LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD MAY 13, 2025 EPISODE HERE:
The BC government just announced there is NO hope of reaching its 2030 climate targets. Did they really try? Jeremy Valeriote, interim leader for the BC Greens calls for real leadership on bringing down climate pollution.
Low snow pack? Dry spring? What does the climate have in store for the West Kootenay this summer. Weather forecaster Jesse Ellis with the SouthEast Fire Centre talks about what it could look like.
The BC government has just announced a second call for proposals for 500,000 homes worth of clean energy. They say new technology, solar panels and wind turbines will make BC more competitive. Evan Pivnic, program manager with Clean Energy Canada tells us what the province is looking at.
LINKS MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:
BC Green Jeremy Valeriote, MLA website: https://bcgreens.ca/mlas/jeremy-valeriote/
For years, B.C. has called itself a climate leader. Now, the provincial climate plan is a shambles. OpEd from Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Dr. Melissa Lem, Kai Nagata, Emiko Newman, Tracey Saxby, Kiki Wood
https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/comment-bc-no-longer-has-a-climate-plan-10645668
BC announces call for more renewable energy projects
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2025ECS0018-000412
BC Southeast Fire Centre
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/wildfire-status/about-bcws/fire-centres#southeast
COMING EVENTS
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.
Catch the full list of workshops or buy tickets at: bearspringeco.ca/kootenay-ecofest
Saturday, May 24th 1 PM to 7 PM
At Lions Park — from 1 PM to 7 PM!
The 3rd Annual Kootenay Co-op Radio Block Party
The Party is hosted in partnership with the Nelson Lions Club.It’s a FREE, community and family-friendly event, packed with fun for everyone — including live music from local favourites like Paris Pick, Kootenay Garage Band, Snakes and Horses, and Jayne Karma Lamo and the Interbeings.
Food trucks, face painting, and a bouncy castle for the kids!
Bring the whole family, and join us at Lions Park in Nelson on May 24th for a day of music, dancing, great food, and community celebration!
The KCR Free Community Block Party — Saturday, May 24th, 1 to 7 PM
Wednesday, May 28
Free Webinar 6:30 to 8 pm
Zoom – registration required
The West Kootenay Climate Hub Resilience Café #4 Called Food for Thought: Sowing Seeds of Resilience in Our Local Food Culture
Amn interactive webinar with Tiffany Traverse an indigenous researcher and land steward and and Laura Francis a grower at Cartwheel farms. It’s a deep dive into the interconnected world of food culture and production.
https://www.westkootenayclimatehub.ca/upcoming-events
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS BITS
It’s a big win for an Indigenous-led salmon reintroduction initiative: an adult female sockeye salmon was spotted in a creek north of Castlegar, the first recorded return to an Arrow Lakes spawning tributary in over 85 years.
Bringing the Salmon Home: The Columbia River Salmon Reintroduction Initiative is a collaboration between the Syilx Okanagan Nation, Secwépemc Nation, and Ktunaxa Nation. After six years of efforts, salmon are finally swimming again in the upper Columbia River.
Last summer, the technical team brought 57 adult sockeye from the Okanagan, into the Arrow Lakes Reservoir. These special fish are the first adult sockeye to freely swim in the Arrow Lakes since 1938, when salmon were extirpated from the upper Columbia after the Grand Coulee Dam was constructed.
In November, an adult female made history: Okanagan Nation Alliance Fisheries staff spotted her spawning in Kuskanax Creek.
British Columbia’s energy minister is backing plans to dredge and deepen Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet to accommodate fully loaded oil tankers, despite concerns from environmentalists, experts and First Nations.
The plan, floated recently by Prime Minister Mark Carney, could result in fewer tankers carrying more oil from the Trans Mountain pipeline to markets abroad.
The expanded TMX pipeline has been operating since May 2024 and there have been calls to expand it again to help diversify energy exports away from the United States.
“We are supportive, given that it would meet the environmental requirements and consultation requirements (with First Nations) that you have,” Energy Minister Adrian Dix said.
The new leader of the Catholic Church, seems to have similar views on the environment as his predecessor, Pope Francis. Pope Leo XIV, has been outspoken about the need for urgent climate action and voiced his support for the use of climate technology such as solar panels and EVs.
Pope Francis had made the climate crisis a central issue of his papacy. He urged fossil fuel executives to transition to clean energy, calling the rising greenhouse gas levels “disturbing and a cause for real concern”; he declared a global climate emergency; and he launched a project to power the Vatican with solar panels, among other acts.
Now Pope Leo XIV seems poised to follow in Pope Francis’s environmental footsteps.
92.5% of new power capacity added to the grid in 2024 came from renewable energy sources.
Overall, 585 gigawatts (GW) of new power capacity was added from renewables Those 585 GW also represent a 15.1% increase in renewables which the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says was a record.
Solar and wind power, as usual, accounted for almost all of the growth. They made up 96.6% of net renewable energy growth. Solar power alone accounted for 77.3% of the renewable industry’s growth (452 GW), as it increased 32.2% year over year.
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 