It turns out Canada’s reputation is getting as toxic as the Alberta tar sands tailings ponds: * Some more facts: Canadian federal taxpayers subsidize the oil industry $1.38 billion a year. And that’s not counting your Province’s subsidies to the oil industry. The International Energy Agency says up to two thirds of known fossil reserves […]
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It’s TED Talk Tuesday on 350orbust, and today’s talk, like last week’s, is from TEDx Sydney. Danny Kennedy,Founder and President of Sungevity. Before starting Sungevity Kennedy spent decades campaigning with Greenpeace; in this talk he discusses how profit can save the planet rather than destroying it. * Sungevity: The Life & Times Of Solar People * We are living in interesting times, as the saying goes. Here in Canada, the house of cards that is the federal Conservative government of Stephen Harper is starting to self-destruct; the only surprising thing to me is that it took this long to happen. The Harper government is throwing bodies overboard as fast as […] I don’t live in Canada’s most westerly province, but I know that British Columbians pride themselves in their slogan, “Beautiful British Columbia”. It is a province of vast wilderness, ancient mountains, and pristine waters, although its beauty has been marred in recent years by the pine-beetle-destroyed pine trees covering vast regions of the Rocky Mountains. […] This week twelve climate scientists and energy experts penned a letter to Canada’s Natural Resources (aka “Oil”) Minister, Joe Oliver, to express their concern about his ongoing support for building new pipelines and expanding fossil fuel production in face of the threat of climate change. Mr. Oliver was an international banker before he was elected […] * Ready or not, painful or not, we are in the middle of a huge shift from an oil dependent economy to one that is run on renewables, the Great Transition. Our governments and the corporations that control them – the people and structures that have become out-of-this-world wealthy from the way we do things […] It’s a snowy and cold Earth Day morning in northwestern Ontario. On this Earth Day, Joe Romm over at Think Progress muses about renaming Earth Day – after all, it’s really humans and our civilization that is in peril at this point by our feckless, reckless and cavalier treatment of the ecosystem that gives us [...] Two thirds of the globe is turning into desert, at the same time that our population is heading towards ten billion, and we are disturbing weather patterns by pouring heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Fossil fuels are behind the “greenhouse effect” that is warming our atmosphere, but our land use habits, especially those of [...] It’s time to internalize the externalities of the fossil fuel industry. For far too long, the extremely high price we all pay in the pollution of our “commons” – air, water, and climate, which also affects the health of far too many of us, has been ignored by governments and the fossil fuel industry. Putting [...] Via Fossil Free Canada: What do you call an industry that is planning to cook the planet? An industry responsible for destroying land, polluting the air and water, and violating the rights of people around the world? An industry who’s business model means burning over three times the amount of carbon our planetary carbon budget [...] Apparently the current federal government can’t afford to spend taxpayer money on climate action or giving affordable healthcare to the poorest and most vulnerable among us, refugees, but it can spend $9 million dollars on greenwashing the Alberta tar sands. That’s not my Canada! Click here to tell Harper we need climate action, not public [...] * One of the few-and-far-between perks of being a climate blogger is that occasionally I get access to books and movies before the general public does. This past weekend I got to watch “Greedy Lying Bastards” before it hit movie screens across the U.S. on Monday. Sunday night I, along with some fellow Citizens Climate [...] 350 or bust: Canadian First Nations Leader Takes Tar Sands Fight To Europe Ahead Of Key Council Votevia Friends of the Earth Europe & Bill Erasmus, Dene National Chief A leader of Canada’s Indigenous peoples gave a dramatic eyewitness account of the environmental and social devastation associated with mining tar sands at the world’s biggest tourism fair on Friday March 8, ahead of key vote by the European Council later this year [...] * It’s been three and a half years since I began talking about, blogging about, and working for action on, climate change. It took me a while to call myself a “climate activist” but it’s a label that I now wear proudly, although I am starting to prefer the term “fossil fuel abolitionist”. Like the [...] We act not because it’s easy, but because it’s right. Thousands of people are gathering in Washington DC today to send a message to President Obama that clean air, clean water, and a stable climate are not negotiable – the Keystone XL Pipeline must not be approved. * The U.S. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its updated Arctic Report card earlier this week. Like many other recent reports about the condition of the north, the canary in climate change coal mine, the news is sobering; new records have been set for snow extent, sea ice extent and ice sheet surface melting. [...] There are a lot of things I could write about on this crisp winter morning; NOAA’s updated 2012 Arctic Report Card, for example (hint: it ain’t lookin’ good) or the aftermath of the tragedy in Newton Connecticut on Friday, or the (related) fact that American drones have killed nearly 200 innocent Pakistani children in the [...] So, COP18 in Doha has ended with a whimper not a bang – quelle surprise! Seems like greed is still trumping common sense and compassion for our children and those living on the edge in the world right now. While Doha did win recognition for poorer nations of the “loss and damage from climate change” [...] The lead negotiator for the Philippines at the Climate Conference in Doha, Naderev Saño, could not keep back the tears as he made a passionate appeal for real action on climate change. “I appeal to all, please, no more delays, no more excuses. Please, let Doha be remembered as the place where we found the [...] * If you think this ad should get on television, go to ExxonHatesYourChildren.com and donate some money (I did – and it brightened my day!). While the east coast of the U.S. continues to deal with the impacts of Frankenstorm Sandy, and the global food prices rise because of a climate destabilized by our carbon pollution, and the poorest of the poor who have done the least to cause this prob… . . . → Read More: 350 or bust: The History of Climate Negotiations In 83 Seconds “Today, humanity faces a stark choice: save the planet and ditch capitalism, or save capitalism and ditch the planet.” – Fawzi Ibrahim Tomorrow is Black Friday in the U.S. (and apparently we Canucks are now following our neighbour’s bad exa… . . . → Read More: 350 or bust: Black Friday: Rise Above It Naomi Klein was out in the shattered neighbourhood of Rockaway Park Queens last weekend, participating in the Occupy relief efforts there. In this interview she underscores the importance of both increasing local resilience as a response to our changin… . . . → Read More: 350 or bust: Naomi Klein: Do The Math, The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Destroying Our Future A bailout for the people, by the people: Occupy is buying up distressed debt from the banks for pennies on the dollar, and then – instead of extorting it out of the debters, as is the usual practise, it is wiping the slate clean. Brilliant, and v… . . . → Read More: 350 or bust: Rolling Jubilee: Occupy Turns Tables On Banks, Frees Debt |
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