LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD MAY 17 SHOW:
Breaking news from the Argenta face logging protest camp. The RCMP moved in on the camp at 8 am. Wrinkle called in to tell us what she saw going on, 5 people arrested, cars towed and an excavator brought on to the forest service road where some 20 30 protestors were keeping watch.
The Anthropocene: highly visual film about human impact on the planet. We hear a little bit about the story the film tells. 2040, a very different film about how we could make it to 2040… successfully. From Australian filmmaker Damon Gameau. Both available free on CBC’s GEM website.
Talking about DEGROWTH… actually reducing our economies to attempt to live within the sustainable means of the planet. Professor Jennifer Ellen Good from Brock University talks about creating a new economic story to save ourselves.
LINKS AND EVENTS:
LAST STAND WEST KOOTENAY… protecting forests.
DEGROWTH piece by Prof. Jennifer Ellen Good on TheTyee.ca
WEST KOOTENAY CLIMATE HUB. Events and news on climate from our communities.
Saturday, May 21 2 – 4 pm
This Saturday May 21 there will be a Celebration of Life for one of Nelson’s most prominent long time environmentalist, Michael Jessen
The Celebration ‘will be held Saturday, May 21st at Lakeside Park from 2-4 pm.
Thursday, May 26 at 7 – 8:30 p.m. via Zoom,
The West Kootenay EcoSociety has launched a new webinar series on making our community more just and equitable. The First installment features Political anthropologist Lori Barkley who will share her work in answering this call to action to better understand our own settler history and how it has shaped and perpetuates Sinixt existence in extinction.
You can register at the website EcoSociety.ca
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MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022 AT 12 PM
Victoria Day Bicycle Ride and Picnic
Family-friendly bicycle ride celebrating active transportation and demonstrating that we want and need safe places to ride.
Meet at noon at Nelson Railway Station located at a 91 Baker Street, Nelson, BC. Ride as a mass group to Taghum Beach followed by a picnic in the park.
All ages and abilities invited. Dress in your Sunday best. Bring food, drinks and firewood and bring it all on your bike
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FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2022 AT 6 PM
A critical mass bicycle ride in support of policy reversal of ’No Fault’ ICBC insurance. We are demanding that cyclists and pedestrians be protected without additional insurance requirements.
Meet at 6 pm at Baker and Hall Street for a group ride followed by a BBQ at Lakeside Park. MLA Brittny Anderson will be in attendance.
BYO own food, drink and firewood for the BBQ. Network with fellow citizens concerned about road safety for all users.
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May 30 – June 5, 2022
The Spring GoByBike Week, is coming up in just a couple of weeks. It’s May 30 – June 5, 2022.
Register now, and start tracking your kilometers you ride to see how many kilograms of greenhouse gases you save. Participation is free, fun, helps you stay fit and healthy, and it’s great for the environment! … AND, you can win great prizes!!
GoByBike BC Society had a wild ride in 2021! Through it all, they inspired more than 50,000 British Columbians to participate in our programs, which resulted in saving 418,026 kilograms of greenhouse gas emission and improving air quality.
You can register and log your rides to be part of the provincial and local total kilometers at GoByBikeBC.ca
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
Finance Canada has helped Trans Mountain secure $10 billion in new financing to complete construction of the controversial pipeline by promising investors that if the Crown corporation can’t pay back the loans, the public will.
Earlier this year, when the pipelines costs ballooned to over $20 billion, finance minister Christia Freeland promised no more public dollars would be put into the pipeline.
The federal loan guarantee decision was made on April 29, the same day a United Nations human rights committee urged Canada to stop construction of the pipeline over alleged human rights violations. By guaranteeing the Crown corporation’s debt, Finance Canada says it was able to help find unnamed third-party financiers for the project. But ultimately, the decision puts even more public dollars on the line because if Trans Mountain (TMX) defaults on its payments, Ottawa will assume the debt.
In many senses loan guarantees are even worse than directly investing. The public dollars take all the risk, with no possible financial return.
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Reports are coming from Wet’suwet’en land defenders that drilling under Wedzinkwa, the Morice River is imminent — and the RCMP’s specialized unit CIRG (Community-Industry Response Group), is ramping up their enforcement. [
And a new letter from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination condemning the violence, says clearly: CGL does not have consent from hereditary chiefs. The UN’s letter demands that the federal and BC government remove the RCMP and immediately halt all construction on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. [4]
The UN letter is making waves and the public is paying attention to the RCMP’s next moves. We can’t let them get away with trampling on the rights of the Wet’suwet’en people.
In the last 3 years, the Wet’suwet’en and their allies have endured 4 militarized raids from RCMP with assault rifles, police dogs, and heavy machinery, all for defending their land. In November 2021, RCMP armed with tactical weapons attacked and arrested Wet’suwet’en elders, land defenders, and journalists.
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Meanwhile the same Coastal GasLink project has been ordered to pay its second penalty in less than three months for environmental infractions along its 670-kilometre pipeline route.
The $170,100 fine is a result of inspections that took place along the pipeline route in October, one year after the company’s issues with erosion and sediment control were first identified by investigators with the province’s Environmental Assessment Office.
In levying the fine, the EAO noted the company’s ongoing violations resulted in significant “adverse effects to water quality, wetlands and fish habitat, and potential adverse effects to fish and other aquatic life.”
They may also have harmed the rights of Indigenous nations, it said.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2022/05/11/Coastal-GasLink-Fined-Again-Environmental-Damage/
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Last week, Tsleil-Waututh Nation land defender Will George was sentenced to 28 days in jail for contempt of court. The Union of BC Indian Chiefs is stronly condemning the harsh sentence.
Will George played a major leadership role in protests against the TransMountain Pipeline on Burnaby Mountain and played a major role in the construction of the WATCH HOUSE over the TransMountain tank farm.
The Union of BC Indian Chiefs points out the actions happened on Tsleil-Waututh Nation lands that have never surrendered. The Tsleil-Waututh have certainly not given their free, prior, and informed consent for Trans Mountain to construct the pipeline within their territory.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, UBCIC President, said, “Clearly, the so-called Canadian justice system continues its racist persecution of Indigenous Peoples who seek to protect their homelands from the destructive predations of Industry. UBCIC has repeatedly urged all orders of government and the courts to uphold the minimum human rights standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, UBCIC Secretary-Treasurer. pointed out The Chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination wrote to Canada’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations just days ago, calling on Canada to cease the construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline until the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples along the route can be obtained,”
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On May 8th California set a historic milestone when it produced enough renewable electricity to meet 103% of consumer demand. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing and clean energy production broke the record set just a week earlier of 99.9% of the energy needed.
Energy experts say the falling records are a sign of the remarkable progress that renewable energy has made. However, even as the record was broken, natural gas power plants were still running in California.
Because despite the dramatic growth of renewable energy, turning off natural gas power still isn’t possible in California. The gas fired power plants fill gaps and buffer the energy requirements in the state.
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More than 90% of Great Barrier Reef coral surveyed this year was bleached in the fourth such mass event in seven years in the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, Australian government scientists said.
Bleaching is caused by the impact of the climate crisis on oceans. This is the reef’s first bleaching event during a La Niña weather pattern, which is associated with cooler Pacific Ocean temperatures, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Authority said in its an annual report released late Tuesday that found 91% of the areas surveyed were affected.
Bleaching in 2016, 2017 and 2020 damaged two-thirds of the coral in the reef off Australia’s eastern coast.
Coral bleaches as a heat stress response and scientists hope most of the coral will recover from the current event, said David Wachenfeld, chief scientist at the authority, which manages the reef ecosystem.
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Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 