Earth Matters

Imagine a place where there are no roads or cars, where the great coastal rainforests meet winding ocean passages, and fabled white Spirit Bears run free. It’s a place only accessible by air or by sea, where a small community of less than 200 people continues to live off the abundant natural resources of the land and water.

As far-fetched as it may sound to us city folk, this kind of place actually exists in British Columbia—about 600 kilometres north of Vancouver in Hartley Bay. Nestled in the northern wilds of the Great Bear Rainforest, it is home to the Gitga’at Nation, and has been launched into headlines this week as a 66-year-old shipwreck continues to leak fuel into the cold, coastal waters.

Captain Mal Walsh is a Master Mariner from Comox, BC. He has over 40 years of experience in the international oil exploration and shipping industry—both commanding vessels on the seas and working ashore in management. He served on deep-sea ships in the British Merchant Navy before working in the offshore oil industry in the North Sea. When he came to Canada, he worked for Dome Petroleum during their exploration in the Beaufort Sea then came ashore and became General Manager of Marine and Environmental Services with Canadian Marine Drilling (CANMAR).

This letter was written to express Captain Walsh’s professional concerns about the proposed tanker routes associated with the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline terminal in Kitimat, BC.

First let me say that my background is all in the Marine industry, first as a professional Master Mariner with worldwide seagoing experience and secondly ashore in ship management.

If reading Barry Saxifrage's articles on The Vancouver Observer is enough to get you riled up about the deterioarating state of our planet Earth, do something about it. Like Ryan Gosling.

After announcing the creation of a new, non-charitable organization formed to speak out against the Harper government's environmental offenses, Canadian environmental group ForestEthics Advocacy is putting out a passionate call to citizens to join in the fight.

Leaders at ForestEthics decided this week to split the respected organization into two, leaving one (ForestEthics Solutions) as a registered charity and establishing the other as an advocacy group with the freedom to conduct activities the government may deem as overly "political". Ontario lawyer Clayton Ruby has taken up the challenge of heading up the advocacy side of the operation.

These decisions come as a direct response to ongoing threats from the Conservatives regarding environmental groups' charitable status, as well as to the government's "gutting" of key environmental protections.

It seems the organization has not missed a beat since their announcement on Tuesday, with a forceful letter going out today to thousands ForestEthics supporters.