Editor:
It is interesting to see how Prince Rupert seems disconnected from global environmental concerns.
With all the frenzy about natural gas massive projects coming in the region, there is not a single article in the local newspaper that relates those projects with the UN Climate Summit happening in New York right now. This summit gathers all UN Member States, as well as finance, business, civil society and local leaders from public and private sectors. The discussions at the summit are based on the general agreement that greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions needs to be drastically cut in order to stay under a global warming of two degrees Celsius. Above those two degrees, the impacts on human being might be catastrophic, irreversible and out of control.
It is shameful to see how the word ”development” is still perceived. If only one LNG project goes through, B.C. global GHG emission will go up enough to make it impossible for the province to reach its GHG reduction targets. Such a project is not “development” no matter how many jobs and dollar signs it brings to local communities’ actual generation.
Even if LNG pipelines and export terminals were not to be as great of an environmental risk on local ecosystem as Enbridge pipeline is, this doesn’t matter because the natural gas life cycle will greatly contribute to global warming.
On top of that, to use the term ”sustainable” to qualify any limited resource extraction activities, such as natural gas, is an oxymoron.
Francois Dagenais-Cote
Prince Rupert
