tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39919998854381927422024-03-12T18:20:54.633-07:00Hamilton 350Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-91052138522732931182016-05-16T02:31:00.002-07:002016-05-16T03:00:35.563-07:00Slow Down, You Move Too Fast<h2>
The Highway Analogy to Global Issues</h2>
We have all experienced being caught in highway traffic jams that seem to go on for eternity. You just want to get out of this mess as fast as possible. And when you finally are able to floor the pedal there appears to be no apparent reason for the log jam.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O2FKeox8AM8/VzmTFWfurXI/AAAAAAAAAEo/nLrctmp6YsIYPuOmIRk8i9f2h1CRsy0RgCLcB/s1600/Traffic%2BJam%2B600x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O2FKeox8AM8/VzmTFWfurXI/AAAAAAAAAEo/nLrctmp6YsIYPuOmIRk8i9f2h1CRsy0RgCLcB/s320/Traffic%2BJam%2B600x400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Put the blame on slow drivers or reckless ones.<br />
What is the real cause of traffic jams?<br />
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Get a hold of this.<br />
<b>You, me, we are the problem. We are the solution.</b><br />
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The solution is a simple one.<br />
<b>Don't drive faster than the vehicle ahead of you.</b><br />
What?<br />
What kind of pansy do you think I am?<br />
Here is the logic.<br />
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A fast car sends the wrong message to all traffic following behind. When the fast car has to hit the brakes to accommodate the real flow up ahead, all following traffic have to do the same thing and traffic throughput comes to a grinding halt. To correct the situation, all traffic must gradually pick up speed at the same rate. You must avoid stop and go driving otherwise you're going back to speed zero.<br />
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Think of it this way. <b>You are the leader of the pack</b> coming behind you. You have the vision of the traffic flow up ahead. Send the right message to others following you.<br />
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That, my friend, is the highway analog to real world issues such as environmental destruction, social inequity and economic slowdown.<br />
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<b>You, me, we are the problem.</b> Don't blame it on others. <b>We are also the solution.</b><br />
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Think of it in another way. Suffering from work overload? Going from deadline to deadline, from crisis to crisis? Give yourself some space. You need elasticity. When traffic flow has elasticity it is able to cushion the occasional bumps. When there is slack in the traffic or workload, it is better able to handle extra load.<br />
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Don't go so fast. Slow down, give yourself extra space.<br />
Relax, enjoy life, control your desire to get ahead of others and be more accommodating of the needs of others.<br />
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Hamilton 350 BlogHamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-82990551113124197762015-11-12T08:34:00.004-08:002015-11-12T09:13:11.905-08:00TPP "Worse than we thought"The following letter was published in the Hamilton Spectator on October 15, 2015, before the Canada Federal Elections on October 19th and before the full text of the <b>Trans-Pacific Partnership</b> was revealed to the public.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>Of the
many imporant issues being dabated on the election capaign trail, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trumps
them all.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>If the
benefits of the TPP are so great for all of the twelve signing nations, why is
it being negotiated in total secrecy behind closed doors? Do the citizens of
all the nations not have the right to know what is being negotiated and
compromised? Where is the openness and transparency? </i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The TPP
is a clear indication that the world is being ruled by corporate interests.
There will be no democratic sovereign nations.
