Dear Editor:
When we think about the risks of moving more fossil fuels through B.C., do we keep all factors in mind?
A recent letter to the local press conceded that accidents do still occur but pointed to the steadily improving track record of oil tankers.
Yet the writer was entirely silent on the increased potential for accidents that surely will come with the huge increase in tanker traffic planned for our waters. Nobody plans to have an accident, of course, yet increased shipping steeply raises the odds that we'll have one, and it takes just one major accident to dramatically change a locale - the Halifax Explosion comes to mind.
Tanker traffic isn't the only worry. There are few fires in the port of Vancouver, which has a good safety record. Even so, accidents will happen, and a fire at a pumping station could have a big impact on both port and city.
The risks don't end with port accidents. Consider the use of pipelines to transport oil or bitumen across the province on route to foreign markets.
The oil pipeline accident of 2010 on the Kalamazoo River took four years to clean up.
Doubtless Enbridge's secret security plans anticipate a range of potential mishaps. The pipeline accident that took place a while back in Burnaby was just a foretaste of what could be ahead for the Lower Mainland.
On top of all this, we should step up to the biggest risk of all, for our children's future: it's not just about transporting fossil fuels, but also about burning them.
Scientists agree that further reliance on fossil fuels means coming catastrophe for life on our planet.
Human induced climate change will result in severe disruption of our agriculture and mass extinction of other species.
We know this and must take action now to mitigate what we've done.
For this we need government that is neither small "c" conservative or little "l" liberal.
What we need is Green government, and we need it as soon as we can vote it in.
David W.G. Macdonald, Burnaby
