SMALL GROUP VISITS THE RUSSELL CREEK WATERSHED AND HEARS ABOUT WHAT CLEARCUTTING IS DOING.
LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD NOVEMBER 1 SHOW HERE:
We walk on the Russell Creek Forest Service Road and talk with eminent forester Herb Hammond and Fox Forest from Last Stand West Kootenay. Laura Nessman from Selkirk College and Laura Sacks of West Kootenay Climate Hub preview the November 6 COUNTDOWN TedX event on climate. The crucial global climate meeting COP 27 is coming up this week and Aly Hyder Ali from Environmental Defence talks about Canada’s weak commitments and even weaker climate emission reductions. Pipeline opponents continue protesting oil and gas pipeline construction in BC, and we hear about very current actions.
EVENTS AND LINKS
Sunday, November 06, 3:00 p.m.
the 3rd annual TEDxSelkirkCollege Countdown virtual event on Sunday, November 6th from 3:00-5:00pm.
What are locals doing to inspire a sense of possibility and accelerate climate action? A number of speakers will be there to talk about it.
The goal of Countdown is to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action. Let’s build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 in the race to a zero-carbon world – a world that is safer, cleaner and fairer for everyone.
Register to attend this free, virtual event at www.selkirk.ca/tedxselkirkcollege
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Tuesday, November 8 6 pm
The BC Green Party in collaboration with Stand.Earth is excited to bring you an opportunity to view the documentary Fracking the Peace. The film tells the stories of the people whose daily lives, environment, and health have been forever changed by fracking and its related industrialization on Treaty 8 territory in Northeast B.C.
The local Green Party is screening the film at 6 pm on Tuesday, November 8th in the conference room at the Hume Hotel. Light snacks will be provided. We recommend RSVPing to reserve your seat.
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Saturday November 19, 10am-Noon
The West Coast Climate Action Network WE-CAN is holding a BC CLIMATE ACTION PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY (CAPA)
From WE-CAN: The Climate Action Provincial Assembly is a participatory forum where leading members of BC’s active climate action groups can meet together to develop mutually supportive plans for the future. We intend that the Assembly will meet four times a year, in January, April, July and October.
You can find details for the November 19th event on the website https://westcoastclimateaction.ca/
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Saturday, November 26th in Victoria
A large BC Coalition has called a Super-Rally at the BC Legislature on Saturday November 26th to call for the protection of old growth forests. They have issued a Declaration calling on the government to actually implement the expert recommendations on forestry that it promised to bring in.
They point out that More than three million hectares of at-risk forest remain vulnerable to logging, and ancient giants are felled daily.
The rally is being called by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Elders for Ancient Trees, Sierra Club BC, Wilderness Committee, Stand.earth and others.
There is lots of notice and time still to organize a local support rally for folks who can’t travel all the way to Victoria at the end of November. I’ll keep everyone informed.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2azEDmH7HQEgSV4LjBoK8qvDloPxrh4c0Usfj6-_QrUcGww/viewform
LINKS
Historical Map of Clearcuts in the Little Slocan River watershed.
MAP SHOWING LITTLE SLOCAN RIVER CLEARCUTS OVER DECADES
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
The world’s seven biggest oil firms are projected to reap gargantuan profits of US$173 billion this year, leading to fresh calls for windfall taxes on a sector that has thrived after Russia’s war in Ukraine led to sky-high fuel prices.
Last week, London-based Shell reported US$9.45 billion in profits for 2022’s third quarter, its second-highest profit on record, while Paris-based TotalÉnergies reported US$9.9 billion. In the United States, Chevron’s US$11.2-billion quarterly profit soared past estimates, whilecolossal fossilExxonMobil reported US$20 billion in profits, $4 billion higher than forecasts.
All of those numbers represent only one-quarter of their annual earnings: “The cumulative takings for the seven biggest private sector oil drillers during the first nine months of 2022 could hit $173 billion, according to analyst forecasts collated by S&P Global Market Intelligence and reported earnings,” says the Guardian.
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Canada must make up for lost ground if it’s going to meet its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 45% from 2005 levels by 2030.
Among the 10 most developed G20 countries assessed by Corporate Knights’ Earth Index analysis , “Canada was the worst performing country of the whole group in 2019,” Ralph Torrie, Corporate Knights’ director of research said Canada’s performance between 2016 and 2019 was second worst to Russia in terms of making the emission reductions needed to meet its own targets.
