What a world. Hey, how ya doin’? Things are going pretty crazy these days. I’m seeing a lot of Québec trucks loaded with Ontario trees. It almost seems like open season to destroy any and all forest in our area. Our government doesn’t like small farms, so it’s go big or go home.
When I first started protesting for the trees, a very dear friend – his name was Stewy – told me that there were two important things about farmers: one, they don’t like being told what to do; second, they like being under the radar. Personally, I’d like to put them under a microscope. I know it’s their land, but it’s our air, our water, our very existence, and trees play an integral part.
I just wish we would recognize that trees are a life form, a sentient being that breathes air, drinks water, communicates amongst themselves; they have their young and, yes, they have memories. As for working, they out-work any creature on the planet. Yes, any creature.
Our new government has to grow powerful and quickly, after decades of governments both Conservative and Liberal lulled into a false sense of security living next to the most powerful country in the world. The honeymoon is over. We have to fend for ourselves, but at what cost to the environment? It seems the gloves are off and anything goes.
The protection of wetlands has been loosened, there are pipelines to B.C. and Ontario, nuclear reactors with nuclear waste, major mining across the country, and let’s not forget AI data centres: they are hard on water as a coolant and hard on electricity. Kind of reminds me of the tar sands’ three barrels of waste to one barrel of oil. And, yes, the tailings ponds are still leaking. And let’s not forget the train that no one wants – no one but the rich in the cities, who have no land to lose.
We must stand up for ourselves and try to protect what little environment we have left because no one in our government will help us. Like the old song goes, “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”
It’s worth fighting for.
Andy Perrault
