Toward a Greener Sustainable Lac-Simon?

After reading the first paragraphs of this article, I could not help but think that the different colored arrows (left) represent the various proposed developments (Ile Canard Blanc, Baie L'ours, Rang 4) and thinking of the municipality of Lac-Simon. - Paul

Toward a greener economy
Scientists seek a more sustainable model for growth
By Moises Velasquez-Manoff| Staff writer
October 15, 2008 edition
The Christian Science Monitor

Market bubbles occur when goods are traded at prices that greatly exceed real value. They burst when they grow so bloated that they become unstable. The current economic turmoil, widely viewed as the worst since 1929, is one example of what can happen when the difference between market value and actual value becomes too great.

Environmentally minded economists have long warned that equally burstable ecological bubbles can occur if humanity lives beyond earth’s capacity to regenerate. The problem, they say, is that we’re addicted to economic growth. Mainstream economics assumes that the economy, the engine of modern civilization, can grow perpetually.

But if growth means ever-increasing consumption of natural resources (and it has, since the start of the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago), then it can’t continue indefinitely. Earth and its resources are finite.

Herman Daly, an economist at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy in College Park, says that humanity is already at or beyond the point where economic growth is counterproductive, where the environmental and social costs more than cancel the gains.

“So-called ‘economic’ growth already has become uneconomic,” Professor Daly stated in a talk last spring. “The growth economy is failing.”

For some time, Daly and others have called for a rethinking and restructuring of our economy before nature restructures it for us. The notion of perpetual economic growth warrants scrutiny before it drives us over a cliff, they argue. The science of economics must be overhauled to better account for earth’s physical realities. Civilization won’t have to stop in its tracks, just shift emphasis, says Daly. The “steady state economy” he foresees emphasizes qualitative development over quantitative growth. “Growth is more of the same stuff,” he says. “Development is the same amount of better stuff.” MORE >>>

Environmentalist James Gustave Speth @ McGill

Rampant consumerism must be checked, Speth says
By Neale McDevitt
October 21, 2008
McGill Reporter

Flu season may be just around the corner, but environmental activist James Gustave Speth says we have a new scourge to watch for: “afluenza,” a virulent strain of consumerism that, if left unchecked, may prove fatal to our planet.

Delivering his 2008 Beatty Memorial Lecture to a full house at the Centre Mount Royal Auditorium on Oct. 18, the Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University said rampant capitalism is the chief culprit behind the degradation of the environment to the point where the planet’s ability to sustain life has been seriously undermined.

But the wheels of capitalism don’t churn by themselves. Speth listed a variety of accomplices to this ongoing environmental crime:

• Powerful corporate entities whose overriding objective is to grow profits regardless of the effect on the natural world;
  
• continual investment in technologies originally designed with little or no thought to the environment;
  
• markets that systematically fail to recognize environmental costs unless they are legislated to do so by government;
  
• governments that are subservient to corporate entities;
  
• and run-away consumerism spurred by sophisticated advertising and marketing – all have had a hand in ramping up capitalism and consumption to frenzied, and dangerous, levels.

“It took all of history to grow the $7-trillion world economy that we had when I was a little boy in 1950,” he said. “But how long does it take to add another $7-trillion to world economic activity today? Less than a decade.

“We have created a huge economic machine that is profoundly committed to profits and growth and almost totally indifferent to nature and society,” he continued. “Left unchecked it is both ruthless and rapacious.”

But, according to Speth, to cage the ruthless beast will require nothing short of a revolution.

First, he said, people must challenge the “growth fetish.” The heedless accumulation of goods and property must be tempered by newly conceived markets in which prices are driven upward to reflect the true environmental impact of products. “Polluters must pay,” Speth said.

Second, we must move toward a kinder, gentler “post-growth life” of improved health care for everyone, better education, shorter work weeks and longer vacations. Citing philosopher John Stuart Mill, Speth said we must go back to the future and re-devote ourselves to “improve the art of living.”

“Materialism is toxic to happiness,” he said. “We must look forward to the day we can get off the treadmill of this hyperventilating lifestyle.”

While Speth was quick to admit he doesn’t have the answers to the question how do we get from here to there, he did suggest it would probably take a series of events to serve as a catalyst for change. We will need a powerful grassroots movement or a proliferation of mold-breaking movements that would galvanize people. We will need a crisis or the semblance of an imminent crisis, and we will need leaders who aren’t afraid to talk about sacrifice and giving up luxuries, leaders who are able to “articulate a new story.” When asked if such a leader exists, Speth tipped his electoral hand and said: “Wait ’til November.”

