Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Gulf Coast of Texas late Friday night as a Category 4 storm, and, since making landfall near Corpus Christi, has dumped record rainfall on Houston and the surrounding areas. A full-blown catastrophe is underway there as tens of thousands fled the area, and thousands of those who didn’t evacuate have been rescued by emergency responders and volunteers. Harvey, now a tropical storm, has dropped an estimated 11 trillion gallons of rain on Texas, and much more is on the way, particularly for Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, which is expected to shatter all-time rainfall records.
British Columbia’s Liberal government, under investigation for alleged pay-to-play influence peddling and facing a general election in early May, should drop plans for its contentious and unneeded Site C hydroelectric dam, a former premier says in a video interview.
British Columbia’s Liberal government, under investigation for allegations of pay-to-play influence peddling and facing a general election in early May, should drop plans for its contentious and unneeded Site C hydroelectric dam on the Peace River in the province’s northeast, a former premier says in a video interview.
B.C. Hydro, a crown corporation, has begun land-clearing for the project, on the Peace River in the province’s northeast. But “the cost of dams worldwide over the last 70 years has averaged 90% over [initial estimates],” former premier Mike Harcourt told DeSmog.ca in an interview. “So you can assume Site C is going to cost, probably, $15 to $17 billion. I think economically it’s just not going to cut it.”
Did you like this story? You’ll never miss a breaking news item with a free subscription to The Energy Mix. Click here to sign up. Harcourt points to the absence of any apparent demand in the province for the extra power the dam will produce. “Demand for electricity in B.C. has been flat over the last 11 years,” Harcourt said. “You don’t need it. Economically, you’re going to be bankrupting BC Hydro and seriously harming the credit of British Columbia.”
Altogether, the project “is going to be a disaster, economically, environmentally, culturally for First Nations,” the former premier charged.
Harcourt has also spoken out forcefully against Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, warning that the federal government faces “insurrection” if it forces the line—approved by the National Energy Board in a sharply-criticized decision—on residents of the B.C. Lower Mainland. (B.C. Premier Christy Clark also approved the line in January.)
As for Site C, the planned dam “is 18 months into construction on what is projected to be an eight-year timeline,” DeSmog reports. “So far, a worker’s camp has been built and a small section of river valley has been cleared. Ultimately, more than 100 kilometres of river valley, including valuable farmland, will be cleared to make way for the dam’s reservoir.”
“It’s not too late” for the province to give up on the flawed hydro project, Harcourt asserted. “It’s never beyond the point of no return.”
Posted October 17, 2016 by Damien Gillis in Energy and Resources
The Nathan E. Stewart fuel barge and part-sunken tug the morning of the incident (Jordan Wilson/Pacific Wild)
Judging by official statements in the aftermath of the ongoing Central Coast diesel fuel spill the response to the disaster was relatively effective and damage minimized – a PR line largely soaked up by the mainstream media. To the people in whose territory the incident occurred, the Heiltsuk Nation, and local residents who will have to live with the consequences of the spill, nothing could be further from the truth.
On August 18, 2016 the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuwx came together to perform ceremony on the Sir Edmund salmon farm at the entrance to Kingcome Inlet.
People came from Alert Bay, Gwayasdums (Gilford Village) to join the Dzawada’enuxw in the second boarding of a salmon farm in the past 72-hours.
On August 18, 2016 the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuwx came together to perform ceremony on the Sir Edmund salmon farm at the entrance to Kingcome Inlet.
People came from Alert Bay, Gwayasdums (Gilford Village) to join the Dzawada’enuxw in the second boarding of a salmon farm in the past 72-hours.
The governments of Canada and British Columbia have allowed the Norwegian/Japanese salmon farming industry to put millions of Atlantic salmon into Musgamagw Dzawada’enuwx territory even though this nation has said “no” for almost 30 years.
The federal government of Canada has been issues transfer permits to the salmon farming industry that allows them to put fish carrying viruses associated with disease into all waters of BC, including Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw territory. I took one of the companies, Marine Harvest, and the government of Canada to stop this and won, but there is no evidence that they are abiding by this ruling.
