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given some reward. But by the same agency he was denied a l
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From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca]
On Behalf Of David & Alison Webster
Sent: December-11-14 7:16 PM
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: Re: [NatureNS] Canada's position on at-risk species 'unprecedented'
Hi John & All,
Are you involved in prevention and remediation also or only monitoring
?
Mainly monitoring, although we did work with government to get feedback on
the Fur Industry Regulations and are presently helping organize a steering
committee of various stakeholders to assure continued monitoring, for a
start and hopefully have a role in watershed management in future, if the
fates allow. This has wide support in theory, but our capacities are
limited, life is already busy, and some on both sides will have to learn to
bite their tongues and be constructive. It'll take time.
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.
True, but I am not sure we should necessarily prioritize exports over local
consumption. Carbon footprints aside, export markets can be more vulnerable
to boom and bust.
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.
Yup, they are essential investments which maintain us, but are not wealth
generators in and of themselves. They do maintain our capacity to generate
wealth, though. Sustainable wealth production needs to be the priority,
and the regulations governing same need to be rational and otherwise
reasonable. We gotta have regulations for all kinds of reasons, but they
can sometimes be silly and generate unnecessary pain. If more regulators
spent more time in the real world before landing in their positions, we may
see more sanity, in that regard. (This from someone who feels that the Fur
Industry Regulations should be tweaked a little more tightly! Nothing is
black-and-white.)
Better stop or we'll get scolded for wandering off-topic! J!
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 -----
From: John and Nhung <mailto:nhungjohn@eastlink.ca>
To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
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!
Re. fur industry-phosphate issue:
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.
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.
Sorry, got off-topic! I also get tired of Canada's unprecedented shifts on
many issues! J!
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'
Hi Rick & All,
I am baffled by the notion that discussion might not be useful.
No doubt it is not possible to flick a switch and correct such problems.
But why avoid discussion ?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 outc