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British Columbia could be in the sixth year of the PowerBC program had John Horgan been sincere when he announced it in 2015. Instead, the NDP government and public institutions are issuing press releases promising bold action… someday.
In 2020, young people went to Germany’s Constitutional Court to argue the country’s Federal Climate Protection Act (“Bundesklimaschutzgesetz” or “KSG”) was insufficient and therefore violated their constitutional rights. They succeeded.//
Part of the trillions of dollars in subsidies to fossil fuel producers reflects governments undercharging supply costs (rights and royalties), but most involve implicit subsidies, including undercharging for environmental costs. Eliminating gifts to fossil fuel producers would raise public revenues while reducing greenhouse gas emissions…
The utility that for years could not estimate demand growth accurately and missed on the Site C cost estimate by 100% knew the future danger posed by rooftop solar panels. How are you going to expand a business empire if you allow ordinary people to interfere?
Fourteen percent of countries are described as full democracies. These states are home to fewer than ten percent of world population. More than one-third of the world’s population live under authoritarian rule…
The government of British Columbia issues regular press releases portraying itself as active in fighting climate change. But if we ignore the press releases and examine the science, a more honest picture forms…
In psychiatry, the word “delusion” means a firm belief in what others know to be false. Despite evidence of massive physical and financial risks, Liberals decided to green light Site C. Not wanting to be labeled anti-development, and having its own friends to reward, BC NDP chose to carry on…
Misinformation is common in our world. Sometimes it involves benign self-protection or ego boosting. Other times, humans use deception to gain advantages. Businesses and governments do it every day, by simple shading of the truth, egregious deceit, or something in between. With cooperation and assistance from government, BC Hydro relies on the illusory truth effect…
Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when the desire for group consensus overrides people’s common sense desire to present reasonable alternatives, critique a position, or express an unpopular opinion. Here, the desire for group cohesion effectively drives out good decision-making and problem solving. In government, groupthink is guaranteed.
An earlier piece by Lew Edwardson recalled one example of public sector corruption. Such occurrences are so common that most pay scant attention. In British Columbia, we have government quietly granting subsidies worth billions of dollars to fossil fuel producers, more billions gifted by BC Hydro’s secret contracts for private power priced at multiples of market value, public land assets privatized at a fraction of fair market value, farmlands destroyed and innocent lives disrupted to reward political supporters…
July 18, the Globe and Mail headlined, “The Olympics are a great party. But they’re not worth billions in public money.” The editorial added, “Hosting a huge party takes a lot of work and money, but i’s definitely fun. Those hours with friends and family are great. But the joy is fleeting, and hangovers are inevitable…”
Consumption of fossil fuels may be even more dangerous to humans than COVID-19. According to researchers from Harvard and three British universities, over eight million people died in 2018 from fossil fuel pollution. They estimate exposures to particulate matter from fossil fuel emissions accounted for 18 percent of total global deaths, which is almost one out of five…
A problem faced by more than one British Columbia community is how to resurrect a local economy after global corporations decide easier profits can be made by exporting unprocessed resources. The subject had me remember a worthwhile PBS documentary by investigative journalist David Brancaccio…
Political observers who expected BC NDP to live up to electoral promises of 2017 are by now thoroughly disillusioned. Broken promises could pave the the grounds of the BC Legislature…
Faced with energy market disruption, the European Union is proceeding with REPowerEU, a plan for conservation and production of clean energy. The EU knows that conservation is the cheapest, safest and cleanest option. It can reduce individual energy costs and add resilience to the economy. The same is true in North America. The European Union is putting into action what John Horgan’s NDP promised until elected in 2017,
Governments have not done the things needed to address climate change. In Canada, particularly in the western provinces, politicians raised middle fingers to climate scientists. Tens of billions of taxpayers dollars have been committed to oil, gas and coal consumption, even though fossil fuels must stay underground.
The Supreme Court ruled that cumulative effects from decades of industrial development on lands of northeast BC infringed treaty rights of Blueberry River First Nations. I suggest that cumulative effects from decades of industrialization and commercialization on lands of southwest BC infringe on the implicit rights of future generations.
Ancient Chinese employed a method of prolonged torture and execution known as lingchi. We also know it as Death by a Thousand Cuts. Humans are torturing the Earth by lingchi today…
BC Hydro sought environmental approval for construction of Site C in 2011. In that year, global wind power capacity was 238 gigawatts. While construction of BC’s controversial hydropower project dragged on, worldwide capacity for wind power reached 837 GW in 2021. If Site C suffers no further delays in its scheduled 2025 startup, global wind capacity according to GWEC will then exceed 1.3 terawatts, more than five times the level in 2011…
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