Comments against construction of Fifteen Mile Stream Gold mine

To whom it may concern,

I am a concerned citizen from Dartmouth Nova Scotia with a background in climate change at the local scale. I am very concerned about some of the assessed damage and impacts found in the environmental impacts review for the Fifteen Mile Stream gold mine project. My primary concern is for the ecological and climate impacts of the destruction of the wetland habitat on the gold mine site. Though there is a proposal for man made water features to be built around the site, these do not mitigate the harm that will be done to the natural wetland, and do not provide the same types of ecosystem services natural climate change adaptation measures and mitigation potential as the existing wetlands, and it would take decades at least to make up these lost protective potentials (again climate change). We currently need to be making decisions, both ecological and technological, which have co-benefits which increase the mitigation and adaptation potential, not reduce mitigative and adaptive capacities of our landscapes. 

The additional risk of a spill, and the additional contamination caused by the fossil fuels (diesel, oil, gas) that will be needed to build and operate this mine entering the landscape that is not effected by mine itself is another strong reason to oppose this project. We can not risk our natural habitats due to their ability to mitigate carbon emissions and act as buffers to the stronger climate events which may be upon us in the coming years. 

Both the provincial and federal governments have said that they are serious about taking climate action, and though I do understand that there are difficult decisions to be made, I think that letting this gold mine project proceed would be a mistake, and take us several steps backwards instead of the many steps forward which we need to be taking to address this crisis. I think the money and ingenuity requires to fund and take this project forward would be much better placed in projects which benefit the local climate, not decrease its carbon storage and its adaptation potential. 

Thank you very much for your time,

Brenna Walsh