To the Editor,
I am hoping my letter reaches corporate CEOs, especially the ones running logging and mining companies.
As I write this letter, in the midst of a summer heat wave, I’m dying of heat exhaustion. Others are dying in forest fires or floods. But business around us is carried on as usual: logging trucks going by with their old-growth cargo, police arresting Indigenous people trying to protect their ancestral lands, and politicians mostly turning a blind eye.
Birds have disappeared from my yard. Only a few bees swarm around the late blooming bush, that used to be covered with them. And where are the bears, have they all died, or have they been shot dead? By late August I had not seen even one this year. They used to fish at Victoria Quay, or wander around Kitsuksis Dyke walkway, guaranteed sightings at dusk, almost every day.
Flowers stopped blooming a month ago, grass turned yellow. We, the old and frail people, shiver inside with our air conditioners. It’s too hot to go outside for a walk or a swim — sun stroke would follow. But the loggers keep on logging, and miners digging…
Rayana Erland,
Port Alberni
