Energy

Tzeporah Berman (Part 2 of 4): The Problem With Ramping Up Fossil Fuel Production & Expanding Energy Consumption

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According to the Stockholm Resilience Centre, “Human activities have pushed Earth beyond its Safe Operating Space. The planet’s natural resilience is weakening: Global warming is accelerating, (and) ecosystems are showing clear signs of degradation.” In the second of four programs arising from an interview with Tzeporah Berman, Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, she explains that the problem is multifaceted, but two critical areas must be addressed: fossil fuel use and our rapidly expanding energy consumption.

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Housing

Rainbow Ridge: Two units rented out; Tours of the site

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The first tenants have been living at Rainbow Ridge for a month, and Cortes Island’s affordable housing complex is now offering tours of the site.

There were fifteen of us on Saturday, July 24. Most were curious neighbours, but a couple of people asked about rental rates, and there were also a couple of tourists. One summer resident, who does not have a washer or dryer, was very interested in the laundry club that will operate out of the community building.

Mark Lombard, the construction manager, gave Cortes Currents an interview after the tour. Work was in progress in a nearby building and construction noises periodically enter the audio. 

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Cost of Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Forests

Tzeporah Berman (Part 1 of 4): Then – and now

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More than thirty years have passed since Tzeporah Berman catapulted into public view as an organizer of the Clayoquot Sound logging blockade. She is the Co-founder and International Program Director at Stand.earth, the Founder and Steering Committee Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, and serves as a member of the Advisory Group for InfluenceMap. She is also an author, former adjunct professor, and has sat on committees advising the governments of B.C. and Alberta. When she’s not away speaking at conferences, or in the midst of negotiations, Tzeporah Berman is back in her home overlooking Gunflint Lake on Cortes Island. In the first of a series of broadcasts recorded there, she talks about then – and now. 

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Cost of Climate Change

The cost of a hotter world

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This week: The growing cost of climate change, a major EV milestone hit in the birthplace of the automobile, and how a Vancouver project is making clean mobility more equitable

by Keri McNamara, Trevor Melanson, Sicellia Tsui and Ciara Torrance of Clean Energy Canada

The climate bill is coming due

Extreme heat is no longer just a public health emergency. It’s becoming an economic one, too. Europe, where temperatures are rising at roughly twice the global average, is now the world’s fastest-warming continent—and the impacts are rippling through its economy. A single June heat wave cost the U.K. an estimated £1.5 billion as hotter working conditions dragged down productivity. 

Canada is getting its own reminder. Early estimates suggest Ontario has already experienced its worst wildfire season on record, with more than 7,250 square kilometres burned, over 1,800 people displaced, and the season far from over. And the most visible costs are only part of the tab: wildfire smoke is linked to an estimated 2,500 premature deaths in Canada each year, with the resulting public health impacts averaging $19 billion annually between 2014 and 2025.

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Energy

Kitimat officials divided over air quality concerns tied to LNG Canada

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By Sonal Gupta, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Michelle Martins remembers when young people couldn’t wait to leave Kitimat, BC. Now a town councillor, she worries unchecked industrial development could erode the qualities that finally made them stay.

“No one wants to go back to a time where Kitimat was becoming a ghost town,” Martins told Canada’s National Observer in an interview Wednesday.

Now, Kitimat is rapidly developing into a major coastal shipping hub for liquified natural gas (LNG) as Canada strives to increase exports to Asian markets. Along with this development, questions are being raised about the health and environmental impacts of LNG.

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Whats Current on Cortes and Beyond