science

FOR A SHORT TWO-WEEK period every spring, before the leaves burst their buds, the warm spring sun penetrates the deepest nooks and crannies in the small cottage where I live. Its rays illuminate the grit and cobwebs that have accumulated over the long, dark winter. Sparkling dust rises toward the sun as if it was a cobra under a flutist’s spell. For this brief interlude in May, anything seems possible. The barren maples, ash and elms that tower above me don’t obscure the sun or block my view. Swollen leaf buds hold only promise. I can see the forest and the trees.

What a lovely boom it was to be. Earth Day 1970 was a recent memory, and then president Richard Nixon was expanding American involvement in Vietnam. But for many, the action was in Northern Canada. It was full speed ahead for frontier oil and gas. Oil wells would be pumping, compressor stations shrieking, and to carry the wealth south, soon the biggest megaproject of all: the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline.