Reversing environmental harm starts with elected officials

By Letter to the Editor on August 26, 2020.

The Herald of Aug. 12 was interesting. We learned the town of Bow Island has been fined $10,000 and a former town employee sentenced to six months in jail, for failing to monitor the “safety of the community’s water distribution system.”

Over a few pages, Monica Field’s opinion piece informed us that the price of progress included as collateral damage “destructive land-use practices and development expanded through the headwaters of the Oldman River,” further adding that natural water has “become nothing more than a low-value commodity.” I agree, the way many legislators think of and deal with our natural resources is deplorable.

Grant R. Harrington, in his letter to the editor “What to do next,” instructs that “we must protect what we have now to survive and be ready to prosper.” All pertinent words spoken by good people who’ve taken the time to concern themselves.

A few days prior to the above words being spoken, I took pictures of a dumpster at a construction site in Copperwood, overflowing with cardboard, wiring, plastic pipe, drywall, plywood and copious beautiful clear-as-a-bell wooden pallets, all recyclable, all going to the dump – Lethbridge’s “precious landfill”! I sent those pictures with a letter explaining my disgust to a favoured councillor. I’ve heard nothing.

Seems to me the evidence is pretty clear. There’s a law with no teeth for monolithic, rich, unanswerable companies getting a pass for the unbelievable harm they’re doing and another with a thumb on the little guy on the street guilt-tripped if he/she don’t rinse those soup cans and cut cardboard into the appropriate size and sort it as per forced prescription.

This planet is on a trajectory that’s unquestionably impacting future generations, stemming from repeated fouling and degradation of our water resource, our soil resource and the air we breathe. The future does not look healthy. Why are we so bad at taking care of our environment? Reversal is doable. Let me suggest we start with our elected representatives becoming concerned enough they respond to a letter crying for an end to these destructive environmental calamities.

Alvin W. Shier

Lethbridge