Unless those of us in southern B.C. understand the impacts of these projects on ordinary citizens including First Nations and the total cost (environmental, change of lifestyle, income loss) versus benefits to everyone (provincial taxes gained, employment, services we want) these huge projects mean little to us.
I am not in favour of Site C because of the loss of agricultural lands, but, as I have recently learned, that precious resource is already being compromised by the gas-fracking industry.
As we are learning from other countries where mining is stripping away
forests and First Nation lifestyles and poisoning the environment in the process to feed the insatiable demand for the minerals the cost of such projects is too high.
But we need to see for ourselves, those of us living in comfortable urban settings, what the cost of our lifestyle is to people living near the projects.
And we need to learn about more sustainable ways of living. For example, we see many, many TV ads for cars, encouraging us to buy more newer vehicles. Those vehicles require many minerals and plastics to make, not to speak of the energy to create the steel, aluminum, and other metals.
I don't know how to pay for the filming to show us the damage and how to ensure that government policy-makers see the films so that wiser decisions will be made.
But it must be done. I believe that if ordinary citizens would see what our unsustainable lifestyle is costing others, then those with moral integrity would change our ways.
Remember: out of sight, out of mind.
Carolyn Herbert
Victoria
