Michael Moore’s controversial new movie, Planet of the Humans is getting a lot of pushback from the environmental movement. We hear from Michael, Naomi Klein, and Richard Reich. Grand Forks resident Jennifer Houghton has made a video documentary of the flood of the Kettle River in 2018. The Kootenay Boundary has been flagged as one area in the province that could be hit with flooding this spring. We talk with Jennifer about how the river is looking in Grand Forks.
So much activism has moved online with the social distancing and our measures to try and slow the spread of the Corona virus. One really interesting project has been started by The Raven Trust. It’s called hashtag Solidarity at Home…. I talked to Maia Wikler Digital Communications Coordinator for The Raven Trust about the exciting activities and events that are getting posted.
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Environment News Links for April 28, 2020
Expanded spring flooding is hitting western Canada now. The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary is tracking river and creek levels daily from Big White to Champion Lakes,
The RDKB said forecasts peg the regional snowpack is currently at 122% of normal.
Flow levels are expected to fluctuate over coming days, and there are no current predictions of high water levels or when they might come.
In Williams Lake there is an evacuation order for 11 industrial properties and a local state of emergency have been declared due to flooding and erosion in the River Valley.
Two bridges are impassable and City crews have not been checking on exposed the sewer lines which could leak in the Fraser River.
The evacuation order will last for seven days. A
Rising river levels in Fort McMurray, Alta., are threatening homes and businesses in the heart of the community’s downtown. The mayor has asked for military assistance to limit the damage.
The flooding is caused by ice jams in the rapidly thawing Athabasca River. A new round of mandatory evacuation orders has been issued along with a decision to block access to the downtown area, and a boil water advisory.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-flooding-1.5546029
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“Rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of agriculture, intensive farming, mining and infrastructure development, as well as the exploitation of wild species have created a ‘perfect storm’ for the spillover of diseases.” says scientists from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
These activities cause pandemics by bringing more people into contact and conflict with animals, from which 70% of emerging human diseases originate, they said.
Combined with urbanisation and the explosive growth of global air travel, this enabled a harmless virus in Asian bats to bring “untold human suffering and halt economies and societies around the world. This is the human hand in pandemic emergence. Yet [Covid-19] may be only the beginning.”
“Future pandemics are likely to happen more frequently, spread more rapidly, have greater economic impact and kill more people if we are not extremely careful about the possible impacts of the choices we make today,” they said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/halt-destruction-nature-worse-pandemics-top-scientists
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A number of Canadian national churches, Christian international development agencies, and faith-based organizations have launched a faith-based-initiative for climate justice. They are aiming at making a meaningful contribution in the next decade towards a sustainable future for all life on the planet.
Never before has the interconnectedness of all humanity – all of creation – been clearer than it is right now. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has dramatically impacted every aspect of our lives, they say.
Even before the emergence of COVID-19, we knew that we were entering into a crucial decade for climate action.
https://www.kairoscanada.org/for-the-love-of-creation-a-faith-based-initiative-for-climate-justice
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has suspended a US program used to approve oil and gas pipelines, power lines and other utility work, after a court ruling that could slow or halt numerous infrastructure projects over environmental concerns.
Last week a federal court threw out a blanket permit that companies and public utilities have used for decades to build projects across streams and wetlands.
The Trump administration is expected to challenge the ruling in coming days. For now, officials have put on hold about 360 pending notifications to entities approving their use of the permit, Army Corps spokesman Doug Garman said Thursday.
Major pipelines that are being affected include TC Energy’s Keystone XL crude oil line from Canada to the U.S. Midwest, the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline in Virginia and power lines from wind turbines and generating stations in many parts of the U.S.
https://apnews.com/3fb59f0666144ddf4dce0d6d0514d407
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This year marks the five-year anniversary of Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment and human ecology. In his letter, the Pope called for bold climate action and a move away from fossil fuels.
“The call coming from Catholic leadership is clear,” says Daniela Finamore of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, a coalition that’s committed to implementing the actions Pope Francis called for.
The group is pushing Catholic organizations to take a moral and financial stand on climate change by ending their investments in fossil fuels.
Finamore says that more than 150 Catholic institutions – including banks, universities, and foundations – have pledged to divest from fossil fuels. And they’re making their commitments public to inspire others to take a similar moral stand.
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/04/catholic-institutions-divest-from-fossil-fuels/
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Oil and gas operations in the Permian Basin, the largest oil-producing area in the United States, are spewing more than twice the amount of methane emissions into the atmosphere than previously thought — enough wasted energy to power 7 million households in Texas for a year. That’s the result of a new study by researchers at Harvard University and the Environmental Defense Fund.
The Permian Basin stretches across a 250-mile by 250-mile area of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, and accounts for over a third of the crude oil and 10% of the natural gas in the U.S.
The study, published this week in the journal Science Advances, also found that the rate of leakage of methane gas makes up 3.7% of all the gas extracted in the basin, which is about 60% higher than the national average leakage rate
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/methane-permian-basin-oil-gas-climate-change/
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Although the federal government earlier this month apparently cold-shouldered the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers 13 page letter demanding more than 30 different cuts to climate, environmental, and safety regulations, the Alberta government has been more obliging. The Alberta government unveiled a series of sweeping orders that effectively eliminate several environmental reporting requirements for companies in the energy industry.
The orders cite “hardship in having to comply” with what are known as “routine reporting requirements” for companies operating in the energy sector. Industry must still report emergencies to relevant officials.
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An investigation claims pellets made by B.C.’s two largest wood pellet companies is coming from whole trees as well as from sawmill residuals.
The Wood Pellet Association of Canada says pellets are manufactured from sawdust, slash piles and low-grade timber from forestry harvest sites and calls wood pellets a green energy source.
Some trees used for pellets, including mature Western red cedars, likely come from logging operations in the province’s rare inland temperate rainforest which provides critical habitat for endangered caribou and other at-risk species, according to the investigation by Stand.earth, released last week.
Mary Booth, director of the Partnership for Policy Integrity in Massachusetts, has been tracking the global wood pellet industry
“Burning wood emits more CO2 per unit of energy than burning coal or gas or oil,” Booth, an ecosystem scientist, told The Narwhal.
https://thenarwhal.ca/climate-bc-millions-rainforest-wood-pellets-export-report-documents/
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