This is an interview with Mr Manning on The Current. I found it interesting.
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/mobile/touch/episode/2014/12/03/preston-man...
Climate Change: I don't want to talk about it
Wed, 2014-12-03 15:00
#102
Mon, 2014-12-08 18:13
#103
t’s time to start ignoring the climate deniers
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/its-time-to-start-ignoring-t...
Wed, 2014-12-10 10:51
#104
I think the people in Delta, BC and Courtenay, BC do want to talk about global warming today!
B.C. storm puts Courtenay, Delta in state of emergency, thousands without power
Vancouver crews sandbagging against seawater surge for powerful 'king tide' Wednesday
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-storm-puts-courtenay-...
Wed, 2014-12-10 10:53
#105
And seriously, if you do live in the low lying areas of the Lower Mainland you might want to consider moving before your home is eventually under water.
Tue, 2014-12-16 02:06
#106
And the reason why these climate change conferences are basically a feel good exercise and a complete waste of time.
Gwynne Dyer: Climate change's impossible deal
FOR “SHALL”, SUBSTITUTE “may”. For example, change “countries signing this climate change treaty shall state how much they are going to cut their greenhouse emissions” to “countries signing this climate change treaty may state how much they are going to cut their emissions if they feel like it, but if they don’t, hey, no problem.”
It’s like the old Irish joke. A lost traveller comes up to a local resident and asks how to get to Dublin. “Well, sir,” replies the local, “if that’s where you want to get to, I wouldn’t start from here.”
If you ask anybody involved in the climate change negotiations how to get to a global deal, you’ll probably get the same answer. “If that’s where you want to go, sir, you shouldn’t start from here.” But here is where we have to start from, like it or not, which is what makes the negotiations so difficult.
The last preliminary meeting on a global treaty to stop runaway climate change has just wound up in Lima, Peru, two days late. The final two days were spent watering down various parts of the text so that no country would just walk away. That’s where shall was changed to may, not once but many times. So quite a lot of the substance has been lost even before the final negotiations begin in Paris next December.
It was bound to happen. That’s what diplomacy is for: devising some way of making the problem a little less bad even when a comprehensive deal that really solves the problem is impossible. But why is the comprehensive deal impossible? Because of the history.
There is a fair deal that well-informed people in every country would accept, and everybody involved in the climate negotiations knows what it is. Most parts of this deal were on the table at the last big climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009, but its political implications were so big that many governments simply ran away. The deal collapsed, and we lost five years.
Here’s the only deal that would be fair to everybody. The “old rich” countries—those that became industrialized countries a hundred years ago or more— would make big cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions starting now: say, 40 percent cuts in the next 10 years, or four percent a year.
That’s a lot, but it is achievable, because the demand for energy in most rich countries is already in decline, and much of the energy that they do produce is wasted. Getting the first 40 percent is not all that hard, and cuts of that scale up front would give us much more time to work on the remaining emissions.
This is not the part of the deal that drives the governments of the developed countries into headlong flight. It’s the other part, in which the developing countries (the other six-sevenths of the world’s population) only have to cap their emissions for the next decade, not actually cut them.
You can legitimately ask the developing countries to cap their emissions, but you can’t insist that they stay poor. Even the biggest developing countries like China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia are still comparatively poor, and to give their people a developed-world living standard they will have to go on increasing their energy production for decades.
If they can’t do that by building more fossil-fuel plants (because they have capped their emissions), then they will have to do it by building more “clean” energy sources: wind, solar, nuclear, anything except coal, oil, or gas.
Those “clean” energy sources are generally more expensive than the fossil fuels they used to depend on, so who covers the extra expense? Answer: the developed countries.
This is the deal killer. You cannot get the developing countries to cap their greenhouse gas emissions unless they get subsidies from the rich countries to help them build “clean” energy sources instead. And the developed countries regard this demand for subsidies ($100 billion a year was the figure on the table at Copenhagen five years ago) as outrageous.
It is not really outrageous at all. In view of the history of greenhouse gas emissions, it is quite fair. But almost nobody in the developed countries knows that history.
http://www.straight.com/news/789236/gwynne-dyer-climate-changes-impossib...
