Twenty years ago, in 2004, an international consortium began the construction of an LNG port on a natural site remarkable for its value and beauty, an agricultural and heritage territory to the east of Lévis and located opposite the Isle of Orléans. In 2007, a government decree changed the zoning from agricultural to industrial, and triggered the takeover of 272 hectares of land and natural environments by the Rabaska Limited Partnership. Following the abandonment of the project in 2013, the promise to return this land to agricultural use was ignored by successive governments.
Surprise, in the winter of 2024, the capitalist appetite awakens. In a sequence of decisions lacking transparency, the Quebec government acquired the said lands. A new prophet of Baal sounds the clarion call: an “industrial-port complex” will be built there. The satraps of uncontrolled development are active, the opportunists from the business community are rushing. It is the return of a nightmare for citizens of Lévis and Beaumont who were forced to leave their land to accommodate a project incompatible with the quality of their environment. It is also a wake-up call for the metropolitan community of Québec-Lévis.
Early June, The duty reported the preventive action of citizens, environmental protection organizations and the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) of Lévis, who are proposing the Fiducie Agriculture Nature – Lévis project to sustainably protect the land cultivated and their natural environments. With the Grande plée Bleue to the south, a peat bog more than a thousand years old, a vestige of the last glaciation, and the Pointe-de-la-Martinière park on the banks of the river to the northwest, this trust project aims to perpetuate a geographical arc of agriculture -nature and to preserve a unique landscape heritage bordering the Saint-Laurent.
The resurrection of a Rabaska 2.0 surprises and shocks all the more. It arouses emotion and forces reflection. The myth of the 10 plagues of Egypt comes to mind, because it reminds us that natural disasters are recurrent in history. New: humans have become the trigger for the disorder of nature that they claim to control.
“He turned their waters into blood. And killed their fish. » Psalms 105, 29
Any urban or industrial development that encroaches on agricultural land and natural environments contributes to climate change and loss of biodiversity. For example, rising water temperatures cause the production of red algae, giving the water the color of blood. They are sources of toxins; these kill aquatic life. Rabaska 2 threatens the terrestrial and marine environment of the St. Lawrence.
“The country swarmed with frogs, even in the rooms of their kings. » Psalms 105, 30
Aquatic animals like frogs, turtles and birds flee polluted waters. Animals then seek refuge in inhabited areas. The destruction of the lands of Rabaska will initially push the local fauna into an exodus, blurring the border between natural and urban environments. The exodus of local fauna will follow its elimination within a few years. Who wins ? Person. Who loses ? All of us.
“All the dust of the Earth was turned into lice…” Exodus 8, 16
“And all the land of Egypt was desolate by flies. » Exodus 8, 20
The disappearance of predators creates an imbalance between species. Paradoxically, there is an abundance and disappearance of insects and mosquitoes due to the absence of predators, birds and frogs for example. Worse, the disruption of environments triggers a migration of bacteria and viruses that evolved in closed ecosystems. New diseases are emerging: Lyme, Ebola, Marburg, Zika, dengue fever, and for our animals, avian and swine flu. Agriculture is disrupted, as is the food chain.
“They took ashes from the furnace, and presented themselves before Pharaoh; Moses threw it towards the sky, and it produced ulcers on men and animals formed by an eruption of pustules…” Exodus 9, 8
Massive deforestation triggers tragedies of hemorrhagic fevers, encephalitis and others. “Escaped” viruses find insects that prey on humans rather than native animals.
“He gave them hail as rain, and flames of fire in their land. He smote their vines and their fig trees, and broke the trees of their land. » Psalms 105:32
“He gave their crops to the locusts.” Psalms 105:34
Extreme weather events, fires and floods become a refrain accompanied by the proliferation of insect pests, infectious diseases and pandemics. The increased use of pesticides, a temporary line of defense, only displaces and amplifies the devastation.
“He sent darkness and made it dark, and they did not rebel against his word.” Psalm 105:28
“He smote all the firstborn of their land, all the firstfruits of their strength. » Psalms 105, 36
Heat waves are becoming more deadly; fires abound. Their smoke hides the Sun, new darkness. The conflagrations take on dazzling proportions, “firestorms” reaching 1200°C; the incandescent air ignites from a distance, liquefying the asphalt, and melting glass and metal.
It is hunger, chaos and war. Seeking shelter, animals and insects flee their destroyed environments; populations are leaving their damaged territories: massive waves of immigration are sweeping towards countries offering better skies.
The powerful words engraved on Jordi Bonet’s mural at the Grand Théâtre de Québec remain relevant: “Aren’t you sick of dying, you bunch of cellars? That’s enough ! » Let us resist, let us cry. Above all, let us ignore the promises of a golden bridge or the shimmer of the slaughterhouse of economic sirens.
With Rabaska taken 2, the minister and his satraps are preparing to set in motion an agricultural and environmental disaster – outrageously justifying themselves by the “greening of the economy”, an action that can be described as the eleventh plague.
“In a vengeful burst of monster destruction, it swept across the cultivated lands and natural environments of eastern Lévis. The territory was cleared; the river became rust-colored; the banks were covered with dead fish; the animals perished; scavengers and grasshoppers became frightened; dispossessed, people fled. » Psalms, apocryphal early 21st centurye century