A little more than a century ago the area extending from Vancouver to the town
of Hope was a forest of giant trees with extensive swamps and wetlands along
the river courses.
That area is now being swallowed by the growing metropolis of Greater
Vancouver, and the newly released $2.4 million Fraser Basin Ecosystem Study
warns that present trends are leading us directly away from environmental
sustainability.
“The lower Fraser Basin exemplifies all the social, environmental and economic
problems of modern industrial nations,” says Prof. Michael Healey, principal
investigator and an ecologist with the Institute for Resources and Environment.
“Rapid population growth, changing ethnic makeup, conflict between rural and
urban lifestyles, and clashes with aboriginal peoples struggling to maintain
traditional ways are problems which are not going away and it is high time that
we faced up to them.”
The researchers call for changes to the way we manage population, land and
resources, consumption and waste management.
Indicators of serious environmental decline cited in the report include high
nitrogen pollution in groundwaters and the presence of visible abnormalities on
more than 90 per cent of the fish samples taken from the Fraser River.
As many as 50 streams in the greater Vancouver area that once supported runs of
Pacific salmon have been turned into storm sewers, and many of the remaining
streams are being degraded because of pollution from automobiles, agriculture
and other sources.
The study also indicates a high level of concern among British Columbians about
environmental problems, but suggests concern doesn’t always translate into
action.
Only 14 per cent of people surveyed said they use public transit, even though
that is the activity with the greatest benefit to the environment.
“The infrastructure isn’t responsive to alternate kinds of behavior,” explains
Healey.
He suggests that the infrastructure would be improved if governments paid up
front to improve rapid transit instead of waiting until ridership increases.
The four-year study involved 23 experts from 20 disciplines at the university,
including planning, geography, sociology, fisheries, economics, commerce,
biological sciences, social sciences and medicine. More than 40 graduate
students took part.
The team makes 44 recommendations intended to help governments and individuals
move towards sustainability, including:
- Each community should reduce its dependence on resources belonging to other
communities and nations. - The federal government should develop more effective indicators of
environmental and social well-being. The indicators used now, such as gross
domestic product, often misrepresent the costs of resource depletion as a
benefit. - Individuals should use their purchasing power to support environmentally and
socially friendly products and manufacturing products.
Funding for the study was provided by the federal government’s Green Plan.
Details of the report are available on the Institute’s Web site at
www.ire.ubc.ca/ecoresearch. Copies of the complete report are available from
the Institute of Resources and Environment by calling 604-822-4705.
