Inland Rainforest and Wildlife Habitat

8 07 2011

As many of you know, one of my favorite areas to go hiking is the Rogers Pass area in Glacier National Park. The Selkirk Mountains run almost north–south through the park and it is a wonderland of mountain peaks, glaciers, and alpine meadows. Aside from being an amazingly majestic place scenery wise, it is also an important area for wildlife habitat. Grizzly and black bears, mountain caribou, mountain goats,  moose, cougar, and elk all call Glacier National Park home. Many of these animals naturally cover a huge area over the course of a year they are unaware of the arbitrary park boundaries established by humans. It has often been argued that small islands of park are not effective in maintaining populations of larger migratory animals, or complete ecosystems, and it would be preferable for parks to connect to form large contiguous corridors.

The Valhalla Wilderness Society is proposing  the Selkirk Mountain Caribou Park to create an extended wildlife corridor and to protect unique habitat. The park would extend from the southern boarder of Glacier National Park down into the Kootenays and connect with Bugaboo Provincial Park and Goat Range Provincial Park. According the the society, the park would add over 27,000 hectares of wilderness connected to Glacier National Park. The park would not only provide much increased protected habitat for the endangered mountain caribou, it would also include an area of rare temperate rainforrest around the Incomappleux River. The forest is largely unprotected at the moment and is being actively logged in many areas.

The Incomappleux is a unique area of inland temperate rainforest. According to the Valhalla Wilderness Society, the area is home to 2,000 year-old trees , newly discovered species of lichen, and abundant biodiversity.  A Kelowna resident, Riel Marquardt, recently release a documentary on the Incomappleux area and it is well worth viewing to understand of why this area is so amazing. Riel’s movie can be viewed on-line at Culture Unplugged or it can be rented from Leo’s Video here in Kelowna.

So, what can you do to help save this area? Well, there is a bunch of stuff you can do.

  • Get educated about the area.
  • Read about the rainforest on the Valhalla Wilderness Societies website.
  • Watch Riel’s video on Culture Unplugged.
  • Like the Incomappleux on facebook.
  • Sign the petition supporting the formation of the park (contact me directly to get a copy).
  • Contact your MLA and tell them why this is so important.

Lets make our voices heard!!!


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Categories : Activism, Environment, geography, Habitat Destruction, Mountains

Sustainable by Nature

18 11 2010

Below is a copy of a short address I gave at the Building Sustainable Communities conference held by the Fresh Outlook Foundation here in Kelowna. Following the address there was a 6 minute slide presentation of my photography. I have included the video at the bottom of this post. I hope you enjoy it. Dont forget to use full screen mode and turn up the volume!

The American writer and activist Muriel Rukeyser wrote: “The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” While the physicists in the audience may not entirely agree with this statement, I think it rings true for at least how we perceive the world around us. That is to say, that the narrative of our society influences how we perceive our universe. The value that we place on our planet comes from stories created by us, and from the generations before us. So when we consider Sustainable Communities, it is these narratives that we need to review.

Because of my limited time, I ask to be forgiven for the broad and blunt generalizations I am about to make. These are that we live in a society whose stories are compelled by a model of economics that is outdated and broken. A model that measures prosperity only by the amount that we consume and does not consider what we destroy. A model that does not value anything it does not know how to measure in dollars.

You see, the stories from our European past tell us that this planet is an enormous ball of inexhaustible resources and that continual growth is good for everyone. These stories often ignore the very processes and resources that keep us alive. Things like the natural purification of water; the pollination of plants by insects; plant life that turns carbon dioxide into oxygen so we can breathe; the decomposition of wastes by insects and fungi; the list goes on.

These processes are referred to as Ecosystem Services—stuff nature does for us, for free. Of course, some have tried to put a dollar value on these services and an average figure is approximately $38 Trillion dollars annually. That is, if we had to manually pollinate the fruit trees, replenish the oxygen, break down our wastes, it would cost us $38 Trillion dollars every year. Clearly, this is not a viable option.

But knowing these things is not enough. History is filled with examples where information was available, but the dominant culture would not accept it. Galileo comes to mind. That is why cultural change, changing our narrative, is possibly as important as the science itself.

As a photographer and a student of geography, I realized there was a role I could play in re-telling the narrative. The slide show you are about to see documents some of the amazing things that nature does for us. But, as nature does so well, the intricacies are hidden in the simplicity of the scene. Some of the locations are exotic, like the glaciers of the Rocky Mountains; the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon; the coastal areas of the Olympic Peninsula and Long Beach. Visiting these places has always filled me with awe and wonder at their beauty, but now I add to that wonder the amazing things these landscapes do for us. Some of the locations are not so exotic; indeed, some of the images are from my own back yard. Thankfully, the gifts of nature surround us everywhere.

