Coal and volunteers have value
I was quite surprised to see a full page advertisement opposing coal on Texada Island (December 28, 2012 issue of the Peak). Coal has been shipped here from Campbell River for over 20 years. It has kept people employed when the limestone industry has dropped off. Increasing the port size will mean more jobs and perhaps that will help our crumbling community.
Coal is not green but it is a wanted product and if Texada is not used as a transition place for it, then another place will be [“Opposition grows,” December 19].
Between responsible industry and government, this port will be properly monitored. I have never noticed that there is coal on Texada and I wonder, aside from employees and people directly involved with the area, who has?
Additionally, volunteering is sometimes a thankless job, but a much needed one at the same time. Banning a volunteer from helping with a committee or group because they have a link with a particular local industry is not only stupid, it’s reckless. Chuck Childress has been an advocate for Texada for as long as he’s lived here. He has been our Powell River Regional District director for many terms and has travelled to the steps of Parliament on our behalf. He has put himself on the front lines for a lot of issues including BC Ferries, LNG (liquid natural gas), garbage, pesticide use and more. He has been an outstanding leader of our community and as a TAN (Texada Action Now) member, we can’t afford to lose him.
Deidre Braak
Blair Road
Texada Island
Shades of green
Replies on Bridget Andrews’ viewpoint [“Extreme green,” January 9] will be popular.
I am a BC-born baby boomer, kayaker and proud grandmother living on Texada Island. As a stereotype environmentalist, I don’t consider myself angry or extreme, but I do like the trendy label.
Environmental activists are not the driving force for moving jobs abroad.
Over the years, I have also lived in BC communities that have suffered from lost logging jobs. No fault of environment issues, more often than not, logging or mill layoffs are due to a lack of easy access inventory, world market demand and pricing. Now that all the accessible pine beetle wood has been harvested, the logging industry is suffering once again. No logging jobs moved abroad.
There were no jobs lost to Asia when the LNG (liquid natural gas) plant did not go ahead on Texada.
Andrews writes that in the past industry lacked accountability, but today industry is accountable. I disagree. Industries do whatever it takes to make a profit. Industry needs a public watchdog. Yes, there have been strides to clean up old polluted sites, reduce and reuse. The jobs are here because this is where the resources are. Unless there is a way to move the oil wells or coal mines to another country, those jobs aren’t going anywhere.
Too often we sacrifice standards and give our resources away for short-term gain, but we cannot give industry a blank cheque to pollute for the sake of jobs. Do a few labour jobs on Texada warrant ignoring any environmental concerns? Ask why other closer locations in the United States and Lower Mainland are not willing to store the coal.
Are recreating the old “jobs” the solution? Can we not be more creative in technical and innovative job creation? Back-breaking heavy labour jobs extracting natural resources seem so short sighted and usually the brunt of environmental concerns.
Welcome to Texada. Many Texadans have a reputation as environmentalists. Consider that resource jobs are time limited. The environment is for everyone, forever.
Teresa Hollo
Van Anda, Texada Island
On coal and clean energy
It was heartening to see City of Powell River Mayor Dave Formosa and council joined a growing list of British Columbia local governments all agreeing that Canada needs a bold plan to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, fight climate change and move to a clean-energy economy [“Energy strategy,” December 12].
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reports that Vancouver is rated 15th in the world for sea level rise risk, with $55 billion at risk, and 32nd in terms of population at risk, with 320,000 people exposed. Infrastructure at risk in Vancouver includes highways, sewer systems, waste treatment facilities, shipping and ferry terminals and the airport. In reality, Vancouver would cease to exist as we know it today.
Data from the 2012 BP Statistical Review of World Energy indicates that the European Union and the United States have virtually flat carbon dioxide emissions at four to six billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year respectively from 1990 to 2010. However in Asia Pacific, emissions have risen from eight billion tonnes in the year 2000 to almost 16 billion in 2011 and are rising exponentially.
This makes it all the more remarkable that BC should support the Raven Coal Mine above Fanny Bay, and the increased use of BC ports for the export of US coal, displaced by the exponential rise in natural gas reserves in the US.
Australia has the dubious distinction of being the world’s largest coal exporter. Given the calamitous heat and fires in Tasmania and south Australia, the export policy is now being openly debated there.
Richard Fletcher
Gillies Bay, Texada Island
