Dear editor,
Here’s just one more note with respect to the proposed Raven Coal Mine.
Germany made a tough decision in the year 2000 regarding coal mines versus the alternative renewable energy choices they were given to choose from. They required the equivalent energy that would have resulted from 12 coal mines!
The arguments were tremendous, brilliant, ridiculous and:
They chose the renewable alternative choice, much to the chagrin of almost everyone …
Fast forward, people of the Comox Valley, to 2011 (this year!) over in Germany, and they are indeed now leading the world in alternative renewable energy.
1) There was no job loss for anyone!
2) The economic boost has continued to burst over their estimates of what the coal mines could have brought economically and energy-wise.
3) No destruction, no aftermath, no poison, and no chance of saying, oops, maybe we should not have done this.
Other than utilizing their already present farmlands to produce canola, entire buildings (think condos, skyscrapers, big buildings!), transportation infrastructure for cities larger than Vancouver or Calgary, and renewable products, all to date successfully harvested and engineered from those magnificent golden carpets of canola.
I am so very frightened, as we are catering to and it seems losing to a simple little gas station proposal — another sordid issue, let alone a coal mine!
Think, stop, look, and listen. Alternatives now!
Heather Carr,
Comox Valley
