Can change happen fast? Most people concerned about the environment might despair that it’s not so, certainly that’s not our experience. Canada’s politics and governments have dragged our collective feet on what is essentially “saving the planet”. That’s one of the priorities of the OneTime Alliance project that Joyce Green from Cranbrook is part of. She tells us how activists from across the country want to push the NDP and Green Party to have some election cooperation to elect more representatives and get on with the change we need.
Another guest on this week’s show, Michael M’Gonigle is practically ready to give up on politics completely, it’s been so frustrating. A green activist since the ’70s he co-founded GreenPeace International and helped start the BC Green Party. Now he says the Green movement needs to mobilize more widely if we want to make the changes we desperately need. This interview is the first of a two-part series. Part Two next week with this University of Victoria Professor Emeritus of EcoResearch
Greta Thunberg has put out a long-form, 75 minute, podcast that updates us on her activities, and her current thinking. She also is convinced our political and governance systems are incapable of leading the change, the emission reductions that are crucial to preventing a planetary catastrophe. We have a six minute clip, a window into her keen and grasping intellect.
Events and Links
Coming soon.
Environment News
for September 8, 2020
Glacial lakes have grown rapidly around the world in recent decades, according to satellite images that reveal the impact of increased meltwater draining off retreating glaciers.
Scientists analysed more than quarter of a million satellite images to assess how lakes formed by melting glaciers have been affected by global heating and other processes.
The images show the number of glacial lakes rose by 53% between 1990 and 2018, expanding the amount of the Earth the lakes cover by about 51%. According to the survey, 14,394 glacial lakes spread over nearly 9,000 square km of the planet’s surface.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/31/satellite-images-show-rapid-growth-glacial-lakes
Research from the University of British Columbia found that melting glaciers in the Rockies will result water shortages to about one quarter of the population of Alberta.
The study, was published in the journal of Nature Climate Change on Aug. 3. Researcher Sam Anderson found global glacier retreat will have big impacts on water for communities that rely on glacier runoff during the summer.
The loss of glacial water will cause shortages in places like Rocky Mountain House, Lake Louise and Hinton, as well as the Bighorn Dam, affecting more than one million people. Alberta’s total population is about 4.4 million.
“Once these glaciers are no longer contributing water to the rivers, the rivers at those locations will have lower flows on average, and greater variability from year to year,” he said.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says the BC government should immediately appoint an independent panel of geologists and engineers to assess the ongoing geotechnical problems at Site C and whether the unstable ground at the dam construction site could be further compromised by the thousands of fracking-induced earthquakes occurring nearby.
CCPA-BC resource policy analyst Ben Parfitt says“It is absolutely essential that the BC government address the serious problems at Site C and determine once and for all whether it is prudent public policy to allow natural gas industry fracking operations to occur anywhere in the Peace River region, given the thousands of earthquakes linked to fracking.”
Teck’s Castle coal mine will have a federal environmental assessment, Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced in August. The Minister ordered the assessment for the large coal mine in the Elk Valley after conservation groups, First Nations, U.S. governments and hundreds of members of the public requested a full federal assessment of the project.
“Castle would take down an entire mountain, could send dangerous water pollution hundreds of kilometres downstream and cut off travel routes for bears and other wildlife,” said Lars Sander-Green, of Wildsight, one of the organizations that requested the federal assessment. “With Teck’s five existing mines in the Elk Valley and decades of mining already permitted, we desperately need a real assessment of the overall impacts from so much mountain-top removal coal mining in one valley.”
“Castle would be the largest coal mine in Canada by production, sending hundreds of millions of tonnes of coal overseas until 2060,” said Montana Burgess of the West Kootenay Ecosociety. “It only makes sense that such a major project gets the highest level of environmental assessment in Canada.”
The Minister also highlighted the downstream dangers from the mine for fish in the U.S., including species at risk and impacts on U.S. First Nations.
“Just last week, scientists announced that the amount of selenium pollution in Lake Koocanusa should be kept to less than half of what Teck is already sending downstream,” said Sander-Green. “If Teck can’t show how they can reduce selenium pollution downstream of their mines in the long-term—that means without expensive short-term fixes like water treatment that just push the problem down the road—then no reasonable environmental assessment should approve this mine.”
Wilkinson also pointed to concerns from many who weighed in on the project, including his own Ministry, that B.C.’s environmental assessment wouldn’t look carefully enough at all of the environmental risks of the mine.
To keep global warming below 1.5°C, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 2.5 tonnes of CO₂ per person per year by 2030. Researchers recently did an analysis of more than 275,000 household budget surveys from 26 countries and found that only about 5% of European Union households live within those limits.
In the EU, the average carbon footprint is equivalent to about eight tonnes of CO₂ per person, which must fall by about a third over the next decade.
Some people place even greater pressure on the environment. Households in the top 1% of polluters in the EU have carbon footprints that are 22 times larger than the safe limit of 2.5 tonnes. On average, people in this group emit greenhouse gases equivalent to 55 tonnes of CO₂ per person per year.
Meanwhile, the top 10% of polluters in the EU account for 27% of the total EU carbon footprint, a greater contribution than that of the bottom 50%. These stark differences in carbon footprints are rooted in the things people buy and consume. Jet airline flights are the single highest carbon source for most. Automobiles and building heating and cooling came next.
This August marked six years since the Mount Polley mine’s tailings dam collapsed, and spilled almost 25 million cubic metres of mine toxic waste into surrounding waterways and Quesnel Lake.
The Mount Polley Mine Corporation has yet to face charges for environmental damages. Two deadlines for laying charges – provincially and federally – have now passed with no action from government prosecutors. In fact, in 2018 the BC government prevented a private prosecution launched by Bev Sellars of the Xat’sull First Nation, which could have helped to enforce provincial environmental laws and hold the company accountable.
While the possibility of indictable charges remains under the federal Fisheries Act, the chances appear slimmer every year. Meanwhile, residents still have serious concerns about water quality in Quesnel Lake. A scientific study from the University of Alberta released in August suggests that natural currents within the lake mix the contaminants from the spill back into the lake water each year.
Imperial Metals suspended mining at the site in May 2019, because they said because of weak copper prices. But toxic wastewater is still being produced – so the company continues to pump improperly treated mine effluent directly into Quesnel Lake. Local residents, with help from West Coast Environmental Law, are challenging this government-approved pollution with the province’s Environmental Appeal Board.
https://www.wcel.org/blog/challenging-mount-polleys-wastewater-permit-in-quesnel-lake
On July 24, 2020, the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace partnered with organizations across the country for a National Day of Action Against Fighter Jets.
The Canadian government has an ongoing $19 billion competition for 88 new fighter jets. This fighter jet purchase is the second most expensive procurement in Canadian history.
Groups protested outside of 22 MP offices from coast to coast, to strike for climate peace and an end to the $19 billion fighter jet procurement. Voice of women says that from Victoria to Halifax, passionate Canadians showed our federal government that we need to be investing in a just COVID-19 recovery and a Green New Deal, not new weapons.
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