- In this series, Canadian environmentalist Tim Murray
speaks to the pro-growth people with a sense of urgency as Canada floods
itself with millions of people that flee their already overpopulated countries.
Their flood creates a new flood within Canada as well as most first world
countries. In the end, Murray asserts that it is not sustainable as to
environment, water, energy and resources.
-
- Murray said, "Ignorance flows both up and down in
the NDP."
-
- "We are going to have...a continued wave of immigration
here in Canada. We don't replace our own population sufficiently rapidly
for us to grow our economy and so we're going to be attracting people"
NDP leader Jack Layton, TV debate April 11, 2011
-
- "...the benefits of economic growth (sic) are not
being shared equally among all Canadians." Jack Layton, May 22, 2008,
speech at Shepherds of Good Hope.
-
- "We have seen how fragile our growth-based economic
system is," said Australian Dick Smith. "A collapse of the financial
markets, followed by ghastly natural disasters have shown that we are just
one unexpected shock away from crisis. It is foolish to expect that Australia
will not be affected by these dangers, and we must prepare now for an uncertain
future. The pursuit of endless growth is the least intelligent response
we can make. We need a sensible discussion about the options and that means
dispensing with the old myths that continue to cloud our thinking."
-
- "Could not the same thing be said about our Canadian
predicament?" said Murray. "There is a reason that NDP members
are ecologically illiterate. They take their cue from NDP leaders. And
there is a reason that Jack Layton is ecologically illiterate. He takes
his cue from NDP members.
-
- "Case in point. On a late Tuesday afternoon, I am
mowing grass on the boulevard for the first time this year. My neighbor,
"John", one of a herd of NDP supporters in my neighborhood, looks
up at me while he is seeding his lawn, and then walks toward me.
-
- "Do you mind if we remove that broom that is growing
on your lawn? The seeds will spread over here and we're allergic to them."
-
- "Sure," I replied, "no problem".
Then, with a contrived smile, he said something that may have betrayed
the true purpose of his intervention. "I guess you didn't help the
Sierra Club with their beach clean-up, did you?"
-
- He had obviously read my article in the local rag about
Earth Day hero David Brower, who resigned from the Sierra Club because
of its stand on immigration, which was influenced by a $100 million donation
from a billionaire made conditional on its keeping immigration out of their
policy book.
- "No, I didn't", I responded,"Just as I
didn't help the Hells Angels on their Christmas toy collection for kids."
-
- "Mocking my characterization, John then made reference
to the beach cleanup as a capitalist ploy, as if to say that it was ridiculous
to interpret such a community effort as anything but a public service,"
said Murray. " Then the conversation moved to the meeting at
the Community Hall the previous night, where pro-development forces once
again attempted to convince blue collar islanders that their plan to convert
a vast tract of forest to a housing development was a philanthropic endeavor
to employ under-employed island tradesmen and supply half-million dollar
housing to those in need. John certainly bought their line.
-
- "We need growth because if people can't work, they'll
leave, and if they do that, the school will close down, and more people
will leave, and soon the businesses will follow. Without jobs, we can't
have services." His spiel sounded like a commercial for a Chamber
of Commerce in rural Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, with their "Population
Commissions". It is the kind of message heard across the country,
and explains why right and left, developers and unions, make common cause
against Mother Nature to keep the economy moving. Coincidentally, another
NDP supporter, "Brian", said more or less the same thing to me
some hours earlier.
-
- "He lamented that his own son, a painter, failed
to clear $20,000 this past year, and that "people are hurting".
Housing construction would be a welcome tonic. Another NDP voter---a ferry
worker--- argued along similar lines last winter, beginning with the statement,
"we have to have growth", and proceeding with his argument on
that assumption. An NDP activist is even shopping a madcap investment
opportunity that would have islanders buy into a hotel-golf-tourism scam.
Build the facilities and the tourists will come. Funny thing about tourists
though. When oil prices hit the roof, they lose their interest in travelling.
But then, if you're a New Democrat, you wouldn't know about Peak Oil and
its implications. If they haven't heard on the CBC--or read it in a party
newsletter---it doesn't exist.
-
- "As Jack Layton has said on many occasions, the
only thing wrong with growth is that it is not evenly shared. Like a Chicago
mob boss in the 20s, he has no problem with racketeering and the numbers
game; he just wants his boys to have "a piece of the action".
Neither Layton, nor his grassroots supporters, has a damn clue about Peak
Oil and the increasing scarcity of other non-renewable natural resources
critical to our industrial economy. The idea that we are going to face
a century of economic contraction is simply beyond his understanding or
knowledge. After all, he can't afford to understand this, can he?
-
- "If he did, he couldn't go on the hustings to promote
his endless shopping list of government entitlements, and public sector
unions wouldn't like him. Funding these entitlements apparently is only
a matter of raising corporate taxes. The idea that resource shortages might
kill the goose that lays these golden eggs is simply not on his radar.
I wonder if there was a socialist leader on Easter Island whose remedy
for deforestation and famine was "tax the rich."
-
- "One day the NDP will learn that growth is not sustainable.
The hard way."
- ##
-
- Tim Murray, http://sinkinglifeboat.blogspot.com or http://biodiversityfirst.googlepages.com,
said, "I came upon an orchestration, the environmental movement, and
all the musicians were playing violins to the tune of "Overconsumption,
overconsumption, overconsumption." They refused to play any other
tune or use any other instrument to compliment that narrow repertoire.
Apparently some corporate donors were paying them to be a one-trick pony.
|
