Cadborosaurus, known affectionately as Caddy, is a mysterious marine
animal that has been reported many times off the coast of British Columbia
and as far south as Oregon. The sightings are too regular to be ignored,
says LeBlond. He believes the native peoples of British Columbia were familiar
with Caddy, pointing to representations of a sea beast in rock carvings
as well as wooden images dating back to AD 200.

There continues to be about one authenticated sighting of the creature
each year, and at various times over the past 60 years, local people have
held what they claim are specimens of Caddy in their hands. One 3-metre
juvenile was apparently removed from the stomach of a sperm whale.

The descriptions are generally similar. They suggest a long-necked beast
with short pointed front flippers, a horse-like head, distinct eyes, a visible
mouth and either ears or giraffe-like horns. Often Caddy is described as
having hair like a seal, and sometimes a mane along its neck.

Some reports paint a more serpent-like picture of a creature with a
long narrow body up to 7 metres long that undulates just beneath the surface
of the ocean. Others describe a body more like a Volkswagen with a long
neck.

LeBlond and his colleague Ed Bousfield, who works at the department
of natural history at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, have
analysed the sightings looking for clues to its biology and behaviour. They
believe Caddy may be a deep-water animal. That, they say, would explain
its infrequent sightings, and also its presence in the stomach of a sperm
whale, which hunts at great depth. But its hairy body suggests a mammal
and if it does not come to the surface very often, how does it breathe?

Some speculate that the little horns may be snorkles, but Bousfield
suggests a more elaborate respiratory mechanism. His idea is that tubercles,
noticed along the animal’s back by one observer, could act as tiny gills.
If highly vascularised tissue lies beneath these bumpy structures, oxygen
could pass directly from the water through the skin.

Clusters of sightings at different places along the coast of British
Columbia at different times of the year suggest that the animal might be
migratory, moving south to have its young in warmer coastal waters.

LeBlond and Bousfield say they ‘have kept an open mind’ about the type
of animal Caddy might be. It could be something like a plesiosaur, the long-necked
marine reptile that lived at the time of the dinosaurs. But LeBlond favours
a less exotic option. He suggests that ‘this is an animal which may be
related to some of the sea mammals we know, but because of its habits, we
haven’t caught one yet. We see them occasionally, and one of these days
we’ll catch one and it will be one of the known but rare animals of the
ocean.

Canada covers 13 million square kilometres of land and water and contains
a quarter of the planet’s wetlands and freshwater resources, but has a relatively
small population of 26 million. Yet the government scientists, academics,
industry and environmental groups who detailed the effects human activities
have had on Canada’s environment have found little to be optimistic about.

In just two centuries Canadians have ravaged some of the richest ecosystems
in the world. The report predicts that within 16 years, the old growth forests
of British Columbia will have disappeared. The deterioration of the country’s
freshwater supplies has become a major health concern.

More than 300 chemical contaminants have been detected in the Great
Lakes, which contain 20 per cent of the world’s surface freshwater. ‘Fish
with tumours and diseases caused by toxins in water, birds with crossed
bills and other deformities caused by eating contaminated fish, and reproductive
failures in mammals feeding on the top predators of the aquatic food web
all suggest that human health may be in jeopardy,’ the report says.

Intensive agriculture has also taken its toll of the soil. The Western
Prairies, Canada’s wheatbelt, have lost as much as 50 per cent of their
original organic matter and are now vulnerable to erosion. Soil loss costs
Canadian farmers between $500 million and $900 million in lost production
each year.

Too much emphasis on economic growth has resulted in the death of more
than 14 000 lakes ‘killed’ by acid rain, in increasing levels of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere and in the thinning of the ozone layer. The report’s
authors argue that it is time to rethink priorities. Rather than continuing
to pursue growth, it may be time to think about ‘quality of life’. ‘What
kind of world do we want to pass on to our grandchildren?’ they ask.

Environmental groups congratulated the government for releasing such
an honest assessment of the state of the environment. But ‘now what?’ they
ask.

Jean Charest, the environment minister, insists that the report was
never intended to be a policy document, but was designed to provide the
best and most up-to-date information to ‘help provide a better context for
»å±ð³¦¾±²õ¾±´Ç²Ô-³¾²¹°ì¾±²Ô²µâ€™.

