Great story, of interest as much for its use of hypertext as for the fascinating data! I've mentioned it, with a link, in my blog Writing for the Web (http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/).

Here's the problem: there *is* no bloody "Cascadia," never has been (and never will be, should I have anything to say about it). Look, most of the statistics bandied about here just show what a profound disjunction in culture, beliefs and values -- what used to be called "way of life" -- lies between these two *nations,* and not just between various jurisdictions in an arbitrarily-designated "region." I really question whether reports like this are in any way useful; after all, political energy in Canadian is obviously going to be put to use to solve *our* problems, not those of foreigners. And we may safely assume the Americans will do the same. This is as it should be. Co-operation across the border should (and likely will) be restricted to the maintenance of a peaceful trading relationship. There's no need for the sort of hands-across-the-49th internationalism this N.E.W outfit seems to be promoting, any more than we need border-erasing globalizationists trying to erase obvious and profound differences between peoples in order to sell 'em stuff. Geez. Also (just in case you're not already convinced I'm a crank): even the most diehard continentalist, looking at a map of the landmass we share, would have to admit the "Pacific Northwest" corner of the continent actually starts somewhere around the Alaska panhandle. Maybe Mr Durning lives in the "Pacific Northwest" of *his* country; I live in the southwest corner of mine, aka the Lower Mainland.

Although the Cascadia Scorecard may provide lots of interesting and, for some, “fascinating data” as it examines change in “health, economy, population, sprawl, energy, forests, and pollution” it misses examining one very critical element: Public understanding of the practices and problems associated with the ‘seven trends’ is significantly altered by an ever-increasing tendency to accept worsening environmental conditions as ‘normal’. So rather than yielding “a clearer picture of what we are doing right, and wrong, in this province”, the Scorecard is simply an inventory of what we are doing. If the critical seven were measured and indexed against changes in public perception the results would have far more meaning and impact. And it may be revealed that the specifics of the critical seven are simply artifacts spun off from an inability to measure real differences in environmental destruction - “slow news” - around the globe. In Cascadia's case it’s just a matter of time, as Jared Diamond in "Guns, Germs and Steel" says, before we have the answer to Yali’s question.

Interesting....the median income is $38.6?? Kudos to the low teeange birthrates (13 out of 1000- impressive!) as compared to Washington- I bet our more liberal ideas on birth control (easier/cheaper access/better education??) here in Canada have something to do with that. And VERY interesting that births to women in their 30's will soon exceed births to women in their 20's, and births to women in their 40's will exceed the teenage pregnancy rate...now with a little overall attitude adjustment on this isssue (females and males alike)- we might actually be finally getting it together!

Though I find a certain degree of common thinking with Earnest Canadian here, with a profound distrust of this "continental view of the world", in its current motivations, I'm no real flaming nationalist either. I think a world community likely is really evolving, and for the better. Out there in space and time somewhere, I even suspect, post U.S. Imperialism and the self-serving arrogance that goes with that at present, a converging future is in the cards, along with the rest of the Hemisphere. Which is about as far ahead as I can see, I think. What most stands in the way of that is an overwhelming inequity in people to people relations, between "us" and "them", with the huge sucking sound coming from that open maw south of the border. They don't really give a fiddler's fuck about us folks. As a state and an "economic way of life", its our resources they have their eye on, same as they do in Iraq and Afghanistan. So get it in perspective. Outside of that, spinning completely off into space, while these older ladies are counting eggs in withering fillopian tubes, and the older males checking to see if their little spermies still have any tails, and getting each other together through sterile pipettes, petrie dishes and "new surgery techniques", me and my old lady shagged ourselves silly like little rabbits as teenagers, and did it the old fashioned "fun" way. Now, our kids have been long gone, we've a little herd of grandchildren coming up, and we're still "relatively" young and able to enjoy life. Which is still alright for you "modern androgynous ladies" of course, I appreciate; you have another kind of fun, I guess, while your womb turns to a prune, and then, when the "suppressed" and panicking spirit finally moves you, just call on science. Interesting, to be sure. The new "androgynous" woman brings us the new reproductive future in a petrie dish. All that said, even though capitalism's own solution to cheap labour supply and the need for an ever expanding consumer market base is to simply bring in a steady stream of immigrants, changing the face and colour scheme of the nation, which I enjoy as well, there is likely still, from the perspective of the health of the natural environment, a need for reduced human populations everywhere, including here. So I don't really find the new reproductive trends a negative in overall regards, and far better socially over the long haul, I think, that the actual "breeding herd" be left to those "non-misogynous" and "non-misandrous" male and female human critters that actually still like each other and enjoy the "jiggy-jig" old fashioned methodology of "maintaining the numerical well-being" of the overall herd. In cattle raising, of course, we culled out those unsuitable for the breeding herd in our own ways, and to our own criteria. Nature has its own way of culling, that achieves a different but similar result in the end. And I'm still a great, adoring fan of Mother Nature. And I do still live in the Pacific Southwest. (Well, actually another part of the province, but you get the idea.) I'm a Canadian. (For all you Americanized Canadians.)

"So I don't really find the new reproductive trends a negative in overall regards, and far better socially...", to which I would only add, "....better socially and biologically... " :) Regards.

Jerry- you are soooo out of line on that above one, I have to gather my thoughts before I answer...."modern adrogynous ladies"??- "while your womb turns to a prune"???????!!!! and, "'suppressed' and panicking spirit finally moves you"?? Who in god's name do you think you are? You perpetuate sereotypes that are disgusting and rude. Get a grip on life Jerry- and NOONE who reads these wants to hear about your lovemaking, thank you very much! You are apparently the suppressed and withering one here as you spend FAR too much time spewing your opinions and insulting people. Here we go again...