This trade agreement is not being negotiated by representatives of our
democratically elected governments but by corporate lackeys for the benefit of
corporations, their executives and beneficiaries.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>The TPP
opens the global market place for even more wanton consumerism and higher
profits. The TPP gives foreign transnational corporations the right to plunder
our resources, destroy the environment and enslave the population all for
profit. The TPP is undemocratic, gives total power to transnational
corporations over local governments and legislation and is an
economic/resource/environmental race to the bottom.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Act of Climate Denial</span></b></div>
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Major climate action groups, including 350.org and the Sierra Club, were quick to point out that the text was notable as much for what it didn’t say as what for what it did. “The TPP is an act of climate denial,” said 350 policy director Jason Kowalski on Thursday. “While the text is full of handouts to the fossil fuel industry, it doesn’t mention the words climate change once.”</div>
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What it does do, however, is give “fossil fuel companies the extraordinary ability to sue local governments that try and keep fossil fuels in the ground,” Kowalski continued. “If a province puts a moratorium on fracking, corporations can sue; if a community tries to stop a coal mine, corporations can overrule them. In short, these rules undermine countries’ ability to do what scientists say is the single most important thing we can do to combat the climate crisis: keep fossil fuels in the ground.” <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-worse-than-we-thought-a-total-corporate-power-grab-nightmare/5487024" target="_blank">[3]</a></div>
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<b>Economic War declared against China</b></div>
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One noticeable analysis that is missing in all of the discussion is what could arguably be the must important intent behind the Trans-Pacific Partnership and that is the intentional lock out of China from the TPP negotiations.</div>
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<b style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">TPP is the worst thing the Harper government did for Canada</b></div>
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And just this week, Jim Balsillie (former CEO of the company behind BlackBerry) said that <b>the TPP is the “worst thing the Harper government ever did for Canada”. </b><a href="http://action.sumofus.org/a/Balsillie-TPP/?akid=15085.929934.6T58qt&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=1" target="_blank">[5]</a></div>
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<b><a href="http://action.sumofus.org/a/Balsillie-TPP/?akid=15085.929934.6T58qt&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=3" target="_blank">Tell Prime Minister Trudeau to reject the TPP.</a></b></div>
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<b>From the Council of Canadians</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The TPP is priority one for new Minister of International Trade Chrystia Freeland. And right now she is welcoming “suggestions and ideas from all Canadians” on the massive deal. So we’re mobilizing the Council of Canadians community to share our concerns!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>Here’s what you can ask Prime Minister Trudeau and Trade Minister Freeland to do:</b></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Ask the Parliamentary Budget Officer to conduct a </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>comprehensive and independent analysis</b></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> of the TPP text. Among other things, the analysis must assess the deal’s impact on human rights, health, employment, environment and democracy.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Hold </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>public hearings in each province and territory</b></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> across Canada as well as separate and meaningful consultation with First Nations and Indigenous communities. No agreement can be ratified without full consent.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>Protect any progress made in Paris</b></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"> at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP21) from the investor-state dispute settlement provisions (ISDS) in the TPP. Furthermore, ISDS must be excised from the TPP.</span></span></li>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1899&ea.campaign.id=44210&ea.url.id=484280" target="_blank">Send a</a> </span></span><a href="https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1899&ea.campaign.id=44210&ea.url.id=484280" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">letter to the new Prime Ministe</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">r now </span></a></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Further reading:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">[1] <a href="https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/why-tpp-text-is-secret/" target="_blank">Now that we can see the TPP text, we know why it's been secret</a>, Pete Dolack, Systemic Disorder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />[2] <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/tpp-ignores-global-warming-and-allows-murder-of-labor-union-organizers/5487148" target="_blank">TPP ignores "global warming" and allows "murder" of labor union organizers</a>, Eric Zuesse, Global Research </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />[3] <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-worse-than-we-thought-a-total-corporate-power-grab-nightmare/5487024" target="_blank">TPP 'Worse than we thought' - A total corporate power grab nightmare</a>, Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, Global Research </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />[4] <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/secret-tpp-text-unveiled-its-worse-than-we-thought/5487015" target="_blank">Secret TPP text unveiled: It's worse than we thought</a>, Public Citizen, Global Research</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />[5] <a href="http://action.sumofus.org/a/Balsillie-TPP/?akid=15085.929934.6T58qt&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=1" target="_blank">Sign the petition - Tell Prime Minister Harper to reject the TPP</a> - Sum of us.org</span><br />
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[6] <a href="https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1899&ea.campaign.id=44210&ea.url.id=484280" target="_blank">Send a letter to the new Prime Minister now</a> - Council of Canadians<br />
