Listen or download the August 29th show here:
Kate Mizenka from Elk Root Conservation is the winner of this year’s Suzy Hamilton Legacy Award honouring a valuable women-identified contribution to protecting the environment. KCR’s Local Initiatives reporter Scott Onyshak spoke with Kate. SueBigOil.ca is a campaign for BC municipalities to join together in a class action law suit against big oil corporations to recover some of the skyrocketing costs of the climate emergency. Nelson Local Greg Amos is organizing support for the City to sign on and contribute to the campaign. FortisBC is in application at the BC Utilities Commission for a rate increase to cover costs for ‘renewable natural gas’. BC consultant Eoin Finn follows gas closely in the province and explains the Fortis scheme for us.
LINKS TO COMING EVENTS:
The Regional District of the Central Kootenay’s Climate Action Open Houses have just started and run in communities all around the district until the end of October.
The RDCK has also launched an online way you can send in your views at engage.rdck.ca.
This is a great chance to get our Region really proactive on reducing the climate crisis, and adapting to the extreme conditions we now have.
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Friday, September 15.
Global Climate Strike
Climate activists world wide are ramping things up This September, as world leaders discuss climate action at the United Nations in New York. People on every continent will join the largest-ever globally coordinated action to demand that governments end fossil fuels.
The climate crisis is escalating but so is the global movement for climate justice.
Action can take many forms. Already a Global Climate Strike is planned by Fridays for Future on September 15, and a March to End Fossil Fuels will be held in New York on September 17. This is a call for others globally to join us with your own creative actions, speakouts, art installations, marches, protests, strikes, occupations, forums, gatherings, civil disobedience or digital mobilisations.
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The West Coast Climate Action Network, We-CAN is holding its 4th Climate Action Provincial Assembly on Saturday September 16, and you can join in online. This assembly is focused on building solidarity between climate action groups and labour activists; poverty/housing activists; racial justice activists; Indigenous rights activists; faith activists; and climate finance activists. Find out more https://westcoastclimateaction.ca/
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
Carbon credit speculators could lose billions as scientific evidence shows many offsets they have bought have no environmental worth and have become stranded assets.
There’s growing evidence that huge numbers of carbon credits do nothing to mitigate global heating. A the same time there is a growing pile of carbon credits equivalent to the annual emissions of Japan, the world’s fifth largest polluter, that are unused in the unregulated voluntary market, according to market analysis.
From Apple to Disney, Gucci to Shell, many of the largest companies in the world have used carbon credits for their sustainability efforts from the unregulated voluntary market, which grew to $2bn (£1.6bn) in size in 2021 and saw prices for many carbon credits rise above $20 per offset.
But repeated scandals about their true impact and a crackdown from regulators on claims of “carbon neutrality” have meant that demand and prices for offsetting have slumped, with signs that some carbon credit traders are writing off investments that would have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars as recently as last year.
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Michael Polanyi of Nature Canada says “Concern about forests is non-partisan: Canadians from all regions and a wide range of political leanings want the federal government to be a world leader in protecting Canada’s globally significant forests,” “Right now, as wildfires ravage communities coast to coast, most Canadians feel their government is failing to deliver on its promise to protect forests.”
A new poll’s findings show strong public support for a range of measures to reduce the impacts of logging, including phasing out clearcutting (81% support),requiring companies to pay a carbon price on wood burning (76%), supporting foreign laws to advance sustainable wood harvesting and Indigenous rights (75%), and ensuring more accurate reporting of logging’s greenhouse gas emissions (71%).
Only one in three Canadians think the federal government is delivering on its 2021 election promise to protect old-growth forests.
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On Aug. 15, environmental litigation group, Earthjustice, notified more than a dozen American tire manufacturers of their intent to sue them over violations of the Endangered Species Act if they do nothing to stop their alleged chemical pollution.
In the letter to the tire manufacturers, Earthjustice acknowledges that the suit is being made on behalf of the Institute for Fisheries Resources and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, because chemicals used in the production of tires has had adverse impacts on coho, steelhead and Chinook salmon species.
The letter, addressed to tire manufacturers that include Goodyear, Bridgestone, Michelin, and Cooper tires, alleges that the chemicals known as 6PPD and 6PPD-q get from roads into waterways from the tires these companies produce and sell to consumers.
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The Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project has run into another construction-related hurdle that could delay its completion.
The Crown corporation that owns the pipeline has filed for regulatory approval to modify the route of one of the remaining stretches of pipe yet to be completed, The Canadian Press reports.
The company is facing opposition from the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation, whose traditional territory the pipeline crosses and who had agreed to the originally proposed route and construction method.
The documents state that between May and July 2023, Trans Mountain met and corresponded several times with the First Nation’s leadership, who continued to express concern that the pipeline project was deviating from its previously agreed-upon route and construction method.
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More than 95% of hydrogen produced in the United States is made using fossil fuels, but that hasn’t stopped its backers—including industry groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—from touting the energy source as critical to the fight against climate change.
A diverse coalition of advocacy organizations on Tuesday implored the Biden administration to stop buying into the hype.
As Nature explained in an editorial warning against “overhyping” hydrogen, “Most hydrogen is currently made by processes—such as steam reformation of natural gas (methane)—that produce large amounts of CO2 as a by-product.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-hydrogen
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A new study links fracked gas wells in western Pennsylvania with cases of cancer, asthma and birth problems. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found children who lived closer to fracking sites were more likely to develop lymphoma. Meanwhile, residents of all ages had an increased chance of severe asthma, and pregnant people were more likely to give birth to babies with low birth weight. Western Pennsylvania is home to thousands of fracked gas wells.
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