From the Cape Breton Post (www.cbpost.com):

It's easy to see through the green buzz

Is Nova Scotia going green? We might believe so, judging from the flowery words of a premier very cleverly endorsing the green buzz and announcing a green Nova Scotia for 2020.

But look at the facts: a rock quarry forced on Digby, a gypsum quarry on Windsor, tire burning on Brookfield, strip mining on Boularderie, band-aid solutions on the Sydney tar ponds, an open pit gold mine in Moose River - all close to houses.

The government acts as if it owns the land and, worse, the people. Its actions are opposite to what it says.

The premier says the province is purchasing lands to preserve them for Nova Scotians to enjoy nature.

Yet in Cape Breton, where we have moose, deer, pristine forests, and rare birds, he is having it all destroyed with strip mining.

We can all brace ourselves because 13 other potential strip mine sites in Cape Breton will know the same fate when the moratorium ends in a year.

No home, no land is sacred anymore in Nova Scotia. I drove to Point Aconi recently and was shocked at the huge devastation: thousands of trees, where a proud forest stood, now lie in every direction and across brooks oozing orange goo; a pit eight soccer fields large and 30 feet deep already (this is supposed to be surface reclamation) a few feet from homes. Dynamite is coming. It is so very sad.

Across wetland, on which one is not even supposed to hike for fear of affecting the hydrology, a two-mile-long road has been built to the power plant, allowing cheap trucking of bad coal. How can we believe a premier uttering promises for 2020 while doing nothing now? How long will he procrastinate?

Christiane Tanner

Westmount Road

Sydney