Canada and the climate crisis: a state of denial 3

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Mon, 2024-04-22 18:12

jerrym

Just two days before his deportation, a B.C. climate activist got a phone call saying he can stay for now after putting pressure on government officials. He was spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion and a co-founder of Save Old Growth. David Suzuki and many other prominent activists have spoken up for him. His student visa was revoked for "after he was arrested and charged with mischief for taking part in a number of climate change demonstrations that blocked traffic and frustrated drivers in Metro Vancouver." To deport this man would be a major crime after Canada has failed to deport Nazis, other war criminals and drug dealers.

Zain Haq (left) and Sophie Papp are seen in a handout image.

A young climate activist who helped organize a series of protests across B.C.'s Lower Mainland is facing deportation unless the government approves his permanent residency application over the next few weeks, according to his lawyer.

The Canada Border Services Agency has instructed 23-year-old Zain Haq to leave the country by April 22.

Vancouver-based immigration lawyer Randall Cohn, who is representing Haq, described the activist as a "remarkably conscientious" young man who cares passionately about helping society, and should be allowed to remain in the country.

"This is not somebody out trying to burn things down, this is a very serious and thoughtful young person who is trying to do something meaningful with his life to face the crisis of his generation," Cohn said.

Moving forward with a deportation would be "unnecessarily punitive," the lawyer added.

Haq grew up in Pakistan before coming to Canada on a student visa, which was revoked after he was arrested and charged with mischief for taking part in a number of climate change demonstrations that blocked traffic and frustrated drivers in Metro Vancouver.

The young man, who ultimately pleaded guilty to five counts of mischief and one count of breaching an undertaking, was involved with the groups Extinction Rebellion, Stop Fracking Around and Save Old Growth, the latter of which he co-founded.

Haq's wife, Canadian climate activist Sophie Papp, sponsored his permanent residency application last May, and an approval before April 22 would prevent the CBSA from deporting him, according to his lawyer.

Cohn told CTV News he believes the application would likely be approved if given time – but it will be cancelled if his client is deported before the process is completed.

"There's no justice in separating Zain from his Canadian spouse and forcing them to start that process over by applying from outside Canada if the very likely outcome of the application is that he'll be granted permanent residence," Cohn said.

"Canada has the opportunity to show, in good faith, that they are welcoming (of) young people who want to address the climate crisis, and bring them into the conversation rather than punishing them and excluding them."

A petition(opens in a new tab) calling on federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller to use his "discretion" to allow Haq to remain in the country had been signed 1,700 times as of Tuesday afternoon.

CTV News contacted Miller's office for a response to the petition and Haq's pending deportation, but was told the minister could not comment on specific cases due to privacy legislation.

During Haq's sentencing, the court heard that while he had previously "shown disdain for the rule of law" and "publicly encouraged others to break the law," the activist has since softened his approach to addressing the threat of climate change, partly due to the steep consequences he has faced, including the loss of his visa.

"He now recognizes that it is 'not wise to be engaged in civil disobedience,'" reads a pre-sentencing report excerpted in Judge Reginald Harris's decision.

Haq contacted CTV News to say he was misquoted by the court, and that while he has no more plans to personally engage in civil disobedience, he does not see it as “unwise.”

Harris sentenced Haq to seven days in jail and two months of house arrest last summer, noting in his decision that the activist had no prior criminal record, and that numerous people had submitted letters to the court speaking highly of the young man's character.

"A review of them satisfies me that Mr. Haq is an intelligent, motivated young person who is a staunch protector of the environment," Harris wrote. "The letters also satisfy me that Mr. Haq can, provided he does so through legitimate means, be a catalyst for positive change."

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-climate-activist-facing-deportation-next-month...

Fri, 2024-04-26 03:36

#1103

jerrym

Scientists attribute the Oman, UAE deluge on April 14-16 ‘most likely’ linked to climate change as more rain fell in one day than in a typical year.

