Host Linn Murray gets the word directly from Oregon, as he talks with a Portland resident Brian Etling about the devastation caused by these fires and their climate fueled nature. Brian Etling is a seasoned National Parks Ranger and organizer for Citizens Climate Lobby and a Climate Reality Project leader
Sonia Furstenau was just elected leader of the BC Green Party and comes out swinging in her first statements. We have a short segment.
Stand.Earth released a new report recently showing that BC’s government has become one of the most generous subsidizers of oil and gas in Canada. Well-known environmentalist Tsephorah Berman, International Program Director for Stand.earth, talks about the BC government’s billion dollar gifts to big oil.
Alexandra Morton is a West Coast scientist who has campaigned for years to save BC’s salmon populations. The crash in Fraser River sockeye is connected to the massive sea lice infections in coastal fish farms she says. She asks to push for salmon saving change now.
LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD The Sept. 22 show here:
Environment News
for September 22, 2020
Next week marks five years since United Nations member states committed to the Sustainable Development Goals a set of targets meant to improve the lives of people around the world. But the world is way off track to meet the goals.
The Global Goals represent the future for millions of girls who want education, women who fight for equality, and youth fighting for clean air, UN Messenger of Peace Malala Yousafzai said on Friday, at a side event of the General Assembly, challenging Member States, “when are you planning to do the work”?
UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez highlighted that the pandemic has undercut the very fragilities that the 2030 Agenda was designed to address – to end poverty and leave no one behind.
In New York City, climate activists unveiled a massive Climate Clock, counting down the critical time left for action to prevent the most destructive effects of the climate catastrophe from becoming irreversible (about seven years).
The countdown was revealed on the Metronome in Union Square as Climate Week as well as the U.N. General Assembly kick off.
This Friday, September 25, the youth-led Global Climate Strike will hold actions in over 2,500 locations around the world including in Nelson BC.
In the southern United States, hundreds of thousands of people remain without power as the states of Alabama and Florida reel from the devastation caused by Hurricane Sally.
Officials have confirmed at least two deaths. Authorities in Florida’s Escambia County, which includes Pensacola, estimated that Sally caused at least $21m in damage to public infrastructure, such as roads and drainage.
But there is no rest for those suffering through 2020’s supercharged Atlantic storm season, as new storms are already forming over the Gulf of Mexico.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/09/hundreds-thousands-power-sally-cleanup-200918195524032.html
And in British Columbia news, critics are calling the NDP government out on its promises to protect old growth.
Last Friday, the NDP announced some 353,000 hectares of forest would be temporarily protected from logging, however it has become clear very quickly that the selected areas do little if anything to protect old growth.
None of the recommendations found in the government’s commissioned, 216-page Old growth Strategic Review Report have been implemented in the announcement.
The government has not followed the panel’s recommendation to immediately defer all logging in old-growth forests that are home to ecosystems at risk of irreversible biodiversity loss.
https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-old-growth-forest-logging/
The Tyee is reporting that more than 200 Facebook users have been blocked from posting or sending messages through the popular social media platform after what appears to be a targeted attack on those supporting an anti-pipeline protest in northern British Columbia.
The pages had all shared information on an online rally in May in support of Wet’suwet’en Nation members who opposed the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline through their territory. A similar rally was scheduled for Monday but has been postponed.
Delee Nikal, a Wet’suwet’en member of the Gidimt’en clan. A Facebook page providing updates on pipeline resistance from Gidimt’en territory was one of those suspended. She denounced the platform for allowing racism and violence to remain while silencing the protestors.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/09/21/Facebook-Disables-Wetsuweten-Linked-Accounts/
Nelson City Council decided at its Sept. 8 meeting to lend the Cottonwood Lake Preservation Society $35,000, with the terms still to be negotiated.
This followed an urgent request for a grant, not a loan, brought to council in a motion at the same meeting by Councillor Rik Logtenberg.
Logtenberg warned the society’s fundraising goals and its attempts to thwart logging at Cottonwood Lake would fail without this last-minute intervention by council. However, no representatives of the Society were present at the meeting.
After a long and heated debate, Council made the decision to loan the Cottonwood Lake Preservation Society the money instead of just handing over the proposed grant.
On the motion for a loan, a majority of Logtenberg, Page, Anderson and Woodward voted for it, with Dooley, Renwick and Morrison against.
And in more Nelson News, City Council is planning on upgrading the Nelson waterfront Pier on Hall St.
The proposed project would be largely grant-funded and is part of the city’s attempt to create shovel-ready projects to stimulate the economy during the pandemic, along with two other proposed projects: a new library and changes to the Civic Theatre building.
Nelson city councillor Brittny Anderson has announced that she will seek the nomination as the NDP candidate in the next provincial election after incumbent Michelle Mungall announced she will not be running.
Anderson told the Nelson Star her priorities are helping businesses through the pandemic, adapting to climate change by supporting NDP initiatives like Clean BC, and generating more housing.
So far, the Green party, which came second in the 2017 election in Nelson-Creston has yet to nominate a candidate, with Political Activist Nicole Charlewood and Nelson City Councilor Rik Logtenberg reportedly interested contenders.
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