News Leader News
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - November 22, 2005
To The Editor;
Imagine if one day you picked up your paper and read a headline that stated, CRYSTAL METH LAB PROPOSED FOR TOWN OF PRINCETON, and then went on to read that there was a good market for the product and that it would create jobs and contribute to the economic well being of the community.
Actually, I can't even imagine that, it's beyond ridiculous, and yet I can now picture a scenario just as alarming, waking up one morning to one of our many winter weather inversions and finding Princeton immersed in a drab yellow fog of coal particulate, nitrous oxides, a plethora of heavy metals and assorted dioxins. A fantasy - apparently not!
Some time ago Compliance Energy Corp. announced their plans to construct a coal burning power generating plant of 49MV (plants less than 50MV avoid much of the government environment control), at the Similco Mine site. They promise us jobs and economic growth, but at what cost?
As we speak, a First Nations, Cape Mudge band near Campbell River has taken legal action against the province for granting permission to Elk Island Mills to continue burning coal for power generation.
The Cape Mudge reservation is situated downstream from the plant and for years has received fallout from airborne smoke stack emissions. The Cape Mudge reserve and its sister community the Quinsam Reserve share similar age, gender and population-size figures, as well as identical lifestyle and diet patterns, yet Cape Mudge villagers, exposed to more of the pollution have three times the cancer rate.
Nor is it just some small native band in BC that has suddenly realized the problem with coal emissions. In almost every country in the world (except those desperate few developing countries that have no environmental controls whatsoever) there is a scramble to either eliminate burning coal or develop sweeping new technologies to change the process.
In Canada the province of Ontario has had the most experience, generating much of their power with coal. In April of this year Ontario's Minister of Energy referring to an independent study, stated that "Coal is costing the people of Ontario more than the number on their electricity bills. This study, he said, shows the true cost of coal is in air pollution-related
illness, hospital visits and pre-mature deaths."
On June 15, 2005 the Ontario government announced that it would put the health of their citizens first by saying "No to coal." One plant has now been closed, three more are to be closed by the end of 2007 with the last remaining plant to be shut down in 2009.
In fact, many of the emissions from coal generation are just now coming under scrutiny. Mercury (usually measured in parts per billion) found in all coal, is one of the more troublesome heavy metals. A March 2005 study by a group of pediatricians from the Mount Sinai Center for Childrens Health entitled "Public Health and the Economic Consequences of Methylmercury Toxicity to the Developing Brain" stated that "the loss of IQ due to methylmercury affects between 10 and 15% of children born in America each year." Dr. Landdrigan, director of the center said "If mercury emissions are allowed to remain at these high levels children will continue to suffer loss in intelligence and disruptions of behaviour."
Scott Segal, executive director of the Coordinating Council which represents the power generating industry admitted "The power industry has never challenged the notion that mercury is a neurotoxin" and went on to point out that although technology is being developed for mercury removal, no mercury control technology that exists today can achieve the proposed
levels.
These are but a few of the problems with the technology that is being proposed for this Princeton coal plant. But what concerns me most is that in more than a year since the company announced its plan I have heard almost nothing from Town Council or from the Regional Director.
Are they aware of the consequences, do they know what pollutants will be contained in the plant emissions or of the research literature that pertains to those toxins? Have they even considered the health risks to those of us living down wind?
Compliance Energy Corp. proposes that we should accept all of this in exchange for jobs and economic benefits. Well, since coming here some fifteen years ago I have seen real estate prices escalate dramatically. More and more people are desirous of rural living, clean air, clean water and healthful lifestyles.
I have no doubt that there are many good, clean, productive businesses that would like to relocate to this community for those same reasons. I wonder how interested any of those businesses or individuals will be when informed that we have emissions from a coal plant of outdated technology drifting over the community.
It is not a positive image but once in place becomes the air we breath and not one to which any of us will have the option of being able to "just say no."
