Good morning - We have just…

Good morning -

We have just been reading about potential threats to the Endangered Species Act, about the possibility that a pending review will further weaken its protections for wildlife in the great province of Ontario. We are disappointed that this may be the case and strongly encourage you to consider what this may mean for the current generation and those to come.

Countries around the world are coming to a deeper understanding of the need to balance progress, which has often been measured by further development of business, with protections for resources of all kinds. Progressive nations consider this both in terms of the immediate and the long-term and creative and progressive business models work in concert with these goals and requirements.

Catering to 18th and 19th century styles of doing business dictates that we squander our natural resources because, 100 years ago, these resources seemed as unlimited and the business opportunities to exploit them. These approaches have more than proven themselves not just antiquated in their design but dangerous in their outcome. Business 'progress' should be monitored closely by our governments and considerate protections for our natural resources should preclude development.

The protections we now have in place deserve to be strengthened, not weakened. Business and development is important, to be sure, but creatively and mindfully. New ways of generating growth are modelled for us by those who have been thinking progressively for years. Clearly disqualifying areas that contain threatened wildlife to construction or intrusion is crucial as is protecting areas that may be threatened in the future in this way.

It does not take an excess of brain power to understand - and to fully comprehend - that human expansion, in its post-industrial form - must end. We have to find ways to coexist, peacefully, with the other species and our shared habitats. This is, interestingly, a much easier task than peacefully coexisting with each other.

But we should work on that, too.