LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD THE DECEMBER 5 ECOCENTRIC HERE:
US President Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau promised to deal with the selenium pollution in the Elk and Kootenay River systems from the five giant Crowsnest area coal mines. Now Teck Resources has sold the mines, apparently at a bargain price, to Glencore a Swiss-based international mining conglomerate. Simon Wiebe from Wildsight BC talks about what this might mean for the future of the mines and the pollution.
Three big announcements on conserving BC ecosystems and changing how the province manages forestry came out from the BC government this fall. Journalist Arno Kopecky adds it all up in his piece on The Narwhal.ca. We talk to him for an overview and reaction. That’s coming up in the second half of the show.
COP 28 the global climate summit is on now in Dubai and we have a live update. the COP 28 President Sultan Al Jaber, the head of the United Arab Emirates oil company caused a scandal by saying there is no science suggesting we need a fossil fuel phase out. The phase out has become a big topic at the summit, despite the fact there are more lobbyists from fossil corporations than ever participating. We have a live update from the summit today.
And you may have missed it but Pope Francis put out another apostolic message on the climate crisis in October, Laudate Deum.
LINKS MENTIONED:
Read Wildsight on the sale of Teck’s Crowsnest Pass coal mines.
https://wildsight.ca/2023/11/22/teck-coal-sale-highlights-water-quality-costs/
Arno Kopecky’s analysis of BC’s big conservation and ‘paradigm shift’ announcements
https://thenarwhal.ca/opinion-bc-nature-protection-agreement/
We Don’t Have Time, Live updates from COP28 in Dubai.
https://www.wedonthavetime.org/events/cop28
Laudate Deum, Pope Francis’ Second Apostopic message on the Climate Crisis.
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/20231004-laudate-deum.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwe_bd0TUjk
EVENTS:
All the month of DECEMBER
ONLINE
The BC Environmental Film Festival with well over 40 films from around the world is rolling province wide all December. Live festival events are happening in Vancouver, with a ticket you can watch the films online anywhere.ilms, but will have more than 40 films available to watch from anywhere in the province.
The 2023 film guide can be found at https://bceff.org/guide/2023-film-guide/
– Full festival pass $55 CAD gives you access to all 40 plus films for the whole month of December 2023
– 5 film punch pass $20 CAD on December 1) watch up to 5 films throughout the month of December 2023
Dec 5, 2023, 7 – 9pm
Mir Lecture: The Wall Between
Brilliant Cultural Centre
Just released, the new book, The Wall Between is about the wall of distrust, enmity and misunderstandings that exist between Jewish and Palestinian communities arouodn the world. The book was written by two fathers who lost daughters in the conflict one Palestinian, one Jew—have travelled this journey themselves.
Both authors will be speaking at this special Mir Centre for Peace event to open to new possibilities within the Israel-Palestine discourse in the West.
Doors open at 6:30 pm.
https://selkirk.ca/events/mir-lecture-wall-between
3 pm Saturday, December 9th
Official Launch of the West Kootenay Watershed Collaborative.
Red Light Ramen Bar Nelson.
Creating a community of land and water defenders, focused on consumptive watersheds and suporting ecologies.
they have a catchy slogan for the launch: All I want for the holidsays is clean water!
The launch is this Saturday December 9th at 3 pm at the Red Light Ramen Bar here in Nelson.
For more details you can already visit their website. WestKootenayWater.ca.
ENVIRONMENT NEWS BITS
Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels reached record levels again in 2023, as experts warned that the projected rate of warming had not improved over the past two years.
The world is on track to have burned more coal, oil and gas in 2023 than it did in 2022, according to a report by the Global Carbon Project, pumping 1.1% more planet-heating carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a time when emissions must plummet to stop extreme weather from growing more violent.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/global-carbon-emissions-fossil-fuels-record
Climate denial is at the top of COP 28 where the world is supposed to be solving the catastrophe. The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting reported.
Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”.
The comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
Al Jaber made the comments in ill-tempered responses to questions from Mary Robinson, the chair of the Elders group and a former UN special envoy for climate change,
Yesterday at the COP More than 1,000 climate scientists put out a statement urging the public to become activists.
33 IPCC authors among 1,447 scientists and academics in signing an open letter calling on the public to take collective action to avert climate breakdown.
“We are terrified,” they warn. “We need you.”
“Wherever you are, become a climate advocate or activist,” the letter, published on Monday by Scientist Rebellion
Canada’s environment and cliamte change minister Stephen Guilbeault re-announced Canada’s goals of reducing fugitive methane emissions at the COP summit last week.
The proposed regulations seek to implement a new target to cut methane leaks and releases from the oil and gas industry by at least 75 per cent over 2012 levels by 2030.
BC geologist David Hughes pointed out online that this is nothing new. The methane reduction target levels have been 75% below 2012 levels by 2030 for a couple of years,.
The world’s first cargo ship that produces nearly zero planet-heating pollution is on track to set sail in 2026, according to one of the firms behind the project.
Fertilizer producer Yara International and its partners plan to power the Yara Eyde — which is yet to be built — mostly with clean ammonia, meaning it should emit 95% less carbon dioxide (CO2) than the average fossil fuel-powered vessel, the Norwegian company told CNN.
The issue as with many alternative “renewable fuels” is the upstream emissions released in manufacturing the ammonia, most of which is made by burning methane and releasing carbon dioxide in that process.
Private jets used by 200 CEOs, celebrities, and billionaires have flown for an equivalent of 11 years since 2022, producing emissions equal to those of 40,000 United Kingdom residents.
The “jaw-dropping 44,739 journeys” were tracked by the Guardian using 21 months of public data on private aircraft used by celebrities and businesspeople like Elon Musk, the Rolling Stones, the Murdoch family, and Kylie Jenner, as part of a larger series on global carbon inequality.
“Last year, private jet activity in Europe was at its highest level since a 2007 peak and forecasts indicate that sales of private jets are likely to reach their highest ever level this year,” writes the UK-based newspaper.
Analysis reveals “astounding differences” in emissions between richer and poorer nations, as well as between the wealthy and poor within countries. “Billionaires’ consumption emissions run to thousands of tonnes a year, with transport, including private jets and yachts, being by far the biggest contributor,” the Guardian says.
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