The Chronicle Herald

Letter: Elitism & ecocide

Originally published here

Bob Rosborough’s piece attacking the opponents of an American golf venture at Owls Head is a sustained act of misdirection. Let’s leave aside that a golf course is a social and ecological catastrophe, providing ecosystem services nothing comparable to those it destroys, and only meagre, low-wage jobs: it’s too basic to merit debate. 

Let’s state facts, and underline Rosborough’s hypocrisy. Apparently, he supports the secret sale of protected land. He wants one of our few remaining pieces of public coastline in the private hands of a foreign billionaire. We who stand opposed are sheeplike “social media followers,” with no legitimate interest in our own province, influenced by “questionable, unsuccessful government employees.”

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Letter: Sensitive Ecosystem

In his Feb. 20 opinion piece, Bob Rosborough argues that the sale and construction of golf courses at Owls Head will help the economy of the Eastern Shore to “thrive and survive. Most certainly, people who live in the area deserve a healthy economy, but are golf courses and luxury condos the answer?

Rosborough describes the two wealthy Americans, Beckwith and Kitty Gilbert, who are behind the deal as “environmentally conscious” and, at the same time, notes that the land in question has been undisturbed for over 10,000 years “since the last ice age.”

This land was, at one point, environmentally significant enough to be designated as a park. Several scientific studies have determined that the ecology of the land is “globally rare.” It is difficult to make a valid argument that the Gilberts have any intention of caring for the natural environment when the golf courses they are proposing are decidedly man-made.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Letter: All Nova Scotians have stake in Owls Head golf issue

Bob Rosborough’s Feb. 20 opinion piece, “Sick of critics taking swings at golf development,” leaves out a number of significant aspects of the current debate on Owls Head. These aspects are important to understanding the widespread and growing public opposition to the secret removal of the property, referred to as Owls Head Provincial Park, from the Parks and Protected Areas Plan, and offering it for sale to a private developer.

Owls Head has a long history of protection that can be traced back to the intense public discussions of the mid-1970s around the creation of a potential national park on the Eastern Shore. The large, unique coastal Crown block survived that process as a natural environment park component in the Eastern Shore Seaside Park System. It was recognized as a park by public agencies for 45 years and was included in the final 2013 plan that identified the sites to be designated for protection to meet the province’s 13 per cent target as site #694. 

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By Christopher Trider, ago

BOB ROSBOROUGH: Eastern Shore sick of critics taking swings at Owls Head golf development

So, for a bunch of ranting social media followers — speared on by several whose questionable, unsuccessful past employment within government agencies and/or parasitic commercial endeavours on government support agencies with axes to grind against Nova Scotia — to zero in on the Eastern Shore and this substantial and critically important project is deceptive and morally corrupt.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

Letter: Leave Owls Head be

I think it is imperative to preserve wilderness lands in the province for recreational purposes. The COVID pandemic has underlined the importance of nature to our mental health.

Also, there is no question that the massive assault on wilderness areas the world over has placed our species, along with many others, in peril. We have so many unique and beautiful areas in Nova Scotia, and we can be a model for thoughtful conservation.

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By Save Owls Head, ago

EDITORIAL: New Nova Scotia premier-to-be Iain Rankin faces headwinds

Most prominently, Rankin put green policies, and growing a green economy, at the centre of his platform, including taking an even more aggressive approach than Stephen McNeil on tackling climate change.

Rankin would like the province to be off coal entirely, while generating 80 per cent of power with renewable energy, by 2030. He hopes to make Nova Scotia the first province to be net carbon-neutral.

…Observers will be closely watching what he does regarding the controversial proposal for a golf course at Owls Head.

Read Full Article>

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By Save Owls Head, ago