LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD FEBRUARY 4 ECOCENTRIC HERE:
Today’s show is another repeat show, replaying some great interviews from previous shows. First up today is an interview with Melissa Gorrie in Busan South Korean, where the UN plastics treaty had just closed without a deal. Repeat from December 3, 2024 EcoCentric.
Fernie author Terry Nelson created the BC Big Tree Book, a beautiful work. He tells us about tramping the province to find the biggest trees and creating the book.
Nelsonite Ben Simoni is a long-time participant in the Youth Climate Corps and is now the executive director of Youth Climate Corps BC. Ben tells us about the Corps and about supporting Seth Klein and the Climate Emergency Unit campaign for a national Youth Climate Corps program.
COMING EVENTS
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 | 7pm – 8pm
Castlegar, Brilliant Cultural Centre
Mir Lecture: Carol OffAt a Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage
Come and listen to beloved CBC broadcast journalist Carol Off on the importance of reclaiming the words that give life and meaning to our pursuit of a better world. Through stories from her 15 years of talking to people in 25,000 interviews, Off will share her insights into what happens when we lose our shared political vocabulary—and what it will take to reclaim it.
Tickets. Adults: $35. Students, youth and low-barrier: $22
Noon Wednesday, Feb 26
West Kootenay Climate Hub Interactive Café
Zoom – registration required
Jayme Jones (Selkirk Innovates) and Keith McCandless (Liberating Structures) will join us for an interactive discussion on complexity.
For more info and to register go to West Kootenay Climate hub.ca
Earth Day and Earth Week 2025.
Earth Day April 22
Earth Week April 20-27
Nelson West Kootenay Events
As Earth Day 2025 approaches, the West Kootenay Climate Hub is inviting the community to celebrate the planet by hosting events.
Community-wide events Planned so far:
April 26th Taghum Hall Earth Day Festival
April 27th, Nelson Parade, route TBA.
If your organization has an idea or would like to create an event, reach out to us before January 31st. Contact: EarthWeekNelson@gmail.com
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SHORTS
The Alberta government has lifted a ban on coal exploration in the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains, a move that the regulator says will allow suspended projects to resume.
The provincial government said the direction from the minister amounted to “housekeeping” following moves it already announced in December to modernize its coal policy.
But a natural resources and energy law expert says it will once again open up large tracts of land to coal exploration and potentially undermine ongoing legal cases coal companies launched against the province for billions in damages following a series of policy changes.
“It means that projects that had already got exploration permits, those permits are effectively now reinstated, and exploration can start again on those properties,” said Nigel Bankes, an emeritus professor of law at the University of Calgary. “The Eastern Slopes is open again for coal activities.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/aer-grassy-mountain-eastern-slopes-brian-jean-1.7436871
On Thursday, Feb. 20th, 2025 the Regional District of Central Kootenay is expected to make a decision on whether to support the Sue Big Oil (SBO) campaign. The local arm of the provincial campaign is urging supporters to contact elected representatives at the RDCK and support the proposal.
The Sue Big Oil delegation presented at the RDCK board meeting on January 16, 2025. The campaign says some RDCKdirectors have raised Sue Big Oil in their newsletters and are seeking direct feedback from the people they represent.
Sue Big Oil, once certified by the BC Supreme Court, would be a cost-recovery climate action lawsuit against corporations who’ve made huge profits from oil, gas and coal while hiding their true environmental costs from the public. Just 90 companies are responsible for two-thirds of all historic greenhouse gas emissions on the planet.
Nine other B.C. municipalities, including Burnaby, Squamish, Cumberland and Slocan, have signed on to Sue Big Oil so far, representing about 380,000 people.
One of the last things Chrystia Freeland did as finance minister was authorize an additional $20-billion loan to the Trans Mountain pipeline project, bringing the total disclosed federal commitment to nearly $50 billion.
The latest financing, described as “repayment of higher-cost TMC debt/working capital support,” was disclosed on Export Development Canada’s website on January 30, but is dated Dec. 13 2024 — the Friday before Freeland announced her resignation on Monday Dec. 16.
The guarantee appears to violate a commitment made by Freeland in 2022 that no further public money would be invested in the project after the pipeline’s cost swelled to $21.4 billion
Three of four whales born to the southern residents since September have not survived, highlighting the need for Ottawa to take extraordinary measures to protect them, says Hussein Alidina, WWF-Canada’s lead specialist for marine conservation.
The southern residents are already listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act (SARA), and the federal government’s imminent threat assessment in November re-confirms the whales are still in peril, he noted. But the responsible ministers still haven’t recommended an emergency order be considered by Cabinet.
On Monday, a legal challenge was filed in federal court on behalf of six conservation groups who allege the federal environment and fisheries ministers have failed to make a timely recommendation for an emergency order.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/01/30/news/federal-ministers-sued-endangered-orcas
Canada’s insurance sector is raising alarms about the potential for the country to become “uninsurable” by 2035. Meanwhile, a former California insurance official has criticized the industry for underwriting the very fossil fuel projects that worsen the climate crisis.
In 2024, insured damages from extreme weather in Canada hit a record C$8.5 billion, reports the Globe and Mail, citing a recent report by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). The tally was triple the losses recorded in 2023, and 12 times the average annual losses during the 2001-2010 decade.
“In addition to these losses, about $24 billion more in uninsurable damage was absorbed by governments, businesses, and individuals,” the Globe adds.
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