Last March I penned an open letter to Prime Minister Harper asking him to recognize that the global atmosphere was at least as essential to our national security as pipelines and highways. We didn’t receive any response from the Prime Minister’s office, so in July, Ashley Thomas (one of our great summer students) and I filed an environmen
On Thursday, February 23, I appeared before the City of Victoria’s Mayor, Lisa Helps, and its Council to talk about climate accountability.
That was the question posed by the investor website seekingalpha.com following Kinder Morgan’s “PR Nightmare” which made international news after Kinder Morgan’s statements about oil spills being good for the economy went viral.
The BC government went to the Paris climate talks with the recommendations of a blue-ribbon Climate Leadership Team in hand. Now it wants to hear from you – should they be implemented?
The world is gearing up for climate talks in Paris in December. It’s very exciting – it’s exciting that (in the words of our new Environment and Climate Change Minister) “Canada is back”; it’s even more exciting that there seems to be momentum for an international agreement.
The costs of climate change are being hotly debated. Sometimes it seems that the two sides of the argument aren’t even hearing one another. But a series of reports this month make it clearer than ever that inaction on climate change is already damaging our economy and a continued failure to take immediate and dramatic action amounts to economic negligence.
The head-in-the-sands approach
In a January 20th letter, Canada’s Environment Minister, Peter Kent, assured Canadians that the Canadian Government, despite having withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol, nonetheless has a plan on climate change. But reading the letter, it’s pretty clear that that there is no real plan, unless you count planning to do nothing.
For me one of the most interesting observations in West Coast Environmental Law’s “Emerging Solutions on Clean, Green Power” Dialogue came from former Hupacasath Chief, Kekinusuqs (Judith Sayers), when she suggested that every community should be self-sufficient in energy generation. Her comments are included in our
Canada’s largest oil sands companies – has taken the time to read – and publicly disagree with – our recent report, Payback Time. As you may recall, Payback Time examined the risks to Suncor and other Canadian fossil fuel companies of lawsuits brought by the victims of climate change outside of Canada.
A new resource from West Coast Environmental Law
Because most of us live in the built environment of cities, we sometimes forget that we are connected to ecosystems, and affected by changes in the natural environment. Seeing news coverage of the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy to New York City and other communities in its path is a sobering reminder of our vulnerability.