While I hope you enjoy the aesthetic beauty of the images, I want you to think about how these places make life possible. I have added some text to each image to help with this, but it is not the whole story. Please consider: “to keep these ecosystems intact, what can I do without?” And ask yourself “how does this fit into the narrative of my world?” I hope that these images will also renew in you a feeling of wonder for the amazing place that is planet Earth.

I would like to leave you with one last thought:    The planet is, by nature, sustainable.

Thank you.


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Categories : Activism, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Consumption, Environment, GDP, geography, Habitat Destruction, kelowna, Mountains, okanagan, Philosophy, photography, Politics, Video

Oil spill a wonderful boost to the economy

14 05 2010

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The BP oil spill in the the Gulf of Mexico has generated a lot of discussion across the net. Again, this leads me to ask questions about the value of things and how large corporations externalize costs that do not directly affect their bottom line, but do impact others.

Current reports suggest that BP has spent $450 million on clean-up and efforts to plug the leaking well. This cost is now continuing at a rate of $33 million per day. According to current legislation in the US, BP is liable for the expenses uncured for the clean-up, but what of other costs? In an article from CNN Money, they bring up the issue of costs to other industries:

But the cleanup costs could be dwarfed by liability costs resulting from damages to the fishing, tourism and shipping industries if the oil washes ashore in large quantities. Those Gulf industries are worth billions a year.

Again, there are a number of articles on the net about increased cost of shrimp, loss of tourism revenue because people don’t want to lay on oily beaches, etc. These are the liabilities referred to in the above article and are all to do with loss of revenue for some commercial sector.

But what of the impact in the non-human world? There is significant concern over some endangered species of sea turtle that inhabit the Gulf, as well as birds dolphins, birds, and mollusks.  What would we say the cost of oil is if just one of these species became extinct because of our search for oil? What should we make BP pay for the loss of a species and what would we do with that money? Our search for resources also demands that the consumer pays a reasonable price for the product while the shareholders make a reasonable profit for their investment. Considering the potential for environmental destruction, what is “reasonable”?

I am not trying to stand of my high-horse and say that oil is bad and it all must stop. The very act of writing this blog requires oil. The keyboard I am typing on is made of oil. The point I want to raise is that our values appear to be totally out of whack. Lets ask the question like this: how many species can become extinct due to our search for resources before you would be willing to pay a lot more for your iPhone?

As with all dark clouds, there is a silver lining. We have all experienced the affects of the economic downturn and watched the GDP figures for some hope of a return to positive growth. Well this oil spill is manner from heaven in that respect. Thanks to BP, an extra $33 million dollars a day is being pumped into the global economy. Not to mention the benefit of all the spin-off fund raising and environmental work. (I hope you read this with the sarcasm it required).

You see, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is calculated based on the value of goods and services consumed in a time period. There are no negatives in the calculation of GDP. If we consumed X many tonnes of a non-renewable resource in the period, the fact that it is no longer an environmental asset  is not measured. If X many species become extinct because of our resource extraction methods, it is not measured or accounted for. However, GDP is the most common measure in the western world for the health of an economy and the people that participate in it.

There is an old axiom in the business world: “peoples behavior changes based on how they are measured”. If this is indeed true on a societal level, then we desperately need to change the way we measure value and success.


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Categories : Consumption, GDP, Habitat Destruction, Oil, Species Extinction

Oil spills and big mines are my fault!

27 04 2010

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I have felt quite incensed by a number of issues that are currently in the news. First, there was the oil well accident in Gulf of Mexico that cost 11 lives and the on-going attempts to cap the leaking well. The well is still pumping 42,000 gallons of oil a day into the ocean. Then there has been the issue of Taseko Mines Limited wanting to turn Fish Lake in the Chilcotin Region of British Columbia into a tailings pond. Taseko claims that the proposed Prosperity Mine has “One of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in Canada”. To mine this area would mean destroying a fish bearing lake and putting an open-pit mine in the middle of traditional indigenous land. Media coverage from the CBC here.

At first I wanted to rail against the ecological destruction caused by the oil industry, and the short sightedness of such projects in the name of jobs and resource extraction. Not to mention the complicity of the Provincial government for their approval of the Prosperity Mine. But then I realized it was all my fault. And really, yours too. You see, every time gas prices go up over $1.10 a liter we all freak out and complain about the high prices and how we are being ripped off. We also think it is ok to jump on a plane and fly to Mexico for a week and are totally pumped if we can get a “great deal” for a cheap flight to some resort. We also are more than happy to buy a new cell phone, computer, iPod, big-screen tv, or some other piece of electronic equipment that contains large amounts of copper and gold every couple of years and always look for the “rippin’ deal”. So, we are all responsible for driving the demand of low-priced natural resources. Make the connections.

