Keith Wiley reports live from the solidarity protest for #WetsuwetenStrong in front of the office of Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, MLA Michelle Mungall. Sinixt matriarch Marilyn James reports on meeting with Mungall. BC Forestry seeks feedback on plan to spray invasive plants with herbicides across southern interior. Candace Batycki from Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative talks about the sad end of lower Kootenay caribou.
Environment News for February 5 2019
Last night (Feb 4) Nelson City Council agreed to the plan to put a toxic waste collection at the Nelson Leafs Recycling Depot next to Cottonwood Creek in rail town. Councillor Jesse Woodward expressed concerns about housing a toxic waste site adjacent to the location of the Cottonwood Market. Councillor Keith Page indicated he was concerned that a toxic site was hardly consistent with a new housing community in the revitalized rail town. The motion approved the Nelson Leafs to operate the site for only year, however Council mainly discussed how long it would take to get the site moved to a better permanent location. Most doubted that would happen in just one year.
Council also voted its support to support the Save Cottonwood Lake campaign… a motion proposed by Rik Logtenberg.
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It’s only one month into 2019 and meteorologists are already talking about extreme weather patterns that have brought cities and towns across the globe to a standstill.
In the United States last week, some 200 million Americans experienced a historic deep freeze that saw temperatures plummet below -32 degrees killed at least 17 people and led to the cancellation of more than 2,300 flights.
On Thursday, temperatures in 11 states in the continental US saw temperatures lower than the one recorded in Utqiagvik, Alaska’s northernmost city, situated north of the Arctic Circle.
The United Kingdom recorded record lows as frosty weather pounded parts of England, Scotland and Wales.
On Thursday, residents in Braemar in northeast Scotland experienced -14.4 C according to the UK’s national weather service. This was the lowest temperature recorded in the UK since 2012.
Heavy snow has created roadblocks for travelers across the country. Some flights at London’s Heathrow Airport were canceled Friday; passengers were stuck on snow-covered runways at airports in Manchester and Liverpool earlier in the week.
Parts of France also came under a weather warning after heavy snow fall, Météo France, the national meteorological service, warned earlier this week.
But as parts of the US and Europe saw record lows, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology announced it had been the country’s hottest January on record.
The “unprecedented” heat wave that burned its way through all of the country’s melted roads, saw infrastructure fail and killed thousands of animals.
Ben Webber, lecturer in climate science in the Climatic Research Unit at the UK’s University of East Anglia, told CNN.
“We can try and mitigate against the worst effects of climate change by reducing carbon emissions, that’s really the best thing to do — but obviously that requires global action. So individuals can help, but it has to be a big global action to be effective,” he said.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/weather/extreme-weather-us-uk-australia-gbr-intl/index.html
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More American coal trains are not now coming to the Fraser Surrey Docks. After six long years of community pushback, the Port of Vancouver has cancelled its permit for the controversial U.S. thermal coal proposal. A port spokesperson told The Tyee the company was required to show “substantial progress” on the project, and failed to do so. Fraser Surrey Docks was fighting an ongoing court battle with local residents represented by Ecojustice.
THe grassroots groups including Communities and Coal, Voters Taking Action on Climate Change, and volunteers in Delta, White Rock, New Westminster, Burnaby, Vancouver and Surrey who fought this filthy project over many years.
Organizers from B.C. to California have defeated a string of dirty thermal coal proposals up and down the coast. That’s good for the health and safety of people who live, work, or go to school near the train tracks.
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Last December the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, declared a climate emergency and urged the UK government to do more. He said we must avert an ecological breakdown that poses an existential threat to humanity.
Khan said he was implementing measures to protect people from floods, fires and the political upheaval caused by climate change. He accused central government of “dragging its feet”.
“We are in the midst of a climate emergency which poses a threat to our health, our planet and our children and grandchildren’s future,” Khan told the Guardian. “City Hall is doing everything in our power to mitigate the risk in London but the stark reality is that we need urgent government action and funding.”
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Courtenay-Alberni New Democrat MP Gord Johns challenged minister Jonathan Wilkinson in the House of Commons last week on the need to close the herring fishery in the Strait of Georgia due to a lack of supply.
Johns said herring are a critical part of the area’s ecosystem, providing a food source for local salmon, which in turn feed endangered southern resident killer whales.
“If a moratorium is not enforced to protect this critical food source and to allow the stocks to rebuild, we’re endangering this interdependent species,” Johns said during Question Period.
Johns said 32,000 British Columbians signed a petition to shut down the Salish Sea’s commercial herring fishery.
Minister Wilkinson responded by stating the Strait of Georgia herring stocks are abundant and the fishery will go ahead, adding regulatory decisions are based on science.
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