I'd like to hear your thoughts. E-mail me at bhope@nethop.net or write a letter to this newspaper.
- Brad Hope, Princeton
This was written by a young girl who was in jail for drug charges and was addicted to meth. She wrote this while in jail. As you will soon read, she fully grasped the horrors of the drug, as she tells in this simple, yet profound poem. She was released from jail, but, true to her story, the drug owned her. They found her dead not long after.
I AM METH - by Judy West
I destroy homes, I tear families apart, I take your children, and that's just the start.
I'm more costly than diamonds, more precious than gold, The sorrow I bring is a sight to behold.
If you need me, remember I'm easily found, I live all around you - in schools and in town.
I live with the rich, I live with the poor, I live down the street, and maybe next door.
I'm made in a lab, but not like you think, I can be made under the kitchen sink.
In your child's closet, and even in the woods, If this scares you to death, well it certainly should.
I have many names, but there's one you know best, I'm sure you've heard of me, my name is crystal meth.
My power is awesome, try me you'll see, But if you do, you may never break free.
Just try me once and I might let you go, But try me twice, and I'll own your soul.
When I possess you, you'll steal and you'll lie, You'll do what you have to - just to get high.
The crimes you'll commit for my narcotic charms, Will be worth the pleasure you'll feel in your arms.
You'll lie to your mother, you'll steal from your dad, When you see their tears, you should feel sad.
But you'll forget your morals and how you were raised, I'll be your conscience, I'll teach you my ways.
I take kids from parents, and parents from kids, I turn people from God, and separate friends.
I'll take everything from you, your looks and your pride, I'll be with you always - right by your side.
You'll give up everything - your family, your home, Your friends, your money, then you'll be alone.
I'll take and take, till you have nothing more to give, When I'm finished with you, you'll be lucky to live.
If you try me be warned - this is no game, If given the chance, I'll drive you insane.
I'll ravish your body, I'll control your mind, I'll own you completely, your soul will be mine.
The nightmares I'll give you while lying in bed, The voices you'll hear, from inside your head.
The sweats, the shakes, the visions you'll see, I want you to know, these are all gifts from me.
But then it's too late, and you'll know in your heart, That you are mine, and we shall not part.
You'll regret that you tried me, they always do, But you came to me, not I to you.
You knew this would happen, many times you were told, But you challenged my power, and chose to be bold.
You could have said no, and just walked away, If you could live that day over, now what would you say?
I'll be your master, you will be my slave, I'll even go with you, when you go to your grave.
Now that you have met me, what will you do? Will you try me or not? It's all up to you.
I can bring you more misery than words can tell, Come take my hand, let me lead you to hell.
Dear Editor:
Whenever I hear someone say that they admire certain politicians because they are tough on welfare recipients I cringe. Even some people who are generous to a fault think that governments should punish rather than help the indigent. The people existing under the poverty line now number between fifteen and twenty percent of the population. Surely, even for the politically naïve, this should point out a malaise in our democracy.
Why do I cringe? Because I begin to experience a wide range of emotions; but rather than discuss my feelings allow me to explain why I feel them.
It makes my blood boil. Just why is that? Well, to begin with, as long as I have been old enough to understand politics I have watched two major political factions tell us that they have the answers to the problem.
At succeeding elections they alternately assume power but instead of eradicating the problem they increase it. After fifty years of this, why hasn't the public figured out that the system is broken?
It boggles my mind. In school, my teachers tried to be objective. They explained the differing political ideologies to the best of their respective abilities. Rarely could I detect political bias and when I did it was equally distributed to both the left and right. The bottom line was always that we live in a representative democracy and that democracy may be very inefficient but it is still the best form of government.
So why do people sleep under bridges in a democracy? Why do we have ever-increasing use of food banks? Why do some school kids wear designer clothing while other kids mothers shop at the Crisis Line? Why do some kids have no educational worries while others face ever increasing tuition fees? Were we not told that this is how people live in dictatorships?
