marklynas.orgVancouver's 'Sustainable Winter Olympics' falls at first hurdle 15 April 06
Local people in British Columbia were delighted when the Olympic Committee selected their province as the venue for the 2010 Winter Olympic games. Everyone was even more delighted when it was decided that these would be the greenest games ever.
But the dream soon turned sour. The British Columbia government has decided that the Olympics needs a big 4-lane highway, which will slice through some of the areas’s most beautiful and precious ecoystems. Work on the destructive project is to begin on 18 April, so time is fast running out to get it stopped.
The main battle is over Eagleridge Bluffs, traversed by the famous Baden Powell and Black Mountain hiking trails, and also the site of important wetland habitat supporting endangered amphibians, rare stands of arbutus trees and nesting sites for bald eagles.
As important in the long-term is boost that the road will give to greenhouse gas emissions once it is filled with cars. Surely the ‘greenest-ever’ Winter Olympics – either way likely to be responsible for thousands of tonnes of flight-related emissions – could have come up with a better plan? Visit the Coalition to Save Eagleridge Bluffs and make your views known.
Comments
Jane Petterson
April 20th, 2006 at 03:29 AM
The Eagleridge Bluffs, which Mark has so capably covered above, is up against the wall, so to speak. Years of efforts to have sense knocked into the planning procedure, and the efforts of hundreds (and now thousands) of supporters, are coming to a head. A Tent City was erected in this urban area of Western Vancouver last week to protect this extraordinary, rare, endangered but also ACCESSIBLE and USABLE ‘green lung’. Why’s it about to be blasted off the face of the earth? To add an outdated, destructive and short-sighted overland route to Whistler for those GREEN 2010 Olympics we’ve all been hearing about. Talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The government of British Columbia has not the slightest notion of what the word sustainability means, even though it bandies it about quite happily.
This is a small corner of a big land, but a profound example of insidious, wasteful development going on in an apparently enlightened country. Road improvements probably do need to be made for safety – if so, a tunnel would protect all environmental values and save SEVEN MILLION KILOMETRES’ WORTH of EMISSIONS and fuel consumption PER YEAR (on current road usage levels alone). It’s too late to force the BC govt to think of anything truly enlightened like using the railway or trying a sea route to connect further north and then to Whistler. The s* is about the hit the fan. The bulldozers are coming. People very new to environmental protest are about to fend off the bulldozers. They WILL go to jail, young and old, for this. All I can do is let people know.
Kami Kanetsuka
May 5th, 2006 at 08:48 AM
I was up at the Bluffs today to support the protestors who are camped out. They have successfully kept the contractors out and there are some issues being dealt with in the courts. It is a very important piece of land and there is an alternative to the four lane very dangerous and polutting highway. Please dont forget us here in B.C. and if there is anyway you can get more publicity internationally for us, we will be very grateful. This is the first time I have participated in a Blog and now I know how to connect I will post more information.
Jean Cobalt
May 11th, 2006 at 03:12 AM
I just want to say I completely support the Eagleridge protesters. I’m circulating a petition – to sign it, send an email to simonthesorcerer2@hotmail.com, and include your full name, street address, and email. PLEASE NO DUPLICATES! Why would we want to cut down this forest? Money? What civilisation is this where 30 million dollars is worth an entire forest? Who does the land belong to anyway – the government, or the citizens of British Columbia? I completely agree with you, Jane, and I’m going to be one of those people getting arrested, if it comes to that. Eagleridge belongs to the people, and we want it!