Quote:
Global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions “most likely” exacerbated the intense rains that lashed the UAE and Oman last week, causing deaths and widespread flooding, an expert group of scientists has found. The World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international group of scientists that investigates extreme weather events, said climate change caused by fossil fuel emissions is the probable reason but cannot be pinpointed “with certainty”.
The study compiled by 21 international researchers found extreme rainfall in El Nino years has become 10-40 percent heavier in the region affected. “Warming, caused by burning fossil fuels, is the most likely explanation for the increasing rainfall,” WWA said in the study published on Thursday. “There are no other known explanations” for the sharp rise in precipitation, the group added.
Twenty-one people died in Oman and four in the United Arab Emirates, which was battered by the heaviest rainfall since records began for the desert Gulf state 75 years ago. The oil-producing states have been experiencing extreme heat brought on by global warming. But last week’s floods revealed the additional risk of exceptional weather events as the planet heats up.
“The UAE and Oman floods have shown that even dry regions can be strongly affected by precipitation events, a threat that is increasing with increasing global warming due to fossil fuel burning,” said Sonia Seneviratne, a WWA member and professor at Zurich’s ETH university.
Extreme rains
The WWA study analysed historic weather data and climate models to determine changes in rainfall patterns in the area, including in the years affected by El Nino, a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. It found extreme rains were significantly less intense in the years before 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2F) of warming above pre-industrial levels. “Extreme rainfall events have become at least 10 percent heavier in the UAE and Oman,” said Mariam Zachariah, a WWA member and researcher at London’s Imperial College. “This finding … agrees with the basic physics that a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture.”

The storm first landed in Oman on April 14, killing at least 21 people in flash floods and other incidents, according to the official Oman News Agency. It hit the UAE on April 16, dumping nearly two years’ worth of rain that flooded homes, roads, malls and offices and left four people dead.
Dubai faced severe disruption for days with major roads blocked by floods, power outages and some residents trapped in their homes. Dubai Airport, the world’s busiest by international travellers, cancelled 2,155 flights, diverted 115 and did not return to full capacity until Tuesday. “The situation was unprecedented in its severity but we are a country that learns from every experience,” Dubai ruler and UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said on Wednesday, announcing a $544m package to repair homes.

Friederike Otto, a climatologist and WWA member, said the world agreed at COP28 in Dubai to “transition away” from fossil fuels, but nearly half a year later countries are still opening new oil and gas fields. “If the world keeps burning fossil fuels, rainfall in many regions of the world will get heavier and heavier, resulting in deadlier and more destructive floods,” Otto said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/25/scientists-say-oman-uae-deluge-...

Fri, 2024-04-26 03:48

#1104

jerrym

Fracking in northeast BC is causing an increasing number of earthquakes in the region - just another in the numerous examples of the increasingly sever environmental and economic consequences of our ongoing addiction to fossil fuels.

Fracking injects fluids and sand at high pressure into wells to crack open oil and gas deposits trapped in rock formations, sometimes causing earthquakes. Image via Shutterstock.

Experts tracking a tremorous trend in northeastern B.C. notched another data point on April 13. In the early morning hours that day, a fracking-caused earthquake tripped the British Columbia Energy Regulator’s drilling shutdown switch.

The BC Energy Regulator confirmed that 4.2 magnitude quake rattled Wonowon, a small community 88 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John, B.C., in the early hours of April 13. A fracking operation conducted by U.S. firm ConocoPhillips triggered the tremor, felt by more than 20 Wonowon residents. Fracking involves injecting water or other chemicals underground in order to crack open tight formations containing oil or gas. The regulator told The Tyee that ConocoPhillips “immediately suspended hydraulic fracturing operations” as per regulations. “Those operations remain suspended and will not resume until further measures are put in place and a plan is submitted to the BCER, focused on mitigating future seismic events.” ...

In 2020 seismic hazard expert Gail Atkinson concluded that a 4.5 quake caused by fracking could damage roads and homes located within a five-kilometre radius of the quake’s origin.

According to the regulator’s Northeast B.C. Seismicity Map, the 4.2 quake was preceded by a swarm of smaller tremors as the company injected great volumes of sand, chemicals and water into the Montney formation to fracture rock in order to release hydrocarbons trapped there. The drilling and completion of one fracked well in the Montney can require as much as 500,000 barrels of water. That’s 79.5 million litres or nearly 80,000 cubic metres. ConocoPhillips injects nearly three times as much water per fracked well compared with other companies operating in the region. ...

