Ignoring climate change in the short term has benefits both to individuals and to organizations. Individuals do not have to make changes in the cars they drive, the products they buy, or the homes they live in if they ignore the influence their carbon footprint has on the world…
321 years into a 246 year cycle
Canada’s federal government gave $4.5 billion to Kinder Morgan for Trans Mountain after the owners had difficulty financing expansion of the pipeline. By 2020, the new construction budget had soared to $12.6 billion. But according to a 2021 management report, “As of March 31, 2021, construction is approximately 25% complete, with $7.1 billion in capital spending incurred since the inception of the project.” So 56% of the budget had been spent but the project was only 25% complete. That signals a total cost to taxpayers in excess of $20 billion. Compounding that massive loss will be the ongoing ecological disaster of increased tar sands production and the elevated risk to Vancouver and North Shore communities, the inner harbour and coastal waters.
BC NDP, guardians of the environment… the corporate environment
The origin story of Stand.earth—previously ForestEthics, successor to Clayoquot Rainforest Coalition—illustrates how little has changed in recent decades. NGOs and concerned citizens are ever the underdogs when competing with governments and wealthy corporations in the fight to protect ancient forests.
Climate action pretence
Governments impose carbon taxes ostensibly to deal with climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But effectiveness is limited since the taxes are not applied broadly or at levels sufficient to reduce or compel reduction in fossil fuel production and consumption…
Science deniers at the helm
British Columbia produces “the world’s cleanest natural gas.” In the same 2019 press release, Justin Trudeau echoed that statement. The fiction of BC producing clean fossil fuel originated with Premier Christy Clark’s Liberals. The claim was as honest as the one about LNG rewarding the province with one trillion dollars in economic activity and depositing one hundred billion dollars into a “BC Prosperity fund.”
Oversell, under-deliver
On climate change, Canadian politicians always oversell promises and underdeliver results. Canadians should tell them that is not good enough.
BC Government “deni-osaurs”
Canada’s federal government and its three western provinces are de facto climate change deniers. National Observer labelled this type denio-osaurs. All are committed to promoting increased production and export of fossil fuels. But, in some respects, British Columbia is worst of all.
Expansion of natural gas infrastructure and usage is incompatible…
Science says the world must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) this decade. Canadian politicians issue press releases promising that future emissions will diminish and we’ll reach net-zero by 2050. Of course, promises are easy to make and goals hard to achieve when meaningful actions are left to future leaders.
Vague promises and half measures…
Leaders who worry about the state of the world in future years want actions to address climate change taken today. Leaders who worry about the state of the economy today want actions to address climate change taken in future years. In Canada, the former type are rare and the latter commonplace…
Just have a think!
Dave Borlace opened a YouTube channel in 2018 to review the science behind climate debates and discover what is being done to avoid catastrophe. In the first minute of his first video, Borlace declared he was not a scientist and not a client expert, just a person wanting to learn and share information. Perhaps Borlace’s strength in sharing knowledge about climate and energy is that he is not a scientist. Nor is he a spin doctor paid to advance financial interests of paying clients…
Climate change and climate change denial
Climate change is no longer deniable: it’s happening, is human caused, and is potentially catastrophic. But denial is still a huge factor that keeps us from doing what we must, for future generations, for the natural world and all the species with which we share creation…
A story about today, that started yesterday, and impacts tomorrow
God $ Green: An Unholy Alliance reveals how super-rich oil families spent heavily to encourage evangelical Christians to oppose environmentalism, deny climate change and support the fossil fuel industry without question.
More methane? Meh!
In British Columbia and other western provinces, we will soon be working to reshape the economy. Now is a perfect time to commit to reduced production of fossil fuels and move vigorously toward a clean energy economy. Instead of public relations campaigns, we need action. Real action.
Unmeasured GHG emissions ignored
One of the pre-election promises made quietly by the BC NDP to me and other concerned citizens was to apply best scientific practices in regulating British Columbia’s northeast gas fields. In another post-election policy reversal, John Horgan’s NDP government decided the only action needed was a little green washing…
Perverse leadership in ‘immunity via collective failure’ globally.
Effective mitigation now must mean a regulated managed decline of fossil fuel production in Canada and globally. No new infrastructure; no new production facilities – oilsands or LNG; a Green New Deal style plan to build renewables and help fossil fuel producing regions transition. Nothing less…
God Bless the Children
Climate protest. A story in pictures of dedication and courage. And urgency.
Natural gas is not a bridge fuel
Cornell University scientists, including Professors Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea, have been credited with raising scientific and public awareness of fracking and its dangers. As a result, the fossil fuel industry has funded academics and PR groups to attack both the scientists and their science…
Denying the existential threat
Much of climate change denial is driven by money. The world’s ten largest fossil fuel companies are collectively worth trillions and their managers are not going away quietly. For years, they have invested heavily in assets that influence public opinion. These involve squads of online trolls and influencers paid to spread gospels of climate change denial. Acquiring control of corporate media output was another strategy. So-called think tanks conducted widespread skirmishes, including use of Fraser-Institute-style “learning resources” foisted on naive members of media and places of education, including students and faculty. Academics and scientists who don’t care about science have opportunities to pocket more than spare change…
Liberal rebrand: Hypocrisy ‘R’ Us
For years, BC Liberals relied on millions of dollars contributed by a relative handful of wealthy donors, many based outside the province. Along with developers hungry to acquire public lands below market […]
Fugitives in our midst
Politicians in British Columbia’s two major political parties may speak about the need for urgent climate action in Canada. But, their moves to ramp up this province’s fossil fuel production put them firmly in the camp of climate change deniers.
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