Shame in Cancun

It look like the best outcome for Canada in Cancun would be to avoid wasting tax payers money and make sure our new anti-environment minister, John Baird, stays home. Recent article confirmed what many were fearing: the Harper government is not only fighting against any ghg's regulations in Canada, they also fight in other countries, like the US, to protect the tar sand industry interests.

In Cancun, things look really bad, our government seems to be trying to kill any new internationally binding agreement. Just hope that one day, we can sue Steven Harper under criminal law for refusing to take necessary steps to protect populations against climate change.

Chruch and Climate Change, part II

Religion and behavior: closely related

Look at the differences with people driving in Québec, France or Italy compared to the rest of Canada. Catholicism is the main religion in Québec and many latin country. Catholic religion told us that the priest is responsible for communication with God and if you do anything bad, you must ask forgiveness to the priest on Sunday. Somewhat, we are then not in power of our own destiny, but the priest is. Protestantism, more present in the rest of Canada, taught a more direct communication with God, which help empowering people to be more responsible in their life and on the road... France, Quebec are much more structure in their law system than the rest of Canada. Quebec a civil code, while the rest of Canada relies on past court decision, or the common law, or "common sense"...

I often think that one of the reason why we are not respecting our planet is that we think we are superior to it. We are the intelligent species on Earth that can control all others. By saying, "you can stop progress", we became so good in controlling nature that we are now killing it and we will be the next species at risk if we continue the current curse. All of this false superiority, I believed is linked to our foundations of our society, which is rooted into the Genesis and Christianity.

The other point that I would make, is that we designed our factories, our economy, our education, with the straight line model that look likes our conception of life. We extract ressources (give birth), manufacture (being raise), use (strive for success and being parent as well) and dispose or them (die). It seems to be the normal thing to do and that was how my engineering courses at universities were designed.

There is no linear process in nature and there is no way we wan solve climate change (achieve 95% emissions reduction by 2050) if we don't start doing like nature and recycle absolutely everything. This concept in engineering is called industrial ecology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_ecology

I don't know much about Eastern culture much and their conception of life (I also have no clue about Islam), but I believe there is much more "recycling loop" in the Eastern culture. Hindism, buddism believe in reincarnation and it seems that their society was not in race of extraction natural resources, until they saw what we were doing and find it cool. Some tibetans culture cut their deaths and feed back fishes and birds ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial ) They are part of nature. When you live in a society where people have multiple lifes, maybe there is no need to rush...

First nation cultures in America have a drastic different relationship with Earth. They are part of the ecosystem. Hunters used to visit Shaman to ask permission to kill an animal and feed their families. Western culture made hunting a sport game.

Finally, for centuries, Catholic Church have been the most powerful and wealthy institution in the world. If our society was dominated then by building covered with gold, maybe we wanted to achieve the same.

If we want to move away from catastrophic climate changes consequences and declines in ecosystems, we need to redefine our deep notion of what are we living for, what we are striving for. I think that philosophy and spirituality and maybe a fresh way of looking at religion can help us achieving this.

Church and Climate Change

Part 1:
The world model today, like it or not, is the Unites States. Many felt with the Obama election that Americans were electing not only their president, but the president for the entire world. China, India and many Middle-East countries are now racing to look like the US and the rest of the western world. Why is it so important to look like us?

I am not too sure why developing countries are racing to be like the western world, but I have a good idea why we are the dominant culture today. Jared Diamond, in "Guns, Germs and Steel" explained this conquest in a bright manner. (Free video on the internet: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4008293090480628280# ) Wikipedia has a great summary of the book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel

Assuming that we agreed on the western culture is dominating today and our life style, linked to our ecological footprint, is totally unsustainable, what is the the link with churches?

My catholic educations taught me few things outside universal values:
- as human, we are creature of God and superior to any living thing; (Genesis 1)
- our life is a linear process: birth, raised, become parents ourself, the sky become the limit until we die and actually go there. The next stage is heaven, purgatory or hell. We have only one chance, we won't come back.

Even though many of us, including me, are not going to Church anymore, those religious teaching are deeply rooted in our behavior. Sceptical?

The pine beetles "produced" CO2 almost at the same level of the entire province in 2007!

This is very interesting and scary!
In 2007, BC governement reported a total of 52.1 megatonnes of CO2e from our forest emitted in BC. Almost 80% of the amount officially reported by the government, at 67.3 megatonnes.

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/climate/ghg-inventory/pdf/pir-2007-full-report.pdf

Can we call this a dangerous feedback loop?

The Tyee article:
Gov't Buries Fact that Logging Blows Our Emissions Target
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2009/09/23/LoggingCO2/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=280909

I don't understand why the author says that logging is responsible for this issue. By looking at figure 22 (page 57) of the 2007 government report, it is quite clear that logging emissions are quite stable. The real culprit is the pine beetles who makes our forests decay and release GHG instead of sequestration the carbon.

There are some questions raised about the methodology of the calculations as well. The report added the following note:
"All carbon stored in harvested wood products is assumed under current international accounting protocols to be converted to CO2 and emitted immediately to the atmosphere. This is an overestimation of emissions since carbon embedded in wood products is sequestered for an extended period of time prior to the eventual decay of wood products and release of emissions. These protocols may be subject to change in future international negotiations."