I feel frustrated. Why is it that more (seemingly rational) people don't bother to think for themselves? Did they not avail themselves of political instruction in school? If they did, why did they come to the conclusion that in a democracy the greediest get their just deserts and he who eats the fastest gets the most?
It seems to me that the general populace reads and watches the daily news, then spouts the opinions of the media owners without stopping to realize that the tycoons who own the media have their own empire building agenda and that their interests are not necessarily the best interests of the public. (Conrad Black, David Radler and the Asper family come quickly to mind).
Hey, I've only scratched the surface but I feel better already!
- HPToews, Princeton
To Similkameen News Leader;
This is a letter regarding the photo of the dog that was killed November 6th on Highway 3.
The only good point to the whole feature was the article but the photo was a poor choice.
It's unfortunate to lose a pet but to see a picture in one's local paper must be devastating. I only hope that a little boy or girl whom I'm sure the dog was their best buddy didn't see the photo.
It will be a mental image they will not soon forget.
- Shannon Simpson, Chilliwack
(Editor's note: As we are pet owners/lovers, we fully understand the impact of losing a pet. The point of the article was to SLOW DOWN. The photo, which was submitted by Princeton RCMP, hammered the message home to us).
To The Editor:
My name is Mike McLean, and I was your Green Party of BC candidate in the May 2005 provincial election. And what an amazing experience it was. My campaign team and I earned 9.11% of the votes in the Yale-Lillooet riding. Nearly 1 out of 10 voters cast a ballot for myself and the Green Party in one of the most polarized elections in BC's history.
Not bad, considering that we spent less than $525 on our campaign, compared to the NDPs Harry Lali, who spent over $51,000 or the BC Liberal candidate, Lloyd Forman who spent more than $91,000.
More importantly, our team worked hard to raise awareness about many important issues such as putting public forest tenures in the hands of small, local forestry companies, protecting universal public health care, electoral reform, and building a strong sustainable economy. Well, its now been over 6 months since the election, and I think its time to catch up.
In October, the Green Party of BC held its Annual General Meeting in Kelowna, where thirteen people were elected as new members of the Green Party's Provincial Council. The membership also voted 80% in favor of retaining long-term party leader Adriane Carr, who said she expected the next years to be "the most vibrant and innovative for our party."
There is no doubt that this is a critical time for the Green Party of BC. But this is also a critical time for our town, our valley, and our future. In our backyard, more specifically, at the former Similco mine site, the Compliance Energy Corporation is in the process of developing a coal-fired power generation plant rated at 49 Megawatts (MW). 49 MW seems like an interesting number, considering that the threshold for a mandatory provincial environmental assessment is 50 MW. Hmmm.
A couple of months ago I met with former Compliance Energy CEO Jim O'Rourke. I asked him if the reason his company set the scope of the project at 49 MW was to avoid an environmental assessment. His response was simple, yes. There's a reason why Compliance Energy doesn't want the coal-fired power plant to be reviewed by an environmental assessment. The impact of air pollution from coal-fired power generation on human health is clear, and it's alarming.
In June 2005, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) released a report which estimated that air pollution costs Ontario more than $10 billion per year in health care costs, lost work time and other quantifiable expenses, as well as killing an estimated 2,000 Ontarians each year. The report also stated that coal-fired power plants are the single largest industrial
contributors to this crisis. The report also stated that coal-fired power plants are major producers of: nitrogen oxides (which combine with other pollutants to form ground-level ozone, one of the most noxious parts of the smog brew), sulphur dioxide (a major factor in causing acid-rain damage to our lakes, rivers and forests), and mercury (which can even in tiny amounts have a devastating impact on the human nervous system, especially for children and the unborn). Exposure to mercury can cause brain and kidney damage and has also been linked to impairment of children's reasoning skills.
In addition, a 2003 report released by the BC Provincial Health Officer estimated that air pollution costs the BC health care system $167 million per year, causing up to 4,800 hospital and ER visits a year.