In the case of the Prosperity Mine and the destruction of Fish Lake, the CEO of Taseko Mines is widely reported as saying “But there was no viable alternative found despite our effort to do so. The lake and the deposit sit side by side. It’s not possible to have one without the loss of the other.” And for some people this seems to be a reasonable response, even though the Taseko website states that the project is expected t have “a 30% pre-tax internal rate of return”.  And how much profit has BP been making as it’s damaged well pumps raw crude into the ocean eco-system of the Gulf of Mexico? Forbes Magazine has just reported that “BP posted a big surge in earnings Tuesday, to $6.1 billion, from $2.6 billion last year.”

Clearly, it is not only our fault for wanting to buy all of this stuff at bargain basement prices, it is also our fault for not demanding more environmental accountability from resource-based corporations who are profiting from trashing our planet. What to do?? Here are my thoughts:

  1. Really think about every purchase you make? Do I really need this? Is what I already have sufficient?
  2. Pay a little more for good products that will last longer. You get what you pay for generally holds true. Buying a quality product once for $40.00 is better than buying a crap product for $10 four times. Its better for you and better for the planet.
  3. Write to your federal and provincial members of parliament, and the leaders of each party. Tell them that the environment is more important to you than the economy. Having a great house with lots of toys is not worth destroying the planet. Demand greater environmental accountability from resource companies.
  4. Tell other what you are doing and why.

It’s just a start, but in the words of one of my favorite songwriters, Paul Kelly, “from little things, big things grow”.

I will be taking a break from contributing for about 10 days. In the mean time, post some comments about what you are doing to make a difference.


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Categories : Activism, Consumption, Habitat Destruction, Polution

The obligatory Earth Day post

22 04 2010

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Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, a day designated to promote the awareness and appreciation of the Earth–our home and provider. Looking around the world it would be easy to think that Earth Day has not been entirely successful, as you will see later in this post. However, there are some reasons to be optimistic.

Good Stuff

I recently finished reading Paul Hawken’s book Blessed Unrest. The by-line gives a good indication as to what the book is about – “How the largest movement in the world came into being and why no one saw it coming“. The book discusses the rise of millions (yes, millions) of not-for-profit groups, worldwide, that have either an environmental or social justice focus. Hawken argues that this mass of uncoordinated and individual activism is a watershed of change for our society and represents a greater awakening. Hawken also makes the point that any environmental action can be linked to social justice. This is all good news!

Looking around my immediate world, I can readily see these connections. The fight against the Alberta Tar Sands is now focusing on the high cancer rate of indigenous people downstream of the mine and also the poisoning of wildlife. My own community is forming Permaculture and backyard farming groups as well as lobbying city council for the ability to keep chickens in urban areas.  On the web we see the organizations like the new Movement For Happiness and the New Economics Foundation. Each organization on their own may only make a small impact, if any at all; however, the growing number represents a grassroots movement of people that are disenchanted with the status quo and are willing to do something about it. Take a look at Wandari Maathai’s telling of the humming bird parable.

Bad Stuff

CBS News – Sweat Pants, Plastic, More Found in Dead Whale.

Biologists conducted an examination on the stomach of a  gray whale that had recently died in Puget Sound and found it contained a large amount of garbage. They noted that the garbage only consisted of 1-2% of the stomach contents, however, 1% of the 50 gallons in the whales stomach is still quite a lot!

In a news release, the research organization said the animal found on the beach Thursday had more than 50 gallons of material in its stomach. Most was algae – typical of the bottom-feeding whales – but “a surprising amount of human debris” also was found.  Besides the pants and golf ball, the trash included more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, plastic pieces and duct tape.

Information is Beautiful – Planes or Volcano’s? What’s emitting the most CO2 per day?

This is a great graphic that a friend posted on his facebook page (thanks Curtis!). It gives a comparison between the amount of CO2 emitted by the daily air traffic over Europe, versus the CO2 coming out of Eyjafjallajoekull in Iceland. Now, by Information is Beautiful’s own admission, CO2 emissions from the volcano can be as high as 300,000 tons a day. However, this is still less than the European aviation industry.  So, this is one of these mixed blessing numbers. When we consider the international aviation industry, the amount of CO2 pumped into our atmosphere on a daily basis is enormous. Could you imagine the impact of volcano’s like this on erupting continuously all over the world?   Moreover, when you consider how much of our economic trade and food transportation is facilitated by aviation you begin to understand the changes that need to happen if we are really going to make a difference in the realm of CO2 emissions.

Planes vs. Volcanoes


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Categories : Activism, Climate Change, Habitat Destruction

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