The author Howard Macdonald Stewart discusses his book Views of the Salish Sea: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Change Around the Strait of Georgia (Harbour Publishing, 2017), with Joseph Planta.

Views of the Salish Sea: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Change Around the Strait of Georgia by Howard Macdonald Stewart (Harbour Publishing, 2017). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Views of the Salish Sea

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

One of the more engaging and important books of the year is Views of the Salish Sea: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Change Around the Strait of Georgia. Its author Howard Macdonald Stewart joins me now to talk about this book. It’s a terrific looking book, but it’s also a substantive look at the uniqueness of the waters off of British Columbia’s shoreline. Unlike other books on the Salish Sea, Dr. Stewart looks at the Strait’s evolution over the last century and a half and looks at how it and the humans who inhabit close by are interconnected. The book also highlights the relationship that people have had with it over time, such as the Indigenous, travellers, engineers and entrepreneurs. The view of conservationists and environmentalists is also presented. That’s important as resources are extracted from and/or passed through these waters, signalling our own consumption, and the region’s future itself. And while the book looks to the past, it’s very much rooted in how our behaviour today will signal our future. It’s such a unique and diverse ecosystem, that we often overlook how remarkable it is in the rush to drain its resources. Howard Macdonald Stewart has worked with the United Nations, as well as various levels of government in Canada, international agencies and NGOs. He completed his PhD in geography at the University of British Columbia in 2014, from which this book grew out of his thesis. He has contributed to numerous popular and academic publications, BC Studies and the Ormsby Review, for two. This book is from Harbour Publishing. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, on Denman Island today, Howard Stewart; Dr. Stewart, good morning.

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