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This past week the Nanaimo City Council moved to ban expansion of more gas burning in the City. Kathryn-Jane Hazel from Nanaimo explains how the community pushed to ban methane gas growth.
Nelson Councillor Keith Page is also the President of the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments. He explains how motions about big issues municipalities face are put forward to the Union of BC Municipalities that is coming up in Vancouver this month.
The City’s Nelson Next climate plan is one of the most ambitious in the country in targets to reduce emissions. Now in place for three years, how’s it doing? Kootenay Coop Radio’s Local Journalism Initiative reporter Scott Onashyk speaks with City climate strategist Cecilia Jacques to give us an update.
COMING ENVIRONMENTAL 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.
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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.
📌 Friday September 15, 1pm – Global Climate Strike, Vancouver City Hall
📌 Friday September 15, 4-6pm – Rally and March to End Fossil Fuels, Forest Destruction & Highway Expansion, Legislature, Victoria
📌 Also in Penticton – Salmon Arm – Powell River – Qualicum Beach – Smithers – Kelowna – Sandon/Silverton – Port Alberni (Click on each for details)
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Saturday September 16
4th Climate Action Provincial Assembly
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/
Sunday, October 1
Nelson TownHall Square on Baker Street
The postponed Nelson Townhall Square Day on Baker Street has been scheduled for Sunday, October 1. Two blocks of Baker Street will be closed to traffic for informal street socializing and events. More details as we get closer to the day.
ENVIRONMENT NEWS BITES
Peyto Glacier on the Icefields Parkway in Banff Naitonal Park is one of the longest-studied glaciers in the world. Researchers say it has been deteriorating since about the year 2000, and the extent of the loss has recently accelerated.
Extreme weather only makes things worse. This year, a combination of low winter snowfall, prolonged, unseasonably hot weather and falling soot from wildfire smoke are coming together in a glacial “death spiral.”
Measurements taken from the research station near the base of the glacier show it’s undergone 6.5 metres of melt since last August. That’s on par with the previous record melt year of 2021, when an extreme heat wave scorched much of Western Canada, Pomeroy said.
It’s also retreated 80 metres horizontally, around four times the long-term average retreat of 20 metres.
https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/the-canary-in-the-icefield
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Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said last week that recent statements by Suncor CEO Rich Kruger suggest the government needs federal regulations to cap greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas sector.
“To see the leader of a great Canadian company say that he is basically disengaging from climate change and sustainability, that he’s going to focus on short-term profit, it’s all the wrong answers,” Guilbeault said.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the federal environment minister’s criticism of a major oilsands company constitutes a “provocative” verbal attack on Alberta’s energy sector.
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Living near fracking wells has been linked to health risks by a set of three new studies co-published by the Pennsylvania state government and the University of Pittsburgh. Those hazards include an increased rate of lymphoma among children who live within one mile of a gas well compared to those within a five-mile radius, a correlation between low birth weight and a mother’s proximity to producing wells, and a link to hospitalization for asthma for people living within 10 miles of a well.
Health professionals are calling for a ban on fracking in Pennsylvania after three “bombshell” studies—published despite resistance from fossil fuel interests—linked exposure to the oil and gas extraction process to childhood lymphoma, asthma, and low birth weight.
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Canadian households could cut their energy bills by $10.4 billion and reduce climate pollution from home heating by 19.6 million tonnes by 2035 by using heat pumps for cooling rather than air conditioners, a new report concludes.
The 29-page report, The Cool Way to Heat Homes [pdf], says technological improvements have made heat pumps a cost-effective pathway to reduce building emissions.
With climate change producing more frequent, extreme heat waves, “many Canadians are opting for central air conditioners, inadvertently overlooking the tremendous potential of heat pumps,” the Transition Accelerator writes.
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Scotland is embracing a fresh approach to its economy. In the spring, it appointed its first cabinet secretary for “wellbeing economy, fair work and energy,” tasked with developing “an economy that is fair, green and growing . . . to ensure our collective and individual wellbeing.”
Along with New Zealand, Iceland, Wales and Finland, Scotland rounds out the Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) partnership of nations – all five explicitly working toward building economies “designed to serve people and the planet rather than the other way around.”
So far Canada has been sitting on the sidelines as an official observer at WEGo conferences, signalling an interest in economies focused less on profit and more on human and ecological well-being.
https://www.corporateknights.com/leadership/wellbeing-economy/
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The Nelson Star reports that The Regional District of Central Kootenay on Aug. 17 hear from the new president of the Interior Lumber Manufacturers’ Association (ILMA), Paul Rasmussen, and ILMA board chair Ken Kalesnikoff.
The logging company officians said one of the most critical issues facing the industry, is the fibre supply. Between cuts in annual harvest allowances, forest fires and economic uncertainty, supply lines that feed the mills are being threatened.
“There’s a crunch that’s coming,” said Rasmussen. “We have this need to get access to as much fibre as we can.”
Kalesnikoff, said they now buy up to a quarter of their logs from the United States.
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A copper mountain mine in BC wants to expand its tailings pond to be twice as high as the Statue of Liberty — increasing its tailings pond capacity by 70 per cent. This would make it the world’s second tallest tailings pond! Tailings ponds are incredibly toxic — they are human-made reservoirs the size of lakes, full of dangerous chemical byproducts from mineral extraction. They have a risk of rupturing and often leach contaminants, wreaking havoc on ecosystems and human communities. Because of loopholes in BC’s law, this expansion doesn’t even need to have an environmental assessment, but we can change that.
The Upper Similkameen Indian Band believe the expansion will impact their practice of culture, rights and title. The Lower Similkameen Indian Band have requested the expansion receive an environmental assessment.
Copper Mountain mine is owned by Hudbay Minerals Inc., a Canadian mining company under fire for human rights abuses at its mines abroad. They do not want an environmental assessment for the expansion of their mine, but the BC government can require one if it’s in the public interest
https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/take-action/tell-bc-assess-copper-mountain-mine-expansion
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