Tue, 2014-12-16 02:41
#107
Climate Change: A Planetary Emergency - by Christopher Black
http://journal-neo.org/2014/12/15/climate-change-a-planetary-emergency/
"The stock markets are sliding, America is shaken by CIA torture practices and extra-judicial killings by police. NATO continues to threaten Russia, world currencies are reeling under the blows of dropping oil prices and yet, and yet, there is something worse than all these problems combined:
The rapid warming of the planet due to fossil fuel emissions over the past century and a half that has scientists warning of mankind's extinction, not in the distant future but within decades or less..."
Tue, 2014-12-16 18:45
#108
A lot of people hate his unorthodox views, but this was a pretty interesting article in today's Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/why-innovation-is-the-best-p...
After 20 years of trying to get global consensus about using renewable energy, Lomborg observes that a microscopic 0.2% of total energy consumed globally is from renewable sources (wind, solar, and tidal). The main barrier to renewables is that they are not cost-effective (putting aside externalities) and there is a widespread view that renewables are not in a country's economic interest (especially developing countries like China and India).
I think Lomborg is right that massive amounts of R&D funding needs to be poured into renewable energy innovation because what we've been doing for the last couple of decades is clearly not working. Insanity?
Tue, 2014-12-16 18:46
#109
P.S. We can yell from the mountain tops that global warming is a long-term threat to the planet but until transitioning to renewables is economically attractive, it simply will not happen in any meaningful way, as evidenced by the "progress" we've made to date.
Wed, 2014-12-17 16:52
#110
Bolivia to Host 2015 Meeting of Social Movements
to Fight Climate Change
In wake of UN's COP20 Failure, ALBA Summit Backs Proposal to Draft Alternative Plan
Meeting in Havana December 14, the 13th summit of ALBA leaders endorsed a Bolivian proposal to host an international assembly of social movements in 2015 to discuss and adopt a united strategy for fighting climate change.
The decision by the Bolivarian Alliance for the peoples of Our America – Trade Treaty of the Peoples (ALBA-TCP) coincided with release of the final agreement adopted by the United Nations COP20 climate talks at Lima, Peru. The UN agreement, reached by representatives of 195 countries after two extra days of haggling, has been universally condemned by environmental activists for the failure, once again, to take meaningful actions to prevent catastrophic climate warming....
quote:
Rejecting Predatory and Insatiable Capitalism
Addressing the ALBA Summit in Havana, Bolivia's President Evo Morales proposed that “faced with the failure in Lima” the environment ministers of the ALBA member countries[1] should work to organize a “world encounter of social movements” that would develop “a proposal to save life and humanity.”
The Bolivian proposal was adopted in number 29 of the 43 points in the final Summit agreement. The date of the proposed world encounter has yet to be determined.
Mon, 2014-12-22 18:16
#111
Sun, 2014-12-28 22:34
#112
Peak Snow? BC Ski Resorts Brace for Warmer Era
How a $600-million industry is already dealing with climate change.
Click to see snowfall projections for various mountains around B.C. Projections for all hills, including northern hills, can be found here (page 16.)
Tue, 2014-12-30 19:09
#113
ikosmos
Klein’s writings and talks have provided “the movement” with needed context and coherence, and served as a conduit and catalyst for discussions, contributing to its recruitment and growth. Her new book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, is the climax of her highly influential trilogy and also registers how much her perspective has changed over the last fifteen years....After decades of engagement, the environmental movement remains relatively marginal, capable of slowing down this or that trend but not of reversing and correcting capitalism’s reckless trajectory....
Klein ... admits to frustrations with key aspects of its strategic orientation. She makes two overlapping points here, one organizational, the other strategic. First, there is the tendency of many in the movement to mistakenly identify structures themselves as part of the problem....
As Klein writes, “The fetish for structurelessness, the rebellion against any kind of institutionalization, is not a luxury today’s transformational movements can afford… Despite endless griping, tweeting, flash mobbing, and occupying, we collectively lack many of the tools that built and sustained the transformative movements of the past.”...