The index compares a country’s actual emission performance against the annual average reductions that would be needed to meet its 2030 goal. For 2019, Canada saw emissions decrease by 2 megatonnes (Mt) while it required a reduction of 30 Mt to be on pace for a 45% target in 2030.
After years of limited action by the previous Conservative government, the Liberals came to power in 2015 pledging to ramp up climate ambition. However, they didn’t implement the centrepiece of their climate strategy, economy-wide carbon pricing, until 2019, and it was so low it had little impact on demand for carbon-intensive energy. The price rose by $10 annually to hit $50 a tonne this year, and it will increase to $170 a tonne by 2030.
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Calgary-based electricity producer TransAlta Corp. is suing the Alberta government and the Alberta Energy Regulator to prevent oil and gas companies from fracking near its largest hydroelectric dam in the province because the technique can cause earthquakes.
Two oil and gas companies have applied to frack within five kilometres of the dam.
TransAlta is concerned about possible seismic activity causing damage to the Brazeau power plant, near Drayton Valley in central Alberta, as well as the loss of wildlife, habitat and human life.
A series of smaller earthquakes have been recorded near the gas fracking fields in north east BC, not far from major Peace River dams.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/bakx-transalta-aer-fracking-brazeau-dam-1.6635519
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Canadian regulators said they were unaware of a methane cloud spotted by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5P satellite last month near gas pipelines, highlighting a disconnect between the nation’s climate ambitions and its emissions, which are the second highest per capita among G-20 countries. Methane is a greenhouse gas about 80 times as potent in the short term as carbon dioxide.
Geoanalytics firm Kayrros SAS identified the Sept. 28 plume. The French-based firm estimated the methane cloud had an emissions rate of 11 metric tons an hour. If the event lasted an hour at that rate, it would have the same short-term climate impact as the annual carbon emissions equivalent from about 200 US cars. Kayrros attributed the cloud to the oil and gas sector.
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Back in 2016 Sarah Cox from The Narwhal reported that BC Hydro was planning to spend approximately $25.5 million to build a “trap and haul” facility for Peace River fish and will spend an additional $1.5 million a year to maintain the facility. The plans are contained in information BC Hydro filed with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
Migratory bull trout, listed as a threatened species in B.C., are the primary focus for the facility’s fish ladder and truck transport because Site C will block their way to spawning grounds. Arctic grayling, mountain whitefish, rainbow trout and other large fish seeking to swim past the 60-metre high dam are also expected to use the fish passage.
Three-quarters of the Peace River’s bull trout population, estimated at about 8,000 fish, are present upstream of Site C, according to a BC Hydro technical report.
There is no guarantee that any bull trout successfully trucked upstream from Site C will survive their downstream journey past the dam. That’s in part because the fish will play a life and death game of fish roulette in the dam’s turbines. Up to 40 percent of bull trout and other large fish are expected to perish in the turbines, according to a BCHydro report, while up to 10 percent of smaller fish will die.
https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-hydro-s-bizarre-multi-million-dollar-boondoggle-save-fish-site-c-dam/
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Calgary energy company ATCO is putting up 175,000 solar panels on land equal top about 170 Canadian football fields.
Two projects in the northeast Calgary area will be the largest solar array in a major urban centre in Western Canada.
The energy provider set a target of 2050 to be net zero and also has a goal by 2030 to have 1000 megawatts of renewables.
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A new gondola to Simon Fraser University, doubling the bus service, and hundreds of kilometres of new cycling paths are some of the transit plans approved by regional authorities this past summer.
Those priorities include nine new traffic-separated Bus Rapid Transit lines, extending the Millennium Line from Arbutus to the University of British Columbia, increasing HandyDart service by 60 per cent, and exploring other SkyTrain extensions, including to Newton in Surrey and to Port Coquitlam.
The plan includes 450 kilometres of new traffic-separated cycling paths, including bike networks in every Metro Vancouver Urban Centre, and 200 more bike lockers, according to a Metro Vancouver news release.
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/metro-vancouver-transit-plan-approved#Echobox=1656613933
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With rising fuel prices, heavy impacts on the environment and climate change, a London, Ontario-based tech firm has decided to provide e-bikes for its employees.
About 50 workers at Northern Commerce based in Ontario were gifted e-bikes worth $5000 each.
The company’s senior vice president Andrew McClenaghan developed a love for e-bikes during the pandemic when he used them for exercise and running errands, and hasn’t looked back since.
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