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Hamilton 350 BlogHamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-47811086571583338162015-11-08T08:10:00.001-08:002015-11-08T08:10:18.028-08:00Hamilton area seniors risk arrest in Climate Welcome sit-in<div align="center" style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri; font-size: small; margin: 14pt 0px 12pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><b>Hamilton</b></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><b> Area Seniors Risking Arrest in Climate Welcome Sit-in </b></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><b><br /></b></span></span><b><i>Local residents joining hundreds in Ottawa to demand</i></b><b><i><br />Justin Trudeau take bold action at UN climate summit</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Several Hamilton area residents are in Ottawa this weekend for what could be the largest act of climate civil disobedience in Canadian history. Every day from November 5-8, First Nations and Metis Indigenous people will lead a march to the residence of newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where participants will stage a sit-in to demand that commit to a freeze in tar sands expansion and begin the transition to a justice-based, clean energy economy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Retired teacher and Environment Hamilton supporter Richard Reble explained why he’s risking arrest at the Climate Welcome: “There are some things that are worth sacrificing for and action on climate change is one of them. By risking jail I am showing how seriously I take the need for drastic action now on reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is the most serious problem that life on Earth has faced.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Reble has led hikes for the Bruce Trail Conservancy for 25 years and also volunteers at a local hospice. He currently lives in Grimbsy. Other Hamilton area seniors joining him in the trek to Ottawa are David Bennett (71) of Mount Hope and Dave Johnson (74) of Dundas, both active with the Hamilton 350 Committee.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“I believe that the success or failure of any efforts to address global warming and climate change will be driven by a grass roots lead reaction of the people,” says Johnson. “Only mass opinion and demand for effective action will produce the level of political action required both in Canada and around the world.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">‘Welcome Gifts’ are being delivered to the Prime Minister for every day of the action to show the moral, economic, scientific and Indigenous rights reasons for freezing tar sands expansion. The gifts include scientific reports and broken treaties, millions of anti-pipeline and anti-tar sands petition signatures, and solar panels to incorporate into the renovations of 24 Sussex Drive.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“There are less than 40 days until the Paris climate talks, and it’s past time that Canada was on the right side of history when it comes to climate change, and certainly in its relationship with First Nations Peoples” said Clayton Thomas-Muller, ‘Stop it at the Source’ campaigner with the global climate change campaign 350.org. “We think Justin Trudeau can step up and lead on this, but to do it he needs to take bold, ambitious action. Scientists say that 85% of tar sands reserves must stay in the ground to keep within the 2</span></span><span style="color: #545454; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.2px;">°</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">C limit for a safe climate. The world is currently on track for 6 degrees of warming by the end of the century.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The actions come less than a month before Justin Trudeau is scheduled to appear at the UN summit on climate change in Paris, France that opens on November 30. A “Hamilton2Paris” rally is taking place at Hamilton City Hall at 3 pm on Sunday, November 29 to allow local residents to express their concerns about climate change.</span></span></div>
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<b>Hamilton 350 Blog</b></div>
Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-65679969883766259152015-09-15T07:51:00.003-07:002015-09-15T07:51:28.412-07:00Canada must reclaim its role as a world leader<div class="selectionShareable" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
In the mid-1940s, Canada was a principal founder of the United Nations and a Canadian drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since then, Canada has built an exceptional international reputation with its commitment to multilateral approaches and solutions to international conflicts.</div>
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In 1957, the role of Lester Pearson, then minister of external affairs, earned him the Nobel Peace Prize for developing a solution to end the Suez Canal crisis by proposing a peacekeeping force, the famous Blue Berets. In 1965, Prime Minister Pearson named me as his parliamentary secretary and appointed me to his cabinet two years later.</div>
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Under Mr. Pearson’s leadership, Canada called for the end of the bombing of North Vietnam to allow for negotiations to end the conflict. Although armed conflicts are sometimes unavoidable, Canada has traditionally sided with countries that sought peaceful solutions. If, however, there were a NATO or UN mandate for military intervention, as was the case in Iraq in 1990 and a few years later in the former Yugoslavia, Canada always stepped up to meet its international military responsibilities and obligations.</div>
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Under Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada pursued independent foreign policy. In 1970, his government established diplomatic relations with China, ahead of the United States. Canada also blazed its own trail, as Mr. Trudeau was among the first to support the struggle of Nelson Mandela against apartheid in South Africa.</div>
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Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark, his foreign affairs minister, took the lead in the struggle against apartheid and the movement to free Mr. Mandela. On this point, Mr. Mulroney was not afraid to stand up to Margaret Thatcher and our close ally, Britain. He rightly saw that they were wrong.</div>
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Canada has managed to assert repeatedly both its independence and its commitment to international institutions such as the UN and NATO in international relations.</div>
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Working within this framework led Canada, during my mandate, to play leading roles on issues such as the <a href="https://www.icrc.org/ihl/INTRO/580" style="background: transparent; color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="">Ottawa Treaty</a>, an international convention on the ban of anti-personnel mines, and the establishment of the International Criminal Court. In this same spirit, we also signed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.</div>