Second, Klein insists that the struggle against climate change cannot be won by fear alone. “Fear is a survival response. It makes us run, it makes us leap, it can make us act superhuman. But we need somewhere to run to. Without that, the fear is only paralyzing.” (It might also be added that fear can produce support for the immediate nostrums offered by green capitalism)....
It is about an alternative society. And to the extent that some sacrifices are indeed necessary, these must involve both a radical equality of sacrifice and one that sees such sacrifices as “investments” in transforming society, rather than concessions to preserve capitalism.
Such a mass movement needs to forge its own common sense, structures independent of capital, and the energy and staying power that comes with a realizable, if distant, vision.
Once we appreciate that the scale of the climate change issue references not just how much needs to be done in environmental terms, but what needs to be done to transform society, we are at a new, even more intimidating, stage. We’ve added the need to take on capitalism and must be clear about what this means.
...It is capitalism — not a qualified capitalism, but really existing capitalism and the only capitalism on offer — that “is the main enemy.”
Thu, 2015-01-08 01:41
#114
Thu, 2015-01-08 01:43
#115
And the chance of that happening is..........
Mon, 2015-02-16 15:41
#116
'Megadrought' threatens U.S. Southwest, Plains in decades to come, says study (cbc.ca)
80 per cent chance of an extended drought starting in 2050
Unprecedented 21st century drought risk in the American Southwest and Central Plains (advances.sciencemag.org)
In the Southwest and Central Plains of Western North America, climate change is expected to increase drought severity in the coming decades. These regions nevertheless experienced extended Medieval-era droughts that were more persistent than any historical event, providing crucial targets in the paleoclimate record for benchmarking the severity of future drought risks. We use an empirical drought reconstruction and three soil moisture metrics from 17 state-of-the-art general circulation models to show that these models project significantly drier conditions in the later half of the 21st century compared to the 20th century and earlier paleoclimatic intervals. This desiccation is consistent across most of the models and moisture balance variables, indicating a coherent and robust drying response to warming despite the diversity of models and metrics analyzed. Notably, future drought risk will likely exceed even the driest centuries of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (1100–1300 CE) in both moderate (RCP 4.5) and high (RCP 8.5) future emissions scenarios, leading to unprecedented drought conditions during the last millennium.
Mon, 2015-02-23 11:52
#117
Addressing Population Growth - Through Freedom, Not Control - Is Crucial to Confronting Climate Disruption
Every year, the world population's net growth is equivalent to adding a new Egypt.
Very often, arguments about overpopulation are used in defense of racist, sexist, classist and even genocidal policies, including killings, forced sterilization and the mass denial of reproductive freedom. And often, those arguments target black and brown people, particularly people in "developing" countries, centering the problem on "women having too many kids," rather than looking at what is actually having a significant effect on the planet, and how we can confront it humanely and in the service of real social and environmental freedoms.
However, looking beyond the myths and dictates, the realities of population point to the contrary: Population-related problems, like anthropogenic climate disruption, stem from resource use in the West. If you live in North America and Western Europe and comprise 12 percent of the world's population, you account for 60 percent of the world's private consumptive spending, while the one-third of the global population that lives in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent.
In order to have a conversation on this topic, we must first of all definitively end the equation of "overpopulation" with the birthrates of black or brown people living in so-called developing countries. Instead, we must focus on the fact that the United States, which comprises less than 5 percent of the global population, uses a quarter of the planet's total fossil fuel resources. The carbon emissions impact of the US population far surpasses that of those living in the "developing" world....
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/29229-addressing-population-growth-th...
Mon, 2015-02-23 11:54
#118
Work of prominent climate change denier was funded by energy industry (theguardian.com)
Five ways that people frame climate change debates
No nation is immune, and every nation has a responsibility to do its part
Just Asking: The Science Guy Bill Nye gets hot (washingtonpost.com)
The popular host talks climate change and offers the grade he would give America on science.
Well, this is the world’s most technically advanced society, and we have people denying climate change. These guys are still in deep denial, and future generations, what few of them will be alive, are just going to go, “What were you freaking people doing? What was wrong with you?”
