LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD APRIL 8 EPISODE:
Areview from the upcoming Earth Week in the West Kootenay. Volunteer Ron Robinson tell us about a workshop: Setting a Course for the Future, and some of the other 25 Earth Week events. Including of course a 1 pm Sunday, April 27 parade.
Last October the global meeting on protecting Biodiversity on the planet failed to come up with concrete plans and targets. Lucero Gonzales from the Wilderness Committee was there and she explains how crucial it is to protect the ‘web of life.”
The grassroots transportation lobby group in Vancouver, Movement, sounded the alarm recently about BC’s failure to deal with a huge deficit in funding for Translink public transit services in the lower mainland. Without more operating funding, Denis Agar from MovementYVR says bus services could be cut in half in the region.
LINKS MENTIONED:
Earth Week in the Kootenays
EARTHWEEKNELSON.CA
Lucero Gonzales’ article: Biodiversity at the Brink
https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/publications/biodiversity-brink
All about the push for better Transllnk tunding at MovementYVR
https://movementyvr.ca/
LINKS MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:
West Kootenay Earth Week EVENTS
https://www.earthweeknelson.ca/
Lucero Gonzales on Biodiversity at the brink: A political choice
https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/publications/biodiversity-brink
Transit activist in the Lower Mainland
Grassroots group Movement. https://movementyvr.ca/
ENVIRONMENT EVENTS COMING UP:
Tuesday, April 15, 7:00 pm (doors, 6:45)
Protect Our Winters Canada, Nelson Townhall
The Capitol Theatre, Free
As winters warm, snowfall becomes unpredictable, and fires burn, we must discuss what that means for mountain towns like Nelson. Join us for a conversation on how we can build a more resilient community. Stick around afterward for a POW Community Canada Après, connect with like-minded locals and continue the conversation over drinks!
More info and register online https://www.protectourwinters.ca/pow_canada_townhall_nelson?recruiter_id=64753
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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.
Over 25 Community-wide event, films and workshops:
April 26th Taghum Hall Earth Day Festival
April 27th, Nelson Parade, route TBA.
More info at EarthWeekNelson.ca
Wednesday, April 30, 2025, 6:30 pm
West Kootenay Climate Hub Resilience Cafe #3
Rooted Resilience: Supporting Forest Health for Community Well-Being
Zoom Webinar
Two distinguished guest speakers, Suzanne Simard and Herb Hammond, will share their expertise on forest ecology, conservation, and the role forests play in climate and local resilience. Discover the fascinating communication networks within forests, and explore their potential in addressing global challenges. Interactive discussions with our guest speakers and fellow participants to deepen your understanding and explore practical ways to support forest health in our communities.
Registration Required: https://www.westkootenayclimatehub.ca/event-details/resilience-cafe-3-rooted-resilience
Deadline May 1, 2025
Nominations open for annual Suzy Hamilton Award
The award goes to female-identified or non-binary environmental activist in the West Kootenay
The Suzy Hamilton Legacy Fund honours the volunteer work of one female-identified or non-binary environmental activist in the West Kootenay each year through a cash award. The Legacy Fund was established at the Osprey Community Foundation in 2016 after the death of well-loved and dedicated West. Founder of The EcoCentric.
Send nominations through the Osprey Community Foundation before May 1.
ENVIRONMENT NEWS BITS
UNBELIEVABLE: A massive, 1,700-person work camp paid for by B.C. taxpayers could be headed to the local landfill by the end of the year, a new report warns.
The accommodations were built to support construction of the Site C hydroelectric dam near Fort St. John in northeast B.C.
The camp includes a movie theatre, gymnasium, fitness centre, cafeteria and 21 three-story dorms, each with about 80 rooms consisting of a bed and bathroom.
Now, local leaders are trying to stop the camp from adding piles of waste to the local dump — a problem one sustainability expert says is all too common when buildings are demolished across British Columbia.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/site-c-work-camp-demolition-end-of-life-1.7500296
Hot off the newsfeed: the Premier & Minister of Forests, Parmar, speaking at a meeting of the Council of Forest Industries Fri Apr 4 reiterated the government’s intention to expand the timber base (more logging!) and “to make sure we are accessing fibre through better management of our forests, through commercial thinning, through addressing wildfire areas and clearing fuel out of the forests,” This is doublespeak for cutting down more trees, including old growth.
Michelle Connolly of Conservation North responded: “Minister Parmar promoted the notion that all natural forests including old growth require logging in order to be resilient, which is one of the most Orwellian, clown-world statements one could make about natural forests and nature,” she said.
“The overwhelming driver of fires is climate change, and industrial logging is the third-highest emitter o in B.C. after oil and gas and transportation. You’d think this would have come up…but it did not.”
The Canadian government provided at least C$29.6 billion in financing to fossil fuel and petrochemical companies in 2024, with most of it directed toward the over-budget Trans Mountain pipeline, according to estimates from Environmental Defence Canada.
“That is more than the price of building out interprovincial electricity transmission infrastructure, which is estimated to cost $24 billion,” the Toronto-based advocacy organization writes, suggesting the money could have been better spent.
At least $2.4 billion was allocated for carbon capture and hydrogen projects, which have struggled to attract private investment amid doubts about their business viability.
Maximizing the global deployment of rooftop solar could play a crucial role in preventing global temperatures from surpassing the 1.5°C threshold by 2050 a new study finds.
In a global first, researchers from China, Germany and the United States, estimate that from 2020 to 2050, potential carbon mitigation from rooftop photovoltaics (RPVs) could reduce warming. “This provides an additional 17%–43% margin towards the 1.5°C warming threshold,” they report.
Global heating is just 0.3°C below the 1.5°C threshold beyond which multiple climate tipping points—affecting Arctic ice, ocean currents, and key Earth systems—could be irreversibly triggered.
For over a century, the United States and Canada have worked in tandem to manage four of the five Great Lakes that straddle both countries: Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. That cooperative arrangement — with which the countries settle everything from water use to navigation to invasive species to pollution — may now be on the line.
“We cannot let this be sacrificed,” said Rachel Havrelock, a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago who directs the Freshwater Lab, an environmental research initiative focused on the Great Lakes and environmental justice.
“This is the most stable, productive, and mutually beneficial form of binational water governance on Earth,” she added.
https://grist.org/politics/us-canada-great-lakes-water-sharing-political-tensions/
Large polluters in oil and gas, mining, and heavy industries generate far more emissions and pollution than individual consumers. Industrial carbon pricing is the most effective tool for driving down emissions. It is projected to deliver 20 to 48 per cent of national emissions reductions by 2030. It also strengthens Canada’s competitiveness in a world moving toward cleaner economies, reports the David Suzuki Foundation.
The “polluter pays” principle ensures that major emitters are responsible for their pollution, incentivizing them to clean up operations. On the jobs front, industrial carbon pricing pushes companies to invest in clean technologies, creating employment in industries including renewable energy, electrification and advanced manufacturing.
The fossil fuel industry and its proponents are calling for industrial carbon pricing to be scrapped, despite its success. They’re sowing confusion by falsely claiming this would benefit consumers.
Severe thunderstorms and relentless rain are triggering catastrophic flooding across the middle of the US this weekend, as areas already hit hard by a recent string of storms and tornadoes remain in the path of this current system.
The storms have killed at least 16 people across Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas and Kentucky since Wednesday.
There are 41 million people at risk for severe storms Saturday from the Ohio River Valley southwestward to southeast Texas, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/05/weather/central-us-storms-floods-hnk/index.html
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 