Nova Nada

To: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
From: David Orton <greenweb@fox.nstn.ca>
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 20:51:00 -0300
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

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Recently I was asked to comment on an article written
for publication on Nova Nada. Below are the comments
that I made.
Best,
David Orton

>
>Thanks very much for sending your article on Nova Nada and
>Irving and asking for my views. I appreciate that you have
>this confidence in me. I think the article is fine, as far
>as it goes. I hope it is published. Generally I do not like
>economic arguments to oppose the earth destroyers like
>Irving. If one follows the direction Bahro was pointing,
>after the coming industrial collapse, there will be a
>totally different economy and "jobs", as we know them, will
>be a memory.
>
>Of course I am on the side of Nova Nada. In following this
>issue from media accounts (I have never visited the
>monastery/nunnery although "Sister Susan" was part of a
>forest caucus meeting that I attended), the following points
>are important for me:
>
>1. The struggle of Nova Nada against the noise of industrial
>forestry is something which countless rural Nova Scotians
>are forced to put up with. This is why I personally
>empathize with them on this. Sometimes for months at a time
>I have suffered from these sounds. I think that two miles
>would not be a large enough muffle. Larger than the noise of
>industrial forestry is however that anytime, a rural person
>can have their personal sanctuary totally transformed by
>"development" - industrial forestry, a gas pipeline, a
>roadway, an open pit coal mine, etc. Nothing can stand in
>the way of a growth economy.
>
>2. Both sides, the reactionaries and Nova Nada supporters,
>seem to invoke the sanctity of property rights. I have yet
>to hear the position that humans cannot "own" the earth. In
>a larger context Irving's ownership destroys the Acadian
>forest and its ecology, and undermines any long term future
>for human society.
>
>3. The friends of Nova Nada often invoke the image of a
>"retreat" from the industrial world. The assumption seems to
>be that the industrial world can continue, providing there
>are Nova Nada style retreats. The dysfunctionality of
>industrial capitalist society is accepted in this manner.
>I often think of the early "wilderness" supporters in the
>States, who saw parks and protected areas as rest places for
>jaded humans.
>
>4. Nova Nada's concerns seem human-centered. There is little
>ecological concern or ecocentric awareness in the stories I
>have seen.
>
>You can use any of the above, or none of it!
>
>Best. For the Earth, David Orton
>

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