In B.C.’s forests, a debate over watershed science with lives and billions at stake

The environmental advocate was storm watching during the atmospheric river disaster that swamped southwestern British Columbia in November 2021.

Muirhead says that without a healthy forest to help absorb the excess water, it was gushing toward a creek near the Sunshine Coast community of Halfmoon Bay.

“It was just complete surface run-off,” he says.

Muirhead went to see what was happening near the outlet of the creek and found highway crews already working – water and debris had caused a “complete engineering failure” of a culvert and the road on top of it, he says.

It was one of at least six washouts along a 40-kilometre stretch between Halfmoon Bay and Gibsons, says Muirhead, who lives in neighbouring Roberts Creek. He’s the founder of the group Elphinstone Logging Focus, named after the local mountain.

“These culverts are undersized for climate-change conditions, with atmospheric river events,” he says. “All across the Sunshine Coast, the majority of them were designed and put in place in the 1950s, when the highway was engineered.”

Now, Muirhead says he’s worried about plans for additional logging on the slopes of Mount Elphinstone, about half an hour’s drive north of his home.

He’s not alone. |Read more https://lethbridgeherald.com/news/national-news/2024/03/17/in-bcs-forests-a-debate-over-watershed-science-with-lives-and-billions-at-stake/| lethbridgeherald.com/news/nati…

#bcpoli #environment #forestry #watershed #atmosphericRiver #logging #floods #disaster

Poilievre blasts carbon tax, boosts Higgs during N.B. swing

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stormed into New Brunswick Friday, building more momentum for his campaign to cancel the carbon tax, while also lending a much-needed hand to Premier Blaine Higgs.

Appearing at a Saint John gas station, Poilievre called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “cancel this heartless and cruel April 1st tax hike,” when the federal charge will increase from 14 to 17 cents per litre of gas.

But his main event was as the headliner at a $600-a-ticket fundraiser for the New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Party, which is facing a tough re-election fight later this year.

“Premier Higgs has joined with common sense conservatives across the country to axe the tax and tonight I will thank him and all New Brunswick Conservatives for locking arms with us on that,” Poilievre told reporters at the gas station on Bayside Drive.

The federal Conservative leader has opened a wide polling lead against the governing Trudeau Liberals nationally.

But provincially, Higgs has lagged behind the New Brunswick Liberals. The last Narrative Research poll showed 66 per cent of respondents were dissatisfied with his government’s performance. |Read more https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/polievre-carbon-tax-saint-john-new-brunswick-1.7145549| cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswi…

#cdnpoli #nbpoli #Higgs #Poilievre #dinner #support

Are religions simply cults that have gone mainstream?

The word “cult” often holds a negative connotation and is reserved for the unconventional religions we disapprove of. Cults are defined by charismatic leaders, traditions of secrecy or exclusivity, and toxic relationships or behaviors. Today’s religions maintain cult-like elements, but they are generally more open and try to minimize toxic behaviors.

How would you feel if your next-door neighbor was in a cult? What if your son or daughter came home to inform you they had joined a “community of like-minded people”?

In 2004, the theologian Paul Olson interviewed 2,400 randomly selected Nebraskans about how comfortable they would feel if their neighbor joined a cult or a new Christian church. More than 80% of respondents said they’d feel uncomfortable about living next door to a cultist, compared with only 6.1% disapproving of a new Christian church. It’s easy to imagine how they’d take the news coming from their child.

Olson’s aim was to show what sociologists have argued for some time: The word “cult” is laden with negative connotations. It’s used to denigrate and slander belief systems or wheeled out whenever some strange, secretive group is brought to light.

The historian J. Gordon Melton has even argued that cults are defined by illegitimacy; what we call a cult is a cult only if we disapprove of it and believe it to be beyond “proper” religion. And he has a point. At first blush, there is little separating a standard, organized religious group from a cult. Both demand metaphysical commitments, both involve some kind of leader or prophet, and both have followers of varying sizes. |Read more https://bigthink.com/thinking/are-religions-simply-cults-that-have-gone-mainstream/| bigthink.com/thinking/are-reli…

#cult #religion #abpoli #ucp #toxic #yeg