Tag Archives: 1.5°C

Environment

A UBC Professor Explains What To Look For At COP 28 & Why He Does Not Believe In Overshoot

2 Comments

With the COP 28 only a little more than a week away, the University of British Columbia held a press conference about key issues. In the breakout session, Cortes Currents asked Dr Simon Donner a former COP delegate and professor from the Department of Geography and Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, two questions.

  1. Many people on Cortes and Quadra Islands believe in the Overshoot theory. What do you say to people who believe that Climate Change is a symptom of a much larger problem: there are too many of us living on a planet with rapidly diminishing resources?
Continue reading A UBC Professor Explains What To Look For At COP 28 & Why He Does Not Believe In Overshoot →
Environment

The Quadra Project: “Damned Fools”

The mood in the U.S. Senate on June 23, 1988, was expectant and tense. A prominent scientist from NASA, Dr. James Hansen, was giving testimony about the condition of the world’s climate and the implications for both the United States and planet Earth as a consequence of continued global carbon dioxide emissions. His prognosis was serious and sobering. His evidence unequivocally supported the conclusion that the results would be a catastrophic rise in temperature, with a consequent melting of ice caps, an uncontrollable rise in sea levels, and widespread disruptions in normal weather as carbon dioxide levels rose. Other scientific evidence was equivocal, but Hansen argued that no other explanation but carbon dioxide emissions came “anywhere close” to explaining the existing weather anomalies.

Continue reading The Quadra Project: “Damned Fools” →
Politics

Max Thaysen: first two months with the North Island NDP Electoral District Association

There are 87 electoral district associations (EDAs) in BC, each one of which sends an MLA to the provincial Legislature. 

In July Max Thaysen was elected Vice President of the Executive Committee of the North Island NDP Electoral District Association.

Continue reading Max Thaysen: first two months with the North Island NDP Electoral District Association →
Environment, Politics

Canada’s largest labour organization adopts climate action plan at tri-annual convention

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Despite differences of opinion, a clear majority of delegates voted to adopt the Canadian Labour Congress’ (CLC) proposed climate action plan at its tri-annual convention in Montreal.

On May 9, workers representing local, regional and national unions weighed in on a climate action plan that will shape the mandate of Canada’s largest labour organization for the next three years. This is the first time the CLC, which represents more than three million workers across the country, has devised action plans as well as policy resolutions for different topics, including climate change, Indigenous justice, affordability, infrastructure, health care and organizing.

Continue reading Canada’s largest labour organization adopts climate action plan at tri-annual convention →
Environment

Canada’s Environment Minister says the federal government will take a ‘long, hard look’ at upping its climate target following IPCC report

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As the world stares down an ongoing and rapidly worsening climate crisis, wealthy countries like Canada must hit the “fast-forward button” and push up their net-zero emissions deadlines to 2040, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said Monday.

Guterres’ remarks accompanied the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the last of this decade — which shows the goal of keeping global warming under 1.5 C “is achievable,” he said. “But it will take a quantum leap in climate action.”

Continue reading Canada’s Environment Minister says the federal government will take a ‘long, hard look’ at upping its climate target following IPCC report →