Column: Dirty tricks to oppose clean fuel standards
In its throne speech, the federal government committed to exceed Canada’s 2030 climate targets. The need for new, more ambitious targets and a plan to meet them couldn’t be more urgent. The UN’s annual “Emissions Gap Report 2019” found Earth is headed toward 3.2 C warming based on current and estimated emissions trends — a ...
Column: Sea lice, fish farms and wild salmon -- a deadly combination
To save wild salmon, Discovery Islands fish farms must go During their miraculous but perilous journey from inland spawning grounds, down rivers, out to sea and back again years later, Pacific wild salmon often must pass open-net coastal salmon farms. Here they swim through waters that can harbour parasitic sea lice and harmful...
Council Matters: October 5, 2020 meetings
Chicken coops, flu clinics, speeding, short-term rentals, upcoming OCP review, and more . . . Present: Mayor Kathy Moore, and Councillors Janice Nightingale, Chris Bowman, Andy Morel, Stewart Spooner, and Dirk Lewis; Staff: CAO Bryan Teasdale, Deputy Corporate Officer Cynthia Año Nuevo, ...
Editorial rant: Caribou, moose, wolves, and government obtuseness
Does it seem odd (to put it mildly) that our provincial government is willing to spend between $4,300 and $10,000 per wolf to kill over 400 wolves near small and struggling groups of caribou in BC, allegedly to help endangered caribou survive, while at the same time, authorizing the razing of essential caribou habitat? How ...
Op/Ed: How Canada could benefit from a carbon budget
By Kathryn Harrison and Anna Kanduth, for The Conversation Canadians have understandably been preoccupied by the COVID-19 emergency. Yet the climate emergency that prompted hundreds of thousands to march in the streets in September 2019 has not subsided. Just as Canadians have worked together to “bend the curve” on COVID-19,...
Teck Trail describes Covid-19 protocols and precautions in place
After having an employee confirmed to have Covid-19, Teck Trail is reassuring their employees and the larger community that they are working very hard to stop the spread of the virus, and are taking many precautions during this pandemic. They issued the following statement on Sept. 18: The global health crisis posed by COVID-19 is […]
NEW BC PARTY CALLS FOR RETURN OF GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT INTO SALES OF BC BUSINESSES
MEC's Sale/Liquidation and Others Like It Must Be Subject to Government Review Wednesday, September 16th, 2020 – PRINCE GEORGE – "Since the announcement of the liquidation of Mountain Equipment Co-op and its purchase by a US-based group of investors, prominent British Columbians, including John Horgan, have condemned and...
COLUMN: Carbon pricing in the climate crisis is like handwashing in a pandemic
Sometimes we need to be reminded of the basics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials have repeated clear messages about handwashing, physical distancing and mask-wearing. These are relatively simple preventative measures to limit the virus’s spread. Responding to climate change isn’t so simple, yet it’s every...
Editorial: Grieving the death of a co-op
Many readers know that ‘way back in 1971, I was one of the six official signatories to the founding documents of Mountain Equipment Co-operative, a (formerly) member-owned retail consumer co-op. And many readers will know by now that it has been placed under creditor protection, and that its assets are being, or have been, ...
Comment: IPCC -- the dirty tricks climate scientists faced in three decades since first report
By Marc Hudson for The Conversation Thirty years ago, in a small Swedish city called Sundsvall, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its first major report. Even then, the major dilemmas facing those who sought rapid action were clear. An account by Jeremy Leggett, who had thrown in a well-paid job ...
