RED SHOWS FOREST COVER LOSS. VISIT THE SITE HERE!
https://glad.earthengine.app/view/global-forest-change#dl=0;old=off;bl=off;lon=-122.76853053087183;lat=43.175011401742864;zoom=4;
LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD MAY 24 EPISODE
Follow up on May 17 RCMP raid on the logging protest camp near Argenta with a personal account of Argenta man’s arrest. Last Stand West Kootenay is fundraising for legal support and ongoing activities, and we hear about that too. The provincial govenment recently announced it was doing away with the Deep Well Royalty Tax Credit which had given billions to oil and gas companies for fracking. But they brought in a new incentive. Sven Biggs from Stand.Earth explains. In the Okanagan, a citizens’ group is campaigning to keep Fortis from expanding a fossil gas delivery line in the valley and we hear from Lori Goldman, one of the Penticton activists.
LINKS AND COMING EVENTS
LINKS
https://www.firstthingsfirstokanagan.com/
Facebook: Last Stand West Kootenay. https://www.facebook.com/LastStandWestKootenay
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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Friday, May 27, 2022 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.
Facebook: West Kootenay Cycling Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/526158944496611
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The Spring GoByBike Week 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!!
In 2021 more than 50,000 British Columbians joined in, resulting 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 kilometres at GoByBikeBC.ca
International Uranium Film Festival
42 films, online, free, on all things nuclear, available until May 29, 2022
https://vimeo.com/showcase/uranium2022
Wednesday. May 25, 4 pm PT
WEBINAR: Transportation in a Time of Climate Crisis: Complete Communities
Smart community planning can reduce or eliminate the need to travel by car, and all the space they require, the costs they impose, and the dangers they create. This approach of “complete communities”, also known as the “the 15-minute city”, can assist in the realization of many social, economic, climate and environmental goals, and bring many benefits. Presentations by Todd Litman, a Victoria-based international transportation planner, and Christine Lintott, a Victoria-based architect.
Thursday. May 26, 4 pm PDT
WEBINAR: 100% clean, reliable, renewable electricity for Canada is possible by 2035.
Join David Suzuki Foundation to learn how wind, solar, energy storage, energy efficiency and better grid connections combine to make 100% clean electricity by 2035 100% possible.
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7916527207338/WN_D8iHL0R_StGvNX1GnRQdaw
Thursday May 26, 4 pm PDT
WEBINAR Sound The Alarm For Wet’suwet’en
Where: https://bit.ly/3LnPld7
Wet’suwet’en activists are hosting an online event to sound the alarm about the Coastal Gas Link and RCMP transgressions and violence on their territories. They say Canada has paid lip service to reconciliation, claiming they respect Indigenous peoples’ rights.
But now, we face losing our land, our water, our way of life. We need to raise the alarm so people everywhere know what is at stake, and rise up in massive opposition to help stop the drilling.
Find out more on facebook Gidimten Checkpoint. Facebook: Gidim’ten Checkpoint https://www.facebook.com/wetsuwetenstrong
ENVIRONMENT NEWS FOR MAY 24, 2022
ICBC has announced it will no longer seek recovery for costs from cyclists or pedestrians in some clearly defined situations, including:
• Where a cyclist or pedestrian has suffered a severe or catastrophic injury.
• If there has been a fatality.
• When ICBC must determine liability as 50/50 because there is not enough evidence to determine what happened.
They also say that claims involving a cyclist or pedestrian who has suffered a non-severe injury will be carefully considered by a committee of experts.
They are not eliminating cases where ICBC goes after cyclists or pedestrians for damages, but they say there will be fewer cases.
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Australia’s climate crisis denying conservative government lost the national election last week and the new Labour government promises to act on the crisis.
The new government is set to boost its climate targets from 26-28% by 2030 to 43%, and ramp up renewables to 82% of electricity supply by 2030.
The independent Climate Change Authority recommended in 2014 a 40-60 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030 and were ignored by the conservative government of the time.
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The devastating heat wave that has baked India and Pakistan in recent months was due to climate change, according to a study by an international group of scientists released on Monday.
The heat disaster is a taste of what the future holds for the region, the scientists reported.
The World Weather Attribution initiative analyzed historical weather data and suggested that early, long heat waves that impact a massive geographical area are rare, once-a-century events. But the current level of global warming, caused by human-caused climate change, has made those heat waves 30 times more likely.
If global heating increases to 2 C (3.6 F) more than pre-industrial levels, heat waves like this could occur twice in a century and up to once every five years, said Arpita Mondal, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai.
“This is a sign of things to come,” Mondal said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/heat-wave-india-pakistan-climate-1.6463335
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In a new column David Suzuki is pointing out that air travel, and emissions are taking off as the pandemic recedes. Commercial flights were increasing steadily before COVID-19 hit — by about five per cent a year from 2000 to 2019 — and the International Air Transport Association projects a 500 per cent increase in passenger numbers by 2050!
He says the industry downplays its impact, claiming air travel contributes about two per cent of global emissions, but studies show that if “radiative forcing” is accounted for, it’s closer to 3.5 per cent. If aviation were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest emitter.
Suzuki points out that it is a global elite that does most of the flying. Just one per cent of global population, caused half of aviation’s carbon emissions in 2018. Most people, about 90 per cent worldwide, don’t get on a plane in any given year.
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An analysis on CBC shows Oil and gas production emissions in Canada have been steadily growing. Emissions from crude oil production increased 67 megatonnes, or 170 per cent, since 1990, according to Canada’s latest greenhouse gas emission inventory, submitted to the United Nations in April.
It is mostly the increase in emissions-intensive oilsands production in Alberta, which has nearly doubled since 2005. Tarsands emissions alone have increased 66 megatonnes, or 437 per cent, since 1990.
But oilsands producers say they’ve drastically reduced the volume of greenhouse gases they generate per barrel of oil in recent years — a measure called emissions intensity.
They have increased efficiency somewhat to cut the amount of fuel that must be burned to produce a barrel of oil.
They’ve reduced the volume of methane emissions vented, flared and leaked during production, thanks to new regulations. That’s important, because methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas that leaks during all kinds of fossil fuel production and is considered crucial to limiting warming over the coming decades.
But a major factor is that more crude bitumen is being produced without being “upgraded” to synthetic crude oil, another major emitting process. By exporting raw bitumen the companies are exporting the emissions to foreign refineries, but not reducing them.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/what-on-earth-oilsands-emissions-1.6459517
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The Ktunaxa Nation released a statement this month condemning the recent decision by Global Affairs
Canada to reject the request to refer the issue of transboundary watershed pollution of the Kootenay River to the International Joint Commission (IJC).
The Ktunaxa governments say Global Affairs Canada by failing to take the issue forward has failed to meaningfully engage and implement United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
They point out that decades of mining operations and impacts in the Kootenay River watershed have led to pollution in the transboundary river – a violation of Article IV of the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty. The Ktunaxa governments say it would be very important to take up the issue with the international joint commission.
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This week Premier John Horgan announced a the CleanBC Local Government Climate Action Program will provide predictable, stable funding for municipalities, regional districts and Modern Treaty Nations to accelerate local climate projects.
The Province provided $76 million over three years for the Local Government Climate Action Program. Funds will be distributed to eligible governments based on each community’s population and a base amount. Participating governments will be required to show funds have been invested in projects that support the objectives of the CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 or the Climate Preparedness and Adaptation Strategy.
Nathan Cullen, Minister of Municipal Affairs said BC’s local governmments “ are also on the leading edge of climate action, building resilient communities and are preparing for the future.”
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