DOWNLOAD OR LISTEN TO DECEMBER 10 SHOW HERE:
Protecting local watersheds upsRWA from Dr. Jacqueline Stoeckler from the West Kootenay Watershed Collaborative.
Kaslo activist Andy Shadrack discusses his views with Keith on why so many households are financially squeezed every month now.
Expanding LNG production for export is BC’s biggest climate issue and a recent report says we may not be able to sell the gas in a dwindling global market. Janetta McKenzie from the Pembina Institute tells us more.
LINKS MENTIONED:
The West Kootenay Watershed Collaborative
https://www.westkootenaywater.ca/
Andy Shadrack’s letter on roots of the affordability crisis in the Valley Voice
https://www.valleyvoice.ca/_PDF_2016/ValleyVoice241128web.pdf
Pembina Institute Report on risks of LNG build out in BC
Intro page: https://www.pembina.org/media-release/lng-development-poses-challenge-bcs-climate-goals. The report: Squaring the Circle: Reconciling LNG expansion with B.C.’s climate goals
ENVIRO EVENTS
3 pm Sunday, December 22, 2024
4th Annual Santa Bicycle Ride
Nelson, Lakeside Park
Dust off your Santa suit or holiday outfit, put Christmas lights on your bike and join the annual Santa Bicycle Ride. $10 dollar suggested donation. All proceeds are going to Our Daily Bread. (Just $60 provides ten meals for those in need.) Children are welcome!
Sign up on the West Kootenay Cycling Coalition facebook page.
Noon Wednesday, Jan 1st
Nelson Polar Bear Swim
Lakeside Park Nelson
Kootenay Co-op Radio (KCR) and the Friends of Kootenay Lake Stewardship Society (FOKLSS) invite you to ‘go jump in the lake’ and fundraise, all for a couple of good community causes.
This is a wonderful family friendly event that these two small non-profits take great pride in being able to bring to the community.
Register to swim and sponsor a dipper here: https://nelsonpolarbearswim.com/
ENVIRONMENT NEWS BITS
Note: There wasn’t time for most of these on the show, but here’s the short bits and the links:
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is taking fire for allowing work to proceed on what will be North America’s biggest thermal coal mine after the minister failed to order a federal impact assessment of a massive mine expansion in Hinton, Alberta.
Instead, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) President Terence Hubbard announced December 6 that the 630-hectare Coalspur Vista thermal coal expansion will go ahead without review.
“When shipped and consumed abroad, burning this amount of coal would lead to 33 million tonnes of carbon pollution released into the atmosphere annually—equivalent to the amount of carbon pollution produced by seven million passenger vehicles in one year,” the statement added. “This comes at a time when the federal government has already committed to banning the export of thermal coal from Canada by 2030.”
Three-quarters of all extreme weather events or trends analyzed to date by attribution scientists were made worse by human-caused climate change, Carbon Brief’s latest Attribution Map reveals.
It has been 20 years since the first “extreme event attribution” study, which documented the causes of Europe’s deadly 2003 heat wave that killed an estimated 70,000 people.
In that study, published in Nature in 2004, “the scientists worked out that human influence had at least doubled the risk of such an extreme heatwave occurring,” says Carbon Brief,
Three trout samples taken from the southern arm of Kootenay Lake have tested positive for the condition. Whirling disease is caused by a parasite, Myxobolus cerebralis, that attacks the brain stem, spinal cord, and nervous tissue of juvenile salmonid fish. The disease causes an erratic “whirling” swimming pattern.
It is unknown if there is any relation to detections in Yoho National Park, the site of the first confirmed case of whirling disease in B.C. in September 2023.
“We are disappointed that the presence of whirling disease on B.C.’s eastern border discovered late last year did not merit a stronger response from the federal government,” said Jesse Zeman, BCWF executive director.
“It is not clear how the parasite will affect Kootenay Lake’s kokanee and trout fisheries, but the spread of this parasite shows the vulnerability of our lakes and rivers to outside threats,” said Zeman.
https://www.nelsonstar.com/home/whirling-disease-confirmed-in-kootenay-lake-7695298
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Hundreds of scientists gathered in Australia for an “emergency summit” within the auspices of the inaugural Australian Antarctic Research Conference d/d November 2024. This gathering of 450 mostly “early-career” polar scientists flexed scientific muscles to alert the world to the what’s happening to our planet, taking off the gloves and coming out swinging. They claim we’vd got a bigger problem than generally realized: “Efforts to slow down climate change through coordinated global action are paramount to protect the future of Australia, Antarctica, and our planet,”
“The experts’ conclusion, published as a press statement, is a somber one: if we don’t act, and quickly, the melting of Antarctica ice could cause catastrophic sea levels rise around the globe.” (Source: Emergency Meeting Reveals the Alarming Extent of Antarctica’s Ice Loss, Earth.com, Nov. 24, 2024)
https://countercurrents.org/2024/11/emergency-summit-re-antarctic-meltdown/
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Captain Paul Watson the famous global whale protector, is in prison in Greenland facing possible extradition to Japan.
The arrest on 21 July had been prompted by an Interpol red notice issued by Japan whose government accuses Watson of conspiracy to trespass, interrupt a business and cause damage to the Shonan Maru 2 whaling ship in 2010 in the Antarctic – but also, crucially, to lightly injure a Japanese crew member via the mild acid from a stink bomb.
He does not believe that he would survive a spell in a Japanese prison. “I know that if I get sent to Japan, I’m not coming home,” he says.
Watson, a joint US-Canadian citizen, was born in Toronto but grew up in St Andrews, New Brunswick.
He does not believe that he would survive a spell in a Japanese prison. “I know that if I get sent to Japan, I’m not coming home,” he says.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/01/sea-shepherd-paul-watson-whaling-activist-prison
The world’s 280 million electric bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars. “They are actually displacing four times as much demand for oil as all the world’s electric cars at present… On the world’s roads last year, there were over 20 million electric vehicles and 1.3 million commercial EVs such as buses, delivery vans and trucks… wholly eclipsed by two- and three-wheelers. There were over 280 million electric mopeds, scooters, motorcycles and three-wheelers on the road last year.”
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 