4 - Weunesday, July 5, 1989 - North Shore News SUDDENLY, THE ecology revolution has kicked into first gear. This is after three decades of the engine revving as an intellectual concept, something to factor into one’s theories about what the future will bring. In society, as in politics, percep- tion is most of everything. The lat- est Decima poll finds that an astonishing 99 per cent of Cana- dians think pcllution is very serious, and something ought to be done about it right away. You don't get that much agreement on an’ ! In Britaiu, the Green Party has ; surged out of now!.ere to take two “ million votes in the Eurcpean | Parliamentary election, thus becoming the third largest party in “ the U.K., displacing the Liberal- ; Democratic alliance, which had once been touted as the successor to Labor, and, inevitably, to Mag- gic Thatcher. The Greens did not actually wic any seats this time around, but they came second and third in a lot of voting districts. They have, in- deed, arrived in the political mainstream, even the conservative Fleet Street voiceboxes for business It was just a year ago that Ms. Thatcher proclaimed herself a Green and started picking up trash in front of the TV cameras. My Sources in the U.K. tell me that one of the reasons she’s coming undone today is over the issue of selling off Britain’s power and boneless sirloin tip steaks Kg 5.93 Edgemont Viliage 3230 Connaught Cres. North Vancouver 987-7917 water utilities. The trouble is, no one in the private sector would touch Bri- tain’s nuclear generating facilities with a 10-foot lead pole, not because of the dangerousness of ail things nuke, but because the in- dustry has thus far survived ory thanks to massive subsidies. Without the public purse underwriting them, nukes in the U.K. aie an economic Chernobyl, even if nothing ever goes wrong with the reactors. Yet there is national esteem at stake. Without nukes, you cease to be a superpower. The fron Lady can no more let that happen than Churchill could let the empire go gracefuily. So Maggie will keep the nuclear industry in government hands, despite her privatization rhetoric. It is the first time she has really reneged on a public vow. The contradiction between declaring herself a Green and con- tinuing to push nukes has cracked the ion Lady’s formerly impervi- ous image of consistency, if penetrated the highest levels of government. One famous eco-ac- tivist from the 70s, Bryce Lalonde, 69 Upper Lonsdale 3030 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver 987-6644 Clover Leaf flaked light tuna | 184 g tin has been named environment minister of France. Obviously, he had to make compromises with President Fran- coise Mitterand in order to obtain his post. Mitterand, after all, being the man whose command sank the Rainbow Warrior, killing one crewman and giving the ecology movement its first martyr. The mest evident siga of the concessions Lalonde had to make to gain office is his new position on nuclear power. Even though he once stood oa the decks of a pro- test vessel just outside the forbid- den zone around France’s Mururoa Atoll to demonstrate against nuclear weapons, En- vironment Minicter Lalonde now sings the praise of the French au- clear industry. He buys the argu- ment that nukes prevent acid rain. In West Germany the Greens have made a startling comeback in the last year. They had frittered 2way a good part of their early support in internecine ideological haggling, the purists versus the But having got their house in order, the Greens quickly recov- ered their political following, and scored so weil they now hold the balance of power in several cities. There is talk of a ‘‘Red-Green” coalition, which could take control in a “umber of places, the far left am’ the eco-freaks getting together ta: st the old guard. In Sweden, Norway and 17th & Lonsdate 1632 Lonsdale Avenue North Vancouver 987-6911 128 1199 Lynn Valley Road Belgium, the Greens are so well- entrenched in the political systems that the fate of the governments in all three countries now depends on the actions of the environmentalist parties. Why is it that in Canada, nothing of the sort appears to have happened? In Toronto, there is one proclaimed Green city coun- cillor, a lady named Marilyn Churley. So far as I know. she is the only such elected Green in the country. The federal Green Party of Canada did so abysmaliy in the last election that every une of their aspirants lost their deposits. It seems ironic that Canada was one of the first countries to give birth to an international en- vironmental movement, yet all these years later has yet to register anything more than a flicker of green on the national in-house po- iitical spectrum. Al this may change now that the Mulroney government has been handed a “‘greenprint”’ for changes to clean up the Canadian ecological mess. The greenprint is a list of 43 recommendations put together over the last six months by a coalition of 28 environmental groups. As reported in this space, the main recommendation is for an Environmental Bill of Rights, which would guarantee Canadians a healthy environment, including clean air and water, conservation of natural resources, and protec- tion of biological diversity. Federal Environment Minister Lucien Bouchard has admitted that he doesn't have a plan yet to restore Canada’s tattered, befouled eco-system. With the greenprint now in his hands, he doesn’t have an excuse for inaction any longer. What must be done has been clearly speiled out. Just how far the ecology revolution has pro- gressed in Canada, compared with the rest of the industrialized world, should soon be apparent © _! N. 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