Despite being a tiny country with a large population, the Netherlands is the world鈥檚 second largest food exporter. This seeming miracle is achieved through the extensive use of synthetic fertilizer. When the Dutch government introduced laws to limit the use of those fertilizers because of their environmental impact including climate change, farmers reacted by forming the Farmer-Citizen party which is now a force in Dutch politics.
When the BC government introduced similar rules on fertilizer this was a bridge too far for John Rustad who dismissed the impact on climate change and left the then BC Liberal party. He says climate change is not a crisis despite the fact that in his own riding literally thousands of square kilometres of forest have been lost to pine beetle and fires, a disaster exacerbated by climate change that will have an impact on our local logging industry for generations to come. BC鈥檚 largest provincial park, Tweedsmuir, is now largely ashes. If that鈥檚 not a crisis John, just what is?
Walt Vanderkamp
