And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 09:45:28 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Arctic fossil forest excavation US approves
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Saturday, July 17, 1999
Ottawa approves U.S. excavation of Arctic fossil forest
Located on Axel Heiberg: Warnings that project is potentially
destructive
Ed Struzik
The Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON - A 45-million-year-old fossil forest in the High Arctic targeted
for United Nations World Heritage status is being excavated by a team of
American scientists despite warnings from both inside and outside the
Canadian government that the project is potentially destructive.
Now federal officials are scrambling to assess how the project got
approved, whether it represents a serious threat to the integrity of the
site, and how a senior Canadian scientist working on the site for 15 years
may have been displaced by the decision to allow the Americans in.
"It tears at the soul to see this happening," said University of
Saskatchewan scientist James Basinger who was stunned to learn that the
Americans were on the scene. "This basically puts an end to my work here.
But what really worries me is what this is doing to the fossil forest, and
what message it sends to other Canadian scientists who have been doing
long-term polar research. Can Canadian polar science, which has been
operating on a shoe-string budget, be replaced by much better funded big
science from outside the country? Is our natural heritage for sale?"
The forest is located on Axel Heiberg, an uninhabited island covered by
mountainous glaciers and huge expanses of polar desert. Discovered in 1985,
it is now recognized as one of the largest, oldest, and most exquisitely
preserved fossil sites of its kind.
More than 1,000 stumps and tree trunks have been mapped from a time when
the polar region was warm enough to produce dawn redwood swamps and boreal
forest uplands inhabited by rhinoceros-like creatures and alligators.
Recognizing the international significance, a committee of federal and
territorial officials was struck in 1997 to investigate National Historic
Site and World Heritage status.
The American team is attempting to reconstruct the climatic, atmospheric,
and environmental conditions that allowed for the evolution of a such a
forest in the extreme polar regions.
Art Johnson, the project director and a University of Pennsylvania
ecologist, insists almost everything pulled from the ground will be
photographed, pieced back together, tagged, and put back into the ground.
No one is contending the validity of the American science. The fear is that
the forest will be sacrificed for the science.
"I'm not sure that this level of excavation is required to get the
information they're looking for," said Prof. Basinger. "But I'm not the one
to judge this. I think this should be declared a National Historic Site,
and a board of experts should be set up to manage both the science and the
tourism that goes on at the site."
The Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI), an agency of the Canadian
Heritage Department, has warned of the fragility of the site.
"Obviously, the message never got through for reasons that are not yet
clear," said Bill Peters, Canadian Heritage director-general. "We're
concerned about the major intervention that is going on at the site. We
have to add that as yet, we only have unverified reports as to what is
going on at the site. Until we can do that, there's not much we can do."
Ian Stirling, one of Canada's most senior polar scientists, said the issue
could be a defining moment for the way future polar science is conducted
and supported.
"I simply don't understand how a permit could be given to conduct research
that might be destructive on an Arctic site of such enormous scientific
importance without a full assessment of the methods and their potential
environmental impact."
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
807-622-5407
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
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UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE
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