LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD MAY 7 SHOW HERE:
The harms of too much noise are being recognized more widely, like air pollution in the 1960s. Dr. Hugh Davies from UBC tells us about the health science and more.
Ingrid Buday from No More Noise Toronto has been working to get change in noise control in the big city.
Canada finally released 2022 climate pollution numbers and Aly Hyder Ali from Environmental Defence in Ottawa explains what’s being reported.
LINKS MENTIONED
BC organization on noise pollution
https://quiet.org/
Primer on noise and health, EU “night-noise Guidelines”
https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/326486
EU – more on preserving quiet for health and environment
https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/quiet-areas-in-europe
No More Noise Toronto
https://www.nomorenoisetoronto.com/
Summary of Canadian 2022 emissions report
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/05/03/news/canada-oil-and-gas-emissions-continue-rise
Canada’s emissions by year and by province… charts
https://leachandrew.github.io/NIR/
ENVIRONMENTAL EVENTS
Thursday, May 9 12:30 – 1 pm
Zoom Webinar
Connecting BC: Public transit and the transition to zero emission transportation
In collaboration with the BC Federation of Labour, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has published Connecting BC: a 10-year vision for public transit throughout BC. In this webinar, report author Marc Lee will discuss the highlights of this 10-year transit investment plan that outlines a path to make transit affordable, accessible, inclusive, carbon-zero and a great experience for users across the province.
Transportation planner and BC Climate Emergency Campaign transportation working group lead Eric Doherty will also discuss the significant overlaps between Connecting BC and the BC Climate Emergency Campaign’s efforts to accelerate the transition to zero emission transportation.
FREE: Register https://bcclimateemergency.ca/events/jwf22y72zlrsu409tu50r44pr9636i
Deadline Monday May 13
Online survey
Survey on the proposed Castlegar/Nelson Active Transportation Corridor Project
The West Kootenay Cycling Coalition’s feasibility study for an active transportation corridor between Castlegar and Nelson is almost complete! WATT Consulting Group, a transportation and engineering firm based in Kelowna has been hired to carry out the study. $50,000 in funding for the project has been provided by the Government of Canada’s Active Transportation Fund, through the Regional District of Central Kootenay.
Our project is in the final phase of understanding. We are conducting public engagement and determining overall levels of support for the proposed route. Find more information about the project here: https://westkootenaycycling.ca/projects
Friday, May 17 Noon
Zoom Webinar
West Kootenay Climate Hub Webinar: Young women in Leadership
The next West Kootenay Climate Hub webinar is a conversation about young women taking on leadership roles. We’ll connect with Danika Hammond, New Denver councillor, and Maya Provencal, Rossland councillor.
https://www.westkootenayclimatehub.ca/upcoming-events
May 25th & 26th
Bear Spring Retreat, Beasley
The West Kootenay EcoFest
A ‘Made in the West Kootenays’ celebration of sustainable action with local waste reduction solutions, live demonstrations, inspiring learning opportunities, regional food and lively festivities.
https://koelsociety.com/. or https://bearspringeco.ca/
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
An “exceptional climate change event” is forecast to push temperatures well above seasonal averages across B.C. this week and could lead to spike in wildfire risk, a new analysis warns.
Scientists at the U.S. research group Climate Central have released models showing a warm spell stretching May 1 to 5 will be made five times more likely due to climate change.
Temperatures over the five-day period are expected to climb between five and 10 degrees Celsius above the historical average going back to 1991, according to Andrew Pershing, director of climate science at Climate Central.
“We were looking at this and getting flashbacks with some of the patterns that we were seeing last year,” Pershing said.
“This was how we saw the [wildfire] season kicking off last year.”
The long-delay and embattled Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline began filling last week but controversy continues over its massive cost over $30 billion after original estimates of $4.7 billion. The pipeline owned by the federal government faced major questions from oil shippers, the companies who will pay the pipeline to ship the bitumen, which includes Canada’s largest producers, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Suncor Energy Inc., Cenovus, PetroChina Canada Ltd., and Marathon Petroleum Canada
The companies have asked the Canada Energy Regulator to compel the company behind the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to provide them with a full and detailed breakdown of the project’s escalating construction costs.’
Trans Mountain said it now has reason to believe the costs of the project will come in approximately $3.1 billion higher than the $30.9 billion estimate in May 2023. It said a final tally won’t be available until after the project’s completion, expected sometime this spring.
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment is calling for a delay in opening the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion pumpoing diluted bitumen \to the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby. The shipments will trigger a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic through Vancouver’s First and Second Narrows and into the Salish Sea. However, an essential major safety measure to save lives and protect human health in the event of a tanker spill in Burrard Inlet or the Salish Sea is not yet operational. CAPE is asking people to sign on to their letter calling on the BC Environmental Assessment Office to advise the federal government and the TMX owner that no additional Trans Mountain tankers be allowed through the First and Second Narrows in Vancouver until there is a credible, coordinated plan to protect the health and safety of people in this region from the elevated risk of a Trans Mountain pipeline oil spill.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdAnIuDPGQcuXhzKwYrLQz9XJeoY_o-KWDsq4Gr8W0DnOxT0Q/viewform
Commercial banks are financing a huge amount of fossil-fuel and industrial agriculture activities in the Global South – they must turn off the tap. Last month, from Bangladesh to Kenya to Washington DC, over 40,000 activists in nearly 20 countries hit the streets calling on banks, governments and financial institutions to “#FixTheFinance” pushing the planet to the brink.
Competition Bureau Canada commissioner Matthew Boswell is pressing the federal government for more power to tackle corporate greenwashing.
The bureau is an independent agency tasked with promoting competition and fighting misleading marketing. As Ottawa plans to revamp the Competition Act with a series of amendments in Bill C-59, Boswell sent a 12-page letter to parliamentarians outlining a series of recommendations to strengthen the hand of his office.
One priority area of reform for Boswell is increasing the power to fight corporate greenwashing. The federal government intends to introduce new greenwashing rules, but Boswell believes they don’t go far enough and is asking Ottawa to study whether greenwashing rules can be expanded.
Solar is now being installed faster than any technology in history
Global installed solar capacity passed 1.4 Terawatts (TW) which is tenfold larger than ten years ago, and it is doubling every 3 years. Global solar capacity surpassed nuclear installed capacity in 2017; wind in 2022; and hydro in 2023.
At current growth rates (20% per annum), solar will pass fossil gas in 2024 and coal in 2025. Current growth rates also suggest that solar will approach 9 TW in 2031, when there will be more solar generation capacity than everything else combined.
Global nuclear capacity and annual nuclear generation have been static for the past dozen years. Nuclear failed in the global energy marketplace.
Canada’s sputtering carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry sustained two serious setbacks in less than 48 hours this week, with one major project cancelled and a second subject to scathing criticism from independent analysts.
Edmonton-based Capital Power announced it was giving up on a C$2.4-billion CCS project that was meant to capture up to three megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from its gas-fired Genesee generating station in Alberta. “Through our development of the project, we have confirmed that CCS is a technically viable technology,” the company said in its statement. “However, at this time, the project is not economically feasible.”
A day earlier, the Cleveland-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) declared the CCS installation at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam 3 coal plant an “underperforming failure”, achieving only a 57% capture rate after nine years in operation and $1 billion spent on the technology. “Canadians should not be proud of the money and resources wasted on CCS, and should be especially concerned about the billions of dollars now earmarked for additional CCS investments,” wrote analysts David Schlissel and Mark Kalegha.
theecocentricradioshow.ca 