2022 CLEARCUTS VERY VISIBLE.
LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD MARCH 26 SHOW HERE:
LINKS MENTIONED:
The East Kootenay Climate Hub
https://www.eastkootenayclimatehub.ca/
Nelson’s Ride All Day E-Bike Repairs
https://ridealldayrepairs.ca/
The BC Cycling Coalition
https://bccycling.ca/
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday April 2, 7pm
Energy & The Environment
Online Webcast
Is increasing electricity use the answer for BC? Here’s a chance to hear industry’s spin. With guest speakers Mark Jaccard, CEO of BC Utilities Commission; Roger Dall’Antonia, President & CEO, FortisBC; Karen Tam Wu, Climate action advocate & policy advisor, BC Climate Solutions Council; Barry Penner, Chair of Energy Futures Initiative. Sponsored by KPMG and Royal Bank of Canada. Webcast live.
https://www.conversationslive.ca
Friday and Saturday, April 5 and 6th. Noon.
Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Rally
outside Nelson RBC on Baker St.
The Wet’suwet’en Nation has once again called for a protest of the Royal Bank of Canada’s financing of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline and other fossil fuel projects at the time of the banks AGM. The local Nelson West Kootenay Chapter of the Council of Canadians will be holding a curbside protest outside the RBC Branch on Baker St. at Noon on Friday, April 5th and Saturday, April 6th
Fri, Apr 19
Zoom – registration required
West Kootenay Climate Hub Webinar: Columbia River Treaty and Climate Change
How will the Columbia River Treaty negotiations affect ecological integrity, Indigenous rights, and climate resilience? What are the trade-offs between electricity generation and functioning ecosystems? Join Greg Utzig for our April webinar exploring the Columbia River Treaty.
https://www.westkootenayclimatehub.ca/event-details/april2024-webinar
Sunday, April 21, 2024. 12pm-3pm
303 Vernon St. Nelson, BC
Trash to Fashion FUNshop
Come celebrate Earth Day weekend by turning some trash into treasures!
Gather your paper and fabric scraps and come make featherless boas, paper mache masks, and other upcycled costume items with artist Myra Rasmussen.
This Haute Trash event is meant to inspire your inner creative to come out and play with all manner of discarded fabric scraps and paper items and transform them into fun and wearable art.
Workshop is for everyone: 12 years to adult. Anyone under 12 years must be accompanied by an adult. There is a $25
Registration Link: https://forms.gle/m5QxkD732t7CT7D88
📌 Public Engagement on the 2035 Emissions Reduction Target By March 28th
Completing the government of Canada questionnaire will take between 15 and 25 minutes. The target will be announced by December 2024. Your input is integral to helping Canada determine and achieve its climate change goals. This is quite easy to complete, and at the end, you get to see the cumulative results. You can also upload a written paper at the end, so if you have one, have it ready.
https://canada-2035-target.ethelo.net/page/how-to-participate
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
Last week UBC Okanagan students spent three days disrupting the RBC OnCampus branch, including handing out information fliers outside of the business. The goal is to push RBC to stop funding fossil fuel projects, among other things.
A spokesperson for the student protest said, “RBC uses its on-campus presence to build trust with students, who they rely on for lifelong employees and future customers. Due to RBC’s deceitful marketing strategies, students are rarely given transparency around RBC’s unethical investments.”
https://www.similkameenspotlight.com/news/okanagan-post-secondary-students-angry-with-rbc-7327972
The BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) has dealt a blow to efforts by Fortis BC to expand fossil gas infrastructure in the province.
Last week the regulatory body denied a request by FortisBC for permission to use what they called 100 per cent so-called “renewable natural gas” in new buildings and offload the extra cost onto existing consumers. Those additional costs to customers are estimated to reach $750 million between 2024 and 2032 alone.
“Renewable natural gas” (RNG) is made from organic waste or manure and costs more than conventional fossil gas. However, B.C. doesn’t produce enough of the fuel to meet demand, so the company’s RNG pitch hinged on purchasing offset credits generated by RNG facilities elsewhere in Canada and the U.S.
BC ratepayers were being asked to pay hundreds of millions more to send the money places like Pennsylvania to capture waste gas, burn it into the atmosphere and use the power there.
Changes in climate caused an increase in fossil fuel emissions last year because of record droughts.
The world actually added about 20 gigawatts of hydropower capacity in 2023, but because of weather conditions, the amount of electricity generated from hydropower fell overall.
The shortfall was especially bad in China, with generation falling by 4.9% there. North America also faced droughts that contributed to hydro’s troubles, including here in BC.
As hydroelectric plants fell short, fossil fuels like coal and natural gas stepped in to fill the gap, contributing to a rise in global emissions. In total, changes in hydropower output had more of an effect on global emissions than the post-pandemic aviation industry’s growth from 2022 to 2023.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/03/07/1089585/hydropower-trouble-droughts
Rising food prices should be our constant reminder of the havoc that climate change is causing. In 2023, extreme weather, such as heat waves, droughts, and floods, was the main disrupter of food prices, causing widespread damage to crops and livestock globally.
Corn, wheat, rice, and potatoes are all susceptible to changes in weather patterns. Rice, for example, cannot get efficiently self-pollinated in hotter temperatures, degrading the grain quality and reducing its yield. Scientists expect that we will start feeling the effects of the weather on rice in the next 15 years, with rice yields decreasing up to 40% by the end of the century. According to NASA climate projections, by 2030, increases in temperature and changes in rainfall patterns will cause significant reductions in the nutritional quality of wheat and a 24% reduction in maize yield.
China emits roughly one-third of the world’s carbon dioxide, according to the International Energy Agency. But a record expansion of renewable energy — particularly solar and wind — along with a doubling of the production of EV batteries and lower demand for concrete and steel in 2023 “all but guarantee a decline in China’s CO2 emissions in 2024,”
At the same time China continues to approve new coal power plants across the country. Last year, it approved the equivalent of two new coal plants per week, according to the Global Energy Monitor.
Coal accounts for more than 60 per cent of power generation in China, says the IEA. And despite the green tech boom, there are still concerns within China that renewable energy is not entirely reliable.
China has prioritized the green energy transition, but Gao says the government still considers the security of the electrical grid to be most important, particularly in light of recent extreme weather events.
In the summer of 2022, a historic heat wave and drought ravaged China for more than 70 days, setting off wildfires, ruining crops and forcing local authorities to ration electricity as energy consumption soared.
South Australia joins Denmark targeting 100% renewable electricity by 2027
“Wind-powerhouse Denmark has the same ambition, but is slightly ahead as things stand,” reports Progress Playbook. “In 2023, the Scandinavian nation sourced 88 per cent of its electricity from renewable technologies, versus South Australia’s 71 per cent.”
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