magazine / dec08
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December 2008 issue |
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Reverberations
High-fives for five collaborators
The quality and innovation of your October issue on climate
change, with contributions from four other geographical magazines,
have outdone all previous issues. I suggest that a copy be
sent to every federal party leader with a cover letter that would
point out the following:
• It is much better to co-operate to solve a specific problem (as
was done here with sister geographical societies from five countries.
• The environment must be a priority.
• A lot can be done without throwing more money at a problem—
just by working smarter.
The innovative approach by the sister societies is to be congratulated.
Romeo Messier
Ottawa
I am writing to express my disappointment in your recent “climate
change” issue (Oct 2008). I have always considered
Canadian Geographic one of Canada’s finest magazines but this
issue is appalling.
I am a physician and have for many years had Canadian
Geographic in my waiting room. Despite all the jokes about magazines
in doctors’ waiting rooms, I actually choose them carefully
and try to keep them up to date. I look for magazines that are
tasteful, interesting, have attractive pictures, and that appeal to all
ages. I also try to avoid material that is strongly political so that
the different world views of my patients are respected.
Despite its attractive layout and pictures, this issue will not be
going into my waiting room! I object to its strongly partisan,
one-sided reporting of the climate change issue. It fails as science,
is insulting to those who are “not with the program,” and
comes across as some sort of strange religion.
I have always understood Canadian Geographic to be the journal
of a scientific society. Surely you must know that there are
many educated, thoughtful lay people and scientists who are
unpersuaded and simply unwilling to accept this hysteria masquerading
as science.
Robert Kidd
Renfrew, Ont.
Thank you for a wonderful October issue. The articles were
interesting and insightful.What also impressed me was the collaboration
with other geographical societies around the world. I
hope this global cooperation continues.
The October issue succeeded in framing the climate change crisis
in ethical terms. It is a tragedy that the recent federal election
was largely devoid of serious debates on climate change and what
must be done in Canada by all levels of government, the private
sector, the non-profit sector and individual citizens to tackle this
crisis.
We need a courageous federal government prepared to provide
national leadership on climate change. Taking this leadership will
strengthen Canada’s hand internationally as well.
Stephen Allen
Toronto
First, the most northern community for the past 50 years has
not been an Inuit village, but rather the community found in
Canadian Forces Station Alert. Second, it is hard for people like
me to make sense of it all when NASA now agrees that there has
been no global warming for the past 10 years, rather, a slight
drop in temperature has taken place. I also heard on CFRA (an
Ottawa radio station) that the polar ice cap grew by an equivalent
amount of the whole of Germany last year. Also heard about the
growing ice on a tour in Alaska this past summer. As for the rising
seas, the harbour master in Halifax and in Esquimalt both
state that the waters are exactly where they have been for years.
So who are we suppose to believe? I can understand pollution,
but it seems more and more that global warming might no
longer be the case. As for climate change, hasn’t it been changing
for ever, for example skating on the Thames in London and the
big drought in the western prairies? Can we count on your magazine
to report without exaggeration of prejudice of one type or
the other ? I mean, while David Suzuki is saying one thing, two
of Canada’s top climatologist are stating another.Who is right?
Who is wrong?
Raymond Laniel
Gatineau, Que.
While I enjoyed most of the article by Lisa Gregoire I do take
some exception to wording. Yes, Inuit settled at Grise
Fiord over
50 years ago and caused it to become Canada’s most northernmost
Inuit community. However, as most of us who were
Northerners at one time or another knew, there were already
communities being continuously inhabited by other Canadians,
e.g., military and weather stations, and these communities
stretched across the Arctic, from Resolute Bay to Alert, the latter
at the north end of Ellesmere Island.
While I was one of the RCAF members who arrived to establish
a military presence at Alert in 1957 all of us were aware that
many others had preceded us in Canada’s High Arctic, both military
and civilian people. Alert’s population peaked at over 500
and now stands at 70-100 permanent inhabitants.
Thanks to the Canadian Armed Forces I, along with other former
and present serving military members, made a return trip to
Alert in September, by way of Iqaluit and Resolute Bay for a 50th
Anniversary dedication ceremony. The changes since 1957 were
immense however the raison d'etre remained as strong as ever.
And I’m certain it gave all of the returnees, as it did me, a great
sense of pride to see our Canadian flag flying there at Alert,
Canada’s most northernmost community.
Earle Smith
Grande
Prairie Alta.
