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<DIV>&nb --001a11c3daa4177a6a0509f4308c Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Hi Dave, I would never actually tell you, or anyone else, that they should not speak their mind. It's just that I have seen similar topics, which *must* be recognized as "political", ruffle some feathers here. I'm not into setting that in motion. And actually, I truly believe that everyone here is rather intelligent, & for myself, I'm totally happy for everyone to read this & make their own conclusions. I think I know where the mainstream thinking will be. Best, Rick. On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 1:10 PM, David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com> wrote: > Hi Rick & All, > I am baffled by the notion that discussion might not be useful. > > No doubt it is not possible to flick a switch and correct such > problems. But why avoid discussion ? > > One rather large hydra has as usual many heads but only one body; a > civil service which has become threadbare as a result of attrition and, in > some cases, never furnished with the necessary resources to do the mandated > job in the first place; a large number of electric motors with the copper > windings removed and sold for scrap. > > Battles are now lost on a regular basis all for the want of a > horseshoe nail and/or an ounce of common sense and the updating of > regulations that have long since passed their best before date. > > Amherst, due to public pressure, turned down $500,000 for disposal of > fracking water after being purified to drinking water standards. Why ? > Largely because the public is rightly skeptical of industry assurances. > Without government funded science, which is absolutely free of any pressure > and consequently able to act as a reliable way to confirm or reject > assurances by industry one can expect mob rule, informed by > misinformation, to become commonplace. And this can only lead > to economically destructive decisions. > > In any case, a back of envelope calculation showed the potential > dilution to be astronomical so there should never have been a fuss. But > when democracy is used to establish the value of pi then 21 people who > prefer 3 will beat 20 who say it is about 3.14159. > > The same considerations apply to the Alton gas storage project now > stalled, partly because there is a concern about adding Sodium to the > ocean. Huh ?? If the company were to release their water, following the > schedule which they propose, I really don't understand how there could be a > problem. If done by instant feedback, mixing and release or shutdown could > be automated. Once again, objective oversight by government funded science > would avoid these foolish and destructive shouting matches. > > About 10 years ago someone on the South Shore developed a way to trap > and use a truly invasive species of crab (Green crab I think and used for > Lobster bait) .He was fined for fishing Green Crabs without a licence > and lost his means of earning a living when he should have been given some > reward. But by the same agency he was denied a licence because it was not > an established fishery so they could not issue one. A trace of common sense > in the enforcement of regulations would predictably lead to better outcomes. > > Some years ago the fur industry sleep walked into a Phosphate > pollution problem. This could never have happened if anyone involved in > advising this industry had known the first thing about the behavior of > Phosphate in soil and in waterways. After more than a decade I am not sure > that the "problem" has yet been solved. There is no substitute for direct > access to lab resources as opposed to reading the 'how to do it' > guide, often written by someone who has never done it. The only really > reliable teacher is ground truth. > > And, finally, on a personal level, a sad story of a stalled > transaction which shows how we are heading. When I bought a woodlot in 1971 > the widow who was selling it had never seen it so I had to make a few phone > calls one evening to find someone who could tell me how to find it, I > searched the title back 100 years and this took about an hour plus a > nominal fee. She arranged for someone to walk the lines with me and within > a week I had the deed, registered for a nominal fee, and she had her money. > I received and accepted an offer to sell that lot on Aug 7 of this > year. The buyer had cash set aside and was ready to fork it over. But it is > still stalled in Migration. And cost of migration will likely exceed the > initial cost by a wide margin. The familiar problem; set up a gold-plated > system, provide inadequate resources to administer it and let the public be > dammed. > Shortly after I bought the North Alton woodlot in 1981 I checked the > ownership of one adjacent lot on an orthophoto map at some county planning > office and noticed that my lot had the name of someone who had never owned > it. When I asked to have the name corrected I was told that they could not > correct it because funds for that program had been cut and not to worry > because their maps don't mean anything anyway. > > End of rant for now. > DW > "Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey" Oliver Goldsmith > > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Rick Whitman <dendroica.caerulescens@gmail.com> > *To:* naturens <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca> > *Sent:* Thursday, December 11, 2014 7:16 AM > *Subject:* [NatureNS] Canada's position on at-risk species 'unprecedented' > > http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/canada/1256985-canada > 's-position-on-at-risk-species-'unprecedented' > > Perhaps this should just be read on its own merit. You may draw your own > conclusions. Discussion here might not be useful. > > Best, > Rick Whitman > > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2015.0.5577 / Virus Database: 4235/8712 - Release Date: 12/10/14 > > --001a11c3daa4177a6a0509f4308c Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <div dir=3D"ltr">Hi Dave,<div>I would never actually tell you, or anyone el= se, that they should not speak their mind. It's just that I have seen s= imilar topics, which *must* be recognized as "political", ruffle = some feathers here. I'm not into setting that in motion.</div><div><br>= </div><div>And actually, I truly believe that everyone here is rather intel= ligent, & for myself, I'm totally happy for everyone to read this &=