I am troubled by the move by the Canadian government to abandon a world-renowned, long-term research site known as the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in Canada.
The suggestion is that the government is attempting to find a purchaser for the site, but this seems a disingenuous claim at best.
Now it seems that the decision makers have begun to dismantle the infrastructure for the site, even before anyone has an opportunity to attempt to make the case for preserving this one-of-a-kind outdoor, environmental research venue.
It has been clear for some time that the current Canadian government is
less than enthusiastic about environmental concerns. More recently, it
has become obvious that the government is undertaking moves to ensure
that voices of scientists are silenced on topics that may offer data
counter to what the government wishes. As the author of a recent article in The Globe and Mail newspaper indicates, the Canadian scientific community strongly suggests that the closure has more to do with ideology than economics.
In the face of this action on the part of the government, I cannot help but be reminded of a parallel dismantling that took place in Afghanistan more than a decade ago -- the destruction of Bamiyan statues by the Taliban.
Writing about patterns of human behaviour, K. Kris Hirst in describing the historical context of the destruction of the statues, points out that such destruction is an old story. Human history is replete with examples of conquerors destroying the remnants of a previous culture which may represent a threat to the newly dominant.
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Lakes_Area
http://saveela.org/letters/
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