The ConocoPhillips quake is but the latest significant fracking-triggered earthquake in the Montney area. Over the last two years earthquake data from Natural Resources Canada shows a dramatic upsurge in seismic activity there, noted Allan Chapman, a geoscientist who worked for the BC Energy Regulator as its first hydrologist from 2010 to 2017. “Overall, earthquake frequency in the B.C. Montney has increased over the past two to three years, with 2022 and 2023 having the largest number of NRCAN-measured earthquakes — about 300 per year,” Chapman told The Tyee. “Based on data to April 13, 2024 is projected to possibly experience more than 400 earthquakes in the Montney, which would be a record high.”

What’s driving the trend?

Reasons for the increase in earthquake frequency are not immediately clear. But Chapman suspects they may be associated with changes in latent seismicity resulting from cumulative frack water injection, or changes in operator practices during hydraulic fracturing, such as increased water injection per frack stage, increased hydraulic pressure per frack stage or other factors.

The Montney accounts for one-third of Canada’s methane production and will supply LNG Canada with product for export to Asia. The large shale and siltstone formation, which contains gas, oil and gas liquids that are used for bitumen production, straddles the border of B.C. and Alberta.

Since 2012 and the advent of fracking, the previously seismically quiet region around Fort St. John has experienced 10 tremors greater than 4 magnitude. Experts suspect that industry-caused tremors will increase as demand for methane grows with the completion of the massive LNG Canada project in Kitimat, B.C. ...

One of the largest earthquakes to unsettle the Peace region occurred near Wonowon in January 2023. That 4.5 magnitude quake was also induced by the fracking industry.

Earthquakes, whether natural or triggered by industry, can damage well bores, alter the geology of hydrocarbon-bearing formations, change groundwater flows, destroy human infrastructure and accelerate radon and methane migration from the Earth into the atmosphere. They can also generate acoustic and gravity waves that propagate upward and trigger disturbances in the Earth’s lower and higher bands of atmosphere.

https://thetyee.ca/News/2024/04/26/Fracking-Quakes-Have-Surged-Fort-St-J...

Fri, 2024-04-26 03:48

#1105

jerrym

Worried about the carbon tax. That's nothing compared to the tax dollars Canadians are poring into the fossil fuel industry. The $35 billion Trans Mountain boondoogle that was originally supposed to cost $7 billion in purchase and construction costs is just the latest boondoggle."Canadian fossil fuel producers receive more public financial support than any others in the developed world, according to a new analysis. ... Canada topped the subsidies list, providing an average of almost $14 billion a year between 2018 and 2020. ... On average, the report finds G20 countries provided about 2.5 times more support for fossil fuels than renewables. In Canada, the ratio is 14.5." (https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/oil-change-subsidies-1.6228679) The purchase of the Trans Mountain for $4.5 billion in 2019 with the promise of the "profits" from the pipeline going to renewable energy the day after Trudeau declared a climate emergency shows the two-faced nature of Trudeau's promises. While claiming to be an environmental saviour he has been the biggest subsidizer of the industry and there is no end in sight with the promise to subsidize Carbon Capture and Storage in Alberta and Saskatchewan. And of course at $35 billion, there will not be a penny to invest in renewable energy from Trans Mountain because with these astronomical costs, no oil would be shipped through the pipeline if the cost of shipping were high enough to generate a profit. The shipping costs will only be a tiny fraction of what was invested in the construction of the pipeline making any profits impossible. In other the taxpayer will continue to subsidize the pipeline. And of course there are many more subsidies to the fossil fuel industry by both the federal and provincial governments.

The federal government has spent $35 billion on the Trans Mountain pipeline alone. Photo via Trans Mountain.

The federal carbon tax increase is now in effect, and will raise gas prices by three cents per litre in most Canadian provinces. The hike prompted complaints from seven premiers and a recent parliamentary showdown, culminating in a failed vote of non-confidence in the Liberal government. Yet this ongoing debate overlooks a far costlier carbon tax: fossil fuel subsidies.

Fossil fuel subsidies cost us big bucks

Every year, federal and provincial governments use taxpayer dollars to provide financial supports or tax breaks to fossil fuel companies. And unlike the federal carbon tax, Canadians don’t get a rebate on this tax.

