According to the calendar, it’s spring. Yay.
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There is no way to prepare for some disasters, like earthquakes or tsunamis. They come without warning.
Other potential disasters, like running out of clean water, are so long coming we get lulled into thinking they never will.
Today is World Water Day. The theme is Water for Cities.
Our city’s water issues seem to be on the backburner, but that isn’t the case elsewhere in the province.
Rafe Mair and award-winning filmmaker Damien Gillis will be in town Friday evening to talk about water. Anyone who thinks this might be a dull evening has never seen Gillis’ films nor heard Mair speak. Lawyer, politician, broadcaster, writer, and now a raging grandpa, Rafe raises hell on issues he cares about through the non-profit, online journal Common Sense Canadian and tours of the province.
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Choices mean trade-offs. Japan’s technological and engineering whizzes knew the dangers inherent with nuclear power, but the country’s desperate need for an independent energy source tipped the scales. Japan gambled on nuclear and became one of the world’s leading industrial nations. Now the country is paying the price.
British Columbians are facing some tough choices. What do we do? “Grow the economy,” even if it could mean doing irreparable damage to the land and the beings who live on it? Do we choose energy (Site C, northeast natural gas) over farmland and fresh water? And what about having those oil tankers plying our coastal waters? There are still messes left from the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska 22 years ago.
Nature delivered the earthquake and tsunami that whacked Japan. Humans created the problems with the nuclear plants. Unfortunately, we humans aren’t always as smart as we think we are. The results of our decisions, as the Japanese found out, are usually worse than expected.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.
