A tar sands operation in Fort McMurray, Alberta (photo: Chris Krüg) Read this shocking May 19 story from the EU Observer on a new study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which pegs subsidies to the fossil fuel sector at a whopping $5.3 Trillion USD per year. Around 1.6 million premature
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The Disaffected Lib: Are You Supporting Politics of Nihilism?
2030. You do realize that’s just 15-years away. Do you realize that 15-years is a heartbeat when it comes to making fundamental change? So, what’s so important about 2030? Plenty. By then we’ll be experiencing climate change impacts that are disruptive and difficult to bear. Take your head out of
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Saskatchewan Needs a Real Change of Destination
Greg is making a good point in his latest column, but I had to throw in a Green campaign slogan into the title in good fun. The bottom line really is that the Sask Party is propping up the dying fossil fuels industry, while calls to divest from it are
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Leave It In The Ground
The world has much more coal, oil and gas in the ground than it can safely burn. That much is physics. Watch this compelling, factual argument about how to solve the climate crisis. I first became aware of this straightforward idea after watching Do The Math by 350.org run by
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Mariana Mazzucato argues that we need to change our conversation and our policy choices on public investment in Canada’s economy: As in many other countries, the conversation about government and public investment in Canada has for decades distorted and underplayed the role
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower Says Bigger Is Better, Even Losses? #PowerToGrow
As a followup to the Star Phoenix’s article on the hugely expensive, and (public) money losing CCS plant at Estevan, comes word of further cost overruns. The overruns, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, would have been sufficient to buy Regina its Stadium II, outright, fix its pension shortfall,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Latest Harper Omnibus bill guts regulations for coal, LNG ports
Neptune coal terminal (Image: Dan Pierce/Wilderness Committee) By Andrew Gage and Anna Johnston – republished with permission from West Coast Environmental Law On October 23, 2014, the federal government introduced Bill C-43, A second Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures (also called the
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower, How’s That 14 Year Test Going?
Dear SaskPower, I’m interested in seeing the statistics regarding the electricity generated by the test panels installed on the Saskatchewan Science Centre, in the attached picture, and as mentioned in the below quote from your website a couple years ago. Solar research: In 2000, we installed a photovoltaic array at
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Saskatchewan’s Biggest Net Loss
How did Postmedia manage to let this Hanley column sneak into its pages? Mandryk got his shots in at Cenovus and Wall already too. SaskWind has provided a breath of fresh air to Saskatchewan political analysis also. I expect Canadians would want to know whether their tax dollars are being
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: OPEC Sees a Bright Future Ahead. Unfortunately, It’s Not Yours.
As far as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, is concerned the future looks rosy. In its latest outlook report, OPEC foresees $177 per barrel oil prices by 2040 and a market that will require an extra 21 million barrels a day over the next 25-years to meet growing
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: "Coal Is The Future" – Tony Abbott
Australia’s prime ministerial windbag, Tony Abbott, leaves no doubt about where he stands on climate change – it’s “crap.” Since coming to power, the now seriously unpopular Abbott has wasted no time boosting coal energy, coal exports and dismembering the country’s renewable energy and climate change initiatives. Here’s what Abbott
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: SaskPower Carbon Capture and Storage Goes Online Late, Over Budget
I must print a “correction” to my piece in April when I reported that the SaskPower CCS plant was on time and online. The plant went online late last month, two seasons after it was scheduled, to deal with an apparently surprise asbestos attack. While the final costs are still
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Port Metro endorses “fuel of last century” with coal terminal OK
Port Metro Vancouver is taking a big step backwards with Fraser River coal terminal approval, critics say By Chris Rose – republished with permission from Desmog.ca Canada’s largest port has given the green light to a proposed controversial facility on the Fraser River that would unload U.S. coal destined for energy-hungry Asia. Despite
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Conservative Chris Tells A Tall Tale
.@CBCNews – @calxandr HarperCON’s trained MP seal, announces Poverty has been eliminated in Canada. Yes, really youtu.be/ncUtF2E7D8Y— StopApartheid Israel (@NadineLumley) July 24, 2014 How Chris Alexander stacks up with James Moore, and Lying Leona A. I’ll leave to you to sort out.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Fraser Surrey Docks: Metro has no right to regulate air quality
Fraser Surrey Docks is seeking to expand coal exports – something Metro Vancouver takes issue with Read this July 9 story by Jeff Nagel in the Peace Arch News on the battle now working through the courts regarding Metro Vancouver’s legal authority to restrict coal exports based on health risks to
Continue readingreeves report: ECO urges province to create new climate action plan
SO MUCH OF THE THINKING around climate change has evolved since 2007 that Ontario’s seven-year-old climate action plan is now “irrelevant” according to Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller. In releasing Looking for Leadership: The Costs of Climate Inaction this morning, Miller said the province has been a leader in the climate file but has
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Challenging U.S. Coal to China from Texada Island, BC
Friday, June 13, 2014 Should BC be used to trans-ship American coal to China? Who gets to decide? And what does that mean for our environment? These issues and others will be considered in a legal challenge brought by Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC), with support from our
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: It is not ‘Miller Time’ Dan, Green Up or Brown Out!
Richard ‘Hub’ Hughes- Here is disappointing post from former NDP Premier Dan Miller. It reads like the flashback that it is. Time will tell whether Miller’s missive will be embraced, rejected or ignored by the new BC NDP opposition leader, John Horgan. Dan Miller: How will we pay
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Peak Oil Is Not Coming…
It’s here. This IEA report spells out peak oil as being in the past. “Days of cheap energy over, IEA figures show” The IEA’s annual outlook on investment, released today, shows annual investment in new fuel and electricity supply has more than doubled in real terms since 2000. Costs to
Continue readingThings Are Good: Obama Takes On Coal Power Plants
Coal is one of the worst sources for energy given that its contribution to destruction of our planet is unmatched. There have been attempts to make coal branded as “clean coal” but even then, the radiation emitted from coal power plants is too high and the pollutants released into the
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