CHEAP OIL

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/end-cheap-oil/#page=6

B.C. approves Jumbo Glacier Mountain ski resort - British Columbia - CBC News

B.C. approves Jumbo Glacier Mountain ski resort - British Columbia - CBC News

Jumbo Glacier Resort

Jumbo Glacier resort wins approval


The B.C. government has approved development of the controversial Jumbo Glacier Alpine Resort, the country's first year-round glacier-based ski resort.

The $1-billion development 57 kilometres west of Invermere, B.C., was first proposed — and cautiously endorsed by NDP Premier Mike Harcourt — in the early 1990s.

Since then, the project had passed all necessary regulatory and environmental hurdles, but stalled on final provincial approval.

On Tuesday morning, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson announced that final obstacle had been cleared and the ski resort was approved by the province.

"After more than 20 years of comprehensive and exhaustive reviews, it was time to make a decision. I approved Jumbo Glacier Resort's master development agreement after reviewing all of the relevant documentation, and meeting with both First Nations and the proponent," said Thomson in a statement.

The province says the project will attract $900 million in investment and create 750 permanent jobs.

2-year target

The resort will be located in the Purcell Mountains on an old sawmill site.

Once complete, it will feature up to 23 lifts, a 3,000-metre-high gondola and a ski village with more than 6,000 units. The resort will be comparable in size to Silver Star in Vernon, B.C. — or about 1/10th the size of Whistler Blackcomb.

 

The resort will be located on an old sawmill site in the Purcell Mountains. Once complete, it will feature up to 23 lifts, a 3,000-metre-high gondola and will be 1/10th the size of Whistler Blackcomb. (Jumbo Glacier Resort)

 Oberto Oberti, the architect behind the proposal, hopes to have the first phase up and running within two years.
"The first phase of this project is not too different from the first phase of Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, which we constructed in one summer," he said.
"Things could be done faster but considering a lot of things, I think two years is a reasonable target."

 

Jumbo proposal controversial

P.O.V

The resort plan has divided residents in the Kootenays. A poll commissioned in 2008 found the project lacked public support, but proponents welcome the jobs and tourists the project will bring to the region.
Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett, a longtime supporter of the Jumbo project, said he's relieved to see the provincial government finally make a decision.

"This project has, for over 20 years, divided Kootenay communities. I am grateful for a final decision," said Bennett in a written statement on Tuesday. "No matter which side of the debate you're on, the majority of folks in the East Kootenay will be relieved by the certainty."

Opposition to the news came quickly. Even before the official announcement was made, the NDP was highly critical of the decision.

"People in the Columbia Valley have been absolutely clear. They feel strongly that building a resort in this area does not make sense," said Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald in a statement released Tuesday morning.
"It doesn't make sense environmentally or economically, and putting the B.C. Liberal stamp of approval on it doesn't change a thing."

NDP Leader Adrian Dix believes approving the resort is the wrong choice.
"The government has made its decision presumably to try and gain political benefit but the economic, environmental and community interest is being abandoned here."

Environmental groups decry 'bad decision'

 

The Jumbo Glacier ski resort project in southeastern B.C. has been slammed by the NDP and First Nations critics. (CBC)

 Environmental groups such as Wildsight have spoken out against the proposal from the beginning, and said they're disappointed by news Jumbo will go ahead.

“It is very unfortunate that the provincial government has ignored the overwhelming opposition to this project from the people in the Kootenays, the clear scientific argument against the development by North America's leading grizzly bear experts and the Ktunaxa Nation's spiritual values," said Wildsight executive director John Bergenske.

"It's a bad decision. It is not a done deal. The people of the Kootenays are not going to sit back and allow a destructive development that flies in the face of the environmental, social and economic values of our communities."

The B.C. government said Tuesday the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations will establish a wildlife management area to protect the Grizzly bear habitat.

Despite the province giving the Jumbo resort the green light, funding for the development still isn't in place. In February, a business delegation flew to France to pitch the project to possible investors.

Those investors are expected to make a trip back to B.C. to visit the Jumbo site in the months to come.


With files from the CBC's Bob Keating

 

Quotes

It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses. - Winston Churchill

Driving on pot doubles crash risk.

Driving on pot doubles crash risk, study finds

Driving under the influence of pot nearly doubles the risk of a serious or fatal car crash, a Canadian study finds.