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In 2003, to the dismay of our American and British allies, we refused to go to war in Iraq because the UN refused its consent to what is now universally acknowledged as a big mistake. Canada was noticed and respected for this decision.</div>
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However, since then something has happened to Canada’s international reputation. I fear it has been altered and damaged for a long time. In 2010, for the first time, Canada’s bid for a seat on the Security Council of the United Nations was defeated. The next year we sent our planes to bomb Libya, and we are now participating militarily in Iraq and Syria.</div>
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After the campaign in Libya – which we now know had disastrous consequences in the region – the Harper government trumpeted Canada’s bombing role with a flyover above Parliament Hill to celebrate our “victory.” This is a ritual normally characteristic of conquering and warlike countries.</div>
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Today, with great sadness and shame, I am watching Mr. Harper’s cold-hearted reaction to the tragedy of refugees from Syria and Iraq. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stepped up to the plate, and the world looks upon the generosity of her country with admiration. The same goes for Norway, Sweden and Finland, which have welcomed refugees and do not erect roadblocks to taking them in. Instead they get rid of roadblocks. But not Mr. Harper. He has shamed Canada in the eyes of Canadians and of the international community.</div>
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In my travels around the globe, I am regularly asked: What has happened to Canada? What has happened to the advanced, peace-seeking, progressive country Canada once was? What has happened to the country that was a model for peace and stability in a tumultuous world? These questions evoke great sadness in me.</div>
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I am sad to see that in fewer than 10 years, the Harper government has tarnished almost 60 years of Canada’s reputation as a builder of peace and progress. During all these years, government leaders, whether Liberal or Progressive Conservative, have sought to understand, engage and influence their international peers, including those with whom they disagreed. They did not try to embarrass or give other countries lessons in good behaviour. Rather, they patiently sought to convince others of the universal values that make our global community a better and safer place to live.</div>
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Of course, peaceful dialogue does not always work. War is sometimes unavoidable. But solutions should come from the world community working together – not from a handful of countries acting outside international institutions to which they belong.</div>
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Canadians will soon choose their next government. When considering the role of Canada on the world stage, I hope they will choose a government in line with our great tradition of peace-building, initiated by Mr. Pearson and promoted by all of his successors until the arrival of the Harper administration.</div>
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Let’s take back our place in the world.</div>
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Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-61236715310716073872015-09-07T09:21:00.000-07:002015-09-07T09:24:53.855-07:00Linda McQuaig is right: Fossil fuels should stay in the ground<div>
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Background: NDP candidate Linda McQuaig's comment on oilsands stirs up hornet's nest</div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-mcquaig-oilsands-reaction-cp-1.3184704">http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-mcquaig-oilsands-reaction-cp-1.3184704</a></span><br />
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The Highlander</div>
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Thursday, September 3, 2015, Issue 201</div>
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Dear editor, </div>
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Toronto Centre NDP candidate Linda McQuaig’s reiteration of climate scientists’ call to leave most of the bitumen in the Alberta Tar Sands in the ground in order to meet greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets deserves honest discussion and debate in this election campaign. It does not deserve the empty rhetoric and partisan gamesmanship we’ve seen to date.</div>
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The truth is there’s a huge gap between what climate scientists are saying about our growing climate crisis and what our political leadership, including the NDP, is proposing to do about it. McQuaig should be congratulated, not reined in, vilified or ridiculed, for having the courage to raise the climate change implications of continued fossil fuel development. Tar Sands supporters seem to think we can continue to pump ever larger quantities of earth-warming chemicals into the atmosphere without any ecological consequences whatsoever. They are about to find out nature bats last. </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The stakes involved are not simply the economic impact of ending our fossil fuel dependency on Tar Sands corporations and workers, the people and Government of Alberta, but something much, much higher than that: the entire climate system within which human civilization has flourished for the last 10,000 years or so. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Do we as a country have the capacity to rise above short-term economic and political self-interest to play a significant role in ending the fossil fuel dependency which has caused the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in our atmosphere to rise to over 400ppm? The signing of the UN Framework Agreement on Climate Change in 1992 was supposed to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Instead they’ve risen to the highest levels in over three million years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This creates a huge and growing risk of runaway and irreversible change to Earth’s climate system. Nothing less than the future of life on this planet hangs in the balance if we fail to stop denying we’re in a greenhouse gas-induced climate crisis and start acting accordingly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">James Hansen, one of the world’s preeminent climate scientists, puts it this way in written testimony in support of a recent civil suit filed by young people against the U.S. Government for failure to protect their right to a life-sustaining climate: “It is now clear, as the relevant scientific community has established for some time, that continued high CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning will further disrupt Earth’s climate system, and that, in turn, will impose profound and mounting risks of ecological, economic and social collapse. