The Haida's Lousy Eco-Bet

Read between the lines in the financing agreement between the Haida and the North Coast Credit Union and it appears the Old Massett Village council's $2.5-million gambit was a scheme to generate lucrative carbon credits to flog on world markets.

Too bad the band council and their partner, controversial carbon credit entrepreneur, Russ George, didn't take into account the Haida eddies in their plans to dump 200,000 pounds of iron sulphate into the north Pacific waters.   Those eddies literally wash away any possible hope of gaining carbon credits for their illegal scheme.

The Haida eddies, clockwise-rotating areas of water up to 300 kilometres in diameter, are known to carry iron-rich coastal water out to sea, where there is less iron and therefore less ocean life. The eddies form off the southern tip of the island and become highly concentrated with phytoplankton and chlorophyll, which is readily visible as a “bloom” from satellites as they travel through the northeast Pacific.

But experts also say adding iron to this particular ocean region would obscure any data collected by the salmon restoration company because it would be impossible to tell if any growth in fish food — plankton — was a result of added iron or the eddies.

“If you were going to plan to do an experiment to demonstrate the impact of iron fertilization, you wouldn’t dump it into a Haida eddy, I don’t think,” said Jay Cullen, an ocean scientist who runs a lab at the University of Victoria that studies chemicals and trace metals in marine environments.

“If a group were to fertilize such a feature with iron, it would be next to impossible to determine how productivity and phytoplankton biomass was influenced by the treatment,” he said, calling it “bad scientific design.”

So this appears to be another hare-brained stunt for Russ George that may leave the Old Massett Village band stiffed with a $2.5-million headache.
 

The Rats Scurry for Cover

Russ George must be wondering where everybody went.   The rogue geoengineer behind the dumping of 100-tonnes of iron sulphate off the Charlottes in July suddenly doesn't have all the friends he had just a few months back.

Harper EnviroShill Peter Kent says he only learned about it just this week.   Oh my goodness, gosh, how could this have happened right under Pete's nose?

Kent, responding to questions in Parliament, said spreading iron on the ocean appears to be illegal.

"Environment Canada was not asked to approve this apparent violation of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act," Kent said.

"Anyone who contravenes environmental law should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

Adam Sweet, Kent's press hack, said his boss was entirely in the dark.   "Until three days ago, this matter had not been elevated to the minister's attention. Upon being notified, he immediately sought answers into the scope of Environment Canada's involvement."

It had "not been elevated" to Kent's attention which suggests that someone at EnviroCan knew about it but kept it from the minister.   Really?  This is the same shill who is running cover for the proposed supertanker traffic through B.C.'s treacherous coastal waters, right?  And he's utterly clueless about what's going on in those waters, right?

Green Party leader Elizabeth May pointed out the painfully obvious, "This incident should be a wakeup call that we don't have a handle on this."

And the Haida who, by some accounts, may have shelled out up to $2.5-million for the dumping experiment, are likewise running for cover.

On Haida Gwaii, where the Council of Haida Nations prides itself on environ-mental responsibility, hereditary chiefs and Guu-jaw, president of the Haida Nation, distanced themselves from the experiment, which was approved by Old Massett village council.

"The Hereditary Chiefs Council and the Council of the Haida Nation are in no way involved in artificial fertilization through dumping of iron compounds in the ocean around Haida Gwaii," said a council statement.

"The consequences of tampering with nature at this scale are not predictable and pose unacceptable risks to the marine environment. Our people, along with the rest of humanity, depend on the oceans and cannot leave the fate of the oceans to the whim of the few."

They knew, they all bloody well knew.   The Harper EnviroMin staff knew.   The Harper FisheriesMin staff knew.   The Haida bloody well knew and ponied up big bucks to fund the dumping.

Here's something to keep in mind.   If this experiment was a great success, you wouldn't be hearing the feet of so many rats scurrying down the sewers.  Remember what JFK said?   "Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan."   The orphan in this fiasco is wannabe geo-engineer Russ George.