http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080714.wboreal0714/BNStory/Science/home
Dalton McGuinty has a plan to combat climate change. This plan is to protect and shelter half of Ontario’s boreal forest away from mining and other types of projects. This area will be at least 225,000 square kilometres. This vast amount of land will be left restricted to tourism and traditional aboriginal uses.
With many countries all over the world hungry for Canada’s natural resources, it is absolutely necessary to draw a line between conservation and development. New Democrat MPP Gilles Bisson can agree to that however he thinks McGuinty is putting the plan out there too soon. There are few details in the plan right now and it’s something that will take several years to implement.
The boreal forest has not been disturbed by human activity since the glaciers retreated. With the growing pressure to continue mining exploration, as well as the forestry companies in search of more natural resources riches, planning for protection of it is absolutely necessary.
The government is also going to introduce legislation to reform mining laws in the fall. This is great because the Native leaders and ForestEthics in Ontario have been pressuring the government to change the mining laws for some time now.
I think this is an excellent idea. It’s wonderful to see our government take environmental protection and the native’s request into serious consideration. This is definitely heading in the right direction and the government seems to go at it with a great attitude. I would love to continue to see them work towards helping the environment and focusing on the needs of the natives. This will be the largest conservation commitment in Canada. It’s great to see the bar being consistently raising to protect the environment around the country.
What else do you think the government can do to help protect the environment in Canada? Do you think we should even protect the boreal forest or should we continue more exploration and search of natural resources? Opinions?
-VL
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1 comment:
great post, i agree with protecting the forest, i love the argument about retreating glaciers, no one ever thinks that far ahead, and it still is a valid concern. Your post was well documented and well expressed how come you dont express yourself more in class, haha jk :P
but ya, the environment should definitely be protected it's great for future causes, and this future is most likely in our life time. they say we only have 10 years before the effects are irreversible.
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