Theoretically, politicians are stewards of the nation’s resources and regulators of industries that exploit public assets. Yet those chamberlains receive contributions worth millions of dollars every year from the people they are supposed to regulate. …
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Earthgauge Radio: Earthgauge Radio November 29, 2012: international climate science, Ottawa climate politics, and the growing movement to protect Canada’s waterways
This week on Earthgauge Radio, we’re talking about climate change and the protection of Canadian waterways. I have 3 features on the program today: Radio EcoShock‘s broadcast of a speech by the top U.K. climate scientist Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research My interview with John Bennett, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of […]
Things Are Good: Geothermal Efficiency Projects
Geothermal power generation has been used all over the world and can be used for power generation of small and large power plants. It can be a local installation that powers a house to mega projects like those in Iceland that can power cities. In the USA there are two projects underway that are designed […]
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Green byelection blues
Alas, the Green Party didn’t pick any seats up in the Nov 26 Canadian federal by-elections. While their strong showings probably count as a real moral victory, I imagine at this stage they’d prefer amoral, real victories. 😉 As it turns out, Parliament’s composition is unchanged, “while my green heart gently weeps”. Despite donating to […]
Things Are Good: A Solar Powered Combustion Engine May Be in Your Future
This may sound counter-intutitive, but researches have begun a project to build an internal combustion engine (a common car engine) that runs off of solar power. Instead of using gas to ignite everything they want to heat water, add a dash of oil, to create a replacement to the overused pollution producing machine that is […]
Continue readingEarthgauge Radio: Earthgauge Radio November 22, 2012: 24 hours of Climate Reality and the International Year of Cooperatives
This week on Earthgauge Radio: we’re talking about the U.N. International Year of Cooperatives and featuring highlights from last week’s online 24 Hours of Climate Reality international media event. To kick off today’s program, I speak with Donna Balkin. She’s the Communications Manager for the Canadian Co-operative Association and, as 2012 was designated by the United Nations as the […]
Earthgauge Radio: IEA: Idea that we have reached “Peak Oil” incorrect
A new International Energy Agency report states that the idea of “peak oil” (that the world is essentially running out of oi supplies) is false. The IEA claims that, there are in fact plenty of fossil fuels reserves remaining in the Earth but that only one-third of them can be burned if we are to […]
Eclectic Lip: Newsflash: Canadian PM’s American Idol supports Stephane Dion-esque carbon tax shift
Note: for non-Canadian readers (or, indeed for Canadian readers who don’t follow politics) Stephane Dion was the milquetoast who led the Liberal Party of Canada to its then-worst-ever federal election result in 2008. He ran on a campaign of a carbon tax shift (“The Green Shift“), for which the Conservative Party mocked and savaged him. We’ll […]
Things Are Good: Pacific Island 100% Solar Powered
Tokelau is a small island in the Pacific that has switched it’s entire power grid to solar, this is the first of a few islands in the region that will be fully independent from having to import fuel for electricity.
Before the solar power grid was completed, the New Zealand-administered grouping of three coral atolls, […]
Northern Insight: Take from the poor, give to the rich
Further to my comments about homeowners subsidizing industrial power, here is an extract from the blog of Vancouver lawyer Jim Quail, Site C and the Kitimat LNG Export Terminal: Christy Clark’s Program for Income Redistribution: “…Hydro would sell that much power to one corporate mega-project, at industrial tariff rates of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Solar Panels Break 1/3 Record
Photovoltaic solar panels are measured in terms of how efficient they are at converting light into electricity. Obviously potential energy is lost when this conversion occurs and it has long been speculated that it would be possible to get 1/3 of the energy captured converted into electricity. In labs, this
Continue readingearthgauge: Earthgauge Radio November 1, 2012: PowerShift 2012 featuring Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben
Download: earthgauge-podcast-nov-1-2012.mp3 On Earthgauge Radio this week, we’ll be featuring a wrap-up of the recent PowerShift 2012 conference, which took place over the past weekend in Ottawa and Gatineau. I have two special features on today’s show from PowerShift 2012: Bill McKibben‘s keynote address Media panel Q&A with Naomi Klein Click
Continue readingearthgauge: Tomorrow on Earthgauge Radio: PowerShift 2012! Featuring Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben
Happy Halloween! On Earthgauge Radio this week, a huge youth conference climate conference took place in Ottawa and Gatineau this past weekend called PowerShift 2012. This was an historic gathering of over 1500 young people from across the country intended to strengthen the movement for climate and environmental justice. PowerShift
Continue readingearthgauge: Hurricane Sandy Speaks: Don’t Curse Me, I Have Been Pumped Full of Fossil-fuel Steroids
Sea water floods Ground Zero, Monday in New York Great article by Stephen Leahy written from the perspective of Hurricane Sandy, which is currently wreaking havoc across the northeast coast of North America. Here’s an excerpt: “There are estimates that I might cause $20 billion in damages in the US
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Guest post regarding Narrows Inlet
Submission to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office regarding the proposed Narrows Inlet private power project Submitted by: Joan and Soren Bech Roberts Creek, B.C. Public consultation process On Oct. 12, we attended the Open House in Egmont, expecting to be able to provide comments on the NI
Continue readingThings Are Good: Saudi Arabia Plans for 100% Renewable Energy
67 year old Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud wants Saudi Arabia to be fully powered by renewable energy in his lifetime. Saudi Arabia is one of the largest oil producers in the world and is probably the most symbolic oil-rich nation. The fact that the country’s leaders want to
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Would we vote for someone who promised to:
“Protect BC Hydro and all of its core assets, including dams, reservoirs and power lines under public ownership.” “Restore an independent BC Utilities Commission, to re-regulate BC Hydro’s electricity rates.” “Pass a Living Rivers Act to protect and improve BC’s river systems with scientifically-based standards for watershed management, enhancements to
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: BC’s Natural Gas Strategy nothing more than a fairy tale
I have an oped in Saturday’s Vancouver Sun. The editor wanted me to focus on the claims of economic gains for BC, so the piece ended up being a complementary piece to the Behind the Numbers report on GHG emissions and the Natural Gas Strategy. The title was his choice not
Continue readingearthgauge: Earthgauge Radio October 18 2012: James Kunstler (part 2) and The Climate Reality Project
Download: earthgauge-podcast-oct-18-2012.mp3 On Earthgauge Radio this week, we continue our discussion on the limitations of technology in solving environmental problems and we learn about Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. I have two interviews on the program today: Novelist and critic James Howard Kunstler talks about his latest book ‘Too Much
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Talkin’ bout a res-o-lu-tioooooon, yaaaaaaa, we know
Thursday, October 11, 2012 At the end of September, local government elected representatives from all over British Columbia listened to their constituents: On September 27, a majority of municipal councillors and mayors assembled at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), annual convention and adopteda resolution, proposed by the District of
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