Other interesting facts from the chapter 9 and deforestation:
Oil & gas industry creates more deforestation than the forestry industry...

The reports shows many trends from all sectors. A good reading.

Pedal for the Planet

Comment, by Alexandre Vigneault

I did the first two legs of Pedal for the Planet last weekend. The first day was my longest ride in a day, with 120km. A little bit painful with my fat tire cross-country mountain bike, but I didn't complain since two girls in the group, with no previous long distance cycling experience, where going up to Ontario.

Many people are asking why are we doing this. The next Kyoto protocol will be negotiated in Copenhagen next December. Our conservative federal government have been sabotaging all previous discussion, winning countless fossil awards. We want this to change and we need more support from Canadians.

In my opinion, it will be beneficial for the world if the Harper delegation was just not showing up at the next climate change negotiation round, or just go and stay silent.
At the Pedal for the Planet Launch in Vancouver on Saturday, David Suzuki expressed well his frustrations: http://kyotoplus.ca/pedal/ (first video on the page)

Well, there is still hope to change course, as we are experiencing in the US rigth now. Obama administration is making a sea of changes and Canada unfortunately seems to be missing completely the wagon... If the US bans tar sand products from Alberta, maybe our federal government will wake up... http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090213/full/news.2009.103.html

Join us on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pedal-for-the-Planet-Pedalez-pour-la-planete/80806727223#/group.php?gid=91605064668
Read the blog of the riders: http://www.rideforourbrightfuture.blogspot.com/

May 12th election

My vote on May 12th

It is election time in BC, and it is so refreshing to see that climate change policies and the environment are the hot topic.

The environmental movement is split. On one side, you have some folks saying that our present Liberal government is the worst in decades and others says that we now have world leading environmental policies. Who should you believe?

I am going to give you my point of view...

When I arrived in Vancouver 4 years ago, one of the first environmental rally that I participate was "Gateway sucks". A controversial program brought by the Liberals to add new roads and bridges in metro Vancouver. Generally speaking, simply adding more roads had proven to be wrong. The more road you add, the more cars will come to fill them up, worsening the initial problem.

I then heard about the salmon issues. The Liberals were helping the fast expansion of salmon fish farms. Salmon fish farms are located in open water, spreading disease and parasites to wild salmon passing by, threatening their own survival.

The list doesn't stop there and could probably continue for many more lines, with subsidies for oil and gas industries, lifting oil and gas exploration moratorium, etc....

But then came Al Gore and the Inconvenient truth, and Gordon Campbell changed is view on the environment.

The "new" Campbell surrounded himself of climate experts and designed arguably, the most progressive climate legislation in North America.

Some key points:
- The carbon tax, which is covering 3/4 of BC GHG's emissions. It is designed to be revenue neutral. The concept is to lower taxes on thing that we want: income, and increased taxes on things that we don't want: pollution. It will increase over time, so consumers have time to make choices to reduce their bills.
- Cap & Trade with for major polluters, which is called the Western Climate Initiative.

Other interesting point:
- 90% of new electrical power plant have to generate zero emissions.
- Introduction of a two-tier BC Hydro pricing system. This system protects low income people with a smaller energy bills until a fixed number if kWh is consumed.
- Smart metering: BC Hydro users will be able to see in real time their electricity consumption.

On campuses:
- Introduction of Bill 44, where every public institutions in BC has to become carbon neutral 2010.

Meanwhile, the NDP, which traditionally was considered environmentally friendly, vote against most of this measures and is actively campaigning against them. The most disturbing campaign was
the "axe the tax" designed to mislead the public about who is really paying the carbon tax and gaining political support. According to the NDP, all the burden is under the individuals, and the big company get free ride. As if big companies do not consume fossil fuel... The campaign was unfortunately a big success and stop the liberal climate agenda to go much further.

No one will argue that Liberals environmental policies are perfect. However they seems to understand the climate policies. It is all about pricing and covering the widest range of emissions. Climate change is the number 1 threat for the environment as well as for our human civilization. I don't see the point of fighting against small hydro electrical project to protect biodiversity, while climate change, with the pine beetle epidemic, already killed more than 10 millions of hectares of forest in BC.

Liberals have been wrong on many environmental issues and their energy and climate policies are far to be perfect. However, they took bold steps that make BC now a leader in North America. If NDP win on May 12, we are going 15 years backward. Worst, every politicians in North America will be afraid to put forward meaningful climate policies for decades ahead. Canada Liberals already put the blame of the defeat of last election on Stephane Dion's carbon tax.

For the sake of climate policies in North America, which will have huge influence on the rest of the world, for the sake of fighting global warming, I am voting against NDP on May 12th. NPD needs to stay in opposition and go back to their drawing board.

Canadian for a Progressive Coalition

Let’s week, a friend of mine ask me to translate documents in French for a very interesting campaign. Bringing the Bloc Québécois, NDP and Liberals together to form a coalition government. With the Greens includes, all those parties represent more than 60% of the votes during the last elections. However, to my great discontent, we still have a right wing government in Ottawa. With the economic crisis striking all around the globe, I’m confident that Harper’s government will use it as an excuse to avoid any meaningful climate change actions or international leadership roles.

