Read the news - still no good ones

I happened to have a look into the paper today. I have not read much the news since I returned to Edmonton because they are upsetting and I was proven right again today. The Fisheries Resource Conservation Council suggests that "70,000 grey seals should be killed over a one- or two-year period to test the hypothesis that the animals are preventing recovery of groundfish in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence." What???
In the 1990s the cod stocks collapsed due to overfishing by human beings, not by seal, but now they want the seals to be killed because the cod does not recover!!?? Apparently fishermen have been complaining that the "hungry seals have hindered the recovery of cod stocks". I bet they are hungry and I can't blame them because it is not their fault. They are victims too. It's again one of these cases where our species has messed around far too much with nature and now puts the blame for not being able to quickly enough continue their exploitation on a different animal species. I can't belief somebody dared to make such a stupid suggestion. 

The other upsetting point obviously is the search for a new Premier of Alberta. Elections are held on Saturday. Does not matter who it's going to be all candidates want to expand the oil sands and do more business with Asia because there is a growing opposition in the US to a planned pipeline. One candidate cautioned that there are not enough refineries and therefore the oil sands growth should only be moderate until the maximum value can be achieved. Along with that comes a demand for Alberta's very own immigration law to get more workers in to help with the expansion of the oil sands. A man called Ted Morton said that economical growth must come without polluting air, land and water. He's not going to win. No change for the better in sight then. Alberta, one fine day you will have to suck up your mistakes. 

There was a recent study done on commuting times in Canada. Edmontonians have the shortest commute to work from all Canadians. That came as a surprise and the city of Edmonton is all proud of it. My explanation for this "win" is that Edmonton - sprawl, sprawl, sprawl - devotes a lot of space to streets, roads, bigger roads and back alleys. Don't walk, don't cycle, just drive. Traffic lights are timed to keep motorized vehicles going even if that means that pedestrians might have to wait up to 3 minutes to get a green light. That's not only frustrating it adds up to a lot of time once you need to cross at more than one light. Having rented a car recently I must say I was astonished how many errands I could run in a single day. It would take me at least a week by any other means.