Oct - Old Ottawa South

Page 18 The OSCAR - OUR 31 st YEAR OCTOBER 2005
BOOK REVIEW
“Canada has water! Let’s get it!”
By Stephen A. Haines
Water, Inc
by Varda Burstyn
Verso, London, 2005
ISBN 1-85984-596-7
This threat to a continental
resource has been expressed
by the United States for many
years. Recently, two books published
in Canada have addressed the question
of water as a commercial commodity
rather than as a public resource: Maude
Barlow and Tony Clarke’s Blue Gold
and Marq de Villiers’ Water. The
NAFTA arrangement opened every
resource to outside control through its
Chapter 11 terms. If interested parties
could once gain permission to extract
the resource, then the market and
profit would be the only limitations.
And demand for water in the USA
is rising beyond calculation. In this
racing novel of finance, chicanery,
corruption and political power, Varda
Burstyn demonstrates how the right
connections and influence manipulate
people for profit. She posits a viable
threat to Canada’s most precious
natural resource.
Bill Greele is a financier well versed
in Canada’s water resources. He also
has no illusions about his country’s
increasing demand for this rapidly
diminishing resource. Water has been
drained from the watercourses of the
United States. What water remains
in streams is highly polluted. The
underground aquifer is being pumped
dry for irrigation, industry and - golf
courses? This demand is exceeding
supply and Greele wants to provide for
the market. He also
wants to pocket the
profits providing new
water can bring. With
sheer force of will,
Greele assembles
a consortium of
investors to create
an extraction and
pipeline project. His
field agents have
decided Quebec, with its “nationalist”
aspirations is highly vulnerable to
Greele’s ambitious plan. All he needs
is an agreement in principle to begin
operations.
In thrillers, seemingly minor events
have unexpected impact, bringing
together unlikely people and leading
to barely feasible results. In this book,
a former Air Force officer sees his
proposal for a fuel-efficient aircraft
summarily dumped, diverting the funds
to the water plan. Although not well
versed in Canadian issues, Malcolm
Macpherson’s environmentally aware
- the proposed aircraft would have been
both cost-effective and less polluting
of the atmosphere. When he learns of
the Quebec pipeline project, Malcolm
wants to scupper it. He’s clearly out of
his depth. Bill Greele has a long reach
and will use whatever means necessary
to achieve his goals.
Macpherson encounters
environmentalist Claire Davidowicz.
She’s not the granny-glasses shirtwaist
dress sort of activist. Claire’s a hardbitten
businesswoman with good
contacts and knowledge of the paths of
power. Macpherson has inadvertently
selected well, but neither are prepared
to face the challenges arising before
Crichton’s alarm flare fizzles
by stephen a. haines
State of Fear
by Michael Crichton
HarperCollins, 2004
ISBN 0-06-621413-0
Michael Crichton’s long
war against science has
reached a new low. After
railing against bringing objects in
space back to Earth, attempting to
revive extinct species and trumpeting
against nanotechnology, he’s now
seeing climate research as a plot
against “the American Way”. Taking
literally the first George Bush’s stand
against anybody “negotiating away
the American lifestyle”, Crichton
conceives a fabulous plot by
environmental defenders as somehow
representative of their ambitions.
There are so many flaws in this
book, it’s impossible to cover them
here. The plot is less than thin - it’s
almost missing. A young, handsome,
randy lawyer works for a “do-gooder”
millionaire. The millionaire has been
duped into funding a group intending
to sue the United States for inducing
global warming, thus raising sea
levels and flooding their island nation.
A mysterious auto
crash leads the
lawyer into a maze
of plots, counterplots
and wild
excursions. Peter
Evans struggles to
keep his law career
afloat while he’s
conveyed around
the planet like a gob of toxic waste.
He’s being manipulated by Kenner, an
enigmatic figure who uses Evans as a
lightning rod [literally!] against the
“eco-terrorists.” They have plans to
manipulate thunderstorms, shatter the
Antarctic ice cap and launch tsunamis
against California.
Throughout the book, Kenner
[Crichton] delivers lengthy,
impassioned lectures to Evans on the
false or misleading research expressed
by climatologists. There’s no global
warming. Sea levels aren’t rising.
Freak storms are just freak - there’s
no discernible pattern, Kenner [MC]
asserts. To ensure the reader, Crichton
plants a caution at the beginning of the
book that “All the footnotes are real”.
