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the ownership of one adjacent lot on an orthophoto map at some county = --Apple-Mail-1--197629238 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 In response to DW and the quote from Oliver Goldsmith.=20 Some may wish to read my op ed piece that uses the same quote. My essay was in the Herald last April. It's theme was our ignorance or = selfish disregard for the realities of ecology. You can google Paul = Ruggles Ill fares the land. Paul On 2014-12-11, at 7:16 PM, David & Alison Webster wrote: > Hi John & All, > Are you involved in prevention and remediation also or only = monitoring ? > =20 > There is much to be said for those who produce, using local = resources, goods for which there is an export market. This kind of = primary production is the fuel that keeps all the other wheels of the = economy turning. In the absence of wealth production there eventually = can be no wealth consumption. > =20 > Shortly after the cod stocks collapsed and the fishery was shut = down, I heard an Economics Prof. being interviewed on the radio. He = explained that Nfld. would be fine. There would still be Education, = Health Care, Police work and Highway Maintenance. However necessary all = of these are they consume wealth. > =20 > This kind of distorted thinking is still current. The Dec. 22 = Editorial in Maclean's notes that a downturn in the oil and gas sector = is relatively unimportant because it comprises only 6% of GNP. "Health = care, Education and Banking are each bigger; real estate is more than = twice as big." > =20 > Yt, Dave Webster, Kentville > ----- Original Message ----- > From: John and Nhung > To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca > Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 2:10 PM > Subject: RE: [NatureNS] Canada's position on at-risk species = 'unprecedented' >=20 > Excellent rant, David. Agree with most, if not all of it! > =20 > Re. fur industry-phosphate issue:=20 > =20 > The monitoring continued this summer and I will be putting together a = report as soon as I can. Time and brainpower both have to be available. = The grandfather period ends January, 2016, but I think (don=92t know) = that farmers have been cleaning up their messes since even before the = regulations were proclaimed. Things were still bad this summer, but = there were hopeful signs. Still, no year is typical so it will take a = few years before we can say that trends have reversed. We live in hope. = Wait for the report. > =20 > I also think we should be supporting farmers=92 efforts to clean up = their messes and working with the industry to achieve that. Some of the = industry bashing has been excessively gratuitous. That is = counter-productive and I get tired of it. > =20 > Sorry, got off-topic! I also get tired of Canada=92s unprecedented = shifts on many issues! J! > =20 > From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca = [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] On Behalf Of David & Alison = Webster > Sent: December-11-14 1:11 PM > To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca > Subject: Re: [NatureNS] Canada's position on at-risk species = 'unprecedented' > =20 > Hi Rick & All, > I am baffled by the notion that discussion might not be useful. > =20 > No doubt it is not possible to flick a switch and correct such = problems. But why avoid discussion ? > =20 > 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. =20 > =20 > 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. > =20 > 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. > =20 > 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. > =20 > 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. > =20 > 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. > =20 > 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. > =20 > 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