LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD FEBRUARY 14 ECOCENTRIC HERE:
$60 million in fines handed out to Teck Coal from the Elk valley mountain removal mines. Wyatt Petryshen from Wildsight gives us some details. On Monday The Narwhat online environmental magazine announced it is taking the RCMP to court for violating the rights of freelance journalist Amber Bracken who was arrested on Wet’suwet’en land. We have some clips.
The Canadian oil industry claims Carbon Capture and Storage is its climate plan to reduce emissions. But the reality? Angela Carter co-authored a study on CCS for the International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Last Stand West Kootenay held a successful film night with new documentary REMATRIATION. Jay tells us about it.
LINKS
Teck Coal mines penalized again. https://wildsight.ca/2023/02/09/teck-coal-fined-for-failed-water-treatment/
The Narwhal takes RCMP to court over arrest and incarceration of photo journalist. https://thenarwhal.ca/bracken-narwhal-rcmp-lawsuit/
International Institute for Sustainable Development Report explains flaws in big oils carbon capture plans. https://www.iisd.org/articles/deep-dive/why-carbon-capture-and-storage-not-net-zero-solution
Last Stand West Kootenay shows new BC doc REMATRIATION.
EVENTS
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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
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Noon, Saturday March 4
Last Stand West Kootenay
Locally, Last Stand West Kootenay is holding a follow up rally at Noon Saturday March 4th at the Nelson Courthouse. The event will feature live music, speeches with updates on local old growth protection, and sign and mask making starting at 11:30.
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS BITS
Fairy Creek land defenders are celebrating a recent Supreme Court decision likely to have far-reaching ramifications for the 180 land defenders still facing charges of criminal contempt of court. On February 8th, Nanaimo’s Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson found Anishinaabe land defender Ryan Henderson not guilty of criminal contempt based on the failure of RCMP to provide appropriate notice during arrests.
https://www.facebook.com/FairyCreekBlockade
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Canada has announced a moratorium on deep-sea mining in both territorial and international waters on the last day of a global ocean conservation summit.
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault made statements Thursday confirming Canada’s position on seabed mining at the IMPAC5 leadership forum in Vancouver.
There isn’t sufficient science and no existing domestic or international legal framework that would allow for mining to take place in an environmentally sustainable manner, Wilkinson told Canada’s National Observer.
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Cars can be convenient, but they are also incredibly costly, both to owners and society in general. New\research has calculated that the lifetime cost of a small car in Germany—such as an Opel Corsa—is about $689,000, of which society pays $275,000. (A Mercedes GLC costs $1+m over an owner’s lifetime.)
The research focused on Germany, but lead author Stefan Gössling told me the guiding principles work for other countries, too. Writing in Ecological Economics, Gössling stated that “the car is one of the most expensive household consumer goods, yet there is a limited understanding of its private and social cost per vehicle-km, year, or lifetime of driving.”
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The federal government and coastal First Nations took a significant step towards establishing a massive marine protected area off the West Coast of Vancouver Island on Tuesday.
The proposed Tang.ɢwan — ḥačxwiqak — Tsig̱is Marine Protected Area (MPA) covers a 133,000-square-kilometre swath of open ocean 150 kilometres off Vancouver island’s west coast. The area harbours a unique concentration of hydrothermal vents, underwater sea mountains and rich deep-sea biodiversity hot spots found nowhere else in the world.
The federal government and the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council (NTC), the Council of the Haida Nation, Pacheedaht First Nation and Quatsino First Nation announced they’ve reached an agreement in principle on the vast MPA in their territorial waters.
The MPA will be the largest on Canada’s Pacific coast when it is established, said Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), speaking at IMPAC5, a global marine conservation summit underway in Vancouver.\
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A national transportation coalition is urging the federal government boost public transportation funding and support projects across the country.
The coalition, Keep Transit Moving says the government can create low-carbon rural and intercity public transit through the formation of a national, intericty highway bus service, and by revitalising national passenger rail.
The group also says Canada should omprove accessible transit by conducting an accessibility audit of all transit infrastructure, increasing funding to local agencies to expand para-transit services, and make vehicle accessibility grants available to motorcoach operators for vehicles that are used predominantly for highway motorcoach service.
https://www.keeptransitmoving.ca/2023-budget-release
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Underscoring the need for humanity to overhaul its relationship with nature, 34% of plants species and 40% of animal species across the United States are at risk of extinction while 41% of U.S. ecosystems could collapse, That’s according to an analysis published last week by the nonprofit NatureServe.
“Two-fifths of our ecosystems are in trouble. Freshwater invertebrates and many pollinators, the foundation of a healthy, functional planet, are in precipitous decline,” they say “Understanding and addressing these risks is critical if we are to forestall devastating consequences for the biodiversity that humanity needs to survive.” said the group’s vice president for data and methods, Regan Smyth.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/natureserve-40-animals-extinction-us
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