(Ed’s note: Alert is a military station staffed by Armed Forces personnel
and other government employees who serve there for fixed
terms. It’s a hardship posting. There is no housing for families. As
such, it doesn’t fit our definition of a community with an elected
municipal government. While we have great respect for those who
have served at Alert and other DEW line bases and have reported on
the work they do there, we felt it would be inappropriate to compare
them to the people who inhabit Grise Fiord. They live there year
round with their families. Grise Fiord isn’t a posting. It’s home.)
Pricing carbon
I have read and gained much from Chris Turner’s book The
Geography of Hope. I have also visited Norway as part of a factfinding
mission that studied the relationship among fisheries,
environment and oil to determine whether there might be any
lessons for us in managing Georges Bank in Nova Scotia. Thus I
was particularly pleased to read Turner’s story, “The
Carbon cleansers” (Oct 2008). It certainly greatly improved my understanding
of Norway’s approach to resource use and the potential
impact of actually paying the full costs of hydrocarbon use—in
Norway’s case, by a carbon tax. Exploration, development and
production of oil and gas are at the centre of discussion here in
Nova Scotia right now, and trying to shift the discussion to bigger
energy concerns is difficult. This article clearly illustrates that
a move beyond hydrocarbons to new clean energy sources is
imperative for both the economy and the environment.
Daniel Earle
Yarmouth, N.S.
Your article on Norway’s carbon tax paints a rosy picture of the
manner in which the Norwegians have dealt with the challenges
of governing. How did that happen? In his book Patterns of
Democracy, Arend Lijphart rates democracies along an axis from
majoritarian to consensus. In majoritarian democracies, governments
govern only for a plurality, which often turns out to be less
than 50 percent of the population. By contrast, in consensus
democracies, governments govern for as many as possible, with
half the population being a minimum.
Majoritarian democracies are exclusive, competitive and adversarial,
whereas consensus democracies are inclusive and favour
bargaining and compromise. Norway is firmly in the consensus
camp. One example of this is that Members of Parliament do not
sit as parties but as regional groups of MPs from different parties,
thus encouraging discourse and collaboration rather than conflict.
Consensus governments are usually elected by a system of proportional
representation, thus ensuring a parliament that more
closely reflects the will of the people, unlike Canada’s first-past-the-post system,
in which a party that wins less than 40 percent of the votes gets to determine our future.
Canada would be a better place if we had proportional representation.
David Huntley
Burnaby, B.C.
One thing not mentioned at all in the excellent article on
Norway’s carbon tax is why Canada hasn’t touched this business
at all. In the 1930s, Canada quite foolishly gave the control of
natural resources to the provinces. I strongly suspect that Norway
made no such brain-dead move. Therefore, Norway can take all
the oil and gas revenues and use it for the good of the whole
country. Here, we have each province with oil and gas wanting to
keep all, or almost all, of revenues accruing from these two related
natural resources. Though some in Quebec and the federal
Conservatives seem to want to devolve as many powers as possible
to each province, we are one country, still. Despite its ballyhooed
intensity target-based environmental plan, the federal government
is way behind the average citizen when it comes to the
realization that we expect leadership (vs. dictatorship) from our
politicians, and we do not want to leave a polluted world for the
generations who come after us. And, oh yes, we do have a feel for
all of the creatures on this planet, not just we wise humans
(Homo sapiens).
Tom Atkinson
Toronto
Later that century
As a member of the Canadian Chapter of The Explorers Club,
I wish to pass on my kudos to John Pollack for his invaluable
efforts in exploring for, and documenting, Yukon River sternwheelers.
However, I think Pollack would be dismayed to learn
that the author of the piece in “The inside story” (“Yukon
wrecks,” Oct 2008) has dated the wrecks to the late 18th and
early 19th centuries. Needless to say, there were no steam-driven
vessels at that time, just sailing ships. The author apparently
meant to say the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Kenn M. Feigelman
Kingston, Ont.
Oasis in the desert
Howdy from the Okanagan! As a year-round resident in a
condo complex on Kalamalka Lake, near Vernon, I was sorry that
Allan Casey, author of “The lost Eden of Okanagan” (July/Aug
2008), failed to comment on the beauty-versus-overdevelopment
contest in the North Okanagan.We consciously strive to avoid
Kelowna’s out-of-control development practices, both for suburbs
and for strip malls, but we still develop residential areas without
consideration for water sources, environmental impact or carrying
capacity.
