LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD HERE:
Helen Boyd from the Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment, CANE, will be on to talk about the cross-Canada campaign, by a number of health professions, to BAN advertising for fossil fuels, and all fossil fuel products – like 4-door trucks. It’s a health concern, like tobacco, the nurses, doctors and lots of people, say.
And from Victoria, we have a professional planner, Eric Doherty, talking about the importance of a province wide passenger bus network.
Finally, from the our neck of the woods, so to speak, we have Laura Sacks who works with the West Kootenay Climate Hub. She points out some of the problems with promotions of …. RENEWABLE natural gas.
LINKS AND EVENTS:
Stand with over half a million Canadian health professionals to stop fossil fuel advertising.
https://www.stopfossilfuelads.ca/
Call for BC-wide inter-city bus network
https://bcwidebus.com/
West Kootenay Climate Hub… gathering local activists….
https://www.westkootenayclimatehub.ca/
Friday, June 17, noon-1pm PT
Our final lunchtime webinar is on Friday June 17 at noon PT. We are ending this first series as we began– by highlighting youth. We will have several short talks, followed by a discussion on how we can support youth in our community in the face of the climate emergency.
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Wednesday June 15, 6 pm
The following Wednesday June 15, 6 pm WeCan the West Coast Climate Action Network is hosting a Climate Action Provincial Assembly
The first such event the Assembly aims to be a broad discussion on collaborating on climate action priorities for the province. Register here.
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Friday June 24th.
The City of Nelson is ghosting its first E-Bike Expo on Friday June 24th.
There will be a variety of different bikes on display, and participants will get the chance to hear about real-world experiences and learn about the future of transportation in Nelson.
“The idea for the event is to provide a space where residents can drop in and have an informal conversation with their neighbours about choosing an E-Bike.”
The E-Bike Expo will be free to attend and take place on Friday, June 24, from 3:00 – 7:00 pm at the Nelson Innovation Center, located in Railtown (next to the Visitors Centre).
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Saturday, June 25, 2022, 1pm
Friends of Kootenay Lake AGM and wetland tour
Location: Harrop Schoolhouse
Friends of Kootenay Lake is hosting an in-person Annual General Meeting at the Harrop SchoolHouse on Saturday June 25, starting at 1 pm.
They are including a tour of Harrop wetland afterwards to learn about our habitat enhancement project and hear from citizen science volunteers about what they have observed at the wetland since 2015.
More info and register here on their website, FriendsOfKootenayLake.ca
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS
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Professional biologist, conservationist and environmental advocate Wayne McCrory has received the prestigious Land Champion Award from the Real Estate Foundation of BC. The award was presented on June 9 at the 2022 Gala Ceremony of the Real Estate Foundation of BC in New Westminster, in recognition of McCrory’s significant contribution to protection of wilderness and wildlife in BC.
McCrory, who just turned 80, grew up in a mining family in the 1950s. As one of the founding directors of the Valhalla Wilderness Society (VWS), he spear-headed campaigns for the Khutzeymateen and Spirit Bear protected areas, as well as Goat Range Provincial Park. He was part of the VWS team that successfully advocated Valhalla Provincial Park.
In addition he has worked extensively with a number of First Nations. He initiated the grizzly bear viewing programs for First Nations in the Great Bear Rainforest, and his independent research led to the Tsilhqot’in Nation creating a large wild horse preserve and a large Tribal protected area.
In response to his award, McCrory is calling on the BC government to protect at least 50% of the provincial land base, including adequate old-growth. He says the superior carbon capture of old trees is desperately needed to help combat the grave consequences of climate change and loss of biodiversity.
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A joint report released last week by Environmental Defence (EDC) and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Northern Alberta (CPAWS) documents the contstant growth of tailings ponds in Alberta’s oil sands. The report shows that the total tailings footprint has grown nearly 300% in the last 20 years.
Alberta’s tailings contain dangerous levels of mercury, arsenic, benzene and naphthenic acids, which are unique to the oil sands. They are known to leak into the environment, threaten the health of downstream First Nation and Métis communities and degrade the boreal forest’s biodiversity. They are especially lethal to migratory birds who land and die in the tailings ponds.
The footprint of all tailings is now 300 square kilometers – about 2.6 times the city of Vancouver.
While industry is supposed to reclaim tailings “ponds” back to their pre-disturbance state, less than 0.1 per cent of the oil sands has received a formal reclamation certificate from the provincial regulator.
The report is the first mapping of the tailings ponds growth to be made public. The tar sands industry and government do not provide public analyses of the tailings ponds.
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The devastating US western drought threatens to dry up Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Scientists are warning = of environmental apocalypses to ensue: millions of migratory birds will go hungry after losing their feeding grounds, and nearby residents will be exposed to dust clouds filled with arsenic.
“The lake’s flies and brine shrimp would die off—scientists warn it could start as soon as this summer—threatening the 10 million migratory birds that stop at the lake annually to feed on the tiny creatures,” reports the New York Times, noting that the lake has already shrunk by two-thirds.
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Unprecedented growth in Alberta’s renewable energy sector signifies a vital shift in the province’s energy economy, says the Pembina Institute.
A “surge of investment” has resulted in two gigawatts of clean energy feeding into Alberta’s grid, says Pembina, “more than enough electricity to power all the homes in Calgary, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and Red Deer combined.”
Pembina says this renewables growth signifies an important shift in Alberta’s energy economy.
2021 was a banner year for renewables investment, with Alberta nearly quadrupling the total volume of renewable electricity on the grid. Companies like TELUS, Starbucks, and Amazon, and municipalities including the City of Edmonton, are driving the demand for renewables, Pembina says.
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A fireball blast at Freeport LNG’s export terminal on Texas’ Quintana Island was reported around last week. Authorities said the fire and “release” from the explosion were swiftly contained and that an investigation into the cause is underway, but local residents voiced concern that they’re going to be kept in the dark.
“This is terrifying,” said Melanie Oldham, founder of Citizens for Clean Air and Clean Water in Brazoria County, where the Freeport LNG facility is located.
“What kind of air monitoring are they doing out there? Will they even be able to tell what the explosion released? And will they tell us? Thankfully it looks like none of the workers or anyone else was injured or killed. We may not be so lucky the next time there’s an explosion at this plant.”
Surveillance video footage posted to Facebook by Quintana Beach County Park appears to show the first moments of the explosion, which reportedly shook nearby buildings.
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