Logging is a major issue in BC and Jason Laeus from Ymir really lets us in on how it can affect a community. This is a rerun from an earlier show. We also have a clip from the Extinction Rebellion movement in England. Dr. Gail Bradbrook from the Extinction Rebellion movement talks about the tough realities. It’s the hard direct talk from science about climate change. Not for the squeamish. Her full talk can be heard here: https://youtu.be/b2VkC4SnwY0
Environment News for August 13, 2019
The Jumbo Glacier resort proposal may finally be nailed up in its coffin. This week the BC Appeal Court upheld a provincial government decision that Jumbo Glacier Resort no longer has a valid environmental certificate and the resort cannot be built until re-assessed.
Two of three BC Appeal Court Judges ruled that a decision by the Ministry of Environment four years ago was valid.
The Ministry concluded that Glacier Resorts Ltd. had not completed enough of the development at the project location in 2015 meaning the expiration of the environment assessment certificate. Glacier Resorts Ltd. appealed, and won, but the appeal judges ruled in favour of the government.
The original assessment for this project was conducted in the 1990s and was based on information which is now outdated. The law in B.C. requires project proponents to start their projects within ten years of receiving their certificates.
The upshot is that faced with a lengthy, costly and likely very contentious new environmental assessment of the project, the developer, Glacier Resorts will very likely give up. Numerous reports say that developer Oberto Oberti has moved his sights on to property near Valemount, BC.
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Environment is maintaining its standing as a top ballot box issue leading into Canada’s federal election this fall, with 26% of respondents making it their first choice in a new interactive phone survey released over the weekend by Forum Research.
In this survey, the economy came in a close second, at 25%, while health care was the top choice for 16% of respondents, the Toronto Star reports. Results have a 3% margin for error, 19 times out of 20.
• A Nanos Research survey in June in which nearly six in 10 Canadians said climate change would influence their vote;
• An Abacus Data survey in March which projected eight million Canadians “extremely” worried about climate change, and nine million identifying it as a top or top-two voting issue;
• An April 22 Ipsos poll in which Canadians identified climate change as a top-five ballot box issue, and 19% placed it first on their list of concerns.
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In Britain’s first-ever citizens’ assembly on climate change, participants convened by Camden council in north London came up with rooftop solar, cutting fossil fuels out of local government developments, and 15 other steps their community could take to cut emissions and boost sustainability.
The assembly “brought together more than 50 residents and a team of climate experts to develop proposals that could be taken up by the council,” The Guardian reports. “The proposals focused on housing, transport, and green space, and included a community energy scheme to remove fossil fuels from home heating, widespread cycle lanes and car-free zones, and programs to ensure that all new homes in Camden are built carbon-neutral.”
The assembly also called on the city to form a permanent citizens’ group, combining experts and residents, to oversee local climate action.
The session was facilitated by public participation charity Involve, where Director Tim Hughes reported surging interest in citizens’ assemblies. “They’re really good processes for dealing with conflict and contested opinions on issues, and really help to bridge some of the divides we’re seeing in democracy and politics at the moment,” he said.
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Global solar PV installations will reach a new high of 114.5 gigawatts in 2019, up 17.5 percent over 2018.
According to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables’ new report, Global Solar PV Market Outlook Update: Q2 2019, the market is now back on a strong growth trajectory after a slowdown in 2018. Annual installations are expected to rise to around 125 gigawatts per year by the early 2020s.
Global growth will continue despite a gradual decline in China, the world’s largest PV market. The Chinese market peaked at 53 gigawatts in 2017, driven by generous feed-in tariffs.
In India, auction activity is starting to recover after a slowdown caused by land and transmission constraints. In the U.S., announcements of new state utility integrated resource plans, in Florida for example, are good news for the solar PV market.
The European market will grow strongly as policy-driven markets look to deliver on 2020 and 2030 renewable energy targets.
In Latin America, Brazil looks to be the most exciting market of the moment, with both auctioned power-purchase agreements with distributors and free market contracts with large consumers on offer.
In the Middle East, all eyes are on the upcoming 1.5-gigawatt auction in Saudi Arabia, which is set to be extremely competitive.
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The BBC is reporting that It’s not 12 years to save the planet It’s 18 months
It seems, there’s a growing consensus that the next 18 months will be critical in dealing with the global heating crisis, among other environmental challenges.
Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5C this century, emissions of carbon dioxide would have to be cut by 45% by 2030.
But today, observers recognise that the decisive, political steps to enable the cuts in carbon to take place will have to happen before the end of next year.
The idea that 2020 is a firm deadline was eloquently addressed by one of the world’s top climate scientists, speaking back in 2017.
“The climate math is brutally clear: While the world can’t be healed within the next few years, it may be fatally wounded by negligence until 2020,” said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founder and now director emeritus of the Potsdam Climate Institute.
“I am firmly of the view that the next 18 months will decide our ability to keep climate change to survivable levels and to restore nature to the equilibrium we need for our survival,” said Prince Charles, speaking at a reception for Commonwealth foreign ministers recently.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48964736
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Canada recorded a second strong month of growth in April, driven by rebounding oil output \
While CBC quoted TD senior economist Brian DePatto, who in a letter to his clients wrote: “Thank goodness for energy. Without the surge of activity in that sector, driven by the easing of production restrictions, this would have been a much more modest report.”
Yet this positive narrative veils the bleaker reality of an economy dependent on oil, mining, and gas sectors: the largest emitters of carbon dioxide.
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction increased by 4.5% in April, while oil sands extraction increased by 11%. According to Statistics Canada’s 2018 annual review, Canadian production of crude oil increased by 8.5% from 2017 to 2018.
Similarly, the production of “marketable natural gas” increased by 3.9% in that same period.
Canadian oil exports to the United States also significantly contributed to the growth figures.
The irony behind Canada’s promise to actively curb the climate crisis and its actual actions cannot be missed. At the time of his election in 2015, Justin Trudeau took a strong stand against feeble goals to address the climate crisis. However when the Liberal government came to power, it eventually subscribed to a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – the same goal as the previous Conservative government under the leadership of Stephen Harper.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/canadas-economic-growth-is-actually-a-cause-for-concern/
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The narwhal.ca reports that Scientists are warning another B.C. caribou herd could disappear as the provincial government approves 78 new logging cutblocks in critical habitat for the Hart Ranges herd.
The Hart Ranges caribou herd also faces another new threat: the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which will transport fracked gas from the province’s northeast to Kitimat, where it will be liquefied by LNG Canada and shipped overseas.
The 650-kilometre pipeline, approved by the B.C. government, will impact three caribou herds at risk of local extinction, including the Hart Ranges herd, according to a project description from the company, a wholly owned subsidiary of TransCanada Pipelines.
The pipeline path cuts a broad, muddy swath through the forest in the Anzac River drainage, near an active logging road also being used to bring in feller bunchers, bulldozers and work camp infrastructure for the $4 billion project, whose “useful life” the company pegs at 30 years.
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