Condos and ice caps

Letter to the Editor of Monday Magazine (Victoria), 25 November 2004

Scientists identify deforestation and fossil fuel consumption as the major forces driving global warming. In BC, the provincial government seems hell-bent on expanding these destructive practices, through intensified logging of old-growth and delicate forests, and through the opening of oil and gas drilling off the coast.

It recently dawned on me that there may be a connection between this agenda of feverish resource extraction and the ‘2010’ developers’ bonanza of high-rise condos and similar urban pursuits. Perhaps Gordo and his gang are more forward-looking and environmentally aware than we think.

As the last stands of old-growth rainforest are shipped out of this country, and as a flotilla of oil rigs is deployed off our fragile coast, BC will inevitably help drive the last nail in the coffin of the Arctic ice caps. A few years down the road, as the world’s oceans rise to prehistoric levels, the energy and development cronies will have a ready-made haven of high-rise condos in which to take refuge. Noah’s Ark meets Blade Runner.

God help the plebeians below.