By Roy L Hales
One June 8, Sierra Club BC released their report BC forest wake-up call. I responded by requesting an interview with Jens Wieting, of the Sierra Club, and shooting off a list of questions to the Ministry of Forests. As I published my interview with Wieting yesterday, it seems appropriate to publish the Ministry’s answers as a Q&A today.
Continue reading The Ministry’s Answers
British Columbia could be emissions free. The province’s forest cover is vast enough to absorb more carbon than we actually need to use. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Forests has not been doing a good job since the Liberal Government took power. Instead of storing carbon, BC’s forests now emit carbon. So many trees have been clear cut, infested by Mountain Pine Beetles or burned in forest fires, that BC’s forests produced 256 million tonnes of CO2 in the decade following 2003.
Continue reading BC’s Forests Produced 256 Million Tonnes of CO2By Roy L Hales
Are the drought conditions spreading throughout the West Coast connected to climate transformation? States of emergency have been declared in California, Washington and parts of Oregon. Though British Columbia has not experienced this, a recent computer simulation predicted 80% of its glaciers could disappear over the next decade. This entire region responded by joining with eight other states, on three continents, in a pact to tackle Climate Change. Yet the development of fossil fuel continues, so what has the Under 2 MOU changed on the West Coast?
Continue reading What Has The Under2 MOU Changed?By Roy L Hales
In 2009, Gregor Robertson was elected mayor of Vancouver after campaigning to make it the greenest city in the World. Two years later, the Economist ranked Vancouver #2 in North America. In 2013, Vancouver was chosen as the planet’s first Global Earth Hour Capital. The judges were impressed by the city’s overall holistic approach to climate action. According to the city’s sustainability director, Amanda Pitre-Hayes, Vancouver has made significant progress.
Continue reading Vancouver Has Made Significant Progress
Canada will not meet its emissions targets for 2020. There has been improvements since 2005, but the oil sector is expected to produce 28% more emissions by the end of this decade. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he would like to regulate the oil sands, but that “would be crazy” in light of economic developments. Despite the global trend towards adopting renewable energy and smart technologies, the Canadian government continued to tie this nation’s economic future to the fossil fuel industry. So what is Canada missing?
Continue reading What is Canada Missing?