Cannabis — marijuana — is the most widely consumed illicit substance in the world, and the number of Canadians confessing to driving within an hour of using pot is growing, researchers from Dalhousie University write in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal.

In addition, "surveys of young drivers have also shown that rates of driving under the influence of cannabis have surpassed rates of drinking and driving in some jurisdictions," the Halifax team reports.
Not only is cannabis relatively easy to get, "many young people really don't believe that cannabis impairs," said lead author Mark Asbridge, an associate professor in the department of community health and epidemiology at Dalhousie.



"They know that alcohol impairs their driving, so if they're the designated driver at a party they'll switch alcohol for cannabis. I've heard stories: 'I'm the designated driver so I'm just going to smoke up.' "
"We just simply don't have the same messaging around drugs and driving" that exists around drinking and driving, he said.

Past studies into cannabis and crash risk have been mixed. Some have found an increased risk of being involved in a collision after using marijuana, while others have found either no association whatsoever, or even a lower risk — suggesting people were actually safer driving while intoxicated by pot than not.

The Halifax team set out to disentangle the evidence. They performed a "systematic" review, scouring the literature for the best-designed studies they could find. In the end, they pooled data from nine studies that combined involved 49,411 drivers from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, France and the Netherlands.

All the crashes involved in the analysis took place on public roads and involved one or more moving vehicles such as cars, vans, trucks, buses and motorcycles.

The researchers found a 92 per cent increased risk — a near doubling — of a driver being involved in a collision resulting in serious injury or death, to themselves or others, if they used marijuana within two to three hours of getting behind the wheel.

The strongest association was with fatal crashes.
The study wasn't designed to answer the question: How much pot does it take before the crash risk increases?

Most studies in the analysis used any amount greater than zero as the cutoff for a positive test result. But, "for cannabis, there's not necessarily a cut off that we can identify where risk was most heightened," Asbridge said.

Still, studies have shown that cannabis impairs the psychomotor skills needed for safe driving, he said. Marijuana affects perception and spatial awareness. Drivers have difficulty staying in their lanes, Asbridge said. "There's actually a psychological process where people often believe that they're driving safer than they really are and they don't recognize that they're following too closely, or making these lane violations."

Earlier studies that suggested it might be safer driving under the influence of cannabis often relied on urine samples. The problem there, Asbridge says, is that markers for cannabis in urine "can stay in your body for weeks or even over a month so that's not a measure of recent use at all."

His team only included studies that measured active THC metabolites from blood samples, which is a more accurate way of measuring whet

Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Driving+doubles+crash+risk+study+finds/6129082/story.html#ixzz1lyEE5mWi

Low-tech Magazine: How to downsize a transport network: the Chinese wheelbarrow

Low-tech Magazine: How to downsize a transport network: the Chinese wheelbarrow

« Gas Bag Vehicles | Main

December 29, 2011

How to downsize a transport network: the Chinese wheelbarrow

For being such a seemingly ordinary vehicle, the wheelbarrow has a surprisingly exciting history. This is especially true in the East, where it became a universal means of transportation for both passengers and goods, even over long distances.

The Chinese wheelbarrow - which was driven by human labour, beasts of burden and wind power - was of a different design than its European counterpart. By placing a large wheel in the middle of the vehicle instead of a smaller wheel in front, one could easily carry three to six times as much weight than if using a European wheelbarrow.

The one-wheeled vehicle appeared around the time the extensive Ancient Chinese road infrastructure began to disintegrate. Instead of holding on to carts, wagons and wide paved roads, the Chinese turned their focus to a much more easily maintainable network of narrow paths designed for wheelbarrows. The Europeans, faced with similar problems at the time, did not adapt and subsequently lost the option of smooth land transportation for almost one thousand years.

Human Trafficking

Uploaded by sdsctr on Oct 19, 2008

A video about modern slavery with facts and figures about the trade in Southeast Asia.
Please visit: htsea.pbwiki.com; humantrafficking.org; bdcf.org
License:  Standard YouTube License

Brilliant Teacher

My learning about many things has been greatly advanced by watching the many wonderful TED Speeches.  Sometimes watching favorite speeches many times over. Mike deGruy generated enthusiasm for the oceans with his passionate presentation and he was a pleasure to watch. 

