Tag Archives: Oil Spills

Energy

Is tidal energy the surge remote coastal communities need?

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Many remote West Coast communities rely on diesel for electricity generation, which poses a range of negative economic, social, and environmental effects.

But some sites along B.C.’s extensive coastline are ideal for tidal energy micro-grids that may well be the answer for off-grid communities to generate clean power, suggested experts at a COAST (Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies) virtual event Wednesday.

Continue reading Is tidal energy the surge remote coastal communities need? →
Energy, Environment, Indigenous Nations

Sumas First Nation Calls For Independent Investigation Of Oil Spill

1 Comment

By Carl Meyer, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The chief of Sumas First Nation is calling for an independent investigation into the Trans Mountain pipeline, following an oil spill this past weekend near a significant burial ground for the community.

Continue reading Sumas First Nation Calls For Independent Investigation Of Oil Spill →
Energy, Environment

After The Dinan Bay Diesel Spill

By Karissa Gall, Haida Gwaii Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Shoreline cleanup and sampling is complete following the Dinan Bay diesel spill last month.

Taan Forest spilled approximately 4,500 litres of diesel into the bay on April 22, when a valve feeding fuel to the electrical generator on the Toba Barge failed.

Continue reading After The Dinan Bay Diesel Spill →
Environment

The Big Spill

3 Comments

(The second in a series of articles from the 2019 Campbell River Emergency Preparedness Trade Show.)

I was immediately drawn to Western Canada Marine Spill Response Corporation (WCMRC) booth. This company founded in 1976 and cleans about 20 spills a year. Most of these are relatively small, like the incident in Gorge Harbour, Cortes Island. I was more interested in the fact they cleaned up the big spill in Burnaby, during 2007 – which gives us some insight into what a major bitumen spill on the West Coast of British Columbia might look like.

Continue reading The Big Spill →
Uncategorized

Precaution and common sense

1 Comment

Over 2500 years ago, Chinese Taoist Lao Tzu included precaution among his attributes of wisdom in the Tao Te Ching: “Those who rush ahead don’t go far,” he warned.

“Better safe than sorry,” my mother warned me many times. Most mothers have said something similar: “Safety first” or “look before you leap.” Yorkshire writer Charlotte Brontë, went one-step farther: “Look twice before you leap.” Japanese mothers may say, “Yudan taiteki”: “Rashness is your enemy.” 

Precaution is common sense and would have prevented virtually all of Earth’s current ecological crises. Instead, in the stampede to plunder Earth’s bounty and accrue wealth, humanity has actually made itself poorer by degrading the real wealth, Earth’s rivers, oceans, soil, atmosphere, and biological diversity. 

Continue reading Precaution and common sense →