The 2010 BC Budget was a disappointment on the climate action front. Even as Premier Campbell waxed poetic in the Globe about the impact of climate change on the 2010 Spring Games – with its sunny days, crocuses, daffodils and by the end, cherry blossoms making it fun for people on the street but a [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Climate change'
Climate inaction and BC’s budget
March 3rd, 2010 · Marc Lee · No Comments · Climate change, Provincial budget & finance
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Will the Olympics boost long-term tourism to BC?
February 15th, 2010 · Seth Klein · 19 Comments · Climate change, Economy
“We’ve invited the world, they’re coming, and the place is a mess.” That was the tag line the CCPA gave to our BC Solutions Budget back in 2004. At the time, we argued as strongly as we could that if BC was to change the story the world would tell of us this month, we [...]
Tags: Olympics
About that Copenhagen award
February 5th, 2010 · Marc Lee · 1 Comment · Climate change, Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Taxes
Back in December, during the Copenhagen negotiations, a group of environmentalists provided BC Premier Gordon Campbell with an award for climate leadership. Based primarily on the creation of a BC carbon tax two years ago, the Premier has gotten a lot of brownie points from the greens – in spite of the fact that there [...]
Now for some disaster relief on the homefront
January 22nd, 2010 · Marc Lee · 1 Comment · Climate change, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare
I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the public response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti. I’ve seen donations being collected through school bake sales, at the liquor store, and on Hockey Night in Canada, among the usual channels for such stuff. It’s nice to know that, collectively, we care, in spite of the neglect of [...]
Tags: carbon tax·Haiti·Olympics
Thinking about zero
January 21st, 2010 · Marc Lee · 3 Comments · Climate change, Environment, resources & sustainability
I’m still coming out of my malaise following the Copenhagen climate conference in December. It’s easy to think that the stupid political brinksmanship is never going to end, and the focus of attention will shift to adaptive measures. But what is more likely is a few more Katrina scale disasters that will serve to spur [...]
Tags: greenhouse gas·sustainability
First the party, next the hangover
January 12th, 2010 · Marc Lee · 1 Comment · Climate change, Economy, Provincial budget & finance
It’s shocking to think that the 2010 Winter Games are now exactly one month away. Yes, the banners are dropping down the side of downtown buildings; huge tents are being erected anywhere there is open space; advertising from any but the Olympic sponsors has all but disappeared (I hereby challenge any Olympic athlete to eat [...]
Tags: Olympics
Copenhagen and carbon budgets
December 14th, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · Climate change, Environment, resources & sustainability
As Copenhagen heads into week two, most of the talk has shifted to targets and timelines, typically something like X% of emissions by 2020 or 2050, relative to 1990 levels. This dating is a legacy of the German delegation in the lead-up to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, who wanted a base year of 1990 [...]
Tags: Copenhagen·GHG emissions
Every revolution is about power
December 3rd, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · Climate change, Environment, resources & sustainability
So what does a sustainable economy really look like, and how do we get there? Climate change essentially means a huge mitigation effort on greenhouse gases culminating in something close to zero emissions by mid-century at the latest. This means phasing out fossil fuels entirely; or minimally, if it comes out of the ground emissions [...]
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BC’s GHG emissions shell game
October 30th, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · Climate change, Environment, resources & sustainability
The BC government recently announced a new climate action of some consequence: the phasing out of the Burrard Thermal plant in Metro Vancouver. The unit was used largely for back-up purposes, producing electricity for BC Hydro to supplement hydropower during times of high demand. But at a large GHG cost per unit of energy — [...]
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Climate deniers – what more evidence will it take?
October 28th, 2009 · Seth Klein · 9 Comments · Climate change
In this lead up to the Copenhagen meetings, it seems to me that we’re seeing a distressing up-tick in activity from the climate denial crowd. You’d think we’d be well past this point now.
Some people seem prepared to take the lack of 100% agreement as a legitimate justification for inaction. That’s illogical.
I’m a parent, and [...]
Tags: greenhouse gas
