By Paul C. Paquet and Chris Genovali, Special To The Vancouver Sun
March 11, 2011
Although rarely considered, many human activities deprive wild animals of their life necessities by destroying or impoverishing their surroundings, causing suffering of individuals through displacement, stress, starvation, and diminished security. Yet, the notion that animal welfare applies to wildlife has escaped most people, including animal welfarists and conservationists alike.
In June 2010, Enbridge Inc. filed an application for its Northern Gateway Project with Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB). The proposed project includes twin pipelines running 1,172 kilometres over the rugged Coast and Rocky Mountains between a oilsands refinery hub near Edmonton, Alberta and a marine terminal near Kitimat, BC. One of the lines would carry oilsands crude to the north coast for export to energy-hungry Asian and American markets. The other would import highly toxic condensate.
To determine if the project is in the public interest and should be allowed to proceed, the NEB is conducting hearings to assess the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the proposed pipeline development. These are the supposed “three pillars of sustainable development”, but absent among the pillars is any consideration for the welfare of wild animals affected by the construction, presence, operation, and maintenance of the pipeline, or by the shipping of oil by supertankers. By using the faulty three legs of the stool as a model for sustainable development and decision making, the NEB perpetuates the myth that the environment is something apart from welfare of animals, humanity’s economy, and our social well-being. Humanity is once again placed outside the environment and the welfare of other species is completely ignored.
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Tags: Enbridge Northern Gateway, Enbridge threatens BC coast with oil spill risk, oil tankers threaten wildlife, wildlife needs animal welfare considerations
I’m afraid that a further answer to the question of why humans in general have no concern over the pain, fear, and death suffered by wildlife through human encroachment and environmental abuse is this: that most humans have for centuries now come to deny their intimacy with all other life and with the Earth herself. The facade of separation has served everyone ill ~ the Earth, which man has taken completely for granted; all animal species, the brethren whom we should serve as we serve ourselves; and our trees and other plants which are reaped without gratitude on the part of the majority of those who both reap and utilize. The greatest tragedy is modern man’s ignorance of the fact that every time an environment and all its denizens are violated, we violate ourselves and those we love equally ~ for we are nothing if we are not of the Earth and of each other, all species, all life.
Thank you once more for being, as always, another spiritual as well as a scientific voice in the world.
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