Oil, bitumen not the only threats to the Salish Sea
The letter from Ian Kimm touched upon an issue that has been bothering me for some time. That is one of overwhelming hypocrisy.
I want to preserve the Salish Sea as much or more than anyone but to what end? Protecting it from a possible spill of oil or bitumen just so we can continue to defile it with plastics and other garbage can’t be the reason. Surely there is more to it than that.
Human beings are notoriously poor at evaluating risk. We are doing back flips about the possibility of a pipeline or tanker disaster on the west coast. While as bad as that might be, it is only a probability. You can argue about the numbers but it is not a certainty until it happens, if ever. Meanwhile, we daily add to the toll of plastics and other waste that is added to the ocean. That is a certainty. It needs to stop. More emphasis on the here and now would do much to gain the credibility required to rail against future possibilities.
Allan Smith
Duncan
