Last week the provincial government mentioned that they got their long awaited report on old growth logging back on April 30th. Then they announced they were protecting some 350,000 hectares of trees, most of which weren’t on the list to be logged anyway. Then their forestry minister quit. We talk to Grand Forks Jennifer Houghton who is running this week’s peoples summit on forestry.
Yesterday, Sonia Furstenau topped the ballot to win the leadership of the BC Green Party. We’ll have a few words from her victory speech shortly.
Mike Ross from Cedar BC near Nanaimo decided to ride his bike right across the province to Jasper to help protect old growth forests. We caught up with him in Nelson’s Lakeside Park.
And we have Part Two of Keith’s talk with one of the founders of the Green Party, Michael M’Gonigle who is saying that BC Greens must reinvent the movement because electoral politics isn’t working.
To learn more and to support the journey, check out his website: https://michaelrsuds.wixsite.com/mikebikesacrossbc or you can donate to support the cause at https://www.ancientforestalliance.org/
Listen or download the full show here (approx 30 mb)
EVENT LINKS
West Kootenay EcoSociety and our Old Growth Forest Photo Contest.
https://www.ecosociety.ca/news/conservation/old-growth-forest/your-best-forest-photo-chance-to-win-a-prize/
Nelson Interfaith Climate Vigil celebrating peace on the United Nations 75th International Day of Peace, September 21, at 12:30 PM. We will gather around the Peace Pole in the garden on the west side of St. Saviour’s Church on Ward Street at Silica. Facebook Event.
Coming up later in the month, running from Sept 24 –
Oct 1 The EcoSociety will be screening a new feature documentary 2040.
You can purchase a ticket on EcoSociety’s website ,
https://www.ecosociety.ca with a donation of $6 or more
Environment News for Sept. 15
In the western United states, the death toll has risen to 35 people as wildfires and smoke rage across the western mountains of North America. Nearly 5 million acres have already burned, with entire towns consumed by flames. In Oregon alone, 500,000 people were ordered to evacuate statewide last week as fires threaten to consume entire towns and neighborhoods.
President Trump doubled-down Monday as he visited California, denying that climate change is a problem and suggesting that science does not know anything about climate change.
In Delaware, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden went live and slammed Trump as a “climate arsonist” Monday, while California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom said “What we’re experiencing right here is coming to a community all across the United States of America unless we get our act together on climate change, unless we disabuse ourselves of all the BS that’s being spewed by a very small group of people.”
Hurricane Sally was upgraded to a category 2 hurricane as the slow-moving super-storm moves straight for the already storm-battered United States Gulf Coast. Forecasters have warned of potentially deadly storm surges, flash floods, and torrential rains will proceed the hurricane, before it slams into the states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
Sally comes among 2020’s record breaking Atlantic storm season that climate scientists have been warning about for decades, and will become more frequent due to climate destabilization. For only the second time in recorded history, there are five tropical cyclones currently churning in the Atlantic basin.
In Brazil, forest fires are laying waste to large swaths of untouched amazon rainforest. Scientists and NGOs are issuing a dire warning that the Amazon rainforest is rapidly headed toward a tipping-point, where the world’s largest rainforest will no longer be able to sustain itself.
During the first week of September, more than 8,000 blazes were reported, about one-quarter of which are in virgin areas that have not been cleared or used as farmland.
Brazil’s far-right government, under intense international pressure, issued a 120-day moratorium on July 15, banning fires in the Amazon and in the Pantanal, which is the world´s largest wetland area. But, data from the Brazilian space agency INPE suggests the ban was completely ignored by illegal ranchers and land-grabbers, as fire frequency has only stayed on par with 2019 levels or in some cases exceeded them.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/10/americas/brazil-amazon-fires-carlos-nobre-intl/index.html
A new report by the World Wildlife Fund finds populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish have plummeted worldwide by a staggering 68% since 1970.
The report analyzed nearly 21,000 populations of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians. It found, on average, a 68 percent drop in monitored species from 1970 to 2016. The WWF says there are a number of factors leading to decline but the biggest is habitat loss.
