Brazil?

Someone said:

"Brazil is considered to have the world's first sustainable biofuels economy and the biofuel industry leader, a policy model for other countries; and its sugarcane ethanol "the most successful alternative fuel to date"."

Well, good for Brazil, cutting down rain forest to plant sugarcane. Solving one problem in this way is just creating others. Planting sugarcane cuts down on the world's capacity to produce food for one thing.  The cutting down of the rain forest also affects weather patterns, ground water levels, water purity and you would have to be dreaming in Technicolor if you believe that any of these changes are going to be beneficial.   We are destroying an ecosystem where only perhaps 5 % of the species residing there have even been identified.   
Humans can be compared to a person who has been bequeathed a fortune and is currently going through it like a drunken sailor. After it is all gone future generations will wind up the equivalent of living in a broken down mansion. Future generations of humans will have to learn to live on what a reduced-capacity world can produce on a year to year basis. Harper rather than showing leadership is saying, "I will only if you will." I don't blame him. He is only catering to weaknesses in our human character (and he knows it). It will be nice someday to have a leader who can lead and inspire. At least Dion tried!

Muslims

This post was provoked by the following article.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/swiss-minaret-ban-emboldens-europes-extremists/article1383413/

I think we have to remember that the problem is not ordinary Muslims but rather radical Muslims.

Attempts to marginalize Muslims is only making the problem worse especially against the backdrop of ordinary civilians being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Calling these deaths collateral damage, not even counting the dead, is to Muslims a denial that these people even existed, the ultimate insult to a Muslim.  No wonder we have radical Muslims.

The novel "Three Cups of Tea" about building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan is well worth reading in this regard. 

Expansion of the Keppel Quarry

This post was initiated as a result of the following letter to the editor: http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2176199
Basically, we have a company that wants to expand a quarry onto property that abuts a Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW).   Information on PSWs can be found here: http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/GLAHNF_wetlands_packet/wetlands_fact_sheets/ON_fact_sheet.htm
As you can see from reading this, PSWs are not that well protected.  The point that I would like to make is that it is not enough to protect the wetland itself because its health (and therefore its environmental value) is dependent on its interactions with its surroundings.  Any disturbance adjacent to any ecosystem will have an impact on the ecosystem itself.  Of course the farther away the disturbance is the less the impact will be, but still it is impossible to say that there will be no effect. We know that disturbance leads to loss of species and that results in a loss of diversity.  No one can say that this particular PSW will not be harmed.  Even if all seems to be OK that will almost surely not be the case.
The only reliable long term solution is to protect land that surrounds natural areas as well as the natural areas themselves.  There has to be recognizance of the fact that there is limited value in preserving small islands of natural areas.  Rather the bigger the better.  One good example of this is the small woodlot on the east side of Owen Sound that is soon going to disappear to build shopping malls.  Even if this small woodlot was preserved its environmental value would be very limited because it would be totally surrounded by asphalt.  It would be far better to ask the developer to provide funds to preserve natural areas where we can get more environmental bang for our environmental buck.

Who is going to suffer under these cuts?

This post was provoked by this article.  

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-price-of-ottawas-stimulus-here-come-the-cuts/article1386276/

In my opinion, a lot of people won't be hurt at all.

For instance, I am not going to be hurt.  The only way you can hurt me is to raise my taxes and Harper won't do that.

The people who are going to be hurt are those who rely on government programs like subsidized housing and education subsidies.

When are people going to realize that by buying the conservative mantra of no new taxes, they are cutting their own throats and throwing their children to the wolves.