We also have lakeshores padded with three- and four-milliondollar
homes; we feel the impact of second-home development;
and we endure the hike in mill rates that raises property taxes for
people who still work nine to five within the present provincial
government’s policy of frozen wages. Yet we continue to live here,
emphatically so, for despite the mundane—and despite Casey’s
overemphasis on desert conditions—we feel we’re living in a
lush Canadian oasis. If he had ventured north from Kelowna, he
would have found, in spite of the real estate values, towns where
the old Okanagan sense-of-place ambience remains.
I found some humour, possibly unintentional, in the feature’s
display copy. On the second page of the story, a quote is inserted
in large text on a picture: “Recreation is replacing ranching and
retirees are replacing rattlesnakes in the arid ponderosa hills.”
What an image that conjures up! Members of the blue-rinse set,
curled up under rocks and ready to spring at you! Hopefully,
there might still be that warning rattle.
Gary B. Kines
Vernon, B.C.
I’d like to compliment Allan Casey on a well-done article on
the plight of the Okanagan. I was born and raised in the south
Okanagan, and grew up in the Oliver/Osoyoos area. I have
observed and studied the natural history of the area since my
early teens, and continue to do so during visits to the area. In
fact, I have contemplated writing an article on the natural history
of the south Okanagan for Canadian Geographic that would
hopefully serve to educate residents, especially relative newcomers,
about the remarkable biodiversity of this truly unique area in
Canada. I have a great many photos of the area and its flora and
fauna.
As I see the problem, there is too much development and there
evidently has been very little, if any, land use planning that
includes the natural environment of the area. As pointed out in
the article, much of the flora and fauna occur nowhere else in
Canada. If the present rate of development is not curtailed or at
least slowed, species presently endangered will soon be extirpated,
i.e. no longer existing in Canada, and species now threatened will
soon be endangered, if not extirpated as well. A good example is
the white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii townsendii)—not
seen since 1980. This is a race that occurred only in the south
Okanagan, in Canada, although another race occurs in Alberta,
Saskatchewan and Manitoba. They were common when I was still
living there (from the late 1930s to the 1960s). There is no longer
habitat for them.
I am amazed that the presence of the rare desert night snake
(Hyseglena torquata deserticola), which occurs nowhere else in
Canada, is not enough to stop development in the area, according
to Mike Sarrell (I know Mike, by the way). A number of years
ago a small rare fish, shorter than its name, was enough to stop a
major power development in Tennessee. Perhaps this in an indication
of how unimportant biodiversity really is regarded as far as
our provincial and federal governments are concerned.
I spent three years studying rattlesnakes for my Master of
Science degree (UBC) in what is now the Haines Lease Ecological
Reserve. In fact, Val Haines personally gave me permission to
work on his land. He was sitting on the steps of the ranch house
at the time. The ecological reserve has, unfortunately, been badly
treated. A lightning strike (unavoidable) decimated about one
third of the area and later, a man-made fire (quite avoidable, I
would think) decimated almost the entire reserve. Further, a
sandy road was black-topped, creating a death trap for snakes, and
as I understand, decimated the snake populations.
If the current trend toward development, both housing and
agricultural, continues, the biodiversity of this unique area in
Canada will certainly be lost. Unfortunately this phenomenon is
occurring all over the world. The south Okanagan valley, the
nearest to desert of anywhere in Canada is only a tiny spot on the
Canadian map and it would be a shame if it will not be saved. Do
we, as the human race, have the right to destroy species for the
sake of a few dollars?
William Preston
Winnipeg, Man.
Not quite that cold
I am pleased that you featured Summits of Canada’s Mount
Logan 2008 Expedition (“Conquering Logan’s fury,” “The inside
story,” Oct 2008). Team members have been proud carriers of The
Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s flag to Canada’s highest
points.
There is, however, one error with respect to the wind chill cited.
At camp 5, we encountered a prolonged storm of winds roughly
100 km/hr and an air temperature that dipped below -35°C. This
equates to a wind-chill air temperature conversion of -60°C. The
story makes it -92°C, which is incorrect. It would take temperatures
of -50°C and winds of 200 km/hr to achieve a wind chill of
-92°C.We would not likely have survived in those extremes.
Len Vanderstar
Summits of Canada Team Member
Smithers, B.C.
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* Letters may be edited for length, accuracy and liability.
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