Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Sunday, December 08, 2013

Oilsands Environmental Impacts Growing, Says New Report

EDMONTON - A report by an environmental monitoring agency has found the variety of plants and animals in the oilsands area is largely healthy.

But the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, an agency funded by industry and government, has found that animals that prefer old-growth forests, such as marten, are deserting the region in favour of those such as coyotes, which are found everywhere.

In general, the institute found that about 94 per cent of the oilsands area still has the same birds, plants, bugs and animals that it did before development.

But some effects are becoming apparent.

About half the bird species surveyed that depend on old-growth forest are less abundant over the region than they would normally be.

As well, nearly one-third of the sites in the study showed invasive plant species.

The report also found the region is increasingly threaded through with disturbances such as lease roads and seismic lines.

Many animals refuse to come near those areas.

Less than half of the region is more than 200 metres away from some sign of human activity. Only five per cent of it is more than two kilometres away.

How this human activity is affecting the forest appears to be accelerating.

From 2007 to 2010, the last year studies in the report, the amount of impacted land increased by .7 per cent, 1.3 per cent, and 3.8 per cent.

It also said that land reclamation is not keeping pace with development.

The report steers clear of making predictions or forecasts, so it doesn't consider that the current level of development is about one-fifth what's planned for the oilsands.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca
Author: CP

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