LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD APRIL 22, 2025 HERE:
Local volunteers Suzanne Simoni and Judith Fearing tell us more about all the events coming up for the growing Earth Week celebration.
Both the BC Forestry Minister and the Premier spoke at the logging summit in Prince George a couple of weeks back. Both promised more trees to cut to the industry, a lot more trees, including possibly in Parks and protected areas. Michelle Connolly from Conservation North in Prince George was there and has lots to say about the proposals to continue the clearcut of BC’s remaining natural forests.
Embodied carbon in the materials going into a new building can add 20 years worth of car driving emissions to the total carbon cost of construction. But Canadian industry is moving to cut that down and Clean Energy Canada spearheaded a report on it. One of the authors, Jana Elbrecht tells us how building clean can save us money AND emissions.
LINKS MENTIONED ON THE SHOW
Earth Week Events 2025
https://www.earthweeknelson.ca/
Conservation North in Prince George
https://conservationnorth.org/
Clean Energy Canada Report: Building Toward Low Cost and Low Carbon
https://cleanenergycanada.org/report/building-toward-low-cost-and-carbon/
COMING EVENTS
Earth Day and Earth Week 2025.
Earth Day April 22 Week April 20-27
Nelson West Kootenay Events
Community-wide events Planned so far:
April 26th Taghum Hall Earth Day Festival
April 27th, Nelson Parade, route TBA.
More info 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
Saturday, May 3, 2025 1:30 pm
Rotacrest Hall, Creston
Science Pub: The Science of Watersheds for a Changing Climate, new directions in Hydrology
The West Kootenay Watershed Collaborative
Speakers for this Watershed Collaborative science pub are Dr. Younes Alila, Professor of Hydrology at UBC and Isaac Dekker, watershed stewardship coordinator for the Lower Kootenay Band/Yaqan Nukiy.
Tickets Members: $15, Non-Members $20
WestKootenayWater.ca
Sunday, May 4, 2025 1:30 pm
Langham Cultural Centre, Kaslo
Science Pub: The Science of Watersheds for a Changing Climate, new directions in Hydrology
The West Kootenay Watershed Collaborative
Speakers for this Watershed Collaborative science pub are Dr. Younes Alila, Professor of Hydrology at UBC and Conservation ecologist Greg Uitzig, M.Sc, P.Ag.
Tickets Members: $15, Non-Members $20
WestKootenayWater.ca
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
Suzy Hamilton started this environment radio show along with John Alton, back in 1999, when Coop Radio was on its first day. Suzy was the original EcoCentric.
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 Kootenay environmental activist and journalist Suzy Hamilton, founder of the West Kootenay EcoSociety.
The award committee is now accepting nominations for this year’s recipient. Entries should include the name and contact information of the nominee, as well as a short paragraph about the volunteer work the nominee does for the environment. We welcome the re-submission of nominees from previous years who have not been selected for the award. Please send nominations through the Osprey Community Foundation before May 1.
Last year’s winner was Andrea Fox, a local forest defender who has been a guest on this show many times.
May 24, 2025, 5:45 p.m. –
May 25, 2025, 8:00 p.m.
Kootenay EcoFest
Bear Spring Eco Retreat,
5248 Queen Victoria Rd, Beasley,
A festival focused on building community by reconnecting to nature through local waste reduction solutions, live demonstrations, learning opportunities, and local arts and cultural experiences.
Apply to facilitate a workshop by emailing info@bearspringeco.ca. They are looking for volunteers to help with the festival, as well as 2 more fixers for the repair cafe. There are 10 spots left in the recycled market.
Tickets go on sale March 15th at bearspringeco.ca/kootenay-ecofest
ENVIRONMENT NEWS
Prominent climate campaigner Bill McKibben is reporting that, having dispensed with immigrants, law firms, humanitarian workers, and universities, the Trump administration was now turning its crosshairs on climate advocates. Nothing specific yet, but E&E News was reporting on widespread rumors that the administration planned (on Earth Day no less!) to cancel the tax-exempt status of many green groups.
https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-chill-falls-on-the-climate-community
Pemberton Council has voted unanimously to work with other BC local governments to bring a class action lawsuit against the world’s largest polluters to recover a fair share of the communities’ rising climate costs. The vote also allocated $1 per resident towards the case from Pemberton’s Speĺkúmtn Community Forest Legacy Fund.
The David Suzuki Foundation and other Canadian environmental organizations surveyed Canada’s main political parties on their positions on environmental issues and climate action. The Conservative Party declined to respond but the summary of all the other parties answers to these key questions is up on the Suzuki Foundation website.
https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/parties-environment-pledges
Fossil fuel giant BP’s recent scrapping of its 2030 interim target to reduce production is estimated to cause 72,000 additional heat deaths by the end of this century driven by increased emissions from burning more oil and gas, new analysis shows.
B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix says he isn’t ruling out building more hydro dams to provide electricity as demand soars, including from industries like liquefied natural gas (LNG) and mining.
In an interview with The Narwhal, Dix said he is confident B.C. can meet the challenge of electrifying emissions-heavy industries and a huge anticipated demand for electricity from other BC Hydro customers.
Dix said the cost of building solar and wind projects is coming down and there are potential opportunities to generate power from geothermal and hydrogen.
“We have the opportunity to make this happen here because we’ve got the backbone of the hydro system,” he said.
Pope Francis’ compassion extended to the climate and he made major statements on the humanitarian disaster looming from the crisis.
A major milestone in Francis’ papacy was his 180-page encyclical on climate change, Laudato Si’ (Praise Be), published in June 2015.
He wrote. “Nobody is suggesting a return to the Stone Age, but we do need to slow down and look at reality in a different way, to appropriate the positive and sustainable progress which has been made, but also to recover the values and the great goals swept away by our unrestrained delusions of grandeur.”
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 