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Premier agrees to allow logging in BC parks

I’m breaking my blog-silence to point out this appalling news: the premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell, has agreed to allowing forest companies to log BC Parks. The excuse, for now, is that it will stop the spread of pine beetles.

However, Barry Dobbin, the forests ministry’s assistant bark-beetle coordinator, admits that logging won’t help fight beetle infestations, and Joe Foy of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee feels that the premier actually wants large-scale logging operations in the parks.

This is about a year after the same government announced the “working forest” strategy, in which all forests in BC (except parks) would be “open for business”. Now, apparently, the parks — which include some of the last examples of untouched rainforest — are on the chopping block too. Or, more accurately, they’ll become chopping blocks and many other fine commercial products.

Here are the links. First, the pro-business perspective from Canada.com:

B.C. parks, forests ministry will combat bark beetles

And the independent media perspective:

Premier’s Agenda to Log BC Parks Shocks Environmental Community

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Off the wagon again

I said I’d stop playing Second Life. I was wrong. I couldn’t stay away. Now I’m playing it nightly.

Last night I built a 3-D model of a biplane and won 100 bucks for it in a contest. That’s a hundred “Linden dollars”–play money. Oh, but it will help me build bigger and better things. Things that I can sell for more Linden dollars.

To keep things in perspective, I’m not as addicted as my neighbour, Lola. She’s a pixie who owns a patch of land on the same hill as me in the Second Life sim. On the weekend, she spent twelve hours straight working on a tank. That’s dedication.

So if you’re wondering where I am, I’m probably building airplanes in the sim. Huh? What time is it? I forgot to sleep again.

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Decay

burned-out houseAs I surfed the web last night, I head a tremendous crack and a thunk. No, it wasn’t my brain finally coming loose and hitting the floor. Across the road, the top of a tree blew down in the gusting wind. It landed in the yard next to it, missing the dog.

This is just another step in the decay of the abandoned house across the street. Almost a year ago, an arsonist set fire to the back of the house, which gutted it and badly singed the tree. Since then, the house has sat empty with wide-open broken windows. I’m astonished that nobody has torn it down or begun renovations. I’m also astonished that it hasn’t turned into a crack house.

Once upon a time, this was a lively, thriving residential neighbourhood.

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Feeling the Burn

'Orbital Burn' by K A BedfordIt’s here. The friendly neighbourhood postie just dropped off the much-anticipated hardcover copy of Adrian’s novel. In the words of the immortal Homer, “whoo hoo!”. And now, I read.

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A question of procedure

If you keep a bag of chips in your desk’s file drawer, do you file it under “C” for “chips” or “M” for “Miss Vickie’s”? Or maybe it should go under “Y” for “yum”.