COP15 ? BIODIVERSITY CONFERENCE

 I hope that I've got that title right. Anyhow I read the article in today's Waterloo Region Record and I think I understand what the poorer and less developed countries are saying. Generally the wealthier countries are in the northern half of the globe and the poorer in the southern half eg. Africa and the southern half of South America etc. I also understand that the dramatically reduced biodiversity around the world is very much in the northern, wealthier and more developed parts so exactly why should the southern half of the world be paying as much as the northern part who have caused much of their own loss of biodiversity through either poor planning or thoughtless development at the expense of habitat, clean water, air etc.

On a similar note perhaps...If I am appalled at how power, money and political influence adversely affect environmental cleanups here in Ontario, Canada then what the hell must environmental cleanups look like in Mexico, the Middle East, India and China? Way back in the 1980s our Ontario Ministry of the Environment was nicknamed the Ministry of Lumps & Colours. Their main goal then was to remove liquid industrial discharges from our rivers and streams that either had solids in them or were grossly coloured perhaps like the stories I've heard of the Canagagigue Creek running orange in colour.  I'm guessing that this was courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical but maybe Borg or another textile company contributed. Who knows? Also I expect that the Ministry of Lumps and Colours was tasked to get rid of all the phosphates producing "suds" in our waterways.

Nowadays the Canagagigue Creek may not look like a pristine northern Ontario river but neither does it have the stench of solvents or other obvious chemicals in it. In one sense as the Creek has gotten cleaner it may have gotten more dangerous as local parents can visibly see less pollution. This of course hides the dioxins/furans, PCBs, DDT and mercury in the Creek which are all highly dangerous. Combine that with the puffery and environmental drivel coming from the MECP (Ministry of Expanded Corporate Pollution) as well as Lanxess about there only being "acceptable" risks in the Creek and citizens are easily fooled. Maybe this is the only difference between our pollution and third world countries' pollution. Ours is much less visible and obvious. Appearances are everything to the professional liars.