September 2014 - Common Ground

The Mount Polley mine disaster

by Rod Marining • On BC Day, a holiday meant to celebrate beautiful BC, we were all having a beautiful time at the family cabin at … Read more

3D Vitamin D

for depression, dementia and diabetes by Dr. Mercola • Vitamin D research has repeatedly shown that vitamin D can improve a number of brain disorders, … Read more

Is health data mining the Next Big Thing?

What’s getting buried may surprise you DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs British Columbia is indeed a wondrous, … Read more

Lit from within

The extraordinary story of Jacques Lusseyran by Geoff Olson • They told me that to be blind meant not to see. Yet how was I … Read more

GMO Bites

GM sweet corn sneaks into stores and farmers markets Genetically modified – GM, also called genetically engineered – sweet corn is being sold in some … Read more

For word lovers

Word lovers: Two events of note worthy of your attendance and support are the upcoming 20th annual Word Vancouver and the first-ever “Reinventing Radio: An … Read more

“Boom, Bust, Boom” and the Mount Polley paradox

I had cracked open Bill Carter’s book, Boom, Bust, Boom: A Story About Copper, the Metal that Runs the World, a few days before last month’s Mount Polley tragedy. Call the monumental tailings pond breach what you will: accident, calamity, catastrophe, cataclysm, disaster and on down the alphabet to wake-up call and ZZZ for sleeping.

“Tragedy” – as in “an event causing great suffering, destruction and distress” – seems an apt description for an entirely man-made and avoidable environmental nightmare. And Carter’s powerful, up-close and personal narrative exposes how far human beings will go to get copper – along with gold – especially “persons” such as Imperial Metals Corporation.

Month: September 2014