Tue, 2015-03-03 18:49
#119
100 Million Views In 3 Days: A Groundbreaking Environmental Film Rocks China
Tue, 2015-03-03 22:15
#120
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/03/03/federal-government-ignorin...
More specifically, the study — published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — concludes that man-made climate change aggravated the four-year drought that spawned Syria’s civil war.
That’s the civil war, incidentally, that produced the Islamic State, a militant movement that the Conservative government calls a grievous threat to not just Canada but civilization itself....
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/03/03/federal-government-ignorin...
Mon, 2015-03-09 12:42
#121
Climate fight won't wait for Paris: vive la résistance (theguardian.com)
We must not rest till the fossil fuel industry is forced to keep the carbon in the ground
Fossil freeze. Solar thaw. Keep it in the ground.
Mon, 2015-03-09 13:02
#122
In Florida, officials ban term 'climate change' (miamiherald.com)
Mon, 2015-03-09 15:15
#123
In Florida, officials ban term 'climate change' (miamiherald.com)
These stories almost always show some older forlorn guy in a canoe or kayak, who's been told by the powers that be: "We don't want to talk about it."
Mon, 2015-03-09 22:15
#124
Mon, 2015-03-09 22:20
#125
Florida bans use of 'climate change' by state agency, report says (cbc.ca)
...or they show pictures of youth, playing with their newly bought toys from WalMart, being absolutely enthralled with (or oblivious to) the idea of climate change.
Mon, 2015-03-09 22:24
#126
Tue, 2015-03-10 13:31
#127
Good article on Rabble about the Opposition Parties (NDP, Liberal, and Green) all agreeing on the NDP's Climate Change Accountability Act. The Conservatives, unfortunately, are out in the netherworlds on this one.
Sun, 2015-03-15 21:39
#128
Merchants of Doubt
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/15/climate-change-denial...
Sun, 2015-03-15 22:01
#129
or they show pictures of youth, playing with their newly bought toys from WalMart, being absolutely enthralled with (or oblivious to) the idea of climate change.
I'm reminded of post hoc, ergo propter hoc ("it happened after it, so it happened because of it").
But what's the Latin for "it happened near a WalMart, so it happened because of a WalMart"?
Sun, 2015-03-15 22:47
#130
RevolutionPlease
or they show pictures of youth, playing with their newly bought toys from WalMart, being absolutely enthralled with (or oblivious to) the idea of climate change.I'm reminded of post hoc, ergo propter hoc ("it happened after it, so it happened because of it").
But what's the Latin for "it happened near a WalMart, so it happened because of a WalMart"?
Logic?
Sun, 2015-03-15 22:55
#131
Yes.
Fri, 2015-03-27 09:57
#132
Beijing to Shut All Major Coal Power Plants to Cut Pollution (bloomberg.com)
China to shut down 2,000 coal mines this year (2014) (mining.com)
Beijing Shuts Down Coal Power Plants as Air Pollution Costs Economy (newsweek.com)
“The main motivating factor in China is not the global climate but local environmental issues,” says Heubaum. “If people are sick more often and can’t come to work, that has an impact on the economy.”
Sat, 2015-03-28 15:09
#133
Mon, 2015-04-06 23:59
#134
2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=46995&Cr=climate+change&Cr1... (2014)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference
Sun, 2015-04-12 18:00
#135
Historic march in Quebec City: 25,000 demand climate action now
Although the weather was gloomy, spirits were high at the Act on Climate march in Quebec City on Saturday, April 11. People of all ages and from all walks of life, many having travelled from across the province or beyond, came together to make their voices heard on climate.
Police estimates put the size of the crowd at 25,000 people. The message was loud and clear: we want cleaner energy solutions, and we want our government to prioritize the climate.
The Act on Climate march was nothing short of the biggest march focused specifically on climate in Quebec’s history. At every street corner there was something to be seen and a message to be understood from the street art that engaged passersby.
A multitude of environmental and social groups joined the march. Surveying the crowd, one could find First Nations groups followed by Raging Grannies, and then suddenly be met with a hissing pipeline....
https://ricochet.media/en/398/historic-march-in-quebec-city-25-000-deman...