“Our best hope for real change is a fusion of those concerned about the environment, of those concerned about justice and fairness, and those concerned about building strong political democracy,” he said. “The fusion of these things will create one powerful, progressive force. We’ve got to remember that we are all in a community of shared faith. We are all in the same boat and we will rise or fall together.”

At the end of his lecture Speth spoke directly to the students in the audience to step forward and take action.

“This is your world. Get active before it is too late. If there is a period to look for guidance, it is the 1960s and the Civil Rights movement. People struggled, people took risks and after 40 years I think it is time we followed in the footsteps of Dr. King.

“There is too much at stake to sit on the sidelines.”

Where is Lac-Simon Green Leadership?

~LEADERSHIP VERT MAINTENANT~

~GREEN LEADERSHIP NOW~

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Here is an excerpt of a October 24 commentary by David Suzuki in The National Post:

Not only is the environment not a separate issue from the economy, it is not separate from us. We are the environment. We don’t stand outside or on top if it; we are part of it and it is part of us. Without a healthy environment, we can not have a healthy economy. Our health-care system will become increasingly more burdened as more people suffer from environmental health problems. One only has to look at skyrocketing asthma rates among children to recognize this.

Caring for the environment means caring for ourselves and all the living things we share this finite planet with. And it makes good economic sense. Basing our economy on fossil fuels is not only foolhardy from an environmental perspective; it’s not a good long-term strategy for the economy or energy security either. While other nations switch to renewable energy and focus on energy conservation, growing their economies with new technologies, we will get left behind, as demand for fossil fuels drops and the oil starts to run out.

We can argue all we want about taxation and social programs and infrastructure and government regulation, but environmental protection should not be tossed around for political expediency.

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Meet Green Thing
Do The Green Thing


Green Thing - Huddle


November's Green Thing: Glow-in-the-dark Thing

Directeur Général des élections du Québec II

Update 8:00 am: Names added to electoral list = 242.

Update 4:00 pm: The General Director has confirmed that the electoral list will be updated accordingly.
Update 1:00 pm: I have been advised that the General Director has found the missing forms & electoral list! I presume that the municipalité de Lac-Simon's electoral list will reflect this miracle.
- Paul

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Un scrutin sera tenu dimanche le 9 novembre de 10h00 a 20h00 a la caserne incendie.
Les votes par anticipation est le dimanche le 2 novembre de 12h00 a 20h00 a la caserne incendie.
Les candidates pour le poste # 4 sont:

1. Yolande Massie 474 ch Tour du Lac
2. Claude Pigeon 598 ch Azarie
3. Muguette Tremblay 999 rt 321
   

SVP verifier si votre nom est sur la liste electorale par telephone a la municipalite 819 428 3906

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Directeur général des élections du Québec
Édifice René-Lévesque
3460, rue de La Pérade
Québec (Québec)
G1X 3Y5

RE: municipalité de Lac-Simon
849, chemin Tour-du-Lac
Lac-Simon, Chénéville (Québec) J0V 1E0

Subect: municipalité de Lac-Simon November 9 by-election


Directeur général des élections du Québec,

On October 20, 2008 the municipalité de Lac-Simon published an outdated electoral list. As a result, I and several hundred citizens have been excluded from voting in the municipal by-elections scheduled for November 9, 2008.

During summer 2007, the municipalité de Lac-Simon electoral list grew from approximately 800 to 1400 names. It appears that the municipalité de Lac-Simon has published an electoral list that excludes up to 600 citizens.

If these new names were good for the referendum vote on september 2 2007, should they not be good enough for the by-election vote on November 9 2008?

First, I submit that the "instructions" the new General Director Jacques Leblond is getting from maire Serge Thivierge are wrong. The municipalité de Lac-Simon maire Serge Thivierge is not only obstructing my right to vote but also several hundred other citizens.

Second, I submit that maire Serge Thivierge has not been independent and impartial in the performance of his duties, again.

The new General Director Jacques Leblond was hired on January 1, 2008. He might not know that the:

1) 2007 registration forms for "persone unique" stated:

"Demande d'inscription a la liste electorale et referendaire municipale par un proprietaire unique d'un immeuble ou par un occupant unique d'un etablissement d'entreprise

2) 2007 registration forms for "coproprietaire" stated:

"procuration generale pour designer le coproprietaire indivis d'un immeuble ou le cooccupant d,un etablissement d entreprise personnes ayant le droit d,etre inscrites sur la liste electorale municipale et referendaire."

