Environment, resources & sustainability

From The Missing Issues File: Climate Change

Apr 14, 2011
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Did I miss something, or did the two-hour English election debate go by with only one passing reference to climate change, the most urgent issue of our time?  There seems to be an inverse relationship at play between the severity of the crisis and its place on the political radar. The issue is receiving much… View Article

Environmental Violence

Apr 11, 2011
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Time magazine recently reported that particulates in the air from “industry, traffic and domestic heating, cause 4,300 premature deaths in London each year”. That works out to about 12 people dying every single day, in just one city. The British government does not seem worried about this horrific toll. To put their response in perspective,… View Article

A Call to Action on the Forest Front

Apr 8, 2011
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Does the provincial government have a coherent plan to address the exponentially deepening forest health crisis in our province? Evidently not, as outlined by two scientists in a sobering critique of provincial government forest policy (or the lack thereof) published in today’s Vancouver Sun. Penned by Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest science at the… View Article

Health Act Inquiry Into Threats Posed by Sour Gas A Step Closer?

Mar 30, 2011
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A local citizens initiative aimed at highlighting the health threats posed by sour gas wells in B.C.’s energy-rich Peace River region appears to be gaining momentum, but whether or not it will result in a public inquiry remains to be seen. Last week, the Alaska Highway News reported that during her first installment of promised… View Article

Tradable Water Rights – Coming to a province near you

Mar 5, 2011
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In January of this year, the BC government joined Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to become the fourth province to announce that it is considering creating tradable water rights as a way of curbing use and improving the efficiency of allocation. The announcement came as a vague reference to “water markets” in the latest draft of… View Article

Hydro rate hikes are bad news for BC’s poorest

Mar 3, 2011
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BC Hydro has proposed to dramatically increase its residential electricity rates. While the proposal still must be approved by the BC Utilities Commission, and the BCUC could intervene to change those rates in its decision, as it stands low- to middle-income households are going to get hammered. For example, the 12% of BC households with… View Article

Fair and Effective Carbon Pricing

Feb 23, 2011
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Today, we released a new Climate Justice Project report, Fair and Effective Carbon Pricing: Lessons from BC, by yours truly. I’m excited about getting this paper out into the world, given that climate policy seems to have fallen off the radar in BC – even as we are seeing daily evidence of the impacts of… View Article

Hats off to you, Mr. McKimm

Feb 17, 2011
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In the mountain of material presented with the 2011 BC Budget (OK, much of it was an electronic mountain) there was one remarkable nugget of candor. Each ministry and agency is required to prepare a Service Plan that is published with the Budget.  These were initiated originally to provide more transparency in government work.  Over… View Article