Eco-Terrorism: A matter of interpretation
The following is a Letter to the Editor from Jacqueline Chalmers of Claresholm. One of many peacefully dedicated activists and advocates for the protection of our mountains, water, wildlife and health. This is a person worth getting to know, Chelsae.
Dear Editor,
Eco-Terrorism
I am a regular participant, along with several other local constituents who peacefully protest at the lights in Claresholm. We are against the destruction of our Rocky Mountains shouldered by the eastern slopes; Alberta’s primary water shed. A continual battle has waged between the government elected to serve all citizens, and the majority of Albertans. We, as the majority, do not want any coal mining, no matter how it is couched, in our priceless water shed. This isn’t about right vs. left, it is about right vs. wrong.
The government to this point has been deaf to our scientific, verifiable, nightmare-like outcomes of coal mining we have provided to them through innumerable letters and phone calls. Our view scapes will be destroyed and irreclaimable. The bio-diversity of our wilderness will be decimated. Particulates blown in from Elk Valley, BC have virtually killed Window Mountain Lake in the Castle region as researched and shared in a paper by two senior scientists in Alberta Environment and Protected Areas. If mining is approved in the eastern slopes, particulates will be much closer to populated areas and undoubtedly transported on our prevailing winds.
It is a given that our water will be contaminated. Despite hollow promises by Minister Jean to bring protections for water and environment to the highest on the planet; it is an impossibility for coal mining development. When water monitoring indicates contamination by some 45 pollutants, specifically selenium, it’s too late to mitigate. It’s like closing the barn door after the horse is out. Bluntly, by suggesting controlling this contamination is possible, is an insult to Albertans intelligence.
Downstream, impact of water pollution on agri-business to irrigation, feedlots and food processing has the potential to impact thousands of jobs and puts a $14 billion/year industry at risk.
Perhaps our efforts have been tacitly affirmed by our MLA, Chelsae Petrovic. Recently, in the Legislature, she accused folks like us of being eco-terrorists. Do tell. Why wanting clean drinking water and air makes us eco-terrorists, yet proposing to destroy our water and air with chemical warfare doesn't make a coal company and our government eco-terrorists? This is not about Politics. This is about our health, sustainability and economic survival.
Jacqueline L. Chalmers
Claresholm Alberta
Perhaps Chelsea would care to explain why citizens of Alberta have to constantly fight their elected representatives who consistently act as if they were in the pocket of foreign multinational resource extraction companies?
I completely support what Chelsea had to say.
Nearly on the eve of the federal election I am scared and angry that this country will not identify the right wing conservatives for what they truly are.
The ignorance of their supporters is terrifying.