LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD THE NOV 19 SHOW HERE:
Forest activist Michelle Connolly from the Conservation North group in Prince George is visiting the Kootenay communities of Argenta and Slocan Lake this week to warn about what salvage logging can do in recent wildfire burns.
Another gas pipeline in northern BC, the Prince Rupert Gas Trunk is already embattled and Kai Nagata from Dogwood BC gives us an update on what some of the concerns are and what people are doing about it.
COP29 plods on in Azerbaijan, and some strong criticism from world leaders came this week suggesting the process is failing us. We have clips from Greta Thunberg, Al Gore and others at COP29 in Baku.
Coastal cleaner Phil comes back on the show to talk about his local Kootenay work keeping trees healthy and making hemlock syrup. Very tasty.
LINKS MENTIONED:
More about the risks of salvage logging:
https://conservationnorth.org/whats-new/
Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Line
https://www.dogwoodbc.ca/news/what-is-the-prince-rupert-gas-transmission-line/
Taking action on PRGT
https://www.dogwoodbc.ca/news/what-is-the-prince-rupert-gas-transmission-line/
ENVIRONMENT EVENTS
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 | 4pm – 6pm
TEDxSelkirk College Countdown
Castlegar Campus, The Pit
Turn Ideas into Action
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx Countdown is a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action. Free event open to all. Six local speakers on local climate action.
5 pm Thursday, November 21, 2024
Come Celebrate Kootenay Coop Radio’s 25th Birthday
At The Royal
Kootenay Co-op Radio (KCR) is 25 years old this year, and to celebrate we’re having a party! Thursday November 21 at the Royal in Nelson.
Come party with all your radio loving friends as we celebrate to the music with a jam packed night of great performers. Featuring Laurel Smith, Nelson From Nelson, Penny Shades, The Latin Lovers and Dose! The Party is Thursday November 21 at the Royal in Nelson. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at
https://www.kootenaycoopradio.com/
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7 pm Wednesday November 20
What about salvage logging? With Michelle Connollly
Knox Hall, New Denver.
Ecologist Michelle Connolly from Conservation North in Prince George is coming to the Kootenays to talk about salvage logging of forests hit by wildfire
After the fires, what now? Michelle Connolly talks about the importance of natural disturbances in forests and the best approaches to take after a forest has burned. The Slocan Valley and Argenta communities, hit be terrible fires this summer are already being approached with salvage logging proposals.
Michelle Connolly has a background in forest disturbance ecology and has worked for First Nations and other governments on land use and conservation planning for over a decade.She runs the grassroots advocacy group Conservation North, which educates the public about the importance of natural disturbances to healthy ecosystems.
10 am Saturday, November 30th
Everything “R” Festival
1765 Columbia Ave, Rossland
Rossland Refractory and Rotary Club of Rossland are hosting a day long festival with a market selling recycled and reuse products, an Earthbox building workshop, youth activities, a bike repair clinic, and more. Also bring your clean and unlabeled (cut them off if you need) plastic so the Refactory can turn it into useful products. Entrance by donation.
Evening dance featuring The Karli Harris band. Tickets $20 available at Out of the Cellar.
For more detailed information, contact Craig at koelsociety AT gmail.com.
ENVIRONMENT NEWS BITS
Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs have filed a new legal challenge against the British Columbia government over the proposed Ksi Lisims liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in northwest B.C.
The chiefs submitted an application for judicial review to the B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 25, alleging B.C.’s environmental assessment office failed in its duty to consult and is negligent in its obligations to protect fish species when it concluded the project does not pose a threat to Nass River salmon populations.
“This project threatens our food security and government has denied Gitanyow a role in decision making,” Simogyet (Hereditary Chief) Malii Glen Williams said in a statement.
Pollution seeping from gas stoves kills 40,000 people each year across the EU and U.K., according to a new report, the latest in a growing body of evidence that gas stoves pose a threat to human health.
On average, researchers determined, gas stoves shorten lifespans by nearly two years, leading to 36,031 early deaths across the EU and 3,928 early deaths in the U.K. each year.
The health impact of gas stoves is “significant and far greater than previously understood,” the report says.
The internationally agreed goal to keep the world’s temperature rise below 1.5C is now “deader than a doornail”, with 2024 almost certain to be the first individual year above this threshold, climate scientists have gloomily concluded – even as world leaders gather for COP 29 climate talks on how to remain within this boundary.
Three of the five leading research groups monitoring global temperatures consider 2024 on track to be at least 1.5C (2.7F) hotter than pre-industrial times, underlining it as the warmest year on record, beating a mark set just last year. The past 10 consecutive years have already been the hottest 10 years ever recorded.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/18/climate-crisis-world-temperature-target
Global installed solar Photo Voltaic capacity has reportedly hit 2 terawatts (TW), according to estimates calculated by the Global Solar Council and SolarPower Europe.
Though it took 68 years to reach 1 TW of installed solar PV capacity, it took only two more years to reach 2TW, according to the Global Solar Council.
“The unprecedented roll-out of solar worldwide, and now the fact that we have made this 2TW milestone, or about 7 billion solar panels installed, is the culmination of decades of hard work,” said Sonia Dunlop, CEO of the Global Solar Council.
“Solar must now double installation capacity to 1 terawatt per year if we’re going to reach our global tripling renewables target. We need to celebrate the 25 million solar homes and now double it.”
More than 150 organizations representing two million Canadians have signed an open letter urging the Trudeau government to use its upcoming Fall Economic Statement to confirm, by word and deed, that the time is now to establish a Youth Climate Corps.
The open letter is the latest effort in the youth-led Youth Climate Corps (YCC) campaign, supported by the Climate Emergency Unit and Small Change Fund, to push the federal government to finally invest “in a national jobs program for youth that offers a good, green job to anyone under the age of 35 who wants one.”
The proposed YCC program would offer participants a two-year paid apprenticeship, geared to training them for future “good green jobs.”
Quebec has set a 2040 deadline to remove fossil fuels from all buildings, except those in the industrial sector.
On Monday morning, Environment Minister Benoit Charette and Energy Minister Christine Fréchette announced “a plan to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2040,” The Canadian Press reports.
The goal is to phase out fossil fuels for heating buildings and ensure a transition to renewable energy, “while considering Quebec’s energy supply capacity.”
In recent months, several municipalities, with Prévost in the Laurentians being the first, have banned the installation of gas systems in new residences.
In 2021, more than 7,300 pedestrians died in the US — three in four of them during the hours between sunset and sunrise, the New York Times reports
This trend exists on top of what is already a growing gap in roadway deaths between the U.S. and other countries. Speed limits on local roads are often higher in the U.S., laws and cultural prohibitions against dangerous driving can be weaker, and American infrastructure in many ways has been designed to enable speeding cars.
The rise in pedestrian deaths has been nationwide, with per-capita pedestrian fatality increases in 47 states since 2009.
Battery storage capacity in the United States has surged from almost nothing in 2010 to 20.7 gigawatts in July 2024. That’s equivalent to the output of about 20 nuclear reactors.
The rapid growth in storage added five gigawatts in the first half of 2024 alone, reports the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The EIA predicts this capacity could double again to 40 gigawatts by 2025 with planned expansions, writes The Guardian.
This scale of deployment places battery storage in the key role of maintaining electricity supply as intermittent renewables like wind and solar are added to the grid, the EIA says. They also balance supply and demand, “moving electricity from periods of low prices to periods of high prices,” storing energy to be used when needed, rather than curtailed when supply outstrips demand.
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