LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD THE MAY 14 SHOW :
Austin Hawkins is a local architect with a focus on sustainable and locally sourced building materials. He tells us how architecture can help with local self-sufficiency in homes and buildings.
A new Kootenay EcoFest launches at Bear Spring Eco retreat in Beasley on May 25 and 26. Craig DeLong one of the organizers tells us about the outdoor workshops and activities taking place all weekend. Patrick Kooyman from Blue Lotus Ethnobotanicals hosts one of the many workshops at the EcoFest. We hear from Patrick about reconnecting with the natural world and learning some herbalism basics.
LINKS MENTIONED:
See some of Austin Hawkin’s architecture: at https://www.f2a.ca/
The Kootenay EcoFest coming up May 25, 26th. For details and to register: https://bearspringeco.ca/ecofest
Blue Lotus Ethnobotanicals on Instagram: @BlueLotusEthnobotanicals
COMING EVENTS
Wednesday May 15, 4:30PM PST
Ecojustice webinar
A conversation of hope from the frontlines of extinction
In the fight against biodiversity loss and climate change, what will it take to win? And how can the law save species from extinction?
In the fight against biodiversity loss and climate change, what will it take to win? And how can the law save species from extinction? And Ecojustice webinar with author Sarah Cox.
https://ecojustice.ca/home/events/ecojustice-webinar-sarah-cox-signs-of-life/
Friday, May 17 Noon
Zoom Webinar
West Kootenay Climate Hub Webinar: Young women in Leadership
This West Kootenay Climate Hub webinar is a conversation about young women taking on leadership roles. Connecting with Danika Hammond, New Denver councillor, and Maya Provencal, Rossland councillor.
https://www.westkootenayclimatehub.ca/upcoming-events
Saturday May 18th 9 am
Weekly Markets at Cottonwood Falls Park
The Cottonwood Falls Market runs until October 26th, 2024 from 9am – 2pm
Wednesday Weekly Markets on Baker Street will begins June 5th
and will run until September 25th, 2024 from 10am – 2pm
Saturday May 18 at 7 pm
Kokanee Creek Nature Centre
The Kokanee Creek Nature Centre celebrates its season opening with a movie night.
Frank Ritcey shows a video about the original Jerry the Moose and some of his favourite trail cam videos. By donation in the Suzy Hamilton Theatre.
Saturday and Sunday May 25th & 26th
The West Kootenay EcoFest
At Bear Spring Retreat in Beasley
A ‘Made in the West Kootenays’ celebration of sustainable action with local waste reduction solutions, live demonstrations, inspiring learning opportunities, regional food and lively festivities.
For details and to register: https://bearspringeco.ca/ecofest
Thursday May 23, 6-8pm
Online Webinar
West Coast Climate Action Provincial Assembly: Frack-Free BC!
From WE-CAN: In partnership with Dogwood, the Wilderness Committee, and Stand.earth, the Climate Action Provincial Assembly focuses on how to end fracking in BC, and with it, the associated LNG projects and their pipelines. This provincial assembly in support of and in preparation for the Forward for a Frack-Free Future Gathering in Vancouver on June 7th-9th. Register here
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrc-ioqDktHdECsJTnArPyhdTyPMxmmx8s#/registration
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
Depending on where they live, British Columbians can receive rebates of up to $19,000 toward installing heat pumps under a joint federal-provincial initiative.
Up to $255 million with B.C.’s share being up to $151 million will go toward helping low and middle-income households help replace oil, propane or natural gas systems with heat pumps.\
Wildfires are hitting BC in early May again as the deep drought continues to plague much fo the province.
The wildfire that forced almost 5,000 people to flee is now burning just 2.5 kilometres from the community of Fort Nelson.
“Everything is focused on the protection of the community of Fort Nelson and Fort Nelson First Nation,” Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations with the B.C. Wildfire Service, said Monday (May 13) during a joint update with B.C.’s Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma. “That is where all of our resources are assigned.”
The Alberta government recently acknowledged that as the province experiences record population growth and evolving transportation needs, advancing passenger rail infrastructure is essential for connectivity across the province.
