A lyrical week

I don’t know about you but I’ve always got song lyrics rolling around in my head. Sometimes the lyrics are absurd, obscure and it’s hard to understand how the H E double treble clefs I got hooked on that particular tune. Sometimes it all makes sense—to me, at least. I’ve been at home, mostly, for the past two weeks. No travel. No work. Several workouts at the gym. Coffee with a good old friend and oodles of time to read. Read books. Read emails. Read newspapers. But, when it gets bad out there—and folks, I think it’s bad out there—a1965 song by Hedgehoppers Anonymous, crowds my mind: Its a Good News Week.

“SOMEONE’S DROPPED A BOMB SOMEWHERE”
On the 16th of December, an Indian woman was most brutally gang raped in Delhi. I, like a lot of you, smugly sat back and thought this type of indignity and unimaginable scope of brutality could only happen in a country where women are treated like possessions and rape victims are treated like criminals, outcast by their own family and friends. With a sense of collective self-righteousness, the rest of the world watched as the story unfolded. This indignity could only happen in a place were the value of a woman is so low. Right? Yet, right here in Canada our justice system still allows defending attorneys the right to ask an alleged rape victim what she was wearing when she was assaulted. In spite of the Shield Law in Canada, the alleged rape victim is likely to be asked about her attire. If she was wearing something “provocative” then she could be portrayed as a person who asked for it—victimized by the very people who should be protecting her. We aren’t really any better than any other society if we don’t protect the victims of heinous crimes. How the H E double talk do we expect countries like India to have a look around and do the right thing for their rape victims? Such a worldwide outcry may see the reexamination of societies that place so little value on a woman’s life. That a woman is somehow responsible for such a violation is reprehensible.

“CONTAMINATING ATMOSPHERE”
Ostrander Point. What the hell? Has the province of Ontario gone mad allowing this gigantic, invasive, industrial wind energy project to go ahead? Like many people, I’ve had problems figuring out what, exactly, is the right answer with regard to green energy production. Conservation and more prudent use of our precious resources might be a great place to start and then get on with production, but cutting off your nose to spite your face isn’t the right answer. Ostrander Point is already a green development—an Important Birding Area. Ostrander Point has a seriously green purpose. It is a major migration route for birds and bats and home to several endangered species. Forgive me for saying this but, installation of IWTs at The Point would be a bit like telling a chef his/her kitchen will also be used as a surgical suite. Erecting IWTs at Ostrander Point is a bad match. Something will suffer, seriously suffer, and it won’t be the megalithic turbines. Let’s stop diluting the topic of Ostrander Point with health concerns and property value concerns and the potential for lease payments and OPSEU investments. Let’s stick with the point of The Point. The real energy at The Point is its natural beauty, its ancient purpose as a migratory birding area and its quaternary sector contribution to this community’s economy. Hundreds of people visit the County for the bird migrations. Those visitors make a contribution to the local economy. Hey Ontario, find another place to put those turbines—don’t make me suggest an ideal site.

“AND WHAT’S THE WEATHER LIKE TODAY?”
And, finally, a friend of mine was recently outraged when another said, “I don’t mind a bit of snow at Christmas time but I hope we have another mild winter, like last year.” (Or something to that effect.) It sounded like an innocent enough wish. We’re all nodding and thinking we could stand a break on our home heating fuel costs with another mild winter. But Don Ross was rightfully outraged and is absolutely correct in his assertion that mild winters just aren’t right and we should be concerned, even scared shitless. While we have experienced mild winters in the fairly recent past, our Canadian winters should be about the snow cover (a blessing to the farmers), cold winds, frigid temperatures and more snow. Yet, this year, I didn’t even pull my winter boots out of their long-term hibernation place (under the stairway) until we had to shovel our sidewalks last week. We’ve been lured into thinking of “climate change” as a recent phenomenon and it’s even been suggested climate change is just a blip. But it has been with us since the early 1900s and while we are currently experiencing a bit of winter, it isn’t very cold and we need to be very concerned. Last summer was beyond dry and record high temperatures prevailed. Our atmosphere now contains about 30 per cent more carbon dioxide than it did at the very beginning of the “Industrial Era”. But for me, the drive from Vancouver to Osoyoos in 2011 was an eye opener. Along the way, LOML and I noted vast expanses of pine forest were not “evergreen” anymore. At that point, well over six million hectares of pine forest had been destroyed by the mountain pine beetle. In a quest to find out what the H E double digits above zero is going on, it turns out the best control for these insects is a cold snap of at least minus 25 degree weather in the spring or early winter. Those kinds of temperatures haven’t been happening with any regularity in B.C. Years of unusually mild winter weather have opened the buffet table to, essentially, a tremendous environmental disaster.

We are a society of people who know better. We have access to more information than ever before, but have done little to demonstrate our knowledge and choose to turn a deaf ear to the warning signals. “Have you heard the news?”

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca