LISTEN TO THE FULL SHOW HERE:
Nelson is proposing an increase in parking meter fees. Co-Host Solita Work from the West Kootenay Cycling Coalition talks about the parking issue and about the other transportation choices that can relieve the parking and traffic congestion crunch. Councillor Leslie Payne talks about Nelson’s broader parking policy. Area resident Megan Maglio, who comes in to Nelson most business days, tells us how parking and transport options affect her. Charles Arnold, co-owner of Gerick’s Cycle and Ski tells us about the business perspective on parking and about the idea of a more pedestrian-friendly Baker St.
LINKS
City of Nelson Parking Strategy document
City of Nelson Council Meeting Agendas and Minutes and Video Recordings.
ENVIRONMENTAL EVENTS
Sunday, February 4 from 1 to 3:30 pm
All Ages Forest Play Ymir Old Growth Forest
Elemental Journeys is convening another outdoor experience in big old trees at the Ymir Old Growth Train. Let play and curiosity open you up to the magic of the old growth forest.
Sit with the trees, listen to the whispers of the wind, ignite your passion with fire, and offer gratitude to water and all of life. A sliding scale donation. Find out more on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/events/902301034819789/902301044819788?active_tab=about
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Friday, February 9th. 6 pm
Hall Street Plaza
Deep Sea Dreamscape Parade & Group Ride
Are you feeling stuck indoors due to the cold winter weather? Check out The Polka Dot Dragon Lantern Festival – a free community-based event that brings people together to make and experience festival art in mid-winter. Whether you are an artist, a cyclist, or resident at large, get out and experience the magic, be a part of the festival
Ride in the Polka Dot Dragon Lantern Festival Parade on Friday, February 9th. Decorate your bicycle with lights, lanterns and more, wear a costume and join the Deep Sea Dreamscape Parade floating down Baker Street. Meet at Hall Street Plaza at 6 pm.
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Saturday February 10th 4:30 pm.
Group Ride West Kootenay Cycling Coalition
Meet at Railtown Visitor Centre
Join our frosty yet fun group ride to Lakeside Park on Saturday, February 10th. Meet at the Nelson Visitor Centre, Railway Station at 4:30 pm, ride departs at 5:00 pm. Try winter riding during Go By Bike Week with your neighbours and be a part of the festival at Lakeside Park!
https://westkootenaycycling.ca/events
February 13, 2024, 7-8:30 PM
Nelson and District Rod and Gun Club, 801 Railway St.
Cottonwood Creek Revival
The goal of the Cottonwood Creek Revival (CCR) Project is to assess the condition of the creek and explore opportunities that could improve the health of the creek in the long term.
Join Living Lakes Canada, Friends of Kootenay Lake Stewardship Society and the Nelson District Rod Gun Club and Conservation Society for a public meeting about the CCR project. Findings from a recent technical report will be discussed and community members will be able to share their concerns during an interactive session.
Thursday February 15th, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Climate Action Provincial Assembly (CAPA)
Online
From WE-CAN: By joining our 6th Climate Action Provincial Assembly you will be able to: (1) Hear ten of BC’s most effective climate leaders with their five-minutes answers to this question: “What are the three most effective things climate action groups and organizations can do to accelerate progress in BC’s climate movement?” (2) Participate in a break–out group with other climate activists to consider the speakers’ ideas, and ask how they might apply to the work of your climate action group. (3) Take their answers back to your group, and consider if you can use them to build a more integrated and powerful climate movement. WestCoastClimateAction.ca Details here
Friday Feb 16
Online: Noon to 1 pm registration required
West Kootenay Climate Hub Webinar: Innovative community buildings
West Kootgenay Climate Hub is celebrating several innovative community buildings in our communities that make a difference for the climate and community.
Nasukin (Chief) Jason Louie will share the story of the Wilfred Jacobs Building, a newly opened centre offering community and health services to members of the yaqan nukiy (Lower Kootenay Band) First Nation.
Tammy Verigin-Burk, Executive Director of Castlegar Chamber of Commerce, will share about “The Confluence” — the Castlegar Visitors Centre and Chamber of Commerce building under construction.
Morag Carter, Executive Director of the Skills Centre in Trail, will share about their current project retrofitting a large community building in Trail to create a fully inclusive, climate friendly, community building.
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A reminder that January 31 is the deadline for input into
B.C.’s Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Draft Framework
Activists say the can be an important step in the provincial government’s commitment to prioritize the conservation and management of ecosystem health and biodiversity.
The new Framework will align all existing related initiatives, and set the path for co-development, and the implementation of new policies, legislation, and strategies. This is your time to wade in! From Organizing for Change (OfC): has done a Technical Briefing, which you can find here. Our slides are here. When you are ready, make your submission here, and send a copy to us here. Reach out if you need anything, and we will try to help. Read more
ENVIRONMENT NEWS BITS
The Biden administration is preparing to apply a climate test to a proposal for a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Louisiana, one of 17 the U.S. fossil industry is pushing forward for approval, the New York Times reported this afternoon.
The decision to pause the approval process, which could extend regulatory review for the Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) project beyond the November general election in the United States, would be “the biggest thing a U.S. president has ever done to stand up to the fossil fuel industry,” writes veteran climate author Bill McKibben, founder of the Third Act climate justice group, in his The Crucial Years newsletter.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/24/biden-pauses-cp2-gas-export-hub
The Business Council of BC, representing big business interests, has raised the alarm that CleanBC will slow the province’s economic growth rate, according to modelling done for the government. Economist Marc Lee from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says that is just one of several big business attacks on the CleanBC climate action plan. Lee says this largely because climate policies inevitably mean phasing out fossil fuels, which is worrying to those in B.C. profiting from them.
BC United has committed to scrap the CleanBC plan, saying it “will kill jobs, kill paycheques, kill billions in funding for vital public services and plunge our province into a recession.” https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2024/01/24/Big-Business-Gunning-For-BC-Climate-Plan/
A Quebec man who posted conspiracy theories online that forest fires were being deliberately set by the government has pleaded guilty to starting a series of fires himself that forced hundreds of people from their homes.
Brian Paré, 38, pleaded guilty last week to 13 counts of arson and one count of arson with disregard for human life at the courthouse in Chibougamau, Quebec, The Canadian Press reports.
In Nova Scotia, The Hotshot Wake Up reports, 22-year-old Dalton Clark Stewart was charged in connection with the Barrington Lake Fire, the province’s biggest wildfire ever. The fire forced 6,000 people to evacuate, destroyed 60 homes, and burned 150 other structures.
Toxic emissions from the Canadian tar sands – already one of the dirtiest fossil fuels – have been dramatically underestimated, according to recent research.
Published in the journal Science the report found that air pollution from the vast Athabasca oil sands in Canada exceed industry-reported emissions across the studied facilities by a staggering 1,900% to over 6,300%.
Academics said this means that damaging reactive pollutants from the oil sands are equivalent to those from all other human-made sources across Canada with severe health implications.
The climate crisis turned the drought that struck the Amazon rainforest in 2023 into a devastating event, a study has found.
The drought was the worst recorded in many places and hit the maximum “exceptional” level on the scientific scale. The climate crisis is supercharging extreme weather across the planet, but the extreme Amazon drought is a stark and worrying example because the rainforest is already thought to be close to a tipping point into a drier state. This would result in a mass die-off of trees in the world’s most important store of carbon on land, releasing large amounts of CO2 and driving global temperatures even higher.
Members of a propane industry lobbying group strategized to downplay the full climate impacts of propane and market it as renewable or “clean energy”, recordings reviewed by the climate newsletter Heated and the Guardian reveal.
The Propane Education & Research Council (Perc), a US lobbying group, has spent nearly $30m over the last two years on advertisements for the fossil fuel, according to data compiled by Drilled, a multimedia reporting project focused on climate accountability. The ads often promote propane, the vast majority of which is a by-product of natural gas or crude oil refining, as a form of clean and renewable energy.
Perc has invested millions in a multi-year strategy to rebrand propane from what it’s called a “dirty fossil fuel” to a so-called clean energy source. According to Drilled, Perc’s annual ad spending increased more than 17-fold from 2021 to 2022-23, from $1.7m to nearly $30m.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/25/propane-industry-rebrand-fuel-as-renewable
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 