Sample Letter
Martha Piper
President and Vice-Chancellor
University of British Columbia
6328 Memorial Road
Vancouver , British Columbia
V6T 1Z2
October 28 th , 2005
Dr. Piper,
We are living in pivotal times. The design and function of our current society is being called into question from many corners. We are rapidly approaching collapse under the weight of our own actions as a civilization.
In the last fifty years, we have seen unprecedented land clearing and population growth in all parts of the world with well documented and disastrous effects. We have experienced the toxification of our land and waterways to a frightening degree. We have seen the rate of consumption of our natural resources rise to a staggering pace. In the past two decades alone, we have caused more permanent documented damage to our world than in all of our prior time as a species on this planet.
A further indictment of our way of life comes from the fact that this crisis is well monitored and reported, yet few of us take any individual or communal action to prevent it. Tragically, we may fail by inaction without even attempting to redeem ourselves.
In challenging times like these, citizens look to their centres of learning for guidance and solutions. UBC has the capacity to look beyond the current entrenched modes of reason, to invest in a vision of the future. UBC must set the best example. UBC must strive to rise above the mundane concerns of market forces, current limited economic logic and the standard industrial paradigm in which we live. UBC must see the larger picture.
In times like these, we must understand the long term effects of our actions and balance their impact against the short term gains of any given project.
Wreck Beach represents a valuable and largely unspoiled santuary, made all the more precious by the fact that it has managed to remain in existence amidst the exponential growth seen by Vancouver and the rest of the Lower Mainland.
Wreck Beach continues to exist as a healthy and vital part of the university and our city as a whole because of the committed efforts of a large number of citizens from all walks of life who ask nothing more than that the area they value so much be preserved.
The Phase II project as it is currently proposed has the potential to damage Wreck Beach and its community in a number of irreversible ways.
One seemingly less important issue is that the towers currently proposed as part of Phase II, and in fact the tower already erected as part of Phase I, greatly impact the visual esthetic of the beach.
The issue of the visual esthetic of the beach should not be undervalued however. Wreck Beach is perhaps the only place in Vancouver where one can step completely out of the visual and auditory pollution of the industrial age and think clearly and uninterrupted. The value of an area with these characteristics so close to a centre of learning can not be overstated. Wreck Beach has for many years provided a place to sit and contemplate the world as it might be.
A second serious issue that must be considered paramount is the effect of 1600 additional residents in such close proximity to the beach. The damaging effects of high density populations on natural areas are clearly understood through an extensive body of evidence, much of which has been produced at UBC. The added visitation, garbage, noise, erosion and other effects can accurately be estimated based on tragic examples from the past. Putting the conventional economics of the project aside, we have a chance to consider a more complete balance sheet incorporating the lasting impact of our actions on our environment.
Wreck Beach is world famous and an example to thousands of visitors each year of how Vancouver is different.
Please respect the weight of public opinion as expressed by 45,000 signatories to the Wreck Beach Preservation Society petitions and the overwhelming majority position expressed at the recent public consultation.
Please strive to abandon the simplistic balance sheet presented by conventional economics and consider the larger consequence of your actions.
In a time, where the irreversibility of our actions has the ominous potential to spell our end as a civilization, it becomes all the more important to consider the results of our specific actions on a daily basis.
We have the chance to make a choice, to change the direction of our society through our own individual actions. It is the only way that it will occur and I challenge the university to be one of the many institutions who have seen the future and have committed to stand as examples of it for the rest of society.
I would ask that the University respect public opinion and commit to redesign the Phase II project in consultation with those who understand the character and value of Wreck Beach . To do otherwise would relegate the University to a status no better than the crumbling world that surrounds it.
Awaiting your response,
Craig Ollenberger BSc MSc
UBC Alumnus
Vancouver , British Columbia
Cc: Joe Stott – Campus and Community Planning
Hugh Kellas – Policy and Planning, GVRD
Judy Williams – Wreck Beach Preservation Society
Patricia Graham – Editor in chief, Vancouver Sun