BIO-GAS, SCIENTIFIC MUZZLING and PIPELINE LEAKS

Good morning Woolwich Township, Elmira, Waterloo Region and Canada in general. Today we're discussing a variety of ongoing issues. First and foremost, closest to home, I did mention here on Saturday that there will be an Information Centre/Rally this evening at 7:30 pm. in Bolender Park in Elmira. Yesterday for some reason I checked my home mailbox and there was a flyer in it which is very similar to the announcement currently on the Stop The Stink website of the BioFuel Citizens Committee (BFCC). This gives more detailed information on the back of it regarding upcoming (Wednesday) Mediation as well as the raison d'etre of the BFCC. See you tonite at Bolender Park.

Scientific muzzling is part of the above headline. My daughter suggested that I might want to mention this ongoing problem at the Federal level in Canada. Apparently our Conservative Prime Minister (Harper) is actively dismantling past strides made in knowledge that will have a major effect on Canada and the world. This includes defunding everything from the Department of Fisheries & Oceans (DFO) to shutting down long term government funded environmental think tanks. Furthermore Prime Minister Harper apparently is no fan of scientific discoveries and knowledge which could even remotely cast doubt on his right wing ideology. Whether global warming issues such as industrial air emissions or disappearances of indicator species such as frogs, all such information is to be tightly controlled politically. In other words government funded scientists are no longer working for Canadians; rather they are working for the Conservative Party of Canada and their message had better be consistent with Conservative policy and politics. I have seen personally the negative effects of provincial politics ruling and controlling "scientific" opinions and positions so I shouldn't have been surprised to learn that similar attempts are being made federally.

The latest pipeline leak, now in Alberta, is a scary reminder of the environmental cost our petroleum economy and lifestyle are responsible for. We are advised in today's Waterloo Region Record (Pg A3) that the company responsible, namely Plains Midstream Canada, was fortunate that the leaking pipeline wasn't actually pumping at the time of the leak. Secondly we are advised that the volume of water flowing in the Red Deer River has been helpful in quickly moving the oil downstream to an area where it can more quickly and easily be collected. So despite so called engineering safeguards and technology, the reality is that we were lucky? That is most probably the truth. Locating pipelines underneath rivers is essentially a very stupid idea. It is so stupid that it is embraced right here in Waterloo Region. Whether sewer lines under Moffat Creek in Cambridge or raw sewage flowing via pipeline under the Grand River near Breslau; we are counting on luck to avoid disaster. Environmental luck just like luck at cards will always run out. These are not accidents. They are probabilities.