LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD JANUARY 24 ECOCENTRIC HERE:
The danger of gas stoves is raising quite a stink in the US and everywhere right now. To find out more we talk with Dr. Melissa Lem, president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
BC’s Supreme Court ruled last week the province is not breaking its own climate accountability law by not reporting fully on progress on carbon emissions reductions. The court said they were disappointed the province is failing to meet targets, but the law technically is not being broken. Jens Wieting from Sierra Club BC comes back to tell us about their case against the government.
West Kootenay Climate Hub had a great webinar to start off the season with Nelson’s Dr. Marian Berry who attended COP 27 in Egypt and Kaslo’s Dona Grace Campbell who was at COP 15 on biodiversity in Montreal. We have a clip.
LINKS:
Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. CAPE.CA
Sierra Club of BC on Supreme Court decision climate reporting within the law
Video recording of West Kootenay Climate Hub Webinar on locals at COP 27 and COP 15
EVENTS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26TH. 6 pm. Rossland Museum
Rossland Museum is kicking off its January speaker series. with THE WEST KOOTENAY CLIMATE HUB!
CLIMATE ACTIVIST LAURA SACKS WILL ADDRESS WHY AND HOW CLIMATE CHANGE IS MANIFESTING ITSELF BOTH GLOBALLY AND LOCALLY.
Laura interweaves information about the climate crisis with personal stories and experiences shared from the audience. She’ll share exciting news about climate solutions and describe some of the initiatives helping to overcome obstacles in addressing the climate crisis.
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Tuesday January 31, 4pm –
New book: The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-Called Canada
The climate crisis is here, and the end of this world—a world built on land theft, resource extraction, and colonial genocide—is on the horizon. The authors of the newly released book The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-Called Canada envision a near future where oil and gas stay in the ground; where a caring economy provides social supports for all; where wealth is redistributed from the bloated billionaire class; and where stolen land is rightfully reclaimed under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples. The book is published as part of the Corporate Mapping Project.
Join us for a discussion with all six book authors They will focus on the book as a roadmap to a livable future, where Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice go hand in hand, showing that the next world is both within reach and worth fighting for.
Register here
Friday, February 3rd 10 to Noon.
Learning in Retirement: Silverking Campus in Nelson. Laura Sacks – Solving the Climate Crisis: An Interactive Workshop
What will it take to solve the climate crisis? Participants in this workshop will work together to create their own solution to keep global heating to the goals of the Paris Agreement. We will use the cutting-edge simulation model En-ROADS, created by Climate Interactive and MIT Sloan. The resulting experience is hopeful, scientifically-grounded, action-oriented, and eye-opening.
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Friday, February 17th at Noon
West Kootenay Climate Hub Webinar. Visions for a Better Public Transportation Network in the West Kootenay
Why is an equitable, environmentally friendly, interconnected, public transportation network necessary in the West Kootenay?
Sign up at WestKoootenayClimateHub.ca
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Saturday February 25, 2023
Mass Mobilization for Old Growth Forests, BC Legislature Victoria.
A large coalition is bringing a broad-based mass mobilization to the BC Legislature on February 25, 2023 that reflects the majority of public will in BC for progressive solutions to the crisis in the woods. Based on the Union of BC Indian Chiefs Resolution 2022-32, and supported by independent reporting, the scientific data on old growth, and the urgency of the climate crisis, we demand that the BC NDP government:
Immediately halt logging in at-risk old growth forests and additional areas suggested by First Nations
Provide fulsome and immediate financial support for First Nations to implement logging deferrals and resilience planning on their unceded territories, including Indigenous conservation strategies and compensation for any lost revenues and employment as a result of deferrals
Organized by: Sierra Club of BC, Stand.earth, Wilderness Committee, and Elders for Ancient Trees
https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/united-for-old-growth-forests/
Sources I go to for environmental events include WestKootenayClimateHub.ca and westcoastclimateaction.ca
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
B.C. has created a $90 million fund to create manufacturing jobs in B.C.’s forest industry following last week’s announcement that up to 300 people will lose their positions at a Prince George pulp and paper mill.
The new B.C. Manufacturing Jobs Fund is aimed at supporting investment and innovation in the industry, which has seen several hundred people put out of work due to cuts and curtailments across the province in recent months.
Old growth protection, pine beetles and forest fires aren’t the only culprits being blamed for the industry downturn, as companies, conservation groups and politicians all share their own narratives on why jobs are disappearing.
In a written statement released last week, Canfor president Kevin Edgson kept things simple, pointing to the lack of timber available for harvest without assigning responsibility.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/prince-george-forestry-downturn-eby-1.6716155
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Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg joined thousands in the village of Lützerath, Germany, to oppose the expansion of an open-pit lignite mine, one of the dirtiest forms of coal. Police in riot gear hauled her away as the mass arrests progressed.
Greta wrote on Twitter, “Yesterday I was part of a group that peacefully protested the expansion of a coal mine…We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening. Climate protection is not a crime.”
From there Thunberg went back to Davos, fwith other youth climate leaders including Vanessa Nakate from Uganda, Helena Gualinga from Ecuador, and Luisa Neubauer from Germany. They have issued a letter to the CEOs of fossil fuel corporations, that reads in part:
“This Cease and Desist Notice is to demand that you immediately stop opening any new oil, gas, or coal extraction sites, and stop blocking the clean energy transition we all so urgently need…If you fail to act immediately, be advised that citizens around the world will consider taking any and all legal action to hold you accountable. And we will keep protesting in the streets in huge numbers.”
Thunberg and three other young climate activists were joined by none other than the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol. “Thank you very much for what you have been doing,” he said. “If we bring our energy from clean sources, then we don’t need any more coal, we don’t need any more oil and gas,” said the world’s top energy expert.
A major investigation has turned up “strong discrepancies” about forest offsets used by multinationals like Disney, Gucci and Shell, as well as airlines, sports teams and rock bands (sorry, Pearl Jam).
In his speech at Davos, the UN secretary-general warned that climate plans need to be “grounded in real emissions cuts.”
Specifically, plans must not “rely on carbon credits or shadow markets.”
A nine-month investigation into the world’s leading provider of carbon offsets found more than 90 per cent of its rainforest offsets are “phantom credits.”
The investigation looked into offsets approved by Verra and was carried out by the non-profit investigative journalism outfit SourceMaterial along with our Climate Desk partners at The Guardian, and Germany’s Die Zeit.
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We usually think about cars when we think about EVs. But electrification is happening even faster with buses and two-wheelers. Around the world, almost half of bus sales are now electric, and almost 40 per cent of two-wheelers.
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The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says most of the dramatic inflationary price increases are going to corporate profits in mining, oil and gas extraction
Of every dollar spent on higher prices in the last two years, 47 cents was converted into corporate profits in four industries, led by mining, oil and gas extraction, explains their new
In Where are Your Inflation Dollars Going, CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald examines what’s driving inflation in Canada, using a new approach. It shows four industries are dominating in inflationary corporate profits. Of every additional dollar spent on inflation:
25 cents is going to profits in mining and oil and gas extraction
9 cents is going to profits in manufacturing, which includes oil refining into gasoline and diesel
7 cents is going to profits in real estate, rentals, and leasing
6 cents is going to profits in finance and insurance, which includes the big banks
“By far, the largest beneficiary of inflation has been the oil and gas extraction and mining industries,” says Macdonald “which, in an era of climate change, is probably not what we want.”
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