In February’s Flash Sheet, I warned of the looming threat of proposed mega-projects which are being offered as a panacea to energy shortages, and to reduce global warming gases i.e. nuclear plants and dams in Quebec and Newfoundland/Labrador. This month I bring you an update on both issues. Rupert R...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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2003
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.626.5396 http://www.ncwc.ca/pdf/flash_6.pdf |
| Summary: | In February’s Flash Sheet, I warned of the looming threat of proposed mega-projects which are being offered as a panacea to energy shortages, and to reduce global warming gases i.e. nuclear plants and dams in Quebec and Newfoundland/Labrador. This month I bring you an update on both issues. Rupert River Diversion/Churchill Falls Dam Projects While Newfoundland’s Churchill Falls project is generating considerable controversy, with “two senior executives of the province’s power utility (having) resigned their posts after voting against a plan to build a $4 billion hydroelectric dam in Labrador, ” Quebec Hydro’s much more potentially devastating plans to dam the Rupert River, remain a non issue in the current election campaign, and are just beginning to feel the heat at evidence being presented in the lead up to the joint federal/provincial Environmental Assessment. This is quite shocking, given that not only is the Rupert River “one of the last great virgin rivers of North America ” 1., but also that, according to Martin Von Mirbach, Director of Forests and Bio-diversity for the Sierra Club of Canada, the flooding of 950 square kilometers, would result in a greater loss of forests than the collective forest loss across Canada, for at least the next ten years. 2. Nuclear Waste Disposal The Achilles heel of the nuclear industry and the cabal of “experts ” who promote nuclear as a “safe, clean |
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