BradfordToday received the following letter from Julie Johnson regarding the federal reassessment for the Bradford Bypass:
So, it looks like the request for the federal reassessment for the Bradford Bypass project (also known as Holland Marsh Highway) has been declined by the federal government.
This is unfortunate and also illogical, as anyone who takes even the smallest, closer look at the Conservative government’s Bradford Bypass plan can see quite clearly that it is ill conceived, presumptuous, based on 1997 (and thus incomplete and inaccurate) data, and in no way supports climate change mitigation.
Proponents of this highway are of course gleefully delighted that the federal government won’t step in and make them do their due diligence. They seem to think this is a victory for ‘drivers and farmers’, and again, this is illogical.
Drivers, do a simple Google search about induced demand. Induced demand means that increasing the number of highways does not decrease traffic jams and congestion, rather, the opposite occurs. More roads lead to more cars and more congestion. We have seen this happen before our very eyes over decades of highway building. So you are not going to get that promised ease of smooth, fast car travel. How exactly do you win long term in this Bradford Bypass scenario?
Farmers, how do you square paving over valuable farmland as being beneficial to your business? How do you square the weather weirding that accompanies climate change with success in your business?
Also, do ‘drivers and farmers’ live on another planet? Do they have some kind of special power that will prevent them from feeling the impacts of climate change as it intensifies, as it will surely do, if we don’t take immediate steps to remedy it?
Our modern society has spent a long time in a pervasive and persuasive paradigm that considers ‘progress’ to equal growth and is based on an assumption that the earth will be able to contain all that we decide to throw at it, without end and without detriment. (Spoiler Alert: it cannot).
This is not a healthy paradigm.
Ecological Reality indicates we need to change our assumptions, and the good news is there are tangible, sensible, real options that support better ways to build and nurture our human societies. We don’t need to build this highway to get the society we want. We don’t need to wait until climate change gets worse, either. Better decisions need to happen, and we can have them happen now.
I, for one, would like to continue living on a planet with a livable temperature and I also would like to continue being an Earthling on a livable Earth. Unfortunately, decisions like the building of the Bradford Bypass, as small as it may at first seem, add up to big, bad consequences that undermine our wellness presently and in the future.
Don’t we want a well world? Isn’t it time we actually made decisions to create that for ourselves?
Those currently in the position of making decisions can still do the sensible thing, reconsider their highway plans and switch their focus to exploring better options for their communities, and the wider area as a whole.
After all, my ecology in Oro Medonte needs your ecology in Bradford to be well, and vice versa. My planetary climate is your planetary climate. Our interconnectivity is an ecological truth we need to keep more at the forefront.
Regards,
Julie Johnson, citizen of Oro Medonte