Fossil fuel subsidies are a big problem across Canada. The federal government has spent $35 billion on the Trans Mountain oil pipeline and $275 million on a liquefied natural gas facility. The Canadian oil and natural gas sector also benefits from special tax breaks under the Income Tax Act.

British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan give more than $2.5 billion in royalty reductions and tax exemptions to the fossil fuel industry every year. Ontario gives $500 million in tax breaks to aviation and agricultural fuels. Manitoba, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces give similar tax exemptions to fuel and natural gas.

Big costs to taxpayers

A billion here, a few billion there — all these subsidies add up to a big cost to Canadian taxpayers. While oil and gas companies boast about record profits, Canadian taxpayers are footing the bill.

These explicit fossil fuel subsidies are only the tip of a growing iceberg.

They don’t include the health-care costs of air pollution, which is responsible for five million deaths worldwide every year. They also don’t include the future costs of cleaning abandoned oil wells, unpaid municipal property taxes and other costs abandoned by fossil fuel companies.

Multi-level problems

Fossil fuel subsidies are a problem at multiple levels. They frustrate climate change mitigation efforts because they increase the profitability of fossil fuels. This creates a perverse incentive that actively encourages further pollution.

They also create artificially lower prices for fossil fuels, which is why libertarians and free market conservatives have opposed these so-called fossil fuel welfare payments. Fossil fuel subsidies also impose an opportunity cost. The taxpayer money used for fossil fuel subsidies could go to more valuable projects, such as building more homes, just as the federal government used to do until the early 1990s. Just the federal portion of the subsidies over the last four years could have funded every solar and wind project in Canada or doubled public transit ridership. The money could also fund schools, hospitals or tax cuts. For these reasons, there is a mounting consensus that fossil fuel subsidies in Canada and elsewhere should be eliminated.

Ending fossil fuel subsidies

There have been various attempts to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. In 2009, then prime minister Stephen Harper and other G20 leaders pledged to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies.

At the 2022 United Nations climate change conference, all UN member states committed to “accelerating efforts towards the phase-down of... inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

In the past few years, U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to scrap oil and gas industry subsidies.

Last June, the House of Commons studied the phaseout of fossil fuel subsidies. Following the report, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault released a plan to eliminate some but not all fossil fuel subsidies.

Despite these calls for reform, many fossil fuel subsidies persist and continue to cost us billions. Indeed, Canadians still spend more to support oil and gas extraction than Australia, Germany, Japan, Mexico and the United States.

Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies may not be a silver bullet to solve climate change, but it could make a big difference in meeting our climate goals. It just makes dollars and sense.

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/04/11/Worried-Taxpayer-Dollars-Focus-Fo...

Fri, 2024-04-26 04:34

#1106

jerrym

Two Alberta communities are already on evacuation alert as the early wildfire season suggests the climate crisis wildfire season this year could be worse than in the record-setting 2023 one when a land mass equivalent to 1.4 times the size of England burned. One of these communities, Saprae Creek Estates, is very near Fort McMurray where "In 2016, a massive wildfire engulfed the city of Fort McMurray, drove 88,000 people from their homes and destroying 2,400 buildings". The other community under evacuation alert is Bilby Common, a subdivision in rural Lac Ste Anne County.

A wildfire near the community of Saprae Creek Estates has put residents of the hamlet under an evacuation alert. (Alberta Wildfire - image credit)

A wildfire near the community of Saprae Creek Estates has put residents of the hamlet under an evacuation alert. (Alberta Wildfire - image credit)

Residents of two Alberta hamlets are now bracing for possible evacuations due to the threat of encroaching wildfires.

An evacuation alert was issued Monday afternoon for the community of Bilby Common, a subdivision in rural Lac Ste Anne County.

Residents of the area in the northwestern Alberta county should be prepared to evacuate their homes within 30 minutes. A wildfire burning west of the neighbourhood is spreading east, according to the critical alert.

The hamlet of Saprae Creek Estates, about 30 kilometres southeast of Fort McMurray, also remains on evacuation alert. A critical wildfire alert for the hamlet in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo was issued Sunday afternoon.

About 700 people who live in Saprae Creek should be prepared to leave on short notice, provincial wildfire officials said.

The fire near Saprae Creek, first detected on April 21, continues to burn out of control on the south side of the Clearwater River.