Charest maintains that the government’s Green Plan addresses many of
the problems described in the report. The Green Plan is the federal government’s
C $6 billion ( £3 billion) programme of initiatives to tackle environmental
problems.

Not everyone sees the Green Plan as the answer to the ills documented
in the report. Jim MacNeill, who was secretary general of the Brundtland
Commission on the Environment, scoffs at the idea that the plan will stop
the destruction. It does not go to the root of the problem, he says.

The fault lies in policies Canada is pursuing now. He takes energy as
an example. The acid rain that has sterilised 14 000 lakes is caused mainly
by burning fossil fuels. ‘The government is spending around $4 billion in
subsidies to promote the use of fossil fuels – that is to say we are spending
billions to promote global warming and acid rain,’ says MacNeill. ‘At the
same time we are spending only about $40 million to promote energy efficiency
. . . It’s a loser’s game.’

Canada is one of the world’s biggest consumers of energy, and lies in
third place in the league of carbon dioxide producers. A common theme running
throughout the report is the massive damage global warming will do to Canada’s
environment and its economy. But like many other industrialised nations,
Canada has committed itself only to stabilising its emissions of carbon
dioxide at 1990 levels by the year 2000.

Another critic, Bill Rees of the University of British Columbia, says
there is no political will to take greater steps to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
‘In my ongoing debate with the department of energy I was finally told that
the government is committed to supporting the existing industrial infrastructure
of Canada, which I believe means the oil and gas industry and the automotive
²õ±ð³¦³Ù´Ç°ù²õ.’

Canadians cannot go on consuming resources at the present level and
must re-evaluate their priorities, says Rees. He is working on a study that
shows that Canadians are consuming more than the planet can afford. His
early calculations indicate that 3 hectares of productive ecosystem are
needed to maintain one Canadian. ‘If you multiply that by the population
of the world, you’d need 2 1/2 Earths to support the present world population.’

Oleoresin capsicum, an extract of cayenne pepper, is the key ingredient
of the spray. According to David Edgar, chairman of the British Columbia
Police Commission, the effect is ‘like putting hot pepper in your eye’.
The extract inflames the membranes around the eyes, nose, mouth and throat
which irritates the tisue and causes a burning sensation.

‘Although it doesn’t affect your breathing, you get the sensation that
it has,’ Edgar says. ‘The combination of the pain and inflammation cause
you to go to ground immediately, to put your hands down and find out where
you are and try to deal with this pain and distraction that has suddenly
hit you.’

Its effect on assailants is striking, Edgar reports: ‘Certainly in all
the tests I have seen, if you’re holding a knife or a gun, you tend to drop
it, and you become very compliant. Then you can easily be handcuffed and
taken under control.’

The burning sensation lasts for two or three minutes but the overall
sensation can last for up to 30 minutes. But, Edgar says, in all the tests
they have done and seen done, there are no lasting side effects.

A group of 37 volunteer officers from seven police forces in British
Columbia took part in trials of the capsicum spray, opting to clip the 13-centimetre-high
spray canister onto their belts. In six months they used the spray 104 times
in a variety of situations, including arrests, domestic disputes, fights,
rowdy parties and to disarm suspects carrying dangerous weapons.

In over 93 per cent of the cases the officers reported the spray as
‘totally effective for use to incapacitate a suspect’, and rated the test
results as ‘extremely successful’. ‘It is quite terrific,’ Edgar says. ‘We
did it because we wanted to know what the alternatives were to firing. There
have been situations where people were deranged and they had knives and
they wouldn’t put them down. They ended up being shot, and we felt there
must be a better way.’

The dispute is between Hydro-Quebec, the state-owned electricity company,
and the Grand Council of the Cree of Quebec, who claim that the next phase
of the project will destroy their traditional way of life.

Around 10 000 Cree and 6000 Inuit live in the vast James Bay Territory.
They say James Bay 2, or the Great Whale Project, threatens both the environment
and their way of life. The next phase of development calls for the diversion
of four rivers and the flooding of more than 4000 square kilometres of
land. The entire project, if completed, would alter the course of 20 rivers
and affect an area the size of France.

The jury expressed surprise that ‘in a country like Canada, where there
is not only sensitivity to civil rights but also an institutional framework
for the redress of public grievances, the system has not been able to cater
to the concerns of the Cree’.

