LIsten or download the MP3 of the full EcoCentric show HERE.
George Orr an activist from NORTH Vancouver has put together an amazing Climate Diary about all the news about climate coming at us every day. It IS a climate emergency. George Orr talks about how we can recognize the emergency.
Arrests continue on old-growth logging blockades on Vancouver Island in the battle to save some of the last big old growth forests on the Island. But blockading logging has been going on for decades in BC. First Nations around the province have been blockading in different ways for over a century.
Right now a house of the Gitxsan Fireweed clan has been blockading for two months, preventing logging in their territory near Kispiox BC. They put a strong metal gate across the road and are controlling access.
KL Kivi, a long-time friend of The EcoCentric, was a big part of a fascinating project: a large colourful map of Sinixt territories and place names. They call it a counter map because it uses Sinixt names for locations like Frog Peak and Slocan Lake. KL tells us about it.
Links from today’s show:
GEORGE ORR’S 90 Page Climate Diary of recent Climate events and news items. Download the PDF.
Video from the GITXSAN GATE TO THEIR TERRITORY.
Informative DOGWOOD PODCAST from Kai Nagata and Gitxsan activist Kolin Sutherland-Wilson
Keith’s Editorial on the Heat Dome and Climate Emergency.
The Environment News for July 6
Collated by Linn Murray
A tape released last week by Greenpeace UK is sending shockwaves through United States oil and gas industry, after undercover journalists taped Exxon Mobil top-lobbyists admitting to spreading disinformation.
The public uproar against Exxon has been swift, as lawmakers in Washington D.C. are calling for CEOs of Exxon and other fossil fuel companies to testify before the committee about their role in blocking congressional action to address the climate crisis.
In the undercover camera video Keith McCoy, senior director for federal relations at Exxon, boasted about Exxon’s campaigns to deceive the public by appearing to advocate for green policies like a carbon tax, while behind the scenes funding candidates and “shadow groups” who deny climate change.
In response to the video, Exxon initially accused Greenpeace of making “factual misstatements” and said it “distorted” Exxon’s position, but walked back its statements and publicly apologized after the video drew public and media outcry.
Earlier this year, Exxon shareholders stunned Wall Street in an apparent revolt, when they voted to install three climate activists on the company’s board, against the objections of company staff.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/exxon-mobil-greenpeace-video-lobbyist-carbon-tax-talking-point/
https://www.democracynow.org/2021/7/6/exxon_blocks_congressional_action_climate
Brazil is reeling in the worst drought that country has seen in decades, prompting the federal government to impose a 120-day ban on unauthorized fires and deploy the Brazilian military to prevent deforestation. The drought coupled with illegal industrial activity is causing widespread concern among scientists about another bad wildfire season in the Amazon rainforest.
Neither the military nor fire bans have previously been effective in lowering deforestation or forest fires in Brazil. Generally, criminal loggers and ranchers first cut down the valuable timber and later set fire to the area, clearing it for future agricultural use in speculative land grabs.
Deforestation has soared under Brazil’s far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who has been widely criticized for rolling back environmental legislation, implementing anti-indigenous policies, and turning a blind eye to illegal logging.
Talks between the United States government and Brazil meant to protect the Amazon rainforest stalled in April, after Bolsonaro demanded an upfront payment of billions of dollars from United States President Joe Biden.
In Nova Scotia, Pieridae Energy announced that they are giving up on their Goldboro LNG project. The project proposed to import gas from Alberta, process it in Goldboro and export it to Germany.
“Cost pressures and time constraints due to COVID-19 have made building the current version of the LNG Project impractical,” CEO Alfred Sorensen said in a statement.
It had the support of the Municipality of Guysborough County and Premier Iain Rankin, but drew strong opposition from Mi’kmaw and Environmental groups worried about how the industry would threaten the safety of Indigenous women and jeopardize Nova Scotia’s climate targets.
The Council of Canadians, one of the groups involved in organizing against the project called the cancelation a “huge win” saying that “social movements have been organizing to stop the project since 2013, and the climate justice movement has been working to stop new fossil fuel infrastructure for even longer”
After local activists revealed that Pieridae Energy had asked the federal government for nearly a billion dollars, The Council of Canadians worked for the last few months to pressure MPs and ministers to reject that funding request.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/goldboro-lng-project-halted-1.6088239
_____________________________________________
Even as the intense heat wave which gripped much of western North America is fading, the death toll from the extreme weather is rising across the Pacific Northwest.
