Nelson Councillor Rik Logtenberg discusses election results and the new Council. The Competition Bureau of Canada has decided to investigate the Royal Bank over concerns about misleading messaging on its commitment to climate mitigation. We talk with Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, Secretary Treasurer of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs who is one of the original complainants. Finally best selling author Seth Klein talks climate action with the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, some short clips.
LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD THE OCTOBER 18 SHOW HERE:
COMING EVENTS:
Wednesday October 26 7 pm
You can Join the BC Climate Emergency Campaign as they release their report card evaluating the BC government’s progress on climate action. One year after receiving their joint open letter, has the provincial government addressed our concerns? What progress have they made, if any, towards achieving our 10 actions? We will also be launching our brand new website!
That event is coming up in the evening, 7 pm. next Wednesday, October 26. The link will be on the blog for today’s show.
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Wednesday November 06, 3:00 p.m.
the 3rd annual TEDxSelkirkCollege Countdown virtual event on Sunday, November 6th from 3:00-5:00pm.
What are locals doing to inspire a sense of possibility and accelerate climate action? A number of speakers will be there to talk about it.
The goal of Countdown is to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action. Let’s build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 in the race to a zero-carbon world – a world that is safer, cleaner and fairer for everyone.
Register to attend this free, virtual event at www.selkirk.ca/tedxselkirkcollege
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Saturday November 19, 10am-Noon
The West Coast Climate Action Network WE-CAN is holding a BC CLIMATE ACTION PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY (CAPA)
From WE-CAN: The Climate Action Provincial Assembly is a participatory forum where leading members of BC’s active climate action groups can meet together to develop mutually supportive plans for the future. We intend that the Assembly will meet four times a year, in January, April, July and October.
You can find details for the November 19th event on the website https://westcoastclimateaction.ca/
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Saturday, November 26th in Victoria
A large BC Coalition has called a Super-Rally at the BC Legislature on Saturday November 26th to call for the protection of old growth forests. They have issued a Declaration calling on the government to actually implement the expert recommendations on forestry that it promised to bring in.
They point out that More than three million hectares of at-risk forest remain vulnerable to logging, and ancient giants are felled daily.
The rally is being called by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Elders for Ancient Trees, Sierra Club BC, Wilderness Committee, Stand.earth and others.
There is lots of notice and time still to organize a local support rally for folks who can’t travel all the way to Victoria at the end of November. I’ll keep everyone informed.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2azEDmH7HQEgSV4LjBoK8qvDloPxrh4c0Usfj6-_QrUcGww/viewform
LINKS:
More about the complaint about RBC greenwashing and the Competition Bureau investigation here:
Watch Seth Klein’s presentation to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance:
ENVIRONMENT NEWS FOR OCTOBER 18
World Wildlife Federation reported last week that the world’s wildlife populations have suffered a “terrifying” decline over the past five decades and urgent action is needed to reverse the losses. the
Global populations of monitored mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish plummeted by an average of 69 per cent from 1970 to 2018, according to data from the Zoological Society of London.
“The message is clear and the lights are flashing red. Our most comprehensive report ever on the state of global vertebrate wildlife populations presents terrifying figures: a shocking two-thirds decline in the global Living Planet Index in less than 50 years,” WWF director general Marco Lambertini said in the forward of the Living Planet Report 2022.
The biggest declines globally were seen in freshwater species, with populations down by an average of 83 per cent. The report says habitat loss and barriers to migration routes are to blame for about half of the decline in migratory fish species.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/wwf-declining-wildlife-populations-1.6615373
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Canada’s biggest oilsands producers are saying they will spend $16.5 billion before 2030 on the first stage of a massive proposed carbon capture and storage facility near Cold Lake, Alta.
However, The Pathways Alliance, a consortium of the country’s six largest oilsands companies has not yet made a decision to go ahead with the project, which would capture CO2 emissions from more than 20 oilsands facilities in northern Alberta and store them safely underground, delivering an estimated 10 million tonnes of emissions reductions per year.
But it says it has already completed pre-engineering work and is consulting with Indigenous communities along the route of the proposed 400-km pipeline that will carry captured CO2 to the storage hub.
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Four First Nations partnerships that worked on the Coastal GasLink pipeline are now suing the company and a former prime contractor for $10 million, alleging they haven’t been paid for all their work.
The claims are against Coastal GasLink and Pacific Atlantic Pipeline Construction Ltd., a prime contractor on the project until earlier this year.
In the claims, Kyah Resources Inc., Frost Natanlii LP, NWF Resources Ltd. and Kyah Summit Camp Services say they have completed the work but have not been fully paid. The first three companies provided pipeline route clearing services and the fourth provides worker accommodation.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2022/10/17/First-Nations-Partnerships-Say-Pipeline-Company-Owe-Them/
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In early September the independent non-profit Aquaculture Stewardship Council increased the amount of sea lice allowable on farmed salmon that is certified as “responsibly farmed.”