In Canada, the WWF documented a decline in 50% of animal species, with the average being a staggering 83% decline. Wildlife monitoring agencies around the world are raising the alarm that planet earth is spiraling into an anthropogenic mass-extinction of biodiversity.
DEEP, a geothermal project near Estevan, Sask., is trying to become one of Canada’s first new commercial-scale geothermal developments.
THe project drilled its first discovery well in 2018 and DEEP’s goal is to complete feasibility studies in 2020 and provide geothermal electricity by 2022.
DEEP’s long-term goal is to develop hundreds of megawatts of baseload power facilities from small, scalable, repeatable five to 20 MW power plants, each capable of powering up to 5,000 households.
The technology and the drilling and other expertise for the project is right out western Canada’s oil industry, people taking a new direction with their skills.
Nichole Robinson from Lethbridge swam 14 kilometers across the Oldman River Reservoir this past weekend. She did it to draw attention to the Alberta government ending a long standing policy banning open coal mining in many places.
The Oldman River watershed provides all of Lethbridge’s water, and the new rules open the door for open-pit mines in the Crowsnest Pass area, near where the headwaters of the Oldman River are located.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/oldman-river-reservoir-1.5696673
In British Columbia news, Sonia Fursteneau has secured the nomination for leader of the BC Green Party.
Fursteneau, Green MLA for the Cowichan Valley since 2017, won the nomination after the second round of ranked ballot votes leading Vancouver lawyer and activist Cam Brewe 2,428 votes to Brewer’s 2,127.
In her winning speech, Fursteneau called on BC Premier John Horgan to reject the idea of calling a snap election this fall. “You have a responsibility to govern, not play politics,” Furstenau said. The rest of her speech highlighted the climate crisis, the opioid crisis, democratic reform, and some of the challenges she has faced as a woman in politics.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-green-party-new-leader-1.5715867
https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/09/14/Sonia-Furstenau-Wins-BC-Green-Leader/
A recent collaborative study by the Kitasoo/Xai’xais and Gitga’at First Nations and academic researchers has revealed that the white bear, the spirit bear on BCs coast, is rarer and more vulnerable than previously thought.
While scientists had previously estimated there were anywhere between 100 to 500 white bears, the study concluded the gene that causes spirit bears is up to 50% rarer than previously thought.
About half of spirit bear hotspots fall outside of British Columbia protected areas, making their habitats vulnerable to logging, mining and drilling projects.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/14/canada-indigenous-people-protect-spirit-bears
And two years after the catastrophic flooding in Grand Forks, local residents are suing the BC government and several logging companies on the grounds that excessive logging triggered the devastating flood levels.
The lawsuit alleges that for 20 years beginning in 1998, fully 41 per cent of all the logging cutblocks in the Kettle River basin exceeded the 40-hectare limit set out in regulation. Without the tree canopy more snow accumulated on the ground, and melted quickly in the spring causing a surge in water levels.
The suit is filed against the B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, the major logging companies Interfor, Weyerhaeuser and Tolko, three First Nation-owned companies and pulp producer Mercer Celgar.
http://cbaapp.org/ClassAction/PDF.aspx?id=12094
Air pollution caused by climate change-fueled wildfire smoke reached 20 times the safe limit in Castlegar over the weekend.
A bulletin from Interior Health advises people to stay inside as long as they can, or, if they have pre-existing respiratory conditions and live near a fire, consider leaving the area.
Smoke can worsen symptoms for people with asthma, allergies, risk of blood clots, angina episodes, heart attacks and strokes.
The Village of Slocan has purchased the former Springer Creek sawmill site on the slocan water-front for 1.5 million dollars.
In an interview with the Black Press, Susan McKenzie, a local realtor involved with the purchase, said the village plans to develop the 19-acre site into a residential and commercial area.
The purchase of the site is a big investment for the small village, especially since it had to borrow around $845,000 to call the property its own. Additionally, a three-per-cent tax increase for Slocan households has been proposed to help with the purchase.
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