Travis Fox’s bird’s eye views of the US. On TheGuardian.com.
In 1913, Los Angeles diverted the entire Owens River into its domestic system, and made the dried out lake bottom one of the biggest dust polluters in the USA. The Guardian’s photo spread of devastated country.
This week’s show: Marilyn James the matriarch of the Autonomous Sinix’t in the Slocan Valley on the Supreme Court decision last week that Sinix’t hunter Richard Desautels from Colville in Washington State has first nation hunting rights in Canada. The BC Budget came out last week, and it barely touches on a green transition for the province’s economy. Sven Biggs from Stand.Earth comments. The West Kootenay EcoSociety has a half-million dollars in funding to work with local groups on watershed conservation. Project coordinator, Kendra Norwood gives us details.
LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD HERE:
EVENTS AND LINKS:
Summing Up the Earth Summit
Wed. April 28, 1 – 2 p.m. EST
Trudeau dropped the ball at Biden’s Climate Summit. As the world watched, he announced a 40 – 45% cut in GHG emissions from 2005 levels. The US, UK, and EU cuts start at 50%. Canadian climate groups and the Green Party had called for 60%. So, where do Canadians deeply concerned about the climate crisis, and wanting real action, go from here?
Join Time 4 Action guests Tim Ellis of Leadnow and Dale Marshall of Environmental Defence to answer this crucial question!
Dale Marshall is National Program Manager for Environmental Defence.
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T8NbFlBzQgqMu0LcxK3X-w
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Thursday, April 29, 2021
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM PDT
The David Suzuki Foundation, Hollywood Suite and Her Stories Inc. presents a screening of What About Our Future?
The “Sustainabiliteens” organized the Vancouver climate strikes. On September 27, they mobilized more than 100,000 people to march for climate action. What About Our Future? is a short film that follows some of these teenage organizers as they organize protests, pressure politicians, educate younger teens and attend school.
Join us for a screening of the film, followed by a panel question-and-answer session with the filmmakers and youth organizers.
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LINK TO BC CARBON EMISSIONS REPORT: 2018 Highest year for BC emissions ever
If you check out the government’s official report which came out with 2018 numbers recently show emissions were 21% higher in 2018 than in 1990 and the highest they’ve ever been.
The report also has graphs showing that emissions have gone up way less than GDP or Population, in intensity in other words. The planet’s atmosphere cares not a whit about intensity, absolute carbon emissions are up, and that’s what counts in catastrophe.
The report is well worth looking at, I’ll put a line up on the blog for this week at: The EcoCentricRadioShow.ca
https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/…/sustaina…/ghg-emissions.html
Environment News
Collated by Linn Murray.
Drought conditions now cover 85% of Mexico, as residents around Mexico City worry about rapidly drying lakes and reservoirs.
The mayor of Mexico City said the drought was the worst in 30 years, as reservoirs are being drained from neighboring states to feed the thirsty capital.
In Michoacan state, the country is at risk of losing its second-largest lake, Lake Cuitzeo. About 75% of the lake bed is now dry, while scientists and local communities are also blaming deforestation, road construction, and water diversion for agriculture on top of the harsh drought.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/22/drought-in-mexico-reaches-critical-levels-as-lakes-dry-up
Last week the Dalai Lama and 100 other Nobel prize winners called for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.
“The burning of fossil fuels is responsible for almost 80% of carbon dioxide emissions since the industrial revolution. Allowing the continued expansion of this industry is unconscionable.” reads the letter.
The signatories won their Nobel prizes in physics, medicine, chemistry, economics, literature and peace. They’re calling for an international treaty that would immediately end the expansion into new reserves of coal, oil and natural gas. That would be followed by a phaseout of existing production, supported by funding to make the transition fair to workers and communities.
https://fossilfueltreaty.org/nobel-letter
For Earth Day, the White House convened an international summit of world leaders entirely focused on addressing the climate crisis.
President Biden said the U.S. would slash emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade, while Canada announced a smaller target of between 40-45% over the next 9 years. Both countries have net-zero emissions targets by 2050.
Canada remains the only G7 country where emissions have risen and not fallen every year since the Paris Agreement.
In a landmark decision, Canada’s supreme court has recognized the existence of the Sinixt People in the region now called the West-Kootenays.
The 7-2 ruling said the Sinixt Nation, whose reservation is in Washington state, has constitutionally protected Indigenous rights to hunt in their ancestral territory north of the border.
Now that the Colville Sinixt have established their hunting rights in Canada, they are planning their next steps, which may include negotiations with Ottawa and the B.C. government.
