Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Cons Slash Environment Budget

PMS says the priority of the federal Department of the Environment is climate change and global warming -- not species and habitat protection. Yet aren't those two things caused both by industry as well as urban sprawl (among the main culprits)?

Pro-environment groups such as the Canadian Wildlife Federation and Ducks Unlimited are furious that the budget for protecting ecologically sensitive areas somehow has been spent for the year with Ottawa saying there will be no new money until next year. Some of the most crucial programs, in the meantime, have been slashed or dropped to nothing. And it's in the winter months when temperature monitoring and land surveying is most critical since in many parts of the country that's when the most damage is done.

Of course the Auditor-General should investigate what happened if misspending in other units of the department happened. But when you have a government dominated by a wing whose religious beliefs dictate that there is no such thing as climate change -- that is, it's a lie of Satan to test the human race -- one can see where we're going. Even many (though sadly not all) social conservatives in the States have begun to recognize we must live with God's creation rather than use recklessly for our benefit.

That's one area where the far-right in Canada is actually lagging behind their American cousins -- and it's happening just at the very time when Alberta is debating what the royalty levels should be for the tar sands -- right in the area where some of the worst damage to Canada's rural areas is being done.

Sure, some will say -- good, we're sick and tired of the Hinterland Who's Who PSAs. Enjoy them while you can ... in a couple of decades, that may be the only place we see them because what was captured on film may be extinct or as endangered as the condor.

As for spending on a strong military -- I say, of course we should. We haven't spent enough on our men and women in uniform and it's time we caught up. But there, too, we should ensure that those who are trained for the fights the rest of us won't are able to practice in areas as similar to real world conditions as possible and that when they wind down or take a respite break they can actually enjoy our nature; not that of Guam (a US colony) or the Black Forest of Germany which are the usual layover stops these days for our troops.

(Full disclosure: My grandmother contributes to the Canadian Wildlife Federation; and I'm a dues-paying member of Ducks Unlimited.)

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2 comments:

A Eliz. said...

This is really sick..about as bad as the loss of the Passenger Pigeon, from shooting, in the early part of the 20th century. Harper and his gang should be shot.

A Eliz. said...

We give what we can to the Canadian Wildlife, also. It is a shame what they are doing..those poor birds and animalsh habve to suffer because of Cons, along with us.