protecting the Great Bear Rainforest

After reading The Adventure Blog – Update On Great Bear Rainforest Expedition I dug in and did some research.

I’m all for developing the Alberta Oil Sands. (I live in Alberta.) But it sounds like this is not the best way to transport it to China.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… International League of Conservation photographers in the Great Bear Rainforest.

… now threatened by a proposal from Enbridge to bring an oil pipeline from the Tar Sands and supertankers to BC’s wild coast. …

What do you think?

… In a preface to your comments on how you don’t like dirty oil, let us know whether or not you drive a petroleum fueled vehicle.

3 Replies to “protecting the Great Bear Rainforest”

When the weather is dry I ride a bicycle. When the weather is wet I drive my petrol fuelled car. I try to limit my car usage but it is not an easy task. Some journeys could simply not be made without the car. Hopefully in the future I will be able to buy a solar powered car! In the meantime you can call me a hypocrite but you can’t stop me from wanting things to change for the better.

Far worse than driving my car, I take on average about four flights per year.

Here is a collection of some of my thoughts on the subject of oil and the environment.

It seems to me that those people who stand to make financial gain from oil care nothing for the wilderness or the animals and plants with which we share this planet. There may well be plant species harbouring in the jungle which can provide cures for cancer and other diseases, yet even from that point of view the oil industry would wreck the planet for what, after all, is a short term financial gain.

Unfortunately western society has been built up relying on oil. It seems that it is not easy to overcome this addiction, especially when the oil industry is fighting hard to keep us addicted. We need strong leadership from collective world governments to impose regulations that will put an end to our addiction.

Think about the vast sums of money currently put into oil exploration, refining and transportation. If that was spent on developing renewable energy, providing good quality public transport, grants for insulating buildings etc. then we would not need so much oil.

So much energy is wasted through many inefficiencies, including overpowered vehicles. How many rubbish products do we buy and simply throw away? These are another source of waste.

Many small changes need to be made by so many people it is hard for the average person to make an impact.

It is a shame that cars are being promoted to people in countries like China. Whilst cars undoubtedly bring about personal freedom and financial gain they are not all good. There is so much fuel and time wasted due to congestion. Reliable public transport would be far more efficient for society as whole.

Those are some of my thoughts. Why not watch the film Age of Stupid for some more opinions.

If you are particularly concerned about destruction of forests, paper and wood products with the Forest Stewardship Council logo have come from forests with sustainable management in place.