Blog

Canada – Oh how I appreciate our natural wealth

SMV Energy Solutions Blog

I think I live in one of the most beautiful wild countries in the world. I enjoy experiencing its great diversity on a large and small scale, from one end of the country to the other, and the wilderness that speaks of the land and the sky. I enjoy every season, especially winter.

One of the great Canadian wonders is the great boreal forest that is one of the Earth’s lungs. I saved a $100 bill from the last cotton fibre issue (2001), not the current polymer bills in circulation, because on the back of Prime Minister Borden, there is a map of Canada showing the rainforest of British Columbia, and the boreal forest that sweeps a large area from northern British Columbia to Quebec and Labrador. Canada is a big country, so the area of the great boreal forest is huge.

Sadly, human nature being what it is, whenever something is so plentiful beyond imagination, it is abused and wasted. The boreal forest is logged, cleanly removed for mining, and extensive infrastructure that fragments the forest. Although the boreal forest looks like it is big enough to withstand this constant abuse from so many directions, it cannot. The forest is finite.

You don’t have to go far in history to see how in the 1800’s, 60 million bison were reduced to just 1,000 in in a period of eighty years. These, too, would have become extinct without an action to protect them as private property. Unfortunately, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon did not have a conservationist-minded protector. Within a short period of time, they went from being too many to count to extinct.

That is why energy conservation and greater energy efficiency help to tread lightly on our planet, and save money at the same time. Higher prices are needed to change people’s behavior to value the wilderness, as it is more valuable alive and intact than dead and gone.

Sharolyn Mathieu Vettese

President,

SMV Energy Solutions

www.smvholdings.ca

Share

web site development by SeeThrough Web