CHARGE THE PEOPLE A DOLLAR AND A HALF JUST TO SEE THEM. –JONI MITCHELL.
LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD NOVEMBER 8, 2022 SHOW HERE
Mitchell Beer editor of TheEnergyMix.com in Ottawa tells us what’s on at the global COP 27 meeting in Egypt. Torrance Coste from The Wilderness Committee unpacks the spin of government announcement on old growth logging. Jacomien van Tonder from Metal Alley Works in Trail told Selkirk College’s COUNTDOWN TedX event about how the circular economy is developing.
COMING EVENTS
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/
Tuesday December 6
Online 3:30 to 5 pm.
Creating a liveable climate future: an interactive workshop
Join us for an interactive workshop to explore strategies to address climate change using grounded conversations and the cutting-edge climate simulator En-ROADS. The resulting experience is hopeful, scientifically-grounded, action-oriented, and eye-opening.
https://www.westkootenayclimatehub.ca/upcoming-events
LINKS MENTIONED
Details and analysis of government’s old growth analysis
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2022FOR0075-001636
ENVIRONMENT NEWS AND LINKS
A new Abacus Data poll released last week shows a strong majority of Canadians believe an emission cap is necessary to ensure the fossil fuel industry takes on its fair share of climate action. The poll also reveals a majority of Canada believe the cap should be solid, with no delays or offsets.
Oil and gas companies and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) have pushed back against the cap on oil and gas emissions, complaining that it would be too aggressive and unnecessary.
The Abacus poll shows that 7 in 10 Canadians (69%) say the emissions cap should ensure the oil and gas industry takes on its fair share of climate action, both compared to other Canadian sectors and on a global level.
In every region of Canada, a majority of people agree the oil and gas industry should do its fair share of climate action, with only 16% of respondents country-wide disagreeing.
In British Columbia, support is 72%; Quebec, 74%; and Atlantic Canada, 77%.
Even Alberta sees a majority (59%) support for this.
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The B.C. governement and Teck Mining both actively opposed, and may have blocked, an international study of Kootenay watershed selenium pollution last year.
Provincial opposition to a proposed investigation of Kootenay watershed pollution may have prevented federal support for the review, that’s according to documents released recently by Ktunaxa Nation Council. The Ktunaxa Nation got the information through freedom of information requests.
The documents show correspondence on the question of the Canada US International Joint commission investigating selenium pollution from coal mines in the Kootenay River system.
For the last decade, the Ktunaxa Nation Council, along with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, has been calling for the International Joint Commission to look into the pollution.
Kathryn Teneese, chair of the Ktunaxa Nation Council said: “I think the important issue at hand is the health of the waterways, that’s what our concern is and we were seeking a mechanism to try and get some independent oversight and some science to speak to some of the concerns that we’re raising and hopefully provide some ideas about how we might address some of these things.”
FROM The Fernie Free Press.
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Coming out just before COP 27 convened a new report shows how hard it will be to deliver on the nonbinding Global Methane Pledge to cut emissions of the gas 30 percent by 2030.
The World Meteorological Organization’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, released Oct. 26, shows that in 2021, concentrations of the potent but short-lived climate pollutant jumped faster than in any year since measurements started in the mid-1980s.
Last year in Glasgow at COP 26 cutting methane emissions was targetted as in important immediate step because methane is some 80 times more warming than carbon dioxide.
The other greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, reached record concentrations in the atmosphere, surging toward levels that will warm the Earth well past the 1.5 degree temperature limit set by theParis Agreement in 2015.
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Solar panels can last much longer than the rated 25 years according to a paper, published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The authors say if solar panels can last 40 to 50 years, this changes the equation for the timing of their replacement and the amount of waste produced by the energy transition.
A 50-year lifespan is a real possibility which dramatically lowers the carbon cost of the panels and makes them even more attractive as a climate friendly renewable power source.
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It’s mid-term elections in the US today, and we are holding our breath about the results which could be devastating in so many ways, including environmentally. A prime example is in Wisconsin where the democrat candidate for Senate, Mandela Barnes is calling for action on the climate crisis that “is already here.” Barnes was the chair of the state’s first task force on climate change. His competitor, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, suggested that human-caused climate change was “BS.” Johnson leads in the polls.
Many more examples like this show what a clear division exists in American politics.
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This week on Global News TV Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland reported on good news in times of inflation and rocketing prices. “In terms of the economic outlook…our partners are calling for everyone who can produce energy to step up and boost production…Canada this year is going to produce 300,000 more barrells of oil than we had been projecting,” the fianance minister said.
She also said the government is working with the fossil fuel sectors on carbon sequestration expansion to reduce emissions. Freeland says: CCUS holds temendous opportujities for Canada.
In fact carbon capture and storage is extremely costly in dollars and energy and is a highly inefficient way to reduce emissions.
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