The goal of the plan will be to develop a passenger rail network all across Alberta including projects in key corridors:
Calgary and Edmonton Commuter Rail
Edmonton-Calgary Intercity Rail
Regional Rail to Banff and Jasper
Regional Rail to Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie
Other routes were floated in a map made for the occasion, that included additional connections to Lethbridge and Medicine Hat.
Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C above pre-industrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed. Almost 80% of the respondents foresee at least 2.5C of global heating, while almost half anticipate at least 3C. Many of the scientists envisage a “semi-dystopian” future, with famines, conflicts and mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck.
Sand dunes rise between piles of discarded clothes and tyres in Chile’s Atacama desert. The hjeaps of rubbish are so vast they can be seen from space. Almost all of this waste has come from countries thousands of miles away, including the US, China, South Korea and the UK.
A staggering 60,000 tonnes of used clothing is shipped to Chile each year. According to the latest UN figures, Chile is the third largest importer of secondhand clothes in the world. Some of these clothes are resold in secondhand markets, but at least 39,000 tonnes ends up being illegally dumped in the Atacama desert.
Upgrading buildings with deep retrofits is a “clear pathway” to meet Canada’s climate and affordability goals while increasing household resilience to extreme weather, finds new analysis from the Pembina Institute.
The institute shared [pdf] key findings from an initiative that challenged six design teams to collaborate on deep retrofit plans that would deliver energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, plus producing benefits including seismic resilience, and reductions in embodied carbon.
Six low-rise buildings in British Columbia—one each in Vancouver, Victoria, North Vancouver, New Westminster, Coquitlam, and Kamloops—were selected for the design challenge. Each will see its respective “best-in-class” deep retrofit designs implemented between now and the end of 2025. And they all provide housing for vulnerable people—seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income households.
A citizens’ committee appointed by the City of Edmonton is calling on the city to reject hydrogen as a clean energy option for all but the most difficult sectors to decarbonize.
The city “has increasingly seen hydrogen offered as a solution and pathway to achieve Edmonton’s emissions reduction targets,” the Energy Transition Climate Resilience Committee (ETCRC) writes [pdf] in a 14-page memo issued May 2.
But Alberta’s supplies of “grey” and “blue” hydrogen are both produced from methane gas—the only difference is that the blue variety promises to abate its carbon dioxide emissions with economically uncertain and technically questionable carbon capture and storage technologies—and “the evidence shows that blue hydrogen is a poor decarbonization tool that is unlikely to align with Edmonton’s Energy Transition Strategy emissions reduction targets.”
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is scheduled to begin pumping diluted bitumen any day now to the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, triggering a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic through Vancouver’s First and Second Narrows and into the Salish Sea. However, an essential major safety measure to save lives and protect human health in the event of a tanker spill in Burrard Inlet or the Salish Sea is not yet operational. Please sign our letter calling on the BC Environmental Assessment Office to advise the federal government and the TMX owner that no additional Trans Mountain tankers be allowed through the First and Second Narrows in Vancouver until there is a credible, coordinated plan to protect the health and safety of people in this region from the elevated risk of a Trans Mountain pipeline oil spill.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdAnIuDPGQcuXhzKwYrLQz9XJeoY_o-KWDsq4Gr8W0DnOxT0Q/viewform
The European Union has Launched an Action Against 20 Airlines for Greenwashing
The European Commission has emphasized the need for accurate consumer information, not ‘vague or false claims’. airlines needed to make clear to what extent claims that the CO2 emissions caused by a flight could be offset by climate projects or through the use of sustainable fuels can be substantiated based on sound scientific evidence.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/30/eu-launches-action-against-20-airlines-for-greenwashing
New federal climate pollution data shows that the 2022 provincial greenhouse gas emissions grew to 64 million tonnes, a 3.4% increase compared to 2021. B.C.’s 2022 emissions were also higher than in 2007, B.C.’s baseline year. The data shows BC is drastically behind on its goal to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030. Provincial emissions would now need to be reduced by more than 5% per year to meet this goal. The task will be even harder if new LNG terminals go into operation.
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 