First Nations activist Nipawi Kakinoosit is on to talk about the plan for several First Nations to buy ownership of the Transmountain pipeline. Premier John Horgan told the BC Truck Loggers Association about a plan to cut raw log exports . Special showing, The Radicals.
The Environment News for Jan 29 2019
(with links to full stories).
A review of 10 recent environmental impact assessments in B.C. found professionals hired by companies generally find ways to diminish the significance of health and environmental impacts.
This is according to a study by University of British Columbia researchers who looked at 10 recent environmental impact assessments.
When experts, such as engineers and geoscientists, submit reports on a project to B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office, the generally accepted idea is that their information will reflect environmental standards and identify problems, allowing a project design to be changed or rejected if necessary.
Researchers found that experts — usually hired by a company applying to build a mine, pipeline or other project — rarely take heed of generally accepted thresholds to determine if there is a significant environmental or health concern.
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First Nations and environmental groups launched legal action last week to force the federal government to safeguard critical habitat for boreal woodland caribou in northern Alberta’s oil sands region, urging new protections for an iconic species scientists say is headed toward extinction.
Lawyers with the environment group Ecojustice filed a notice of application for judicial review in federal court on behalf of the Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations in northern Alberta, together with the Alberta Wilderness Association and the David Suzuki Foundation.
They argue Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna has failed to protect the habitat of five boreal woodland caribou herds as required by federal law, even though her own department has concluded in successive reports that provincial recovery plans for the threatened species are inadequate.
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Reports and photos from the Gidimt’en campsite show Coastal Gas Link employees bulldozing the campsite.
The Wet’suwet’en had planned for the tents to stay in place to sure as a cultural site to teach people about what happened at the camp when RCMP took down the roadblock.
Chief Na’mocks Hereditary Chief of the Wet’suwet’en said CGL has no permits or rights to dismantle the tents.
“For them to take down the tents and the bases that are there that’s not part of their work plan at all. They call it staging area well they don’t have the permits for that,” said Na’mocks.
A spokesperson with CGL, Suzanne Wilton said all the construction taking place is fully permitted.
In addition to the tents, traplines at the Unist’ot’en camp have been destroyed in the construction, which the Unist’ot’en said part of the healing center programing.
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Ten years ago, Ontario was developing new wind power projects at a cost of 28 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), the kind of above-market rate that the U.K., Portugal and other countries were offering to try to kick-start development of renewables.
Now some wind companies say they’ve brought generation costs down to between 2 and 4 cents — something that appeals to provinces that are looking to significantly increase their renewable energy.
The cost of electricity varies across Canada, by province and time of day, from an average of 6.5 cents per kWh in Quebec to as much as 15 cents in Halifax.
“It used to be one tower was 1 MW; now each turbine generates 3.3 MW. There’s more electricity generated per tower than several years ago,”
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Chilean lawmakers are seeking to amend existing legislation to safeguard water conditions in the country’s salmon farming heartland. Failure to comply will result in suspensions.
The country’s politicians have approved a project that requires holders of aquaculture concessions to remove organic and inorganic waste on the seabed under salmon farms, as reported in Soy Chile.
The project is the first that’s being made during the passage of legislation to make salmon farmers remove sediment from their sites. One other proposal wants to make salmon farmers allocate 3% of their profits to fund research into the impact of their operations on the ecosystem.
The new project obliges licence holders to carry out clean-up work immediately when the presence inorganic waste is detected.
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The Human Survival Summit: The Next Wave Of Climate Change Protests Is Coming
Greenpeace and Amnesty International unite in push for greater civil disobedience.
DAVOS, Switzerland ―Two of the world’s largest nonprofits are joining forces to spark a new wave of civil disobedience to intensify pressure on governments and business leaders to avert a climate catastrophe.
Greenpeace International, which has traditionally focused on environmental issues, and Amnesty International, which has concentrated on human rights, are co-launching a Summit for Human Survival later this year to encourage nonviolent protests and other interventions that force greater action on climate change. The event is expected to include NGOs, grassroots activist groups, as well as arts and cultural organizations from across the world.
Kumi Naidoo, secretary-general of Amnesty, said it is essential for organizations across different sectors to join forces rather than seeing issues such as the environment, human rights and international development as separate.
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The City of Victoria has become the first municipality in B.C. to support filing a class-action lawsuit that seeks to have oil and gas companies help pay a portion of the costs associated with climate change and is hoping other municipalities follow its lead.
A Victoria council meeting, held on Jan. 17, found that the impacts of climate change have resulted in substantial costs for local B.C. governments, and asks the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) to examine the possibility of initiating the lawsuit.
“Our province is in a climate emergency and response from fossil fuel companies has been inadequate,” Victoria Councillor Ben Isitt said. “The cost of climate change has been overwhelming for local governments in B.C., and taxpayers shouldn’t be the only ones paying for the impacts.”
The decision comes days after the Insurance Bureau of Canada estimated that Canadian governments paid up to $5.7-billion for uninsured damages caused by extreme weather events in 2018. A report in 2015 estimated that storm surges and a one-metre rise in sea level, which is projected by the year 2100, could cost Victoria businesses up to $415,557 a day.
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