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An example of how taking the "strategic" position (like trading land for
birds' lives) can work disastrously was in the way that the World Wildlife
Fund tried to negotiate with the Sable gas corporations for protection of
the Gully. The WWF refrained from harsh international criticizm of the
project overall believing this gave them a better negotiating position.
The result is that the project went through and there is a feeding frenzy
going on among the multi-national corporations to put in more and more gas
and oil projects in the area.
And the protection for the Gully is very weak at best and more likely
tenuous or even illusionary.
The Gully is some of the most important habitat on the edge of the
continental shelf, but it is not protected really even as a space and
pollution will increasingly threaten it.
For instance, global warming brought on by burning fossil fuels - like
natural gas - is projected to dump increasing levels of pollutants into the
water and change water temperature through melting glaciers. The habitat
could be ruined, even if the actual space itself is not drilled in. But
even that is not guaranteed.
So trading land for not opposing pollution is a sad, misguided policy that
has resulted in great and avoidable harm. It also discredits the
environmental movement.
Government and industry love having "environmental" groups who will
necotiate in this way. It allows the grassroots groups to be marginalized
and deals cut that benefit those who profit by non-sustainable consumption
and pollution.
David Wimberly
ag487@chebucto.ns.ca
Halifax, Nova Scotia
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/6847/
**************************************************
"Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper
darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive
out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that." - Martin Luther King
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