Dave here. I am writing on an aspect of the Tar Sands issue which is
very personal to me: the potential and current climate effects.
Most of us have noted the news about climate effects of fossil fuel use
and overuse; that we've been using the atmosphere as a sewer for the
last 150-plus years and that we are now seeing the effects of this. I
did not altogether see this personally until this year. But it is very
clear that some things have changed: now my boysenberries are ripening
in May (which they never did, earliest had been around June 7); my apple
trees are blossoming in late March/ early April, which they never did
until this year.
We now know that mining and using more gigatons of fossil fuels - at the
rate we're going, up to 500-plus gigatons in the next 15 years - means a
global rise of 2 degrees Celcius in overall global temperature. This
means the severe effects we've seen already will greatly increase. In
the Boreal forest, migrating birds won't find their food sources of
insects at the right or normal times, with potentially devastating
effects. The forest will - and is already - suffering.
I have spent many months of my life in the Boreal forests in our
mountain ranges here in the western U.S.; they have a number of
commonalities with similar forests in Canada and Siberia: besides
offering feeding and nesting to millions of migratory birds, they
protect the skin of the earth. They absorb solar radiation in their tree
bodies and convert it to cellulose, sequestering carbon for decades or
even hundreds of years. The forests cool the earth also by by keeping
snow from melting rapidly in the Spring, rather letting it melt slowly
and gradually to fill the rivers and lakes of the North and the mountain
heights and providing vital water sources for people and wildlife. The
water held, for example in the Sierra Nevada range as snow and ice, is
of far more ecological and money value than anything else the Sierra
produces; our multibillion farm business as well as water for major
cities comes from there, and the water also feeds wetlands necessary to
waterfowl and other wildlife.
Climate disruption is largely about water in addition to season change;
but it is all of a piece. And the Boreal forest is a major component of
the systems which keep the climate stable, keep the rivers flowing,
keep the seasons predictable for agriculture and for the wild creatures
among us. These forests cover more surface area than any other forests
do, and are less disturbed as a whole than any other forest type. But
with Tar Sands exploitation and other industrial-scale projects, this is
changing.
We cannot know what all the effect of our actions are. But we do know
the extreme kinds of fossil fuel exploitation now being employed are
harming the Earth in ways not seen before. Thousands of us are waking up
to these facts and are acting, to push back against the energy status
quo and take personal responsibility. I hope it's enough!
In solidarity,
Dave
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