LISTEN TO FULL SHOW HERE:
A BC judge refused to extend the injunction against Fairy Creek logging protests because RCMP actions were bringing the court into disrepute he said. That’s the big news of the week in BC, of course, but there’s more. We have a short clip from Wet’suwet’en territory where pipeline blockaders held ceremony for the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
The Nelson-based Nest Lab has been cooking up plans for reducing emissions in our community. Steven Cretney helped pull the Nest Lab together and he tells us about the innovative new ideas the social lab has come up with.
Tonight, Tuesday, at 7 pm, BC climate activists are launching We-Can the West Coast Climate Action Network with the voices of many prominent BC activists like Naomi Klein, Tzeporah Berman, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and music and more. Guy Dauncey from Ladysmith talks about the new network.
ENVIRONMENT NEWS BITS
The big news of the week has to be the judge’s rejection of the continued injunction at Fairy Creek. Logging company Teal Jones said it is appealing the decision but the RCMP have apparently pulled back tremendously since the court ruling. Justice Douglas Thompson said that one of his main reasons for NOT renewing the injunction against old-growth logging blockades on southern Vancouver Island was that the actions of RCMP officers have put the court’s reputation at risk.
A dance party broke out on the logging road as the Rainforest Flying Squad defenders celebrated the RCMP pull back.
The RCMP have made more than 1,100 arrests in their enforcement of the six-month interlocutory injunction order. As of Sept. 13, 101 criminal contempt charges have been approved by the B.C. Prosecution Service, according to the court decision.
Although some logging has been started in the Fairy Creek Watershed the more than year-long civil disobedience campaign has been successful in sttopping full scale clear cutting of the ancient forest.
______________________________________________
The New York Times even commented on the BC injunction decision. Columnist Ian Austen says:
While Justice Thompson found that the logging company that was looking to have the injunction extended was suffering “irreparable harm” from the protests, he wrote that the actions of the Mounties in enforcing it “have led to serious and substantial infringement of civil liberties.”
It also quotes Kent Roach, a law professor at the University of Toronto saying: “I am not aware of any case where police misconduct has been cited as a reason to stop such an injunction.”
“I have never heard of anything like it,”
______________________________________________
Canadians are unknowingly buying and building homes and other infrastructure in areas at high risk of flooding, wildfires and other climate change impacts. That could lead to billions of dollars in damage each year, says a new report from the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices.
Investing in adaptation could slash those costs — but just about no one has the information they need to be able to adapt, according to the report released last week from the federally funded think-tank.
Researchers were able to obtain data — available for a fee from a private company, JBA Risk Management — that showed 325,000 buildings in Canada are at risk of flooding from heavy rainfall and another 625,000 are at risk from flooding due to rivers breaching their banks, whose owners “have no way of knowing that their properties are at risk of flooding” the report said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/climate-risks-1.6196450
______________________________________________
A new international Tracker is showing the huge emissions from airline travel around the world.
A first-of-its-kind online tool shows the emissions impact of departing flights from nearly all the world’s airports.
Every year, the planes taking off from JFK Airport in New York City and Frankfurt International in Germany emit as much carbon dioxide as three coal plants each. Los Angeles International, London Heathrow, and Dubai Airport, four coal plants each.
______________________________________________
The 2021 wildfire season in B.C. was the third worst on record in terms of area burned.
More than 1,600 fires burned nearly 8,700 square kilometres of land this year. Only the 2017 and 2018 seasons were bigger.
More than 140 fires continue to burn across B.C., even though October generally marks the end of wildfire season and the province ended its wildfire-related state of emergency on Sept. 21.
59.9 per cent of this year’s fires were caused by lightning, with around 35 per cent caused by humans.
In total, $565 million has been spent on fighting wildfires this year, and 181 evacuation orders were issued.
Nearly 8,700 square kilometres of land has been lost in 2021, only behind 2018 (nearly 13,550 square kilometres burned) and 2017 (more than 12,160 square kilometres).