B.C. farmed fish are now allowed to have three motile (or 0.6 to 1.7 adult female) sea lice on them, when they used to only be allowed 0.1 mature females to qualify for the label. Motile sea lice is an umbrella term for pre-adult and both male and female lice.
This is a 540 to 1,550 per cent increase in the total allowable parasite limit.
Advocates say this won’t change anything in practice on B.C. fish farms because most farms were given exemptions from ASC sea lice limits and were operating under Fisheries and Oceans Canada limits, which are three motile lice per fish.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2022/10/14/Eco-Label-Sea-Lice-Certified-Farmed-Responsibly-Salmon/
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The amount of wood in Canada’s forests has declined relentlessly for decades, and Barry Saxifrage on the National Observer has illustrated how bad it is.
Saxifrage sources a new survey by Natural Resources Canada, that shows our forests have lost a total of four billion cubic metres of wood volume since 1990. That translates into the loss of hundreds of millions mature trees. The missing wood is enough to stack more than a billion cords of firewood — or to build around four homes for each Canadian.
Logging has been hauling it out faster than Canada’s forests — weakened by decades of industrial forestry and rising climate impacts — can regrow. That imbalance is pouring billions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. It’s a rising climate threat that our government greenlights by keeping it off our nation’s official climate books.
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Two years into Canada’s reforestation campaign, the country has yet to meet 1 percent of its objective. Concerns have been raised about the level of financial commitment from the government. Critics also say planting trees may not be an optimal strategy for countering climate change or fulfilling other environmental goals.
f the country meets its 2 billion tree goal, the plan says it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 12 megatons of carbon dioxide. The government says that would amount to taking more than 2 million gasoline-powered automobiles off the road each year. What is more, it might help counter the die-off of trees in some North American regions as a result of climate change, insect infestations and diseases.
But the effort is lagging. Two years in, Canada has planted 40 million trees, an impressive figure on the surface. But that means it still has 1,999,960,000 tree plantings to go, or 99.9 percent of the distance.
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From
A large BC Coalition has called a Super-Rally at the BC Legislature On Saturday November 26th to call for the protection of old growth forests. They have issued a Declaration calling on the government to actually implement the expert recommendations on forestry that it promised to bring in.
The point out the Horgan government made clear 2020 election promises to implement all 14 recommendations of the OGStrategic Review report. However, two years later, the NDP’s response has been poor.
Without on-the-ground measures, the talk-and-log status quo continues, and thousands of hectares of at-risk forests continue to be logged across the province. More than three million hectares of at-risk forest remain vulnerable to logging, and ancient giants are felled daily.
Over 1100 people have been arrested, while peacefully defending old-growth forests in multiple parts of B.C., demonstrating the widespread frustration with the NDP government and its failure to keep its promises on this vital issue.
Indigenous nations and forest-dependent communities urgently need a just transition protects these carbon-rich ancient forests and their critical role in ensuring a livable future for all.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2azEDmH7HQEgSV4LjBoK8qvDloPxrh4c0Usfj6-_QrUcGww/viewform
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Last Friday Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland speaking at the meeting of International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, DC. said Canada is open to supporting “economically feasible” liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects to help countries like Germany reduce reliance on coal in the midst of a global energy crunch.
LNG “is an important transition fuel,” she declared, and “we will always be looking at economically viable LNG projects.”
In early July, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said there would be no public finance for East Coast LNG projects.
But last week, Freeland and Wilkinson both “appeared to leave the door open to the possibility,”
Clean growth economist Rachel Samson, vice president of policy at the Institute for Research on Public Policy, says:
“It is going to be difficult to watch Europe suffer through energy shortages and high prices, and Canadians will justifiably want to do ‘something’,” “However, it is important to remember that LNG projects are multi-billion-dollar endeavours that require years to build and decades of profitability to pay off. The EU will be moving quickly to reduce its reliance on natural gas,” leading to “growing investment risk” for any would-be LNG exporter.
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 
In May of 2021, Postmedia refused to run paid ads by Leadnow, a social and environmental justice organization, that exposed the Royal Bank of Canada as the largest financer of the nation’s fossil fuel extraction.
Also, a few years ago, Canadian media conglomerate Postmedia had acquired a lobbying firm with close ties to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney in order to participate in his government’s $30 million PR “war room” in promoting the industry’s interests.
That shouldn’t be surprising considering that our mainstream news-media support Big Fossil Fuel’s interests in Canada. Notably, Postmedia is on record allying itself with the aforementioned fossil fuel industry, including the mass extraction and export of bitumen, the world’s dirtiest and most consequentially polluting crude oil.
A then-publisher of Postmedia’s National Post said: “From its inception, the National Post has been one of the country’s leading voices on the importance of energy to Canada’s business competitiveness internationally and our economic well-being in general.
“We will work with [Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers] to amplify our energy mandate and to be a part of the solution to keep Canada competitive in the global marketplace. The National Post will undertake to leverage all means editorially, technically and creatively to further this critical conversation.”
[Source: “Mair on Media’s ‘Unholiest of Alliances’ With Energy Industry”, Nov.14 2017, The Tyee].
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