Monday, November 7, 2016

The Trouble With NGO's

From my archive, here is one from July 1, 2015 that was published in the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal.


I am continually baffled as to why Non-Government Organisations (NGO's) such as the Wildlands League and people such as Anna Baggio, both based in that bastion of Environmental Purity called Toronto, are allowed to hammer us who live in the north unchallenged. What is especially galling is the hyperbole supported by little fact that is promoted by our own media sources and calling this “news”.

Debate is essential for informed decisions to be made but when the only view presented is by groups who have no interest in the area and whose stated goals are no development how can unbiased decision making be done? Take for example the statement that “they are changing the landscape and that’s disrupting the landscape”. Well, Duh! Has anyone ever looked at any form of human development and not seen change? But better yet look at the high resolution images available on Google Maps or Google Earth of the area in question: 


And see for yourself the “surprising” changes that have taken place to the landscape, one dominated by string bog and sparse tree vegetation and still showing the effects of the last glaciation eons ago. I for one am surprised there is as little evidence of human occupation as there is considering that this is the location of chromite deposits of such magnitude there are few others in the world of equal scale or importance.

To me what is shocking is people like this continue to try and tell us who live in the North how to live our lives when they live in, and promote the truly mind-numbing devastating changes to the landscape urbanisation has wrought on Southern Ontario. This is certainly not helped when even our political leaders say they “want to do it right” and so do nothing because how can you prove they did anything wrong?

It is time that our local media, including the Chronicle Journal, start publishing the truth and stop letting a very vocal minority that rely on half-truths and hyperbole have free rein on telling us how to live our lives, the people who have to live with any change that takes place and thus have a vested interest in actually doing the right things in the first place! 

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I don't want to live in a bubble so if you have a different take or can suggest a different source of information go for it!