In this talk, as in his photography and his many films, you can sense Mike’s infectious humor, his passion for the oceans — and his example of a life well and richly lived.

We are saddened by the news that ocean photographer, filmmaker and storyteller Mike deGruy died yesterday in a helicopter crash in Australia. Mike was truly one of the great teachers and advocates for the oceans, as you can see in his TEDTalk, filmed aboard Mission Blue in 2010:

Take Care

Conservation & Communities

Africa loses more than 10 million acres of forest every year -- twice the world’s deforestation rate. Global demand for forest and extractive industry products is growing, with competition for Africa’s natural resources at an all-time high. Meanwhile population growth in Africa is faster than anywhere else, with accompanying poverty, and basic needs unmet. To be effective, forest and species conservation must address the deeply rooted human problems associated with poverty. As Jane says, “How can we even try to save the chimpanzees and forests if the people are so obviously struggling to survive?”

JGI’s community-centered conservation approach provides local communities the tools needed to manage their natural resources for long-term economic gain and environmental prosperity. With increased local capacity, responsibility, and participation in the sustainable management of natural resources, communities are much better positioned to effectively preserve the natural environment and wildlife of their area.

 We do not "parachute in" with defined solutions. Rather, we support communities as they identify priority development and conservation goals. As a result, our projects set is eclectic – reflecting the diversity of communities in Africa and the myriad problems they face.

 

Here’s an idea of what our activities look like on the ground: 

• We educate farmers on sustainable farming methods such as rotating crops for soil fertility and re-cropping rather than clearing forest to make new fields
• We promote the use of fuel-efficient stoves that reduce the need for fuel wood by two-thirds and are made from local materials – saving time, money and trees
• We organize micro-credit programs that allow villagers – especially women – to obtain capital for small business ventures by pooling their own money seeded by JGI funds. The payback rate is impressive – over 85 percent.
• We work with villages to improve health through training and infrastructure development, including spring protection, shallow and bore wells, and ventilated improved pit latrines
• We place a special emphasis on girls’ education, providing scholarships that have help girls in Tanzania complete secondary school and beyond.

These sample projects are part of JGI’s conservation and community programming, which falls into four broad areas: 

• Protecting Forests
• Creating Sustainable Livelihoods
• Creating Healthy Families
  
• Supporting Education

Roots and Shoots

Roots & Shoots youth raise funds for trees in Tanzania



After a year of literally sowing seeds of hope, participants in the “ReBirth the Earth: Trees for Tomorrow” campaign—as part of Jane Goodall’s global Roots & Shoots youth program—have something to celebrate:

Raised: $16,415 (USD)
Planted: 3,550 trees

The youth-initiated and youth-led campaign blew the top off of its tree-planting and fundraising goals, which were to raise $10,000 for five Roots & Shoots tree nurseries in Tanzania while planting 3,000 trees in the United States. Campaign organizers called on young people across the US to panda miti (Swahili for “plant trees”) and get sponsorships for every tree planted. Our campaign was supported by Animal Planet and the National Arbor Day Foundation and led by Campaign Chairperson Bryan Lairmore.

Money raised paid for seedlings, their transport, nursery tools, and training youth in Tanzania how to start and maintain nurseries. Now, Roots & Shoots members from three schools in Moshi, near Mount Kilimanjaro, have put 1,351 seeds into sprouting beds. Meanwhile, in the Morogoro region, young Roots & Shoots members began bedding seeds this month, hoping to have 10,000 seedlings ready for planting by year-end. As the youth work to establish the tree nurseries, they’re learning about local tree species and sustainable growing practices.

The ReBirth the Earth campaign started in 2006, after 10 Roots & Shoots youth leaders from the US traveled to Tanzania as part of an immersion experience. While there, they joined local Roots & Shoots groups in planting trees and learned there was a need for more nurseries.

“This is a fantastic and exciting campaign, because it is completely conceived, organized and implemented by our Roots & Shoots young people,” said Dr. Goodall. “These youth are gaining the worldly knowledge and practical skills to make a real difference in their own communities and in the communities of their new-found friends in Tanzania.”

