I am living in a place that is a paradox: Puerto Rico is the poorest by far of any of the fifty states in terms on annual income. Despite that, we also consume an insane amount of goods and energy.
Each day I walk between the walls of the fort, El Morro, and the entrance to the harbor. The walls of El Morro are impressive, of course, soaring as they do hundreds of feet above me. No less impressive are the three or four ships containing scores of 46 feet trailers I see entering the harbor daily, all jammed with stuff that we need, we think.
And what do we produce?
Junk metals, says my friend Harry, and nothing else. Nothing Puerto Rico produces can compete with the same item produced somewhere else. Specialty items such as gourmet coffee, yes. A farm down in the southeast owned by Israelis grows wonderful mangos to be sold at 10 pounds each in Fortnum and Mason. The pharmaceutical industry that was our lifeblood—all of that Valium that kept those stay-at-home-moms smiling in the fifties and sixties came from Puerto Rico—is moribund. The only thing we produce is trash. Our only industry is junk metal.
There are other places in the world, of course—places that have never been touched by man, or if they have, have been touched only lightly: a paddle in a river, a camp fire on its shore, a wolf killed by bow and arrow.
I’m thinking this morning of such a place, the Sacred Headwaters of northwest British Columbia. I knew vaguely about it but didn’t. I have, in a sense, eaten from it, since the three major rivers that flow from the headwaters are the source of wild salmon.
As you’ll see from the clip of author / photographer / anthropologist Wade Davis below—I can well believe that John Muir, exploring just a third of it, came away stunned. It’s vast as well, isolated, and…
…rich in minerals, metals, and energy sources.
You’ll see where this is going, so let me tell you at once, the story ends both happily and uncertainly. Or put it this way—one battle has been won, the war continues.
The battle won took place between Shell Canada and the native people inhabiting the land, the Tahltan. (It does occur to me that the computer is quick to criticize—that famous red squiggle—but never actually thanks me when I teach it a new word….) Shell had a little project—it covered only a million acres or so—to extract “coal bed methane gas.”
Into this group steps the First Nations, which to my shame I knew nothing about. But I can tell you now that it’s a coalition of roughly 630 aboriginal peoples of Canada who are not Inuit or Métis. Altogether, there are some 700,000 First Nations people in Canada, and not many of them were enthused about Shell’s proposed project. In addition, the Pembina Institute released a report indicating that no one had ever done this on salmon-bearing headwaters. Was it really a good idea to go ahead with the project and wait and see what happens?
Well, apparently the government of British Columbia thought not, and on 18 December 2012, the government announced that Shell would relinquish it tenure on the land and also that oil and natural / methane gas development would be banned.
That’s the victory—and a true victory it was.
But it’s just the first battle, because there are over 40 projects—some OK, some terrible—proposed for the region, according to Davis. There’s the Red Chris Mine, about which the company has to say:
Imperial is working towards development of a 30,000 ton per day open pit mine to commence operations upon completion of the Northwest Transmission Line [www.highway37.com]. Red Chris anticipates being able to connect to the Northwest Transmission Line at the Bob Quinn hydro station approx. 120 km from the proposed mill site by early 2014. Provincial and Federal environmental approvals for the project have been received. Mines Act permitting through the Northwest Mine Development Review Committee is underway.
Sounds great, hunh? Curious, though, that nothing is being said about all the soil removed, and all the toxic byproducts that will be generated by the process. What’s Imperial gonna do about all that?
Well, Imperial has stated that it will follow traditional—I can’t say time-honored—practice. Which means…
…dump it in the river.
Given that there are a proposed thirty years of this, how soon will it be that the Sacred Headwaters becomes New Jersey?
And yes, nice that there is no gas and petroleum to be “developed.” But what about coal? The very day after the British Columbia government announced the ban on petroleum and methane gas, Fortune Minerals said they were going through with their project, into which they have sunk over $100 million. According to one source, the company has “undertaken the British Columbian Environmental Assessment,” but what does that verb “undertaken” mean? Has the project been approved or not? They company, of course, claims the project will be “sustainable,” but look at the picture below, their pilot plant from 1985.
Guys? I think
you know my answer….
At the end of
the clip, Davis finally says the obvious. Rushing around trying to figure out
the merits of over 40 projects and then fighting the deep corporate pockets of
multinational behemoths is crazy. There are some places so beautiful, so
unspoiled, so rich in spiritual and ecological worth that they are not to be touched.
There needs to be protection for the Sacred Headwaters.
Davis, in
another clip, talks about the days when passenger pigeons darkened the sky, and
could topple a tree with their weight. Or the buffalo, which completely covered
the Dakota landscape. I could add the accounts of the first European settlers
to North America, who didn’t need to fish but to scoop up the fish on board
that were jumping onto the ship.
Three or four
years ago, I stepped on to a small patch of pristine prairie that had remarkably
survived being incorporated into Wisconsin cornfield. The experience was
unremarkable—three feet or so of prairie doesn’t have much to say.
Three hundred
million acres—an amount I am cheerfully making up—of prairie would tell another
story.
Click on the
link below. Do it yes, for the Sacred Headwaters, and yes for the Tahltan
peoples….
…but
especially for us all.
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