Yesterday BC's fascists announced plans for another massive ripoff of the enviromental legacy our species inherited. Gordon Campbell backed by a phalanx of bankers, corporate tycoons and union bosses and spewed his distorted short term view on why we need this damn dam. Here's a quick rebuttal to each of his major points.1. Demand for electricity will skyrocket in the coming decades. Conservation is the answer, it requires no enviromental degradation and could easily create as many new jobs through the manufacture and distribution of new clean technologies. Instead of flooding farmlands, forests, native burial and hunting grounds BC Hydra could distribute low consumption appliacnces and light fixtures then pay for them through taking back a percentage of the dough users would be saving. New York City did this years ago and they saved so much power that Quebec had to stop their plans to construct their version of Site C. They could finance the installation of solar equipment on every roof top and recoup the dough overtime by the same plan, many areas do it already when the local power authorities are forced to [the existing power producers hate conservation as it always means less profits for them]. Hydra could promote off peak consumption, when existing turbines are spinning under no load anyway. Conservation works wonders and it challenges the culture of 'more is better'.
2. Site C will create 35,000 jobs. Even if it's true it means 35k man-year-jobs, more short term thinking. The building, distribution and maintainence of conservation oriented jobs would greatly exceed 35k and would be sustained into the future.
3. BC will be able to export 'green' power to California. Total bullshit, the power generated by an enviromentally destructive dam isn't 'green', if BC needs income to balance their deficits they should reapeal their tax cuts for the rich, they should tax the polluting corporations who now use our common enviroment as a dumping grounds and call the externalized costs they call 'profits'
4. Site C would flood precious farm and ranch land who's long term productive capacity far out weighs its unnecessary destruction. Native groups have rights and once again white greed will be trampling them. The birds, bees and trees have a right to exist and the service they provide as a carbon sink alone exceeds the value of electricity we don't really need.
5. Who really benfits from such a scheme. As always, the rich. The banks will get a huge bite in the form of interest on the $6.6 billion they lend to build this monstrosity. The huge contractors will get their bite, the steel corporations, the cement giants, the heavy equipment manufacturers, road contractors...the list goes on, all get their bite. As with every mega-project, every capitialist scheme, the rich, who own the government, rule. The vast majority of the stakeholders drool.
The millions of tons of embedded greehouse gases, the loss of habitat, the list could go on and on but my one finger is getting tired and it's time for my best friend Pancho and i to go for our in the park while there still is one. The damn Site C dam, if it is allowed to be built, will be another black eye for BC like the tarsands is for Alberta.
First Nations 'outraged' at Site C decision - The provincial government's announcement to proceed with the Site C dam has sparked an outcry from the First Nations whose territories would be affected by the massive hydroelectric project.
