LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SEPTEMBER 26 SHOW HERE:
Solita Work from the West Kootenay Cycling Coalition is back to co-host another transportation focussed show today, and it’s a packed show. Local George Chandler talks about the Nelson Townhall Square event coming up on Baker Street this Sunday, October 1. Tom Thivener, the Transportation Planning Manager for the City of Coquitlam, tells us how blending in more and more modes of getting around is developing in that city. David Simor, the Director of The Centre for Active Transportation in Toronto, has been watching cities across the country try out people-friendly streets and public spaces. We hear about province-wide Protect Old Growth rallies on Thursday, September 28, including Nelson and Revelstoke.
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced last Thursday he is completely reversing his plan to open the protected Greenbelt lands for housing development. All of the land previously slated for removal for development will be going back in.
It was a stunning turn of events, brought on by two critical government reports that found the removal of the Greenbelt lands was a biased process that favoured a few developers with links to Ford. The ensuing scandal rocked the Canadian news cycle and resulted in the resignation of two cabinet ministers and two top Ford government staffers.
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Back on the weekend of September 15 rallies all around the planet called for ‘the end of fossil fuels’. In Nelson, the West Kootenay Climate Hub and others held an event on Baker Street to stand with the global mobilization.
Estimated 75,000 people marched in Manhattan where world leaders met at the UN.
200 actions around the world leading up to the first-ever United Nations Climate Ambition Summit this Wednesday, more than 700 grassroots groups together called on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency, stop all federal approvals for new fossil fuel projects, phase out production of fossil fuels on federal public lands, and build a new clean energy future.
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Leaders in the provincial and national building industry want to see B.C. lead Canada in making all new buildings zero-carbon.
The Pembina Institute has sent a letter signed by over 30 members of the industry to local government mayors and councillors across British Columbia, calling on them to vote to adopt the province’s new voluntary Zero-Carbon Step Code (ZCSC). The letter is a specific call to not only adopt but adopt early, and at the highest level by 2025, rather than the currently scheduled 2030. Early adoption would avoid unnecessary and costly retrofits in the future by ensuring new homes and buildings are built right the first time.
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French President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled a national “ecological plan” to reduce France’s greenhouse gas emissions by 55% and significantly cut the use of fossil fuels by 2030.
The plan was aimed at addressing the climate crisis while ensuring that France remained competitive in agriculture and industry, said Macron.
It was essential, he said, that “France reduces our dependence on so-called fossil fuels, coal, petrol and gas, which we don’t produce any more but on which we depend”. The aim, he added, was to reduce this dependence from 60% to 40% by 2030.
French environmental groups described the plan as disappointing and as a communications strategy.
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 