The fire, which has already consumed nearly 70 hectares of forest, is now burning about 4.5 kilometres east of Saprae Creek. The fire started Sunday about six kilometres outside the hamlet.

Efforts are focused on fighting the fire's western flank, officials said.

An aerial image of a wildfire burning southeast of Fort McMurray is posing a threat to the community of Saprae Creek Estates. Residents of the hamlet have been placed on a evacuation notice.

An aerial image of a wildfire burning southeast of Fort McMurray is posing a threat to the community of Saprae Creek Estates. Residents of the hamlet have been placed on a evacuation notice. (Alberta Wildfire)

"Yesterday crews and resources worked to strengthen the fire guard along the western flank of the wildfire," Alberta Wildfire said in a statement Monday.

"They are working towards containing that flank of the fire and then they will work towards controlling it.

Helicopter crews worked throughout the night to douse the flames and that work will continue as long as conditions permit, officials said.

Airtankers will also lay down more fire retardant along the fire's edge as crews continue to fight along the the western flank of the wildfire and work to douse a nearby spot fire.

Four firefighting crews, six helicopters, two airtanker groups, and five heavy equipment groups will be working on the fire Monday.

In a statement to social media Sunday, municipal officials said people should pay attention to official wildfire updates, make an emergency plan with family, and pack a 72-hour emergency kit.

Jody Butz, regional fire chief and director of emergency management for the municipality, said crews continue to fight the fire from the ground and the air.

"We're hopeful," Butz said in an interview Monday.

"We're going to watch the heat of the day to see how the fire reacts to the temperatures to see if our mitigation efforts were successful.

"We're staying focused on the fire but we're feeling really good about it. We're optimistic that all the suppression efforts were successful yesterday."

Butz said the fire is a reminder that all residents need to be prepared for the wildfire season ahead.

RCMP have urged residents to stay away from the scene of the fire and said drones flying in the area were interfering with firefighting efforts.

In a statement Sunday, RCMP said drones had temporarily grounded helicopters that had been deployed to area.

Provincial wildfire officials have been warning that dry conditions over the winter have increased the risk of wildfires this spring, and warmer temperatures and rising winds over the weekend could increase the risk of fires.

As of Monday, 65 wildfires were burning across Alberta, including three that are burning out of control.

In 2016, a massive wildfire engulfed the city of Fort McMurray, driving thousands of people from their homes and destroying 2,400 buildings.

Meanwhile, near Slave Lake, a wildfire fire in the area of Canyon Creek triggered a temporary closure of Highway 2 on Sunday afternoon.

For several hours, sections of the highway near the fire were experiencing poor visibility due to the smoke. The highway has since re-opened.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/wildfire-puts-hamlet-near-fort-135036800.html

Fri, 2024-04-26 04:48

#1107

jerrym

The climate crisis is causing some species around the world and in Manitoba to disappear, as well as causing some diseases to become more prevalent.

Sugar pines are already dying off at lower elevations in Manitoba.

With the planet warming due to the effects of climate change, some species in Manitoba and around the world are starting to die off.

Though some types of plants are tolerant of temperature changes and drought conditions, certain species are becoming rarer over time due to heat waves, with climate change also causing certain diseases to become more prevalent.

“Sugar pines for example and some of the other pine species are actually dying off at lower elevations because it’s just too hot for them to survive anymore,” said Diana Bizecki Robson, who is the curator of botany at the Manitoba Museum.

Bizecki Robson noted that even some species that are typically more tolerant of dry conditions, including cacti, are having trouble surviving.

“They need to breathe at night,” she said. “But the temperature hasn’t been getting low enough at night for them to open their special little air holes and there have been some saguaro cactus actually dying off.”

In Manitoba specifically, Bizecki Robson said there is a wide range of vegetation that shifts from forest to grassland depending on the climate.

However, as the climate changes some species might start dying out in places where they were once abundant. This includes forests becoming grasslands, grasslands becoming deserts, and deserts becoming devoid of vegetation.

“We could see some of those changes happening in Manitoba with parkland areas becoming grasslands in the future,” she explained.

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/climate-change-causing-plant-species-to-die-...

Canada and the climate crisis: a state of denial 3

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