Marilyn James, a matriarch of the autonomous Sinixt living in Canada said in a statement “It is one thing to acknowledge our hunting rights in our təmxʷulaʔxʷ (homeland), and another to accord us our unceded rights to our land.”
James goes onto say that the autonomous Sinixt “welcome the possibility that this is a toe in the door to being recognized.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/supreme-court-of-canada-desautel-sinixt-ruling-1.5998062
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sinixt-first-nation-reaction-1.6000401
In early 2020, the environment was the number one policy issue on Canadians’ minds. Four months into the pandemic, the environment had fallen behind COVID, the economy and health care.
Since Summer 2020, the University of Ottawa’s Positive Energy program and Nanos Research have tracked Canadians’ climate ambition in the midst of the pandemic. They found that the sense of urgency around climate change is steadily growing again.
The results show that one in two Canadians believe now is the best time to be ambitious about climate change.
The results remain relatively consistent across time. Across all three surveys, they observed greater support for climate ambition among Québécois and Atlantic Canadians, women, and ideologically left-leaning Canadians, with less support among Canadians in the Prairies, men, and ideologically right-leaning Canadians.
As the pandemic continues, the public appears increasingly sensitive to the urgency of climate change.
Canada’s Federal Budget is providing a big leg up to farmers wanting to reduce their GreenHouse Gas Emissions according to Prairie farmers. Farmers for Climate Solutions, a coalition of farming organizations across Canada, described as “unprecedented” funding.
The federal budget includes $200 million in new funding for increasing the adoption of climate-friendly practices like cover cropping, nitrogen management and rotational grazing. Additionally, it allocates $10 million over two years for clean energy powered farm equipment and earmarks another $60 million for the preservation of existing wetlands and trees on farmlands.
The full federal budget proposes $17 billion in new direct spending and tax relief measures that the government hopes will decarbonize heavy industry, build a cleaner economy and create jobs.
While the budget signals the largest spending on the Green Transition yet in Canada, Environmentalist groups are broadly criticizing the government for not spending nearly enough to transform the economy into what is needed. Additionally, the groups point out that the Federal government is continuing to subsidize the oil and gas sector jeopardizing Canada’s environmental commitments.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-federal-budget-2021-reaction-1.5991419
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has rejected a bid by the Office of the Wet’suwet’en to kill the extension of the environmental assessment certificate that permits the Coastal GasLinke pipeline.
Justice Barbara Norell rejected the plea that the B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office neglected to consider harm caused by the pipeline because no new assessment of the project was ordered following the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
The Office of the Wet’suwet’en, a non-profit society governed by several hereditary chiefs, claimed the EAO had also failed to consider the many incidents of non-compliance with conditions attached to the original certificate when Coastal GasLink was given approval in 2014 to build the pipeline.
The hereditary chiefs have opposed Coastal GasLink’s project, while five elected Wet’suwet’en band councilors signed agreements with the company approving construction.
In Nelson, Firefighters responded to 2 separate fires on Granite Road on April 22nd.
Nelson Fire and Rescue says an unattended fire pit likely led to a grass fire at a Granite Road home Thursday morning.
Seven firefighters put out an approximately 17,000 square foot fire that is believed to have spread from a pit due to high winds and dry conditions.
“Nelson Fire and Rescue Services would like this opportunity to remind everyone, that when you are spring burning, you are always attentive and have hand tools and a water source available,” the department said in a statement.
Also on Thursday April 22nd, which was Earth Day, youth volunteers with the group Fridays For Future West-Kootenay assembled to clean Nelson’s beaches at lakeside.
About 16 young people showed up masked and socially distanced, then split into 2 groups of 8 to mitigate Covid risk. The event was organized by the local youth climate group Fridays For Future West-Kootenay. Organizers say their intention was to celebrate Earth day in a Covid-safe way, while cleaning Nelson’s public waterfront for the community’s benefit.
“The cleanup was fun, but also a little worrying because we found way more trash than we expected” said Oscar Hunter (17) a spokesperson for Fridays For Future.
The most common litter peices were cigarette buts and bits of single-use plastic. Hundreds of plastic coffee cup lids, wrappers, packaging, and grocery bags were pulled from the shore of Kootenay Lake. All told, the organizers estimate about 7.3kg (16 pounds) of garbage was picked up from the beaches in and around Lakeside Park in just two hours.
Fridays For Future West-Kootenay has been advocating for strong comprehensive bans against the use of single use plastic packaging in the Canadian food system. The youth hope community members will think twice next time before buying single use plastics, and join them in advocating for replacing plastics with recyclable or compostable options.
-submitted from Fridays For Future Press release
Week of April 20th, 2021
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 