Although the ‘defendants’, Hydro-Quebec and the governments of Canada
and the province of Quebec, undertook Phase 1 of the James Bay project without
taking into account the impact it might have on human health and the environment,
things have since changed, said the jury. ‘There is now consensus between
the parties that in the future there must be appropriate impact assessments,’
they say.

The jury’s chairman, Alexandre Kiss of the French national agency for
scientific research CNRS, is optimistic that the various parties will be
able to agree in future. The recent agreement of a procedure for impact
assessments should provide a framework for discussion.

Andrew Orkin, counsel to the Grand Council of the Cree, does not share
Kiss’s optimism. ‘We’ll be back at IWT.’ An environmental impact assessment
can only make recommendations to the appropriate minister, he says. ‘The
minister still has the power to impose the project in any shape or form.
That in my view is a major concern.’

Hydro-Quebec has said it will comply with all the requirements laid
down by the Canadian and Quebec governments after the environmental assessments.
The company has invited the IWT to participate in the assessment procedures.

But the tribunal has raised another issue for Canada – its profligate
use of energy. ‘Procedures and the generation of ever more information on
impacts do not help avoid the essential issue that industrialised countries
should reduce their wasteful energy consumption, rather than enlarging the
capacity to generate energy,’ the tribunal says.

Says Kiss: ‘This kind of project is very expensive, and will take years
and years to be built; maybe in the meantime we will understand there are
other means to have energy and there are ways to use less energy.

The International Water Tribunal was formed in 1981 and is funded by
the governments of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. While it
has no legal powers, executive director Arthur van Norden says: ‘It provides
a forum for public discussions between environmental groups and companies
accused of destroying the water environment.’

The James Bay project was brought to the attention of the tribunal by
the Grand Council of the Cree in Quebec. They are fighting James Bay 2,
the second step in an enormous energy generating plan developed by Quebec’s
prime minister, Robert Bourassa. This stage, also called the Great Whale
Project, will cost C $12.6 billion (£6.3 billion). If the scheme is
completed it will alter the course of 20 rivers and affect an area the size
of France. Phase 2 calls for the diversion of four rivers and the flooding
of more than 4000 square kilometres of land.

Around 10 000 Cree and 6000 Inuit live in the region. They are among
the last surviving indigenous hunting cultures in North America and they
fear the continuation of the project will destroy their way of life. The
Quebec government insists that the project is essential for the economic
development of the province.

The case is being accepted by the tribunal as one of 10 ‘Third World’
cases. Cree Vice-Grand Chief Diom Saganash believes this is a very important
opportunity. ‘The Canadian and Quebec governments are very sensitive to
European public opinion. We will be presenting evidence of the deliberate,
massive destruction of the environment and my people because of this megaproject.

To Saganash the fact that their case was accepted by the tribunal confirms
what the Crees have been saying about the conditions under which Canada’s
native peoples live. All over the Third World indigenous and tribal peoples
are being threatened by hydroelectric projects, he says. ‘Our human rights,
right to a livelihood and right to survival are threatened by these projects
being forced upon us. They are killing our ways of life all over the world.’

Hydro-Quebec has not yet decided if it will appear at the hearing. In
the meantime the company has sent documentation to the tribunal, and has
asked that the hearings on the James Bay development project be cancelled.
‘The James Bay file should not be the subject of a hearing before the International
Water Tribunal and the panel should purely and simply not act with respect
to this matter,’ Jacques Finet, the company’s European vice-president, wrote
to the president of the tribunal.

In the documentation, Finet insists that the tribunal has no mandate
to hear such a case and that the conclusions sought by the Cree are already
the subject of proceedings before Canadian courts of law.

Canada’s federal government and the Quebec provincial government have
also been asked to attend the hearings. The Quebec government has announced
it will not go but the Canadian government is still considering the request.

To the Cree, the tribunal will provide an important platform for their
cause. Andrew Orkin, counsel to the Grand Council of the Cree, says: ‘It
is important that this case does not just remain revolving in a Northern
American or Canadian eddy, but be internationally known, simply because
it is one of the largest and most invasive water projects proposed and partially
³Ü²Ô»å±ð°ù³Ù²¹°ì±ð²Ô.’

The trebuchet is a rotating-beam siege engine, designed to hurl stones
over city ramparts. There are also reports of armies using the trebuchet
to launch skulls and parts of diseased bodies into cities in an early attempt
at germ warfare.