Red thermometer
Sun, 2015-04-12 18:42
#136
Act on Climate March draws 25,000 to Quebec streets (with video)
Over 25,000 people are marching in Quebec City right now to call upon Canadian premiers to act on climate change, in advance of the climate talks on April 14.
"That means no new tar sands pipelines. No Keystone, no Energy East, no Kinder Morgan, no Northern Gateway," states the coalition of organizers for the Act on Climate March.
AFN Regional Chief for Quebec and Labrador, Ghislain Picard, joined the tens of thousands of people at the protest.
Picard says almost half of all First Nations in Quebec, around 16, will be impacted by the Energy East pipeline, if the project is carried through....
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/national-observer/act-climate-march-dra...
Mon, 2015-04-13 11:55
#137
Mon, 2015-04-13 23:06
#138
First Nations lead Quebec City march on climate action (with video)
Standing at the head of the line, drum in hand, Melissa Mollen-Dupuis and several First Nation drummers took their first step forward. Behind them, an estimated 25,000 people followed.
“I say we need programs for people who are addicted to petrol and money,” said Mollen-Dupuis. “Just like we do for people who are addicted to alcohol and drugs.”
Mollen-Dupuis is a seasoned environmental activist.
The Innu from Mingan on Quebec’s North shore is a staple in environmental marches.
In today’s climate action march, she was walking for a new purpose.
“I’m marching for twice as many reasons now,” said Mollen-Dupuis. “I have the pleasure of being pregnant now, and I have seven times the motivation for the next seven generations.”...
http://aptn.ca/news/2015/04/12/first-nations-lead-quebec-city-march-clim...
Tue, 2015-04-14 13:34
#139
Quebec City: Huge march raises temperature By Judy Rebick
quote:
More than 25,000 people came from around Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and even a few from British Columbia. Organized by major environmental NGOs and supported by a broad spectrum of First Nations, social justice, trade union, feminist, and student groups, the march was led by Indigenous contingents. In addition, there were major demonstrations in cities across the country from Halifax to Victoria. All had the same demands, stop the pipelines and tar sands expansion.
"Today's march is undeniable proof that people in Quebec and across Canada want meaningful action on climate change," said Christian Simard, General Director of Nature Québec, the march's main organizer. "Our political leaders must accept this responsibility, put in place ambitious measures to combat climate change and keep tar sands pressure out of provincial climate talks."
While the Canadian Labour Congress was listed as a sponsor, there was little official union presence. Yet hundreds if not thousands of trade union activists marched with their union flags. I came from Toronto on a bus sponsored by the Toronto District of the Steelworkers with 50 union activists who were greeted with a warm welcome by the organizers. On the Sunday following the march, the FTQ, the largest union central in Quebec sponsored a forum to further the dialogue between the labour and environmental movements, a most important development. Many of the placards and banners oppose the Energy East pipeline, which is supported by much of the labour movement. Rather than assuming an irreconcilable difference an ongoing dialogue combined with the pressure coming from grassroots trade unionists whose presence on the march showed their leadership that they want to be on the right of side of history on climate change might lead to significant progress....
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/judes/2015/04/quebec-climate-march
Thu, 2015-04-16 15:21
#140
The land on the left is reversing global warming by capturing carbon dioxide and water by proper use of keystone animal species and land management, while the land on the right is exacerbating it though soil degradation and loss of carbon to the atmosphere.
Nature’s Global Warming Fix (counterpunch.org)
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming (Conference 2014) (bio4climate.org)
Professor Moomaw Discusses Climate Talks and Climate Change Mitigation Policy (2011) (fletcher.tufts.edu)
Sun, 2015-04-19 11:05
#141
the biggest story in the world (theguardian.com)
Thu, 2015-04-23 15:29
#142
Danish Wind Power Shatters Records, But Opposition Still Stands In the Way
The small Scandinavian country of Denmark doesn't hold many minerals in its soil. Its supply of oil from the North Sea that has long contributed to the country's economy – not least thanks to the high taxes imposed on it – is slowly depleting. But one resource is in abundance here: wind. And the Danes are now busier than ever harnessing it.
