After 11 years of bringing you local reporting, the team behind the Vancouver Observer has moved on to Canada's National Observer. You can follow Vancouver culture reporting over there from now on. Thank you for all your support over the years!

The planet's water supply and Stephen Harper

US Geological Service image of the globe's water supply

This is a startling image.

The big blue watery ball is all the world's water -- every drop. The smaller blue ball is all the world's fresh water. The tiny blue dot over Arkansas is all the water in all the rivers and lakes on the planet -- the source of almost every drop we use on a regular basis.

Oh, and the subservise, fly-by-night, alarmist, eco-terrorist, enviro-maniac, US billionaire-funded group that propagates this utterly unsubstantiated and meaningless data?

The US Geological Service.

If you wonder (for one millisecond) why Stephen Harper has muzzled Canadian environmental scientists, and why the second Omnibus Bill he pushed through Parliament -- the one that abandoned most of Canada's watercourses to fossil fuel and other industrial development -- is so profoundly dangerous, wonder no more. It's because of inconvenient facts like this.

And if you are wondering why there is growing resistance to pipelines all over this continent - pipelines that traverse thousands of watercourses and threaten their water purity with spills that can contaminate for years, then wonder no more.

It’s the irrefutable implications of images like this, too, that make people like Ethical Oil noise-box and fossil fuel booster Ezra Levant have an apoplectic fit when honoured Conservative senior statesman, Preston Manning, recently acknowledged that global climate change is real.

Mr. Levant can read the writing on the wall; his power world is shrinking fast. 

How far can Stephen Harper and his companions travel into the wilderness of make-believe before his political journey comes to an end? This image says he’s heading directly for oblivion.

 If he’s not, then assuredly the rest of us are.

More in Opinion

Cognitive dissonance on LNG as B.C. pursues climate goals

I never intended to become an activist. As a marine scientist, climate change has been a big focus of my career over the last 16 years. I’ve worked with governments on their climate plans, people in...

The elusive goal of ending violence against women

November 25th is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.  Tragically, in 2018, this remains as urgent a cause as any. According to the United Nations (UN), globally...

The road to hell: B.C. will struggle to meet its emissions targets

In the elongated aftermath of the May 19 election cliff-hanger last year, the NDP and Greens negotiated a Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) between them that allowed the NDP to govern BC. The...
Speak up about this article on Facebook or Twitter. Do this by liking Vancouver Observer on Facebook or following us @Vanobserver on Twitter. We'd love to hear from you.