They are. Whether their findings are
reliable or appropriate is left to the
reader to decide. His use of Bjorn
them. Greele’s long reach extends into
many places. He doesn’t influence
politicians, he owns them. They are
able to do his bidding and in the current
US administration with its cochon of
a President, more than willing. Out
of their ken, pressure, great pressure
is applied to the Quebec Separatiste
government to approve the proposal
quickly. Greele and his cohorts have no
qualms about using whatever is needed
to complete the project. Murder isn’t
beyond their ethics.
Privatising water has been in the
works here for some time. Once the
hydro system was “off-loaded” from
government control, little stood in the
way of other proposals. One, a super
pipeline from the North was forwarded,
but it was costly. Costly, too, in terms
of environmental conditions. The
oil pipeline remains an enduring
example of the kind of impact such
a construction can have. Greele is
aware of these things, couching his
scheme in terms of limited withdrawal.
Others, knowing how climate change
has already affected Canada’s water
supplies, are sceptical. Snow cover
has dropped, and water supplies with
it. The Great Lakes are at reduced
levels and the major river systems
suffering accordingly. Aware of these
trends, Canadian environmentalists
are suspicious of water highjacking
proposals. Although the rest of
Canada appears uninterested in what
is transpiring in La Belle Province,
Quebec environmentalists are quick and
vocal in their response to the proposal.
For Greele, things are “getting out of
hand” and he must move quickly and
forcefully himself. Popular opinion
Lomberg as a source is a signal flare to
those who have followed the literature
on climate change - a phrase Crichton
deftly avoids.
This review wouldn’t seek
space in OSCAR under normal
circumstances. However, the Ottawa
Public Library system has acquired 60
copies of this book at unspecified cost,
while Burstyn occupies four shelf
spaces with five “On Order” at time of
writing. This may be due to Crichton’s
wide reputation. Some years ago,
an OPL director cautioned about the
limited value of much fiction taking
up space on the Library’s limited
shelves. If he could see this day!
How many of OSCAR’s readers will
borrow [or buy!] this book and take
to heart the sprinkling of references
[many outdated or successfully
refuted], the gripping photographs
and bewildering graphs? Too many.
It is not, as some have asserted “just
a work of fiction”. It is a polemic,
based on false premises and aiming
to quell alarms about what polluting
our planetary home is leading to. If
you would like a list of valid, readable
accounts of what climate change is
doing now, please contact stephen a.
haines at: capella.1@sympatico.ca
translates into votes
and a change in government would
gain him little or nothing.
Burstyn writes well in the best
thriller tradition. She engages a large
cast to implement her story of intrigue,
deception and manipulation. Her
characters develop well for a firsttime
novelist. Burstyn maintains good
control over them. If they represent
some extremes of type, that is only to
be expected in such a narrative. Even
the minor characters are portrayed
well. None are extraneous to the story,
with each individual depicted and
placed expertly. Except for the pace
of events, there’s little false or hollow
here as the persona struggle for success
and, sometimes, survival. With events
moving so rapidly, there’s little cause
for the reader to feel bogged down in
technicalities. She understands the
“business ethic”. We are given enough
information to see why she’s concerned
over a resource grab in Canada. Her
long career in environmental issues
has served her well in that regard. She
builds the plot effectively, without
meaningless side events to distract the
reader. It’s a highly readable adventure,
with a strong, serious message to
take away from the account. Water
is precious. Burstyn wants you to be
aware of that and be prepared to take
your own steps to keep it available.
Water, Inc, was made available to
OSCAR by Mother Tongue Books,
1067 Bank Street.
stephen a. haines may be reached by
email at bigbunyip@sympatico.ca
Water Main
Work Underway
By James Hunter
By now, you’ve probably noticed the
water main work in the area of Riverdale
and Belmont Aves. Here’s some
information about the project.
It’s called the “Rideau Gardens – Ottawa
South Watermain Replacement” project.
It involves replacement of existing
152mm watermain including house
services to the property line shutoff and
trench reinstatement.
The streets affected are: Avenue Rd
– Riverdale to Bristol, Bristol Ave
– Belmont to Sunnyside, Belmont
Ave – Riverdale to Rideau River Dr.,
Fentiman Ave – Riverdale to Rideau
River Dr., Rideau River Dr. – Belmont
to Fentiman.
The original watermain was constructed
in the early 1900’s. There most recently
were numerous water quality complaints
indicating corrosion problems in the old
system.
Work should take approx. 3 months. The
contract amount is $997,000. The work
is being performed by Graydex Ottawa
Inc.
Project completion is anticipated to be
by the end of October.