The battle to protect Canada's Pacific coast

The battle to protect Canada's Pacific coast

 

On this journey of ours, we left Canada's west coast almost 6 years ago.  Although we now call Australia home, British Columbia will always hold a very special place in our hearts. In fact, we'll be returning there in March 2011 for a much-needed vacation and BC fix.

I was recently made aware of a battle underway in the area. A battle to protect the breathtaking coast of the Pacific North West from a potentially terrible blight on this land.

The Great Bear Rainforest, on BC's north and central Pacific coast, is the last great untouched region of Canadian wilderness and is one of the largest intact tracts of temperate rainforest left in the world. Representing one quarter of the world's remaining coastal temperate rainforest, the Great Bear Rainforest stretches along the mainland coast of BC to the Alaska border, covering an area the size of Switzerland.



The Rainforest takes its name from the grizzly bears, black bears and Kermode (Spirit) bears that live there and has one of the highest concentrations of coastal grizzly bear populations on North America's west coast. An ecological treasure, it is also home to large numbers of humpback whales, wild salmon, wolves, deer, northern goshawks and mountain goats.

This truly spectacular place is now threatened by a proposal from a Canadian company, Enbridge, which plans to bring an oil pipeline and supertankers to this fragile coast. Enbridge is hoping to put in place an extensive operation that will allow the pumping of more than half a million barrels of unrefined bitumen from the Alberta Tar Sands, over the Rockies, and through the heartland of BC every single day.



This oil will cross a thousand pristine rivers and streams along the way, eventually arriving in the Port of Kitimat deep in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. From Kitimat, enormous supertankers will attempt to navigate the rough, treacherous and extremely narrow waterways of the BC coast, en route to Asia and the United States.

 


This unfathomable project has been dubbed the Northern Gateway Pipeline and organisations such as PacificWild and the Sierra Club of BC are most concerned for the following key reasons:

1. It would facilitate the expansion of the Tar Sands, hooking emerging Asian economies on the world's dirtiest oil.
2. The risks from the pipeline to the natural environment.
3. The danger of introducing significant oil supertanker traffic for the first time to this part of the BC coast.

It's not hard to see how this magnificent rainforest is now threatened by the developments proposed by Enbridge - and not necessarily opposed by the various levels of Canadian government. This incredible environment is at risk and I, for one, am keen to raise awareness of the issue and hopefully contribute to the protection of this West Canadian coast and stop Enbridge building this pipeline.

In my relatively short time in Australia, I've already seen how a coal-carrying transport ship crossing the Great Barrier Reef can easily cause an environmental nightmare after the ship ran aground, leaking oil on the Reef and facing the distinct possibility of breaking apart.

I'd therefore encourage you to watch the video below to learn more about the potential and irreversible disasters facing the region if this project goes ahead. The video is approximately 17 minutes long and is well worth watching, if not just to see the spectacular scenery of this part of the BC coast. You can also click on the link below if you'd prefer to watch the video directly on You Tube or alternatively go to the website of PacificWild or the Sierra Club of BC for more information on supporting this worthy cause.

British Columbia really is one of the best places on earth. We should try to keep it that way.

Oil in Eden: The Battle to Protect Canada's Pacific Coast

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