed on the radio. He =
explained that Nfld. would be fine. There would still be Education, =
Health Care, Police work and Highway Maintenance. However necessary all =
of these are they consume wealth.=20
This kind of distorted thinking is still current. The Dec. 22 =
Editorial in Maclean's notes that a downturn in the oil and gas sector =
is relatively unimportant because it comprises only 6% of GNP. "Health =
care, Education and Banking are each bigger; real estate is more than =
twice as big."
Yt, Dave Webster, Kentville
----- Original Message -----=20
From: John and Nhung=20
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca=20
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 2:10 PM
Subject: RE: [NatureNS] Canada's position on at-risk species =
'unprecedented'
Excellent rant, David. Agree with most, if not all of it!
=20
Re. fur industry-phosphate issue: =20
=20
The monitoring continued this summer and I will be putting together a =
report as soon as I can. Time and brainpower both have to be available. =
The grandfather period ends January, 2016, but I think (don't know) =
that farmers have been cleaning up their messes since even before the =
regulations were proclaimed. Things were still bad this summer, but =
there were hopeful signs. Still, no year is typical so it will take a =
few years before we can say that trends have reversed. We live in hope. =
Wait for the report.
=20
I also think we should be supporting farmers' efforts to clean up =
their messes and working with the industry to achieve that. Some of the =
industry bashing has been excessively gratuitous. That is =
counter-productive and I get tired of it.
=20
Sorry, got off-topic! I also get tired of Canada's unprecedented =
shifts on many issues! J!
=20
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca =
[mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] On Behalf Of David & Alison =
Webster
Sent: December-11-14 1:11 PM
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: Re: [NatureNS] Canada's position on at-risk species =
'unprecedented'
=20
Hi Rick & All,
I am baffled by the notion that discussion might not be useful.=20
=20
No doubt it is not possible to flick a switch and correct such =
problems. But why avoid discussion ?=20
=20
One rather large hydra has as usual many heads but only one body; =
a civil service which has become threadbare as a result of attrition =
and, in some cases, never furnished with the necessary resources to do =
the mandated job in the first place; a large number of electric motors =
with the copper windings removed and sold for scrap. =20
=20
Battles are now lost on a regular basis all for the want of a =
horseshoe nail and/or an ounce of common sense and the updating of =
regulations that have long since passed their best before date.
=20
Amherst, due to public pressure, turned down $500,000 for =
disposal of fracking water after being purified to drinking water =
standards. Why ? Largely because the public is rightly skeptical of =
industry assurances. Without government funded science, which is =
absolutely free of any pressure and consequently able to act as a =
reliable way to confirm or reject assurances by industry one can expect =
mob rule, informed by misinformation, to become commonplace. And this =
can only lead to economically destructive decisions.
=20
In any case, a back of envelope calculation showed the potential =
dilution to be astronomical so there should never have been a fuss. But =
when democracy is used to establish the value of pi then 21 people who =
prefer 3 will beat 20 who say it is about 3.14159.
=20
The same considerations apply to the Alton gas storage project now =
stalled, partly because there is a concern about adding Sodium to the =
ocean. Huh ?? If the company were to release their water, following the =
schedule which they propose, I really don't understand how there could =
be a problem. If done by instant feedback, mixing and release or =
shutdown could be automated. Once again, objective oversight by =
government funded science would avoid these foolish and destructive =
shouting matches.=20
=20
About 10 years ago someone on the South Shore developed a way to =
trap and use a truly invasive species of crab (Green crab I think and =
used for Lobster bait) .He was fined for fishing Green Crabs without a =
licence and lost his means of earning a living when he should have been =
given some reward. But by the same agency he was denied a licence =
because it was not an established fishery so they could not issue one. A =
trace of common sense in the enforcement of regulations would =
predictably lead to better outcomes.
=20
Some years ago the fur industry sleep walked into a Phosphate =
pollution problem. This could never have happened if anyone involved in =
advising this industry had known the first thing about the behavior of =
Phosphate in soil and in waterways. After more than a decade I am not =
sure that the "problem" has yet been solved. There is no substitute for =
direct access to lab resources as opposed to reading the 'how to do it' =
guide, often written by someone who has never done it. The only really =
reliable teacher is ground truth.
=20
And, finally, on a personal level, a sad story of a stalled =
transaction which shows how we are heading. When I bought a woodlot in =
1971 the widow who was selling it had never seen it so I had to make a =
few phone calls one evening to find someone who could tell me how to =
find it, I searched the title back 100 years and this took about an hour =
plus a nominal fee. She arranged for someone to walk the lines with me =
and within a week I had the deed, registered for a nominal fee, and she =
had her money.=20
I received and accepted an offer to sell that lot on Aug 7 of this =
year. The buyer had cash set aside and was ready to fork it over. But it =
is still stalled in Migration. And cost of migration will likely exceed =
the initial cost by a wide margin. The familiar problem; set up a =
gold-plated system, provide inadequate resources to administer it and =
let the public be dammed.
Shortly after I bought the North Alton woodlot in 1981 I checked =
the ownership of one adjacent lot on an orthophoto map at some county =