The global climate crisis is forcing us to restructure our thinking about almost everything we do. In the last two centuries, rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the single most influential greenhouse gas, have risen from 280 parts per million to 419 ppm, and are now threatening to literally cook us off the planet. At the seemingly modest temperature rise of 1.2°C, we are already starting to experience the disastrous effects on climate, species, ocean levels, weather patterns, food production, human health, and our general sense of physical and psychological wellbeing. Meanwhile, as carbon dioxide emissions continue to go up rather than down, the circumstances invite a paradigm shift in our thinking.
Continue reading The Quadra Project: Logging’s Carbon – Part 1Tag Archives: BC emissions
An invisible climate killer is lurking behind B.C.’s LNG boom
By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Invisible to the naked eye, undetectable by smell and 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide for its short-term warming impact on the climate, methane is explosive, toxic and can make helicopters fall out of the sky. It’s like something out of a superhero movie — or a bad dream.
About half of Canada’s reported methane emissions are produced by the oil and gas industry, both from regular operations and leaks. But much of the climate damage caused by the sector’s methane pollution goes undetected due to weak regulations.
Continue reading An invisible climate killer is lurking behind B.C.’s LNG boom
B.C. budget a mixed bag on climate
Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
B.C.’s budget viewed through a climate lens got mixed reviews from the province’s environmental and conservation sector following its release Tuesday.
The province got kudos for bolstering funding for parks and trails for active transportation initiatives to get people out of their cars and on bikes and walking paths. But the budget was panned by those hoping to see a wholesale commitment to the protection of old-growth or urgent, large-scale reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
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LNG Canada eyes electrification as planned expansion would send B.C. emissions skyrocketing
By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
For more than a decade, successive B.C. governments have thrown their hats behind an industry hellbent on getting gas out of the ground and across the Pacific to Asian markets.
LNG Canada, a liquefaction and export facility under construction in Kitimat, is poised to be the first project to do so. As the facility inches closer towards a goal of firing up operations in 2025, its partner companies are eyeing investment for an approved expansion, which would double the amount of gas processed at the plant.
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BC on track to miss emissions targets for 2025 and 2030
According to the government’s 2022 Climate Change Accountability Report, B.C. is currently on course to reach 85% of its emissions targets for 2025.
“We are making progress. I don’t want to discount the effort the provincial governement has made, but they’ve made very clear climate commitments and they’re very clearly not on track to meet them,” explained Peter McCartney of the Wilderness Committee.
Continue reading BC on track to miss emissions targets for 2025 and 2030