Historians of science and technology could never quite place the traction
trebuchet. It falls between two other models that are well documented. In
the Roman version, power came from springs made of twisted bundles of animal
sinews or even human hair. By the 12th century, the typical catapult, or
counterweight trebuchet, was in operation. Here, a huge falling weight provided
the energy for a shot.

‘It used to be thought by many scholars that Roman machines survived
until the 12th century and then were replaced by the counterweight trebuchet,’
says Szwejkowski. ‘What we now think is that there’s half a millennium when,
if they used any machine at all for a seige, it was much more likely to
be the traction trebuchet. But people were less inclined to believe in this
trebuchet until they saw one work.’

The confusion stems from the lack of information filtering through from
the Dark Ages. Eventually a manuscript written in 1187 by an Arab called
Al-Tarsusi provided the details Szwejkowski needed.

The trebuchet is simply a 5-metre beam pivoting on a frame 3-metres
high that acts as a falcrum. A crew of a dozen people pulls down on ropes
attached to the short end. This flips the longer end of the beam up, and
with it a sling attached to the tip. The missile is held in the sling by
the operator who lets go when the crew starts pulling.

Szwejkowski believes the traction trebuchet originated in China in the
5th century BC and spread through the Arab and Islamic world into the Mediterranean
region and Europe.

The announcement has been met by a barrage of criticism. The Science
Council of Canada, which analyses scientific issues for the government,
and the Prime Minister’s own National Advisory Board on Science and Technology,
recommended against funding the project. They believe the money could be
better spent elsewhere.

Arthur May, past president of the Natural Science and Engineering Research
Council, says 90 per cent of Canada’s scientists have said the scheme is
‘not worth the cost’.

The federal government has agreed to pay one-third of the construction
cost. The province will pay another third and the rest will come from other
countries.

The Kaon Factory will expand the existing Tri-University Meson Facility
(TRIUMF) cyclotron at the University of British Columbia. The TRIUMF cyclotron
can accelerate protons to three-quarters the speed of light. The additions
made under the Kaon Factory scheme will generate protons that are 60 times
more powerful, travelling at 0.999 of the speed of light.

The machine will be used to search for rare decays of kaon particles,
generated when protons collide with a target. The Kaon Factory will be a
small relation to the giant accelerators planned in Texas and at CERN, the
European centre for particle physics, but their approaches will be complementary.

Erich Vogt, director of TRIUMF, says the Kaon Factory will place Canada
‘in a world-leading position in what remains the ultimate frontier of science’.
But others, like May, say Canada is mortgaging many aspects of Canadian
science for a single, ‘glitzy’ project.

The findings are presented in a report by the International Joint Commission,
a team appointed by the United States and Canada to monitor shared waters.
The Great Lakes form the world’s largest body of fresh water, and the area
around them is home to about 37 million people.

Concern about toxic chemicals has grown over the past 20 years. Industry
and farmers on the surrounding land have used the lakes to dispose of waste
chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) produced in the manufacture
of electrical equipment, and organochlorine insecticides such as dieldrin
and DDT.

Jack Vallentyne, Canadian co-chair of the Science Advisory Board and
coeditor of the report, says that these persistent toxins remain a serious
risk to human health, even though their concentrations in the water have
stabilised.

In children, he says, PCBs in blood are associated with impaired learning
abilities. Children with high levels have a shorter attention span and deficits
in short-term memory.

Vallentyne is particularly concerned about future effects. He says that
in children the damage ‘represents neurobehavioural rather than anatomical
defects. The defects are not clinical. Neither parents nor physicians would
be likely to recognise them. They are of concern in terms of public health’.

Fears about human fertility are also raised by the report. Quoting a
study by the Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare, which found
traces of the toxic chemicals in the human reproductive tract, it concludes:
‘This could be a factor contributing to the otherwise unexplained declines
in North American fertility rates.’

The author of the fertility study was Andy Gilman of The Great Lakes
Health Effects Program within the health and welfare department. He recognises
that there is little evidence on the effects of these chemicals specifically
on the human reproductive system.

Nevertheless, Gilman insists that the dangers are clear to see. ‘If
you have those kinds of effects occurring consistently across five orders
of animals, and one is mam mals, there’s enough information to know these
contaminants pose a risk to health,’ he says.

