DOWNLOAD OR LISTEN TO APRIL 4TH ECOCENTRIC HERE:
LINKS FROM THE SHOW
Sign the petition to tell RBC to stop financing the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. bit.ly/3Kifxrl
More on Wet’suwet’en defending the land: yintahaccess.com
Protests across Canada against RBC fossil investments: https://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-daily-courier/20230404/281539410227147
Nelson Public Forum on LNG, FRACKING, PIPELINES
Share the facebook event
Cute little SMR Nuclear Fission Reactors
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. CCNR.org
Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick https://crednb.ca/
New Brunswick Media Coop. https://nbmediacoop.org/category/environment/
EVENTS
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Thursday April 13. 7 pm
Nelson Public Forum on LNG, Fracking and Pipelines
BC faces huge climate decisions on expanding the production of methane gas, also known as natural gas, Thousands more fracked gas wells will have to be drilled in NE BC to fill pipelines to massive LNG compression plants on the coast. The Nelson/West Kootenay Chapter of the Council of Canadians, the West Kootenay Climate Hub and Doctors and Nurses for Planetary Health Kootenay Boundary are putting on the event with three experts from around the province at Nelson United Church at 7 pm Thursday April 13 7 pm. A zoom link will also be available at the events page of the WestKootenayClimateHub.ca
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Saturday April 15, 10am-12 Noon –
4th Climate Action Provincial Assembly (CAPA)
The CAPA is an opportunity for climate advocates and activists in B.C. to share our campaigns and cooperate together to make them stronger. Breakout groups on current campaigns and initiatives in BC’s climate movement covering Old Growth Forests, Frack Free BC, Stop Liquefied Natural/Fossil Gas LNG/LFG, Gas out of New Buildings, Stop RBC / Fossil Fuel Finance, Stop TMX, Transportation, Food, Farming and Climate, the BC Climate Emergency Campaign, Youth Climate Corps, Labour Climate Organizing, Preparing for the Next BC Provincial Election, Climate Organizing within the BC NDP, and Climate Organizing within the BC Green Party (to be confirmed) Sign up HERE.
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Friday April 21. NOON
Zoom Forum from the West Kootenay Climate Hub
The Kootenay CarShare Coop is highlighting some of its new services in a Noon Hour zoom webinar from the West Kootenay Climate Hub Friday webinar. Kootenay Carshare Cooperative is continually evolving and innovating to meet the needs of the communities it serves. Our mandate is to reduce greenhouse gases from privately owned vehicles and we have been taking this mission to new levels.
The Coop will talk about introducing electric vehicles and more recently, low speed electric vehicles, into our fleet. We have upgraded our sharing platform to allow others to share their vehicles through our platform, using our insurance and infrastructure to have certified drivers pay vehicle owners to rent their cars.
A zoom link will also be available at the events page of the WestKootenayClimateHub.ca
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Songs for the Earth: An Earth Day Celebration
Saturday April 22, 2 pm
Nelson United Church, 602 Silica Street
Please join the Nelson Interfaith Collaborative in celebrating Earth Day on April 22nd with Songs for the Earth. There will be musical presentations as well as a sing-a-long. They are inviting everyone to bring an item from nature to collectively create “earth art”.
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Earth Day Protestival Fernwood NRG
SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 2023 AT 1 PM – 4:30 PM
Just to talk a bit about what other communities are doign for April 22 Earth DAy…
Climate Justice Victoria is hosting an Earth Day protestival on, April 23rd!
They say they are a community together by celebrating the ways that arts and organizations are used to address living with the climate crisis, responding to it, and preventing further impacts through the efforts of climate and social justice.
There will be a number of visual and perfoming artists featured throughout the afternoon. In addition, there will also be a few workshops held during the day and info tables for many of our favourite organizations.
ENVIRONMENT NEWS BITS
Clear cut logging in BC watersheds rivers is driving up the water temperatures of coho salmon habitats and threatening the species’ survival, according to a new study.
The study by Simon Fraser University and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), looked into 28 tributaries of the North Thompson River watershed from Kamloops to Valemount.
It found the more extensive the logging activities near headwater streams, the higher the water temperature during the summer.
Among tributaries with upstream riverbank trees harvested between 1970 and 2019, those with 35 per cent of trees harvested had a summer water temperature 3.7 C higher than those with five per cent of trees harvested, data showed.
The higher river temperatures have been implicated in reducing salmon spawning and threaten salmon populations.
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The City of Nelson’s Natalie Douglas works on the City climate team and she focuses on embodied carbon in building materials. Her work was recognized last week at the BC Embodied Carbon Awards.
The newly inauguarated awards point out that Buildings account for a major source of emissions and having a better understanding of material choices and their impacts helps us drive positive change.
The Awards celebrate the achievements of projects endeavoured to minimize their material carbon footprint. The City of Nelson’s work on this is apparently leading the way.
https://bcgreeneventcalendar.ca/bc-embodied-carbon-awards-2023
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March 31 was former NDP Premier John Horgan’s last day as an MLA. Last year he announced his retirement and stepped aside as Premier, and Friday he wrapped up as an elected representative.
The next day, Saturday, April 1, Horgan announced he was joining the Board of the Teck Coal company that operates five giant open pit coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass area of BC.
Teck resources is making the coal mining operations into a separate corporate entity Elk Valley Resources.
As we have reported many times over years on this show Teck Resources has been hit with the largest environmental charges and fines repeatedly over the past decade, both for releases from its Trail smelting plant and from the Coal mines. Selenium contaminated run off from the mines has threatened the survival of trout in the Elk River system.
Horgan was disdainful about any criticism of his move and told the Globe and Mail: “I don’t have a lot of time any more, none in fact, for public comment on my world view, or what I am doing with my time. I don’t want to be snippy about it, but there are others that are making policy decisions.”
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The Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) announced this past month that it is withdrawing funding for local and regional environmental education programs in the Kootenay region and halting its large environmental grants program.
CBT says the decision stems from public consultation it did in 2020, much of it done digitally while COVID-19 related ‘bubble’ measures were at their height. The CBT’s current management plan runs from 2020 to 2023, so several Kootenay nonprofit organizations are set to be affected quite soon, and indeed some say they’ve already felt the squeeze.
More news on this on next week’s EcoCentric
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The federal budget announced last Tuesday, March 28th had real support for a clean energy future for the country. But one critic noted that while it is bringing in the good,(wind, solar, storage) the budget fails to phase out the bad (fossil fuels and nuclear).
It’s the biggest clean energy budget Canada has ever tabled: $80 billion over the next decade. At least in part a response to the massive investments in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act
Even Greenpeace was impressed: Keith Stewart declared “This budget is the first to fully recognize that the only route to a prosperous and secure future lies in aggressive action to combat the climate crisis.”
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Calgary fire officials suspect the explosion that levelled a house in the city’s northeast on last week was caused by leaking natural gas. The resulting methane explosion damaged nearby homes, raining debris on the neighbourhood and sent 10 people to the hospital,
Calgary Fire Chief Steven Dongworth said investigators are looking at the furnace, the hot water tank and any other gas appliances. He added that fire officials will speak with the victims about what they smelled or saw prior to the blast.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-house-explosion-marlborough-gas-natural-1.6793225
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A UN resolution was adopted last week that should make it easier to hold polluting countries legally accountable for failing to tackle the climate emergency.
The UN general assembly adopted by consensus the resolution spearheaded by Vanuatu, a tiny Pacific island nation vulnerable to extreme climate effects, and youth activists to secure a legal opinion from the international court of justice (ICJ) to clarify states’ obligations to tackle the climate crisis – and specify any consequences countries should face for inaction.
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