As for you changing my mind, you won’t. I’m surprised that anyone classifying themselves as an “environmental consultant” would ever type a sentence as ridiculous as “Not to diminish the importance of wetlands and other pre-existing ecosystems in the area, but there is not a whole lot of ‘beauty’ up there.” Seriously? Let me get this straight: You’re suggesting we forget about these wetlands and ecosystems in the area because you don’t think it’s beautiful? Shame on you, Ira. All natural areas play a precious role in the ecosystem – to me, there’s nothing more gorgeous than large expanses of Earth that have remained un-touched by man for millions of years. They’re few and far between. How dare we enter them, pillage the land, and then retreat back to the cities?

I haven’t been to the area that’s presently being damaged, but I have done my own research into what parts of it presently look like (check the aerial shots shown in the film HOME, which you can watch in its entirety here: http://www.youtube.com/user/homeproject – they actually made me feel ill to my stomach). While I did indeed grow up in a city, my connection with nature is one that I’ve spent a lifetime developing. You seem to suggest that I’m viewing things through a “disconnect from the realities of our relationship with nature,” but I never once forget that relationship is one in which we each have and make choices within. Alberta’s making a choice to destroy areas that shouldn’t be destroyed, and despite your suggestions otherwise, I CHOOSE not to stay silent on that, and I CHOOSE to make as small an impact as I can.

I do not own a car, nor do I want one. Calgary’s a big city, but I can cycle across it in a couple of hours if I need to. I do not buy food products whose packaging I cannot recycle. It’s not out of Canadian nationalism that I focus first on purchasing things made in my home country either — it’s about transport of those items, and even some further desire to be closer connected to the land where I live. I keep a garden in my backyard, as well as a large compost. I look forward to installing solar panels on my home by this summer. Woodpigeon has toured extensively through Europe without a vehicle, instead traveling by rail (and in the process, I’ve been interviewed by more than one publication on sustainable touring – in full realization that we do indeed FLY over the ocean to make it happen, but take other steps to reduce our impact once we’ve arrived).

Yes, “humans are going to make an impact on this earth simply by our very existance [sic],” Ira, but we can help determine what that impact is by the choices we make.

As for wading the Muskeg, I’d love to … before “environmental consultants” like yourself determine it’s A-OK for them to vanish from the face of the Earth. Personally, I prefer to embrace and protect what we have now vs. imagining some sort of guilt-free future lived “into the stars.”

next time you play calgary, MANN HARDEN is opening!

cheers, jann