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-wildfires-2021-timeline-1.6197751
______________________________________________
At least 126,000 gallons of crude oil gushed from a ruptured pipeline off the coast of Huntington Beach into ocean waters and local wetlands, the Los Angeles Times reported last week.
The city of Huntington Beach said that “currently, the oil slick plume measures an estimated 5.8 nautical miles long, and runs from the Huntington Beach Pier down into Newport Beach.”
As cleanup crews on Sunday rushed to contain the damage from one of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history, environmentalists stressed the necessity of ending offshore drilling—and ultimately, of keeping all fossil fuels in the ground.
At a Saturday evening press conference, Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr called the spill “a potential ecological disaster.”
Endangered and threatened species that live in the area include humpback whales, snowy plovers, and California least terns.
______________________________________________
The battle for real climate action in the U.S. continues in congress as Right-wing Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia—who is heavily invested in fossil fuels—continues to hould out as Democrats attempt to pass a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package containing robust investments in climate solutions.
Don’t be fooled, warned Bill McKibben, the Democrat from West Virginia is “doing the work of the fossil fuel industry.”
Climate campaigners accused the right-wing West Virginia Democrat of doing the fossil fuel industry’s bidding, and drawing attention to the “modern-day coal baron’s” staggering conflicts of interest.
“Should any lawmaker with such a sizable financial conflict of interest wield decisive influence over what the U.S. government does about a life-and-death issue like the climate emergency?”
______________________________________________
Twenty-three species should be declared extinct, U.S. officials said last week—a fate that conservation advocates warn could await hundreds of other species barring immediate efforts to protect them.
“If we do nothing to address climate change and the growing biodiversity crisis,” tweeted the National Audubon Society, “today’s announcement will pale in comparison to the future we face.”
______________________________________________
The heat dome that scorched British Columbia, killing at least 569 people and an untold number of wildlife, has now been linked to hundreds of thousands of farm animal deaths.
At least 651,000 farm animals were killed between June 24 and June 30, according to several industry groups which disclosed the animal mortality data in freedom-of-information requests.
Camille Labchuk, lawyer and executive director of the advocacy group Animal Justice, obtained data on excess deaths for chicks, egg-laying hens, broiler chickens and turkeys. Industry groups representing dairy cows and hogs said they did not keep such records.
“Farmers do lose birds to injury, illness or predation on a normal basis,” says BC Egg Marketing Board spokesperson Amanda Brittain. “But it would be a drop in the bucket compared to what was lost during the heat dome.”
______________________________________________
BC forest ecologist Suzanne Simard, author of the bestselling book Finding the Mother Tree, visited Fairy Creek recently to see the last old growth forest on southern Vancouver Island and see it for herself.
She has spoken out about the importance of preserving these ecosystems and recently published a column on the tyee.ca.
Suzanne Simard says:
A new process is urgently required to replace the antiquated policy of liquidating these irreplaceable ancient trees with bold reforms that recognize the link between our forests and the climate change and biodiversity crises facing B.C. and the entire world.
These two emergencies loom ahead and must guide our decision-making at every level, trumping short-term values like stumpage fees earned by government or profits by the forest industry.
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2021/10/01/Next-Fairy-Creek-Science-Must-Trump-Politics/
______________
Freda Huson, Chief Howihkat, is one of four recipients of the 2021 Right Livelihood Award announced last week in Stockholm, Sweden.
Freda Huson was instrumental in creating the Unist’ot’en Camp on the Coastal Gas Pipelinen route. The Right Livelihood Award cited here as A Wet’suwet’en land defender whose peaceful occupation of her traditional territory led to protests that shut down major transportation routes across Canada last year.
Three other winning laureates, who are also from Russia, India and Cameroon, are being honoured for “advancing the rights of women and girls, environmental protection and reclaiming Indigenous rights through mobilizing communities and empowering grassroots initiatives,” the organization said.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/09/29/Unistoten-Land-Defender-Wins-International-Advocacy-Award/
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 