Another day, another lawsuit filed against an energy company. As though hurling rocks at an approaching tank, environmentalists and Aboriginal groups filed a fistful of federal writs aimed at the recently approved LNG project near Prince Rupert.
If the federal government approves the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion – or frankly, any project that poses an environmental risk – similar court battles will likely ensue.
It’s a peculiar time when edicts from elected governments are merely a prelude to the judgment of the courts.
But if these lawsuits seem annoying, maybe we should be annoyed more often.
The Earth’s animal population declined nearly 60 per cent in the last 45 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Most of the devastation is due to land being cleared but climate change also contributes heavily.
When making decisions that will shape Canada’s environment and economy, we hope judges will be mindful of the potential for human error in any endeavour.
A few months back, a prominent medical journal released a report suggesting the third leading cause of death in the United States is medical error.
More recently, we saw a tugboat run aground off Bella Bella.
A CBC crew observed a slick that stretched for kilometres. But what was most astounding about the spill was how much worse it could have been.
The tug could have been towing a barge that was topped up with fuel, and a crew could have towed the breached tug immediately, slopping diesel along our coast.
We were lucky. We shouldn’t expect to stay lucky.
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