Now a team of Canadian and Soviet scientists is making use of what is
left of the ship to study environmental processes 4000 metres below the
surface of the sea.

The expedition was a joint venture between the Canadian Geological Survey
and the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology in Moscow and was financed by the
Toronto film production company IMAX Corporation. Steve Blasco, the Canadian
chief scientist described the ship as a ‘time marker’, providing a baseline
for studies of sedimentation, deep-water currents and the breakdown of steel
and other materials.

Because the scientists know the composition of the steel hull and exactly
how long it has been corroding, they can determine the rate of deterioration.
This information is important for understanding the dangers of burying any
kind of hazardous waste at sea, Blasco says. ‘There have been proposals
to dispose of toxic waste in the deep sea, but from what we’ve seen you
can’t expect it to just sit there.’ Everyone thinks the deep oceans are
dark, cold and useless, he adds, ‘but we were surprised at the amount of
life’. Twenty-four species of corals, anemones, crabs and fish have colonised
the wreck.

The currents at the bottom run up to 1 knot and the corrosion of the
ship was much more extensive than expected, indicating that deep water contains
more oxygen than was previously thought.

When the Titanic sank it ploughed 5 metres into the ocean floor and
threw up sediment 10 to 15 metres deep across the bow. From brief laboratory
examination of some of this sediment, Blasco believes the Titanic lies in
the bottom of a valley created by a huge landslide between 10 000 and 100
000 years ago.

Over the rest of the summer the researchers will assess samples for
the ability to absorb and contain toxic materials. They will also examine
some 160 hours of video tape for more clues on the sinking of the Titanic.

The circumpolar countries also adopted the Arctic Environmental Protection
Strategy, which will address six problems: persistent organic contaminants,
heavy metals, acidi fication, radioactivity, oil pollution and underwater
noise pollution.

Tom Siddon, the Canadian Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development,
said that the countries would work together to identify the sources and
pathways of toxic chemicals such as DDT and PCBs, and heavy metals, as well
as radioactive contamination. Researchers will investigate their effects
on the Arctic food chain and on the indigenous people of the far north.

In Canada, the level of PCBs in the breast milk of Inuit women is five
times as high as that of women in Quebec. This is because the Inuit diet
includes marine mammals such as seals. Because PCBs are fat soluble, they
build up in the mammals’ blubber. Most of the PCBs came from electrical
transformers which are used in other parts of the world.

The Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy will also include a programme
of monitoring and assessment of all contaminants in the region. Norway will
head this programme.

The response to the Rovaniemi meeting has been cautiously positive.
‘It’s a good first step,’ said Kirsten Sander, of Greenpeace Denmark. Stephen
Hazell of the environmental watchdog, the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee,
agreed. But, Sander commented: ‘They will have to show if there’s any substance
to what they have signed.’ Siddon agrees: ‘We must move now from a statement
of good intentions and move towards the setting of numerical goals.’

Jeremy Leggett, of Greenpeace International, was more critical. ‘It
is full of wonderful rhetoric and pitifully short on substance given the
breadth and magnitude of the threats we face in the Arctic,’ he said. According
to Leggett, the circumpolar countries should be monitoring the effects of
global warming on the thinning of the Arctic icecap and the release of methane
from thawing tundra. Both of these could worsen global warming.

These tasks are likely to fall to the International Arctic Science Committee,
which was set up ahead of the agreement. The committee met in Germany last
week to plan a study of the Arctic climate. Leggett says the US and Soviet
navies should release their secret data on Arctic ice. Many of the scientists
who carried out studies for their respective navies are now members of the
IASC.

Both Sander and Hazell foresee problems for the Arctic initiative. Even
in the early stages, some countries dragged their feet. The US held up proceedings
by trying to insist that the agreement should not be binding but rather
a statement of commitment.

Hazell sees problems in translating words into actions, especially with
those countries responsible for polluting the Arctic. ‘In Canada, one of
the primary pathways for airborne pollutants is across the pole from the
Soviet Union,’ says Hazell. ‘Things like sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides,
and particulates which all go to make Arctic haze, almost all of it comes
from Soviet lead, nickel and copper smelters. We have the technology here
to clean it up. At the same time as we are working on this circumpolar agreement,
we should be working on a bilateral agreement to help the Soviet Union clean
up, and to transfer as much technology, and perhaps even funds, as possible
to assist them.’