“The people who are benefiting from these farms are benefiting over the suffering of our people” Dzawada’enuxw hereditary leader Farron Soukochoff .
“We have heard the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, that honouring the rights of First Nations are a “sacred obligation” to the Liberal Government of Canada,” said Hereditary leader and chief councilor Willie Moon, “our people have spoken we want salmon farms out of our territory.”
The rudeness with which the salmon farm employees were told to conduct themselves was in stark contrast to the integrity of the people performing ceremony with cedar bows. It was hard to witness.
If you want to help this brave effort to restore a large part of the BC coast so that it can once again produce wild salmon and herring, please go to their website www.cleansingourwaters.com
Donate money for fuel for the boats, and travel, write to them to offer support, show solidarity in other parts of BC and the world and send pictures. Like the Facebook page musgamagw dzawadaenuxw cleansing our waters Write to the editors of your newspapers, who are ignoring this movement and tell this is news. Write to your MPs and MLAs. This Nation is on the front lines for all of us and for future generations. The two Norwegian/Japanese companies, one of them owned by Mitsubishi, do not have to destroy these waters, sometime known as the Broughton, to become richer. They do not have to do this.
Vermont's new GMO law could spur change across U.S.
Genetically engineered foods must be clearly labelled on food packages in state starting July 1
By Alison Northcott, CBC News Posted: Jul 01, 2016 11:00 AM ET Last Updated: Jul 02, 2016 6:46 AM ET
Erica Wiggins shops for groceries with her children in Georgia, Vt. A new GMO-labelling law goes into effect July 1 in the state. (Jessica Rubinger/CBC)
A new GMO labelling law in Vermont is sending ripples through the North American food industry. Starting July 1, processed foods sold in the state that contain genetically engineered ingredients must say so on the label
Similar laws exist in countries across Europe, but for now, genetically modified organisms don't have to be labelled in the rest of the U.S., or in Canada.
This file photo shows the Monsanto logo at the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Ill. (AP Photo)High on a wind-swept, mountain-ringed plateau in Central Oregon, an ocean of natural grasses, sagebrush and juniper sweeps across the Crooked River National Grassland for thousands of acres. In this pristine, high desert landscape roamed by antelope and mountain lions and patrolled by falcons, eagles and hawks, the last thing you'd want to see is an invasion of a highly intrusive, genetically engineered (GE) strain of creeping bentgrass designed specifically for golf courses.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176036/tomgram%3A_william_debuys%2C_entering_the_mega-drought_era_in_america/#more<>Long ago, I lived in a cheap flat in San Francisco and worked as the lone straight man in a gay construction company. Strangely enough, the drought now strangling California brings back memories of those days. It was the 1970s. Our company specialized in restoring the Victorian “gingerbread” to the facades of the city’s townhouses, and I got pretty good at installing cornices, gable brackets, and window hoods, working high above the street.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/23/house-passes-anti-gmo-labeling-law.htmlThursday, 23 Jul 2015 | 7:13 PM ET
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a hotly debated measure that blocks any mandatory labeling of foods made with genetically engineered crops, including pre-empting a state law set to take effect next year in Vermont.
"High-volume hydraulic fracturing poses significant adverse impacts to land, air, water, natural resources and potential significant public health impacts that cannot be adequately mitigated."
Elizabeth Henderson, an organic farmer in Newark, speaks out against fracking at a rally at today's New York State Fair. (Glenn Coin |
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Albany, N.Y -- It's official: New York has banned fracking
After more than seven years of study, the state Department of Environmental Conservation today issued the final document needed to ban the controversial drilling practice, known formally as high-volume hydraulic fracturing
Oxitec’s dye-marked Oxi513A male mosquitoes ready for release in Brazil.Courtesy Oxitec Ltd.
KEY WEST, Fla. — In late October, the U.S. Navy and U.S. Department of Agriculture tested insecticidal aerial spraying techniques over a warfare range in Jacksonville, Fla. The purpose: to evaluate how to lower populations of the blood-feeding Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits dengue fever.
