ENVIRONMENTAL NEEDS CAN'T BE DISMISSED

Re: “Job killers on a roll.” I read Ken Mallett’s anti-environment rant (June 24 letter). I am appalled that, in this day and age, someone would actually decry the activities of people who are trying to reduce the harm and destruction that uncontrolled development and resource extraction are inflicting on the planet and our province.

Owls Head has been saved. I have kayaked there many times, and was awed by this pristine and rare ecosystem with its eel-grass and kelp forests, where precious nutrients are produced, waste neutralized, carbon stored, and oxygen produced.

It’s not small groups of protesters; the vast majority of Nova Scotians, as well as most people in the Owls Head environs, welcome its designation as a provincial park.

With the now-defunct golf course project, we have indeed dodged a bullet that would have provided at most two dozen seasonal jobs and contaminated the marine environment with toxic fertilizers and herbicides. Another bullet was dodged when the Alton Gas storage project was abandoned; that would have caused probably irreparable harm to the Shubenacadie River environment.

Like it or not, protecting the environment is here to stay, if we ourselves are to survive. We are fortunate to have such valuable and fragile wilderness and riverine areas here, and they must be protected.

Nobody is saying that industry can’t be developed and supported; of course it must. But it must be regulated, and scaled to what the environment can handle. (But why would Mr. Mallett want to get rid of Michelin?)

I’d strongly suggest that Mr. Mallett do some serious research on environmental issues; he may be very surprised at what he learns.

Charles Carey, Halifax