Production of wind energy is taking a bigger and bigger share of the country's economy, as the export of wind turbines, technology, expertise and electricity has become one of the biggest Danish export industries. Denmark has turned itself into something of a showroom for the market; in the first quarter of this year, wind power contributed to 44 percent of the country's total electricity production, up from 39 percent in the same period last year.
And yet, even as the technology is effectively replacing fossil fuels, creating thousands of jobs, attracting investors and saving people's lungs from pollution, wind power is still facing resistance. On the one hand, Apple recently announced it intends to invest more than $870 million in a data center in Denmark because of the country's ability to deliver green energy. But at the same time, Denmark's leading right wing opposition party, Venstre, says it wishes to revoke Denmark's 2050 climate goals that would make the country 100% fossil free – despite that Venstre itself suggested those goals when it was in the former coalition government....
http://www.occupy.com/article/danish-wind-power-shatters-records-opposit...
Sun, 2015-04-26 15:09
#143
Arctic Council ends Iqaluit ministerial meeting on conciliatory note (nunatsiaqonline.ca)
“No matter what is happening in the outside world, Arctic co-operation must continue,” said Sergei Donskoi, Russia’s minister of natural resources and environment.
U.S. to make climate change a priority for Arctic Council (theglobeandmail.com)
“The numbers are alarming and that’s putting it mildly,” warned Mr. Kerry, who has a long and proven track record in regarding climate change as among the foremost of 21st century threats. The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on earth, he said.
Looking back: Canada's Arctic Council Chairmanship (greenpeace.org)
Thu, 2015-05-07 16:56
#144
Robert Jay Lifton on How Climate Change Joins Nuclear War in Threatening Human Survival
After advocating against nuclear weapons for decades, the leading American psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton has recently focused on the global threat posed by climate change. Last year he wrote a piece in the New York Times comparing the nuclear freeze movement of the 1980s to the climate justice movement of today. "People came to feel that it was deeply wrong, perhaps evil, to engage in nuclear war, and are coming to an awareness that it is deeply wrong, perhaps evil, to destroy our habitat and create a legacy of suffering for our children and grandchildren," Lifton said. One of the nation’s best known psychiatrists, Lifton joins us to discuss the parallels between the threats of nuclear weapons and global warming, and the growing public awareness to meet the challenges they pose....
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/7/robert_jay_lifton_on_how_climate
Thu, 2015-05-07 21:14
#145
In the meantime, sitting on my balcony enjoying the sunset view. HUGE Suv pulls up a bit farther down the street, blocking both cycle lanes and normal-sized cars as it tries to park. Eventually driver emerges. Slight blonde woman not a day over 30, carrying no more groceries than I can and do carry in my bicycle bags. Disgusting polluting (redacted). I yell at the (redacted) "get a smaller car"! She scarcely looks up. Good for the (redacted) that I'm closer to 60 than 16; I'd have smashed all her windows and keyed her paint job as a teen. This is a central city area, not a remote outpost where people might need that sort of thing. I'm just seething at anger at the (redacted).
And of course it is the capitalists' fault, but I do think ordinary people do bear a share of responsibility for such wanton and unnecessary pollution (Redacted) is about half my age; she can fucking walk to any of the three nearby métro stations and to the grocery store.
Tue, 2015-05-12 22:05
#146
..here is nyc's plan to deal with climate. and here's a taste...
Preserving and Creating Affordable Housing
Mayor Bill De Blasio’s Housing New York: A Five-Borough, Ten-Year Plan (in PDF) aims to create 200,000 units of affordable housing over the next ten years. Preserving and creating affordable housing for all New Yorkers is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Many aspects of long-term planning are integrated with this effort, such as programs to mitigate rising utility costs and preserve affordability. The City will launch new efforts to target mid-size and small buildings—in concert with local utilities and existing subsidy programs—to incentivize energy retrofits in exchange for affordability commitments from building owners.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc/html/sustainability/preserving-creating-a...
