LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD FEBRUARY 11, 2025 ECOCENTRIC HERE:
Human powered fun and recreation is the theme of this week’s show with co-host Solita Work. Sam Balto in Portland talks about how to start a Bike Bus – an organized group of kids who cycle together to school. Nelsonite Moe Nadeau will be telling us all about an upcoming women’s-only bike packing workshop series and finally Abby Wilson will be presenting her new publication the West Kootenay Hiking guidebook.
LINKS MENTIONED
Bike Bus promotions, videos, info
https://bikebus.world/
Bike Packing, Biking to camping in back country
Women’s workshop
https://www.moenadeau.com/building-momentum
Abby Wilson’s West Kootenay hiking book
https://westkootenayhiking.ca/
https://abbywilson.ca/
ENVIRONMENTAL EVENTS
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 | 4 pm
Zoom Online
West Kootenay Climate Hub Networking Call
Join Climate Hub folks for a chance to share, learn, and connect in a positive, solutions-focused space. All those working or interested in local climate action are welcome!
https://www.westkootenayclimatehub.ca/event-details/networking-call-west-kootenay-wide
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 | 7pm – 8pm
Castlegar, Brilliant Cultural Centre
Mir Lecture: Carol Off
At 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
Saturday, February 15 7 pm
Nelson Public Library
Celebrating Cedar as a plant relative
Educator Melissa Dorey looks at traditional uses of Indigenous plants.Language, material use, artistry, connection to the land. She will be leading a conversation, spotlighting the Cedar tree in particular. The workshop is free and open to teens and adults. Register by contacting the library.
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 BITS
A new study in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment says a 2°C increase in global temperatures could make six percent of the Earth’s land—an area roughly the size of the United States—so hot that even healthy adults would struggle to maintain a safe body temperature.
This would mark a tripling of the landmass where healthy individuals aged 18 to 60 would cross the “critical overheating threshold” during extreme heat events. The outlook is worse for people aged over 60, with overwhelming heat expected across 35% of land during heat events.
Nearly 200 nations faced a Monday deadline to file what the United Nations’ climate secretary calls “among the most important policy documents governments will produce this century”—their plans on how they will cut emissions of the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
Most won’t make the deadline. The UN says that’s OK as long as countries are working on them.
So far only a dozen of the 195 nations that signed the 2015 Paris climate agreement have filed their national plans for cutting emissions by 2035. Those nations account for only 16.2% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions—the chief human-caused heat-trapping gas—and almost all of that is from the United States, where Donald Trump has already discarded the plan submitted by President Joe Biden’s administration.
Everyone by now has heard of DeepSeek the Chinese cheaper AI system that uses a small fraction of the resources consumed by competing U.S. AI models. DeepSeek has upended assumptions about future electricity demand when it was announced late last month.
The surprise news of DeepSeek’s R1 model drove down expectations or share values for electricity generation, small modular nuclear reactors, uranium, gas, and tech companies, among others, temporarily knocking nearly 17% off the stock price of Nvidia, one of the main tech companies at the centre of the AI craze.
Quebec remains a rare stronghold for climate action in Canada, where voters consistently demand bold policies. While the federal Liberal government has been moving more to the centre on climate change policy, including on the issue of pipelines, the Bloc Quebecois continues to be firmly opposed.
In comparison to other regions of Canada, Quebecers remain one of the most progressive provinces on climate action, with a recent poll from Leger and Équiterre showing 83 per cent of Quebecers want the next government to do more to protect nature and fight climate change.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/02/11/news/climate-change-quebec-election-agenda
Hundreds of protesters have blocked the road outside the high court in London, where the appeals of 16 jailed climate activists are being heard. The protestors are condemning “the corruption of democracy and the rule of law”.
As England’s most senior judge heard arguments in the appeal of the sentences of the Just Stop Oil activists, who are serving a combined 41 years in jail, their supporters sat on the road in silence holding placards proclaiming them “political prisoners”.
“This is hundreds of people turning out to send a message to this court that silencing and jailing people trying to get good information to the public is not OK,” Crosland said. “That is the corruption of democracy and the rule of law. It’s not upholding a rule of law.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/02/11/news/protest-london-jailed-climate-activists
Less than a month after New York City kicked off its congestion pricing plan, roads are already clearer. The first week saw a 7.5 per cent drop in traffic representing 43,800 fewer vehicles per day, along with an uptick in subway ridership.
While experts say major cities in Canada could similarly benefit from road pricing, political pushback has so far prevented all attempts from reaching the finish line.
Toronto and Vancouver have considered congestion pricing plans, where drivers are charged a fee to use roads in high traffic areas to reduce traffic. But both were abandoned, according to Nate Wallace, clean transportation program manager with Environmental Defence.
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 