Larry Powell Powell is a veteran, award-winning journalist based in Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada. He specialize in stories about agriculture and the environment. For decades, he worked for broadcast outlets in all four provinces in western Canada. This included a 5 years stint as Senior Editor for CBC Radio News in Saskatchewan. He is authorized to receive embargoed news releases on important, global stories, through the Science Media Centre of Canada, the Royal Society, Nature Research and the World Weather Attribution Network. He's a member of the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada, the Canadian Association of Journalists and a past member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2020, Powell joined an international team of writers providing articles for the Swiss-based online journal, Focusing on Wildlife - celebrating the biodiversity of Planet Earth. In June, 2014, he was a panelist at a world conference in Winnipeg entitled Holding
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to the strands of that web, we do to ourselves.
Over five years ago, as I watched the "Nature of Things" , I became very upset at what was taking place in northern Alberta with the Tar Sands and what was happening to the land, the animals,the fish,the environment,and "the people",who live there,for this is their home. It seemed,surely this can't be taking place in Canada.This has got to be a spoof from a horror film. But it wasn't a spoof. This was and is reality.
It has motivated me to submit this letter, for I also believe we must change our ways and take much better care of our one and only planet that we live on.
I do not agree that people are promoting fear mongering agendas about Climate Change, nor are they dismissing the huge price increases of food,fuel and other necessities of life,when they voice their concerns about the way we are treating our Planet.
I believe we all,each and every one of us have been given the option of making choices. However,since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the vast and huge Agri-farming operations, and the demands of the oil and gas industry, many,(too many) considerations for our wonders of creation have been brushed aside for the benefit of only growth and profit. So you see,the choice is ours. We either pay up now,or later, at a much greater cost;and not just to us, but also our grandchildren and the generations of the future. The warning signs are being posted. Are we going to dismiss the perils of "not paying attention" and continue on our relentless pace of what we refer to as "progress and economical development"?
Repeatedly,we have been warned that,as humans,we are on a dangerous path. We subordinate ecological concerns to the demand of the economy,political and personal ambitions. The planet can no longer sustain such a relationship and needs to heal.
We can see that life is a cycling phenomenon which forms within a single system. Nothing stands alone - No individual,species or community,for in a cycle each thing and each event in one way or another is connected with everything else. We,all of us, are but strands in the web of life and what we do to the web,we ultimately do to ourselves. This was very evident in the program, when the First Nations people spoke out,as to what was taking place in their community, and how thing had changed,and the changes were not good.
Once we accept this simple understanding and dedicate a commitment to improve our ways; there is always the hope that mankind will survive. Otherwise, if we choose to continue on our present collision path with nature,we will perish in the holocaust that we, as humans, have created. The operations of the Tar Sands is an excellent example of destruction,initiated by humans.
Therefore, economic development,moreover needs to take into consideration the integrity and rhythm of nature,because natural resources are limited and finite. And all economic activity that uses natural resources must also include the "costs of safeguarding" the environment into the calculations of the overall costs of its activity.
This would be an excellent time to redefine the word..."progress 'and contemplate the consequences of future actions in a sober and respectful manner.