Jane Goodall

spirit and nature

Healing the split between spirit and nature

Jun. 06, 2011

By Rich Heffern

• Ecology

(Dreamstime)

Earth and Spirit
Federico Fellini’s beautiful 1963 film “8 1/2” is an autobiographical story about a director, Guido, played by Marcello Mastroianni, who is trying to complete his new film. As he tries to escape pressures by entering a fantasy world, incidents in the film repeatedly link to childhood memories, showing how his Catholic upbringing shaped his life.
One scene involves an odd incantation. At a party, a magician performs with a clairvoyant who demonstrates her ability to read people’s thoughts. A skeptical Guido agrees to be a subject. The clairvoyant studies his face and then writes the words “ASA NISI MASA” on a blackboard. Fellini then cuts to a brief flashback of Guido’s childhood. “Asa Nisi Masa” is a bedtime chant the children would say, a phrase with the power to make the eyes of a wall portrait come to life.
The chant is children’s play language, pig Latin. When each second syllable is dropped, we have the word anima. Fellini was interested in the work of Carl Jung, who used the word anima to describe the personification of female characteristics in the male. It’s a reference to Guido’s confusion about women; the film shows how the many women in his life influence his thoughts and actions.
The word anima means soul or life force. It’s what gives zest and lift to our lives.
I head-over-heels befriended a young woman who lived upstairs from my first apartment in college. Her name was Christina. Her eyes flashed with wit and intelligence. She had an ironic mouth, a wry humor, a stalwart strength, a storming and irreverent mind. If the moon had a sister, Christina was the dark-haired and more stimulating of the two. Lost in the razzle-dazzle shock that is late adolescence, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had suddenly unfolded filmy butterfly wings and fluttered up off into the evening. I wanted nothing less than to gather her silver music, her darkness into my hands, and take tentative sips.
One summer evening when it was too hot indoors, we sat, Christina and I, in a back alleyway under a buzzing neon billboard and talked, just talked, until well past midnight, about things we discovered we both happened to treasure -- Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast fantasies, Captain Nemo, Ray Bradbury, calling butterflies “flutterbys,” about outrageous thoughts and madcap schemes. That she liked what I liked and thought funny what I chuckled at -- moreover that she even fancied, just like me, crunchy peanut butter spread over toast -- these were discoveries. Not only did I share the planet with mysterious creatures like her, but in important ways we were kith and kin.

We related to each other as equals. The one time I strayed from this footing, she lashed out at me expertly, with uncanny radar, demolishing me with a few well-chosen words.
We all have such encounters. Others are alluring, nurturing, enchanting -- and can be dangerous, just as nature is.
Ecofeminist Starhawk titles her blog “Dirt Worship.” It’s shocking, revealing the discontinuity in our religious views, and shows how reclaiming the feminine together with the sacredness of the natural word is a political act as well as a spiritual calling -- and it’s deeply healing in an ecological sense.
The split between spirit and nature, with “spirit” assigned to men and “body” to women, devalues not only women and female bodies, our source, but the natural world, also our source, and gives human beings license to destroy the very life-support systems that sustain us all. To heal that split, we embrace the deep value of this world, of life, flesh, nature, sexuality, emotion, intuition and all the nurturing aspects that have been assigned to women. This is what creation spirituality is all about. When we empower women, we also free men -- to hold their own bodies and sexuality as sacred, to reconnect with the Earth and their own loving, emotional and nurturing selves, to feel their passion.
When women can cherish the vulnerability of men as much as men can celebrate the strength of women, a new breed may lift a heavy yoke from us both. We all could breathe free, look life’s realities in the face, deal with them in an adult way, and stop recoiling from them like 50-, 60- or 70-year-old teenagers. Among the disruptions of our time, the strife between women and men takes heavy casualties -- families torn asunder, broken hearts, a wasteful drain of vitality, a Catholic church broken apart. It’s hard to see how the rift will mend.
After several decades of marriage, I am beginning to learn: When the light comes, it shines on a man who wishes to grow up before he grows too old. We can move into responsible masculinity -- and humbly discover what we’ve been missing.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune asked poet Robert Bly to propose activities for a National Day for Boys equivalent to Take Our Daughters to Work day. Bly suggested fathers take their sons off to the library and show them the books and play the music they love. Women have often been excluded from the work world, Bly noted. “I think it’s just as likely now that men will be shut out of the inward world.”

Asa nisi masa.



[Rich Heffern is editor of the Eco Catholic blog on NCR’s Web site at NCRonline.org/blogs/eco-catholic.]