Thu, 2015-05-14 13:50
#147
'The World is Watching' Seattle as Arctic Drilling Fight Heats Up
The Seattle Port Commission on Tuesday passed a resolution asking Shell to delay the arrival of its Arctic drilling rig, bending to pressure from local citizens, environmentalists, and city officials who packed the hearing to express outrage over the Commission's unilateral decision to house the oil fleet.
Local lawmakers are scrambling in the face of mounting public opposition to the news Monday that the Obama administration had granted conditional approval for Shell to begin its Arctic oil exploration.
Seattle Mayor Ed Mayor said that the Port Commission must apply for a new land-use permit in order to grant the oil giant a "homeport" lease for its drilling rig. However, the Commission did not go so far as to rescind the initial lease and, refusing to alter its drilling schedule, Shell still plans for its rig and support vessels to reach the port later this week before heading to Arctic waters....
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/05/13/world-watching-seattle-arcti...
Fri, 2015-05-15 14:18
#148
'Paddle in Seattle' Protesters Welcome Shell Drilling Rig with Two Words: Go Away
Paddling activists rolled out the un-welcome mat as Shell Oil's hulking 'Polar Pioneer' drilling rig—whose presence is opposed by many local citizens, environmentalists, and city officials—pulled into the Port of Seattle on Thursday afternoon.
About 20 kayakers met the 307-foot-tall, 400-foot-long rig in the waters of Elliott Bay, singing, chanting, linking arms, and bearing a banner that read, "Arctic Drilling = Climate Change." Among the group were members of the Duwamish Tribe, who paddled through the waves in a long wooden canoe and led the group in chanted songs, according to the Seattle Times.
The Times adds:
"Law-enforcement officers were on the water and overhead to enforce a 500-yard safety zone while the Polar Pioneer was in motion. Coast Guard officials warned the activists beforehand that any disruption of safe navigation could result in arrests.
But the authorities allowed the activists relatively close to the rig when it briefly stopped, and there were no disturbances of note during the afternoon demonstration."
Thursday's protest came in advance of a larger sHell No! demonstration planned for the weekend, including a family-friendly #PaddleinSeattle flotilla on Saturday and a mass direct action on Monday. Zarna Joshi, an organizer with the sHell No! Action Coalition, told Democracy Now! that Monday will involve "land-based actions in order to show Shell that we can shut them down on the water and on the land. They cannot hide."...
Fri, 2015-05-15 17:29
#149
Do BCers really think these problems will stop at the US-Canada border? So much for living in the rainforest, eh!
Washington state declares drought emergencyHistoric lows in the snowpack have led to water shortages, with early-season wildfires expected
CBC News Posted: May 15, 2015 11:07 AM PT Last Updated: May 15, 2015 11:12 AM PT
A statewide drought has been declared in Washington State after a historic low in the region's snowpack. (Bailey Range can be seen here in a more usual year.) (Physical Science Dept./nps.gov)
The state says that on the Olympic Peninsula, glacier lilies are blooming at elevations that would normally be home to 80 inches of snow at this time.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/washington-state-declares...
Fri, 2015-05-29 12:43
#150
Wed, 2015-06-03 19:25
#151
Rio Tinto skips air scrubbers to cut costs at Kitimat smelter
When the B.C. Ministry of Environment approved Rio Tinto Alcan’s application to modernize its aluminum smelter in Kitimat, B.C., local resident Emily Toews assumed that would mean an improvement in the plant’s emissions.
But the modernization project, which will increase the plant’s production, will raise sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 56 per cent from 27 to 42 tonnes per day.
Toews, who suffers from asthma, told a tribunal in Kitimat Monday she decided to remain in Kitimat in 2010, rather than move to West Kelowna with her husband, because she had “previous knowledge that the modernization project would reduce emissions.”
The tribunal, hosted by the B.C. Environmental Appeals Board, is entering its third week in Kitimat after two weeks in Victoria. The board began investigating the government’s approval of the Rio Tinto Alcan modernization project after Toews and fellow Kitimat resident Lis Stannus asked it to overturn the decision, saying increased sulphur dioxide emissions endangered their community’s health...
http://commonsensecanadian.ca/rio-tinto-skips-air-scrubbers-to-cuts-cost...