Yes, with the proposed coal-fired power plant hanging over our heads, there is no doubt that this a critical moment in the history of our town. So, you'd think with the massive implications a coal-fired power plant would have on the health of our community that it would be a major issue for Town Council and the Regional District, right? Wrong. Both local governments, who are elected by the public to represent the public, have been relatively silent about the issue, and the silence is deafening.
However, new members will soon be elected to Town Council and Regional District, and they will have a chance to rectify the mistakes of the outgoing representatives, who failed to address the issues that a coal-fired power plant raise. These should be some of the questions answered by our new municipal governments:
Does Town Council and Regional District think that the economic benefits of a coal-fired power plant outweigh the serious, long term adverse effects on public health? What do they think about the implications for our tourism industry, which is dependent on the pristine natural beauty of this region? Are our local representatives aware of any of this?
Well, for the sake of our community, our valley, and our future, I hope so. I know the Green Party is aware of this. For years, the BC Green Party has been advocating a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies and conservation efforts which would reduce our production of greenhouse gases from both industry and vehicles, the two biggest sources of air pollution.
The time has come for our elected government officials to start taking action against air pollution and invest in renewable energies, sustainable sectors of the economy, and most importantly, in the health of its citizens.
- Mike McLean
2005 Green Party of BC Candidate for Yale-Lillooet
Dear Dawn Johnson, Editor,
Although your "Current Comment:" Tuesday, November 1, 2005 is a well-written article, it misses the mark for the simple reason that it masks the real problem with a simplistic explanation, which has the effect of hiding the real problem of compulsive drug use in much the same manner that a teenager might try to hide it under his mattress.
You suggest that compulsive drug use by youths is the result of having been subjected to 'destructive' criticism. I ask you, have modern teenagers' egos got that fragile that they cannot tolerate a bit of criticism, the same sort of criticism other generations and other societies dealt with without succumbing to wholesale self-destructive behaviour?
All manner of destructive and self-destructive behaviour has increased dramatically in the past 30 or so years. One must ask what has changed in our society's attitudes and belief systems during that time to produce such an effect.
The real problems faced by modern youth is very complex because our modern technological society is very far removed from the natural human condition and the meaning of life, so far removed that we are almost like strangers trying to adapt to something that is alien to our basic human nature. Consciously, though, we much prefer our modern comforts and fantastical
entertainments to the natural human condition.
Unfortunately, this situation does not sit well with the unconscious factor, which is the guardian of the meaning and purpose of life and has the propensity for make problems for weak-minded individuals who thwart the unconscious mind's designs.
Our modern pseudo-liberal society makes no allowances for human frailties in its 'progressive' programme in the same manner that the slogan of Borg in the TV Star Trek series asserts that: "resistance is futile, your will be assimilated." But that does not stop many youths from unconsciously resisting assimilation into a perverse pseudo-liberal society even if that means self-destructive-revolting by ingesting toxic substances or engaging in some other compulsive gesture that defies politically correct sensibilities.
People do not engage in self-destructive behaviour because they are consciously "looking for happiness," as you suggest, but because some unconscious factor has been provoked by something that is contrary to inherited human nature and is now messing with the individual's conscious mind.
Although the mercurial unconscious has the uncanny ability to influence people against their will and against their knowledge, our esteemed educators and concomitantly the victim's ego have an assertive tendency to deny that the minds of our youth are being tinkered with by two mutually hostile forces: on the one hand, by the mercurial unconscious that owns the mind and, on the other hand, by an agent provocateur, i.e., those who determine modern society's perverse values and opinions that everyone must conform to in order to be an acceptable member of society.
For a series of essays that I have written on this general topic that also includes and explanation of war, terrorism and anorexia nervosa see link below:
http://www.geocities.com/aquapontica/TX2.html
- Malcolm Timbers, Princeton
