LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD JULY 8, 2025 EPISODE HERE
The BC government has undertaken a review of the province’s climate plan, CLEAN BC. Deb Morrison and Harry Crosby from the West Coast Climate Action tell us why it’s important for people to have a say in the review. The mandate for the review includes possibly lowering BC’s commitment to the world effort, our emission reduction targets.
The record 2023 Canadian wildfire season blew the doors off the country’s climate emissions. Forest fires pump huge pollution into the atmosphere. What does it mean for Canada’s climate targets? Unbelievably, not so much, as Ross Linden-Fraser from the Canadian Climate Institute reports.
It’s been in the works for years but news reports say a new biogas plant in Fruitvale may be closer to starting construction. The plant will use wood waste to create biogas or as Fortis BC calls it, ’renewable natural gas’. Eoin Finn from Squamish has been following the “renewable” gas plan for years. He tells us about concerns with the Fruitvale gas factory plan. Hint: one big issue is its simply creating yet more gas to burn!!
LINKS MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:
INPUT INTO PUBLIC REVIEW OF CLEAN BC CLIMATE PLAN
BC Climate Emergency Campaign
https://bcclimateemergency.ca/
PUBLIC REVIEW OF CLEAN BC PORTAL
https://engage.gov.bc.ca/govtogetherbc/engagement/cleanbcreview/
Canadian Climate Institute 440Megatonnes blog
https://440megatonnes.ca/insight/how-forest-fires-affect-canadas-climate-progress/
COMING EVENTS
LNG Unpacked BC Webinar Series
Thursday, July 10 12:00-1:00pm PT
The BC Climate Emergency Campaign in partnership with BC Green Business has another in a series of webinars.
With the first shipment from the LNG terminal in Kitimat going out earlier last week, Canada has officially become an exporter of LNG (liquefied natural gas). And BC’s climate emissions took a major jump.
You can join the webinar for free but you need to register in advance.
Neighbourhood Urban Nature Walks
Sunday, July 13, 9:30-11:30am
Mountain Station Parking Lot
Awareness of Plants in our Backyard
With Ursula Lowrey, retired plant ecologist
This guided nature walk is an easy 1.5-hour hike along the rails to trails starting at the Mountain Station parking lot. Ursula will be pointing out indigenous awareness, seasonal
changes, using our senses, and plant names.
Funded by the Neighbourhood Small Grants programme, this event is free and welcoming to all ages. Meet at the Mountain Station parking lot 9:30am. Please consider car pooling as
parking space is limited.
ENVIRONMENT NEWS BITS
Scientists gathered in Vancouver in March to evaluate the state of the southern resident killer whales and figure out how to prevent their likely extinction.
The created a detailed road map, with 26 recommendations, to reverse the population decline that put the whales on Canada’s endangered species list for the past 20 years.
“We know what we need to do,” Jeffery Young, a senior science and policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation, told The Tyee.
Boosting their main salmon food source, dealing with human contaminants and ship noise pollution are three of the key steps the scientists said are necessary.
A new oil pipeline to British Columbia is high on the list of projects that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government will deem to be of national importance, according to multiple news reports.
“I would think given the scale of the economic opportunity, the resources we have, the expertise we have, that it is highly, highly likely that we will have an oil pipeline that is a proposal for one of these projects of national interest,” Carney told Reuters Saturday.
“I am confident that my government will do everything we can so that those projects can be built,” he said
With U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum and light-duty vehicles continuing to batter the Canadian automobile industry, the CEOs of Canada’s big three automakers are asking for a drop in targets for Electric Vehicle production.
They met with Prime Minister Mark Carney this week to lobby for the elimination of the Liberal government’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. They say the sales target will cripple their companies and put thousands of jobs at risk.
The mandate requires the number of new ZEVs sold in Canada to hit 20 per cent by next year, 60 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035 in order to help the country hit its emission-reduction targets.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/electric-vehicle-mandate-doomed-1.7577811
An environmental think tank is warning the federal government against repealing its electric vehicle mandate, instead suggesting that politicians should be helping to put more EVs on the road.
In a statement published July 4, Clean Energy Canada gave three recommendations to the federal government to help deliver affordable EVs to Canadians for less than $40,000, The Canadian Press reports.
The group, based out of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, said Ottawa should retool its EV mandate by revisiting its near-term targets to help the auto sector “weather this temporary storm” of slumping EV sales.
“Any additional flexibility added in the regulation should be designed to achieve other EV-related goals, such as delivering more affordable EVs and building out Canada’s charging network,” says the statement by Executive Director Rachel Doran and Director of Public Affairs Joanna Kyriazis.
Large swaths of Europe have been broiling under another heat dome triggering health alerts and wildfires. The Eiffel Tower had to close, as did over 1,000 schools in France. In Italy, underground electrical cables failed, causing widespread blackouts and most regions of the country restricted outdoor work. Nuclear reactors had to be shut down in France and Switzerland due to extreme heat. It will take some time to evaluate the actual toll of “excess deaths,” but local media report workers dying on farms and construction sites. Spain recorded temperatures reaching 46 C on land and the marine heat wave in the Mediterranean Sea has hit levels that meteorologists describe as “ludicrous.”
cdnpoli, #bcpoli, #environment, #climate, #climate action, #old-growth, #logging, #keepitintheground, #nelsonbc, #westkootenay, #BIKETRAILS, #railtrails, #Kootenays, #CLEARCUT, #OldGrowth, #activetransportation,https://www.nationalobserver.com/newsletters/zero-carbon/2025/07/04/halfway-2050
Longest running Enviro News show on the Radio! 