Jer- let me get this straight; a modern woman, because she has more choices than her mother or grandmother had, is androgynous according to you? (man, I was so angry look at all my spelling errors in that last message!)...I should just ignore your postings, shouldn't I?

Used to males who don't argue back, are we? :) You get your wish. I'm busy today. But no, I certainly don't begrudge women their choices. We all make them.

I fear the report on BC'ers livelihoods may take a turn for the worse once our current reign of terror (ie the Provincial "Liberals") have run their course - and, indeed, have started running on coal and off-shore oil. We will see mother's milk - and not to mention our cow's milk - full of funky toxins from widespread unregulated use of pollutants and munching on toxic farmed fish. Poverty rates will go up as cuts to social programs increase and cost of education is beyond the reach of the middle-class citizens. I fear the hear-of gold Canucky has hit the nail on the head - meeting the needs of fire-friendly south of the 49th parallel energy requirements will be something gordo is dying to do. It is interesting that the fact that Vancouver has the largest vegetarian population in N. America didn't factor in to the long life and low cancer rates. But that would be bad for the meat industry (aside from the Pickton farm).

Just time for a quick comment, Shirin. Yes, the gist of what you say is essentially correct, I think. We are just at the beginning of this whole degraded "food business" thing, which ties into a whole bunch of other issue; growing over-population, and in a socio-economic environment where "everything" is measured by "narrowly dollar profitability" and usefulness to the prevailing neoconservative mindset of the Liberals and the "new/old" Conservatives. The new Neoconservativism of the social order, geopolitically and at home, is evolving a whole new level of crisis for capitalist values and sensibilities. The overwhelming, pressing need is for an in depth re-evaluation of a whole lot of assumptions abouts society and its economy, which most of us took in with that toxic mother's milk of which you spoke. :) The essential question being, of course, has the prevailing social order finally arrived at the outer limits of its potential?

Great question, Jerry - and in my humble opinion - we are no where near our potential. In fact, we are regressing in terms of moving towards actualizing our potential because of the social order we have assumed under the capitalist system we currently adhere to. Retrospection analysis would likely reveal that what is good for business is not necessarily good for the long-term well-being of society. From war to poverty to the ruin and exploitation of our environment has all had its beginning at the mercy of prioritizing for the subjective worth of the mighty dollar. We definitely have to have a long hard look at what our priorities are and make our decisions accordingly. Those of us that have not been nursed by our mothers in the last 15 to 20 years probably had less of the toxic compounds that have accumulated recently - and the insidious side effects (autoimmune disorders, neurological disorders inclusive of depression and ADHD to susceptibility to chemical imbalances and cancer) would unlikely be uncorrelated with the cumulative effects of the build-up of environmental pollutants and toxins. - And given that most major studies are funded by industry - don't hold your breath for someone to actually go out to determine if this is the case. My question is - Will we be driven to self-destruction due to our unhindered gluttony - or will the awakening consciousness of the few who aren't passive in disposition be enough to wake up the collective conscience and retrace our steps to real civilization - one in which the person holds more value than the God of the Fraser Insititute - the Mighty Dollar.

Hmmm. “Subjective worth”, “subjectively determined”. Bang on. But don’t stop there Shirin; tell us where the subjectiveness comes from. How do we determine these subjective criteria? Is it possible that the subjective value of the dollar is just an intermediary step employed by our well-trained thought process that links our basic survival mechanism – avoid pain, seek pleasure – to our individual perceptions of reality? If the subjective criteria we use are artifacts spun from the judgments we are trained to believe are real, and that we use to define the world around us, then we need to examine the way we think. Judgments in themselves have no value; they are inert. We react to judgments – the value of the dollar, good, bad, right, wrong, self-worth, gluttony, pride, etc, etc – in ways that we have been trained to react. We weren’t born understanding of these concepts. And, just as the laws of physics apply universally, our trained responses to pain and pleasure are at the heart of all judgmental thinking. However, don’t hold your breath while waiting for the great institutions of the world –religious, secular or otherwise – to expose the fallacies in their distortional thinking.

“….(Donella) Meadows says that the major way to change a system—the one with the most leverage, is to change the over-all mindset or paradigm out of which the system arises”…., “The paradigms are the sources of systems, from them come goals, information flows, and feedbacks. She says that "People who manage to intervene in systems at the level of paradigm hit a leverage point that totally transforms systems. . . All it takes is a click in the mind, a new way of seeing." To create this new way of seeing, she says "you keep pointing at the anomalies and failures of the old paradigm, you come yourself, loudly, with assurance, from the new one, you insert people with the new paradigm in places of public visibility and power. You don’t waste time with reactionaries; rather you work with active change agents and with the vast middle ground of people who are open-minded." Thanks to NEW, Alan Durning and others who understand and are creating an awareness that will result in a paradigm shift, although in this case more of "flip" than a lateral shift. Mark Anielski here in Canada is also using new "metrics" to show how we are performing.

well...british comumbia is a beautiful place and it should be treated very well....the logging industry should be fairly good because there a alot of trees out there...don't waste them...use them for emergancys...the animals need them to!!!

k first of all this is a beautiful province and u should treat it that way...everyone comes to visit cuz of its nature...you must treat it like its an actual province...Don't waste your lumber...come on we need lumber if your going to waste it give it to us...use it for something important or leave it for the animals that proably need it the most for their wounderful homes whic hthey need!!!Be nice to your wood!!!DONT WASTE IT!!!do what you mean not what you are told to do!!be nice save our nature!!!and beauty!!!