Slett said her community has already seen what can happen after even a relatively small spill. Her community hasn’t been able to have a clam fishery for two years, after an American-owned tug and barge ran aground in October 2016, spilling about 110,000 litres of diesel.
“It was a matter of minutes before our beaches were contaminated and the damage was done,” she said.
She said if a diesel spill from a sunken barge can cause that much damage and take years to clean up, a major oil spill would be catastrophic. #bcpoli
Now scientists have demonstrated what obliterated the marine life:
rising temperatures accelerated the metabolisms of ocean creatures,
which increases their oxygen requirements, while simultaneously depleting the oceans of oxygen.
The animals literally suffocated.
And we’re experiencing similar atmospheric warming again today – only much faster than the Great Dying, which showed warning signs for 700,000 years before the event itself.
From: The Campaign to Protect Offshore Nova Scotia (CPONS) Date: May 30, 2016
We are writing to ask you to join a campaign addressing the
economic and environmental risks associated with decisions by the Canada
Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) approving exploratory
drilling activity in Nova Scotia’s offshore. The Campaign to Protect Offshore NS (CPONS) asserts that it is imperative and urgent that immediate action be taken to:
make the CNSOPB more broadly representative of the community;
develop a democratic, transparent and accountable decision-making process;
hold mandatory public hearings on key proposals with funding for
public interest intervention as well as testimony by independent expert
witnesses; and,
improve in-house capacity to ensure that scientifically credible
environmental and socioeconomic research is available to decision makers
and the community.
On October 20, 2015—one day after the federal election—many Nova
Scotians were caught by surprise when the CNSOPB granted Shell the right
to drill adjacent to fishing grounds. We need a process that upholds
the new Liberal government’s promise to “engage in appropriate
regulatory oversight, including credible environmental assessments”
based on their understanding that “[w]hile governments grant permits for
resource development, only communities can grant permission” (http://www.liberal.ca/realchange/environmental-assessments/ May 14, 2016)
Oil companies will cite statistics to argue that accidents in the
industry are few. Premier Stephen McNeil has claimed that Shell has a
strong safety and environmental record. But industry records tell a very
different story. The following sample of Shell accidents demonstrates
that Nova Scotian communities should not ignore the very real risks that
accompany offshore drilling:
