Wil's Rant

The battle over logging on the Queen Charlotte Islands is heating up as the Haida are now setting up blockades. It's kind of hard not to side with the Haida on this one. I trust the big logging companies only slightly more than I trust the politicians. I think the law should force all of us to listen to the first nations peoples when considering the development of natural resources. They are, after, all, the experts on long term sustainable use of those same resources. A record European based society has failed to achieve or re-create.

Meanwhile, the Fraser River salmon fishery is expected to completely fail over the next couple of years. Remember my comments on the Haida? First nations peoples have fished those same salmon for many thousands of years without ever having a negative affect on the stocks while our society has managed to wipe them out in less than 50 years. The world has the knowledge now to stop things like this. Between the knowledge of groups like the first nations peoples added to the new technologies that have already been developed, we could very much slow down the rate of destruction that we are now creating. We must only have the will and the foresight.