Dear editor,
In response to some of the letters supporting the exploitation of coal resources in the Comox Valley, people refer to economics and minimal environmental impacts as a reason to continue with this project.
One thing is right, we are dependent on fossil fuel systems for the current society we live in, but here is another truth, the industrialized system that has been created is on the verge of collapse. Globally, the financial systems are imploding, and the environment is failing.
We are killing 200 species a day, last year we put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other year and the human population has hit seven billion, greatly exceeding the carrying capacity of this planet. We are now extracting the hardest to reach oil reserves and have hit or exceeded peak oil.
Sorry folks, the North American dream of capitalism and consumerism is over. We can choose to continue supporting these destructive systems and support another dead end industry, or we can choose to start supporting each other in our communities.
Selling coal to China so they can produce all the crap we feel that we need to buy is insanity.
You can’t drink, eat or breathe money. If the planet dies, so do we and I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist or a biologist to come to that conclusion.
The future generations of this society won’t care about how many jobs were created, they won’t care if you drank Pepsi or Coke, and they won’t care if you were a good corporate citizen. What they will care about is healthy food, clean air and drinkable water.
Supporting this project is not going to help us as a community, not in the long term. The Valley is so rich and diverse that we can create a localized
economic system of community where neighbours are helping neighbours, instead of continuing to support minimum wage jobs making the corporate elite richer and you and me poorer. Turn off your TVs, stop feeding into the global media, get to know your neighbour, spend some time in the natural world and wake up.
William Kosloski
Cumberland