Hundreds are believed to have died across British Columbia, and the states of Washington and Oregon as temperatures shattered heat records day-after-day.
Oregon’s governor Kate Brown said the deaths of over 90 Oregonians who were lost in the heat was “unacceptable”, blaming climate change and promising to review the state’s preparedness for extreme weather events.
Meanwhile, fury is growing against BC Premier John Horgan over perceived tactless comments in the wake of the tragedy. In a press conference, Horgan was questioned on the government’s support for communities and responded by saying “Fatalities are a part of life” and that the government was awaiting the coroner’s report before taking further action.
The BC coroner’s report is now out, attributing 719 sudden deaths in the last week as likely linked to the heat wave.
The effects of the heat wave are still being felt across British Columbia, both by those who lost loved ones, and by those affected by the sudden start to a difficult wildfire season.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/heat-wave-719-deaths-1.6088793
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/04/oregon-governor-death-toll-north-west-heatwave
_____________________________________________
In late May, California’s legislature passed a bill that would ensure any forest products purchased by the state must come with free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous communities and do not contribute to the degradation or deforestation of intact boreal forests.
“Protecting the world’s remaining intact forests is necessary to address the climate and biodiversity crisis,” Ash Kalra, California Assembly Member and lead author of the proposed legislation.
The Canadian government is siding with the logging industry in opposing California’s new bid to protect forests and Indigenous rights, arguing that the legislation is unnecessary and could harm industry profits.
Currently, Canadian forestry companies have the option to obtain third-party certification to adhere to those values, but according to David Flood, chair of the Forest Stewardship Council and member of the Matachewan First Nation in Ontario, few companies operating in western Canada have signed on to the new forest standards certification.
_____________________________________________
The ruling came out in a landmark land use case this week. The B.C. Supreme Court has found the B.C. government infringed on the Blueberry River First Nation’s treaty rights by allowing decades of industrial development in their traditional territory.
The court ruled the province may no longer authorize activities that would continue to add to the cumulative impacts that breach Treaty 8, this particularly could impact the fracked gas industry because the Blueberry River First Nation territory is in the Fort St. John area, and includes much of the area of the Montney fracking gas field.
The Montney is one of the main sources for gas for the LNG development BC is promoting.
“The province is no longer permitted to authorize industrial development in a way and scale that continues to infringe our rights without our input or taking into account the cumulative effects on our treaty rights,” the First Nation said in a released statement Wednesday, after the ruling came down June 29.
The ruling also has implications for the Site C dam project which is in the First Nation’s territory.
The West Moberly First Nations has launched a legal case against the Site C dam, arguing that the $16 billion hydro project and two previous dams on the Peace River constitute an unjustifiable infringement of Treaty rights. The case, which will be heard next March, could also have major implications for the troubled hydroelectric mega-project.
_____________________________________________
A protest on Canada day blocked traffic in downtown Revelstoke, demanding protections for British Columbia’s last remaining old growth forests.
The July 1st protest titled the Old Growth REVY-LUTION closely followed a May 30th protest in support of the Fairy Creek blockades on southern Vancouver island.
Jade Harvey, executive director for Wildsight Revelstoke told the rally “Fairy Creek is important, Vancouver Island is important, but it is happening on our doorstep, 30 kilometres up the road, and we have to speak up,”
This year, BC Timber Sales auctioned off 120 hectares of old-growth forest in Bigmouth Creek, approximately 120 km north of Revelstoke, and timber harvesting has started in the area. The Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation has a tree farm licence for an area south of Argonaut and Bigmouth that is also home to old-growth forests.
The people marching in Revelstoke were asking for the immediate implementations of all 14 of the recommendations by the old growth strategic review, including an immediate halt on logging in all at-risk old growth.
Similar demands have been made in a series of protests in the riding of Katrine Conroy, the BC Minister of Forests, including several Castlegar protests, one which resulted in the arrests of 4 peaceful demonstrators by RCMP.
Week of July 6th, 2021
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 