There have been 150,000 visits to the Global Forest Watch website since it went online Thursday and for good reason. The interactive map is an an online forest monitoring system, created by the World Resources Institute and more than 40 partners, that allows you to examine changes in the forest cover anywhere in the World. They drew upon many databases, including Google Maps , data from the University of Maryland and satellite imagery. Global Forest Watch has already shown that the World lost 2.3 million kilometres of tree covering between 2000 and 2012. My concerns were more specific, I wanted to know if the forests in Canada and the US are presently emitting, or storing, carbon.
“We don’t have that data yet,” said Forests Communication Officer James Anderson, who then proceeded to show me some of the data the site does have.
Tag Archives: Gov of BC
Preparing for the Carbon Bubble
Business as usual is no longer a viable option for the fossil fuel industry. At the present rate of consumption, the world is heading towards a 6°C rise in global temperatures. Fossil fuel companies are exposing their investors to financial and climate risk. These were among the many topics discussed as Mark Campanale, of the London-based Carbon Tracker Initiative, explained how we should be preparing for the carbon bubble.
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Riverside Energy Systems Shows BC’s Solar Potential
According to Dave Egles’ study, the Potential for Solar Power in British Columbia: 2007 to 2025, BC’s climate is much more amenable to solar than either Germany’s or Japan’s. The average production of a PV solar array in Kamloops, for example, is 1160 kWh/kW of PV installed. Even Vancouver (1009) has much more solar potential than Tokyo (885) or Berlin (only 848). One of our readers has provided more recent data that shows the last two figures are probably too low (see comments, below), but it is obvious BC has a great deal of untapped potential.
BC’s Forests at Risk: Logging Practices Must Change
The health of BC’s forest cover is not good. In many parts of the province, our forests are emitting carbon, rather than absorbing it.
According to a story in the Times Colonist, “the province’s own data (shows that) net carbon dioxide emissions from forestland in 2011 were 34.9 million tons, equivalent to more than half of B.C.’s total official emissions for that year. However, only carbon emissions from deforestation and afforestation (new or replanted forests) are included in the province’s official total.”
Impending Hearings on BC’s Kinder Morgan Pipeline
The next act in what some are already calling a struggle to Save the Salish Sea began on December 16, 2013, when Kinder Morgan filed an application to build and extend the 1,150-mile-long Trans Mountain pipeline that brings oil from Alberta to BC’s Lower Mainland. The impending hearings on BC’s Kinder Morgan Pipeline project could shape the province’s environmental prospects for decades.