All the center to left parties have a lot in common to fight climate, and yet differences. But I will argue that more will happen with a coalition government that with the current one.

If you share my view, please sign the online petition and join the facebook group.

Petition
http://www.progressivecoalition.ca/

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=21013685&ref=profile#/group.php?gid=27949758238&ref=mf

To avoid catastrophic climate change, we don’t have a lot of time to stop the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions, about ten years. Anything help!

Merve Wilkinson

A very emotionally rich week! First, I have to say that I feel sorry for the millions of Canadians who lost tons of money and saw their retirement plan melt like ice cream on a patio… However, there are positive things with this economic storm: Harper’s team is loosing steam and Obama is on the rise! That means a lot for meaningful action on climate change in the future. It is still very, very important to vote strategically on October 14th, so please check one of those websites if you care about the issue.
www.voteforclimate.ca
http://www.voteenvironment2008.ca/
http://www.avaaz.ca/ca/stop_harper_pledge/?cl=135350169&v=2254

I would like to start a ‘hero’ series. We sometime have the chance to meet amazing and inspiring people. That happened to me in August, while I was attending the Youth Action Gathering, organized by SYC and the BCCCN. The event was held at the Wildwood EcoForest, near Nanaimo, where I met an extraordinary person, Merve Wilkinson.

In 1938, Merve Wilkinson bought 137 acres of land in a hope to start an agro business. The soil was too poor and Merve decided in 1945 to do forestry instead. Decades before the concept of “sustainability” was emerging, Merve applied the principles on his land. He developed sustainable logging practices, observing and preserving the ecosystem; logging a little bit less than the measured forest growth rate, keeping his forest “multiage, multiheight and multispecies”.

The next paragraph is extracted from: http://managingwholes.com/merve.htm
“In 1993, the MacMillan Bloedel company, a major licensee operating on crown land, refused to abandon its plans to clearcut a significant portion of Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In August 1993, Merve and his wife Anne took part in a protest blockade of the access road. Merve convinced many of the demonstrators to protest clearcutting rather than timber harvest per se. (Merve thought that since he was able to change the position of environementalists, but not the logging company’s, he decided to stand with the protesters and get arrested.) Merve and Anne were arrested (along with 850 others) for ignoring the British Columbia Supreme Court injunction against interference with MacMillan Bloedel’s plans. During the trial, Merve told the judge, “My Lord, it is not necessary to destroy the forest to extract timber. It is a matter of method.”“

The Clayoquot Sound resistance got a lot of media attention and was a major step towards changing logging practices in BC.

Merve is now 95 years old, I believed, and still live in a wooden house on his land and will welcome any visitors. I can guaranty that a visit there will be legendary.

Ending Greed

Someone told me one day (maybe my mom) that in a democracy, we have the politicians that reflect who we are… If so, can we stop to be that much greedy, let’s say for the next 50 years…?

The Conservative are heading towards a majority government in Canada and the Republicans in the US might keep the Whitehouse for another 4 years. Both elections this year looks like a gong show about who are going to lower taxes the most; which party is going to bring you the most money into our pocket. As Canadians, do we really need all those extra dollars?? We were taught to vote for the politicians who will best represent my interest. So it could have nothing wrong with having more money to spend, but where in our democracy are we caring about the next generation? We got from my grandparent generation polluted rivers and lakes from pulp mill, manufactures and mines. My parent’s generation will give us depleted oceans, more polluted rivers with industrial agriculture, a bunch of toxic waste from large scale industrial complex and most likely catastrophic climate change.

Could my generation aims giving back rivers and lakes that you can swim into without fearing about your health; a stable climate, where people can live with secure food and housing; clean air where you can bike to your school or workplace, without inhaling dangerous smog or poisonous gas or particulate matters? Could we accept that doing this won’t be easy and will cost money, but what a good investment for the future?

There is a good website about how to vote strategically next elections, and avoid a Conservative government holding a majority…
www.voteforclimate.ca
Other interesting website:
http://www.voteenvironment2008.ca/
http://www.powerupcanada.ca/

Fall political season is ON

The fall political season is getting exciting and/or depressing. We are going to be experiencing elections both in Canada and in the US.

On this side of the border, the next government will likely be either a second Harper government with its friendly oil lobby, or less likely a new Dion government, with a Green Shift program. Unfortunately for the green advocates, Dion’s party is very week in many part of Canada, especially in Québec. The oil lobby might get even stronger in Ottawa for the next 4 years, and the climate change activists will probably be very busy with protests and petitions.

On the South side of the border, Republican John Mc Cain just picked a human induced climate change denier as his running mate. The irony is that Mrs. Palin is the governor of Alaska, where climate change is and will be the most visible. I’m hoping that the hotness of Mrs. Palin won’t seduce America too long and the Artic Wildlife Refugee will stay wild, free of oil drilling.

If both Harper and Republicans win this fall, it will be a huge blow on the moral of those friendly climate change activists but more dramatic, quite a set back for our planet.