Clearly, citizens registered their names for both "electorale municipale et referendaire". Moreover the hundreds of registration forms and the September elector list are under lock & key in the municipal offices.

We request that the Directeur général des élections du Québec demand that:

1. All citizens whose names appeared on the electoral list for the 2007 referendum be included on the electoral list for the Municipality of Lac-Simon for the by-election vote on November 9 2008.
2. General Director Jacques Leblond be the guarantor of an independent and impartial election.
3. All parties conduct themselves in the highest of electoral standards.
   

I hope that this problem is rectified immediately.

Thanking you in advance.

Sincerely,

Paul Malouf

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see July 10, 2007 letter re: referendum 2007

Directeur général des élections du Québec

Rang 4 Lac Barriere: Development or Destruction?

Protect streams - Keep 10 meter buffer!

Another Development or more senseless Destruction?
Along Rang 4; Overlooking lac Barriere

Along Rang 4, just 1 km from the Municipal offices!
The access hill is steep - firetrucks, snowplows & cars would have a hard time in winter conditions.
...How steep? ...so steep that Municipality has adopted a new bylaw on roads on October 1!

Main road along the summit, provides access to three mini roads
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Stream 1
Stream 1 -source of stream &/or marsh land destroyed by main access road?
Where is the second culvert?

Stream 1 - stream &/or marsh land destroyed by main access road?

Stream 1 - stream destroyed by main access road?

Stream 1 - a malfunctioning culvert?

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Stream 2

Driveway & Stream 2

Stream 2 - a malfunctioning culvert?

Stream 2 - a malfunctioning culvert? ...a closer view

Stream 2 - stream &/or marsh land destroyed?

Stream 2 - stream &/or marsh land destroyed?

Stream 2 - stream &/or marsh land destroyed?

Stream 2 - stream &/or marsh land destroyed?

Stream 2 - a stream destroyed?

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The contractor & a tool of destruction

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An example of an actual building site
One of 5 new building lots?

Clear cut slope

Clear cutting of the forest below the slope

~NOT ACCEPTABLE~
~NOT SUSTAINABLE~

Ministère du Développement durable de l'Environnement et des Parcs
Direction régionale de l'Outaouais
98, rue Lois
Gatineau (Québec) J8Y 3R7

RE: Rang 4 Development or more senseless Destruction?

NO to damaged water source.
NO to Developer incompetence.
NO to Municipal incompetence.

There must be a Responsibility to Protect: Water - "R2P:W"

Paul Malouf

ONE LAKE - ONE FUTURE - ONE CHANCE

New Road Extends into Wetlands?

Protect streams & marshes - Keep 10 meter buffer!

New road extends longer than necessary into wetlands?

~NOT ACCEPTABLE~

~NOT SUSTAINABLE~

New Road Endangers Fragile Pristine Lake?

Protect streams - Keep 10 meter buffer!

A road built
A stream damaged and a lake threatened
The water from this tranquil & petite lake, flows 2 kms, under route 315, & empties into Lac Barriere between "Canal st" & Air Canada.

New road approaches stream & small lake

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Stream 1

The road destroys stream, lots of erosion!

The road destroys stream, no culvert!

The road destroys stream, lots of erosion!

Looking up stream, water blocked by road

Clear cutting along road and water!

Tree cutting within around small lake

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Stream 2
a little further along road

Clear cutting around marshlands?

Clear cutting?

Clear cutting around marshlands?

Tree cutting within 10 meters from small lake

~NOT ACCEPTABLE~
~NOT SUSTAINABLE~

Ministère du Développement durable de l'Environnement et des Parcs
Direction régionale de l'Outaouais
98, rue Lois
Gatineau (Québec) J8Y 3R7

RE: New Road Endangers Fragile Pristine Lake?

NO to damaged water source.
NO to Developer incompetence.
NO to Municipal incompetence.

There must be a Responsibility to Protect: Water - "R2P:W"

Paul Malouf

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Questions
Where is the authority of the municipalité de Lac-Simon?
Have the permits been issued?
Where is Maire Serge Thivierge?
Where is municipal inspector?

ONE LAKE - ONE FUTURE - ONE CHANCE