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">"In my view, our government’s actions and inactions that cause or contribute to those emissions violate the fundamental rights of Sophie, other Youth, and future generations. Those violated rights include the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to property, the right to equal protection under the law, the right to government protection of public trust resources, and the right to retain a fighting chance to preserve a habitable climate system. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">“Our government’s persistent permitting and underwriting of fossil fuel projects serves now to further disrupt the favourable climate system that to date enabled human civilization to develop. In order to preserve a viable climate system, our use of fossil fuels must be phased out as rapidly as is feasible. Only government can ensure this will be done. Instead, our government seeks approval for permitting of fossil fuel projects that would slam shut the narrowing window of opportunity to stabilize climate and ensure a hospitable climate and planet for young people and future generations. These projects only allow our government to shirk its duty. Our government’s permitting of additional, new, or renewed fossil fuel projects is entirely antithetical to its fundamental responsibility to our children and their posterity. Their fundamental rights now hang in the balance.”* </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Of course, Hansen’s comments apply with equal force to the Canadian government. With so much at stake we need to demand concrete science-based proposals for real action on climate change from our politicians during this election campaign. They need to stop pretending that business as usual, with its incessant demand for economic growth, is sustainable on a finite planet with a finite atmosphere. They need to get on with figuring out how we can transition off fossil fuels as fast as our combined human ingenuity can get us there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Politicians of all political stripes claim they have the best interests of both the current and future generations at heart. They should prove it by initiating an adult conversation during this campaign about the climate crisis and how we’re going to survive it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">* Paragraphs 7 and 85 From James E. Hansen, written testimony in the matter Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh M. et al. v. the United States of America et al., United States District Court, District of Oregon, filed August, 11, 2015 in New York City, New York. Hansen’s entire written testimony can be found at this website: </span><a href="https://macmail.mcmaster.ca/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.columbia. edu/~jeh1/mailings/2015/20150812_FINAL_ HANSEN_DEC_FOR_US_DISTRICT_ OREGON_9PM.pdf.</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Terry Moore </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>VP Environment Haliburton, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Climate Reality Haliburton</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Reprinted with permission</i></span></div>
Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-43398837318602603562015-05-30T10:10:00.000-07:002015-05-30T10:10:29.664-07:00Economist Robyn Allan withdraws from NEB review<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
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<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Robyn Allan has withdrawn as an intervenor in the federal government’s review of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline and oil tanker expansion project, detailing her reasons for quitting in a scathing letter to the National Energy Board.</i></div>
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<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Allan is former President and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, was Vice-President Finance for Parklane Ventures Ltd., and Senior Economist for B.C. Central Credit Union.</i></div>
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Robyn Allan<br />
Economist<br />
9294 Emerald Drive<br />
Whistler BC<br />
V0N1B9</div>
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<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sherri Young<br />Secretary<br />National Energy Board<br />517 10th Ave SW<br />Calgary Alberta<br />T2R0A8</span></div>
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<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">May 19, 2015 </span><br />
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Dear Ms. Young, <br />
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I am withdrawing as an expert intervenor from the National Energy Board review of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project. After dedicating professional expertise for more than a year, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">pro bono </i>and in good faith, I have concluded that withdrawal is the only course of action. Continued participation endorses a broken system and enables the pretence of due process where none exists. <br />
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The review is not conducted on a level playing field. The Panel is not an impartial referee. The game is rigged; its outcome pre-determined by a captured regulator. The NEB’s integrity has been compromised. Its actions put the health and safety of the Canadian economy, society and environment in harm’s way. <br />
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The NEB has unconscionably betrayed Canadians through a restricted scope of issues, violated the rules of procedural fairness and natural justice, and biased its decision-making in favour of Kinder Morgan. These are discussed below:<br />
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1. </strong><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Restricted Scope of Issues</span></strong><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"></span></strong><br />
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">(a) </strong><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Review is not of the Pipeline System</strong><br />
Once expanded, the Trans Mountain system will consist of two pipelines, related storage facilities and a three-berth marine terminal at Westridge dock. The cumulative impact and risk of this entire system is of concern to the public, but not to the NEB. The Panel has excluded from its assessment the impact and risk of the sixty year old legacy line, existing terminals and storage tanks—these are outside the scope of its review. <br />
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What the NEB is considering is the impact of the “Project” which only includes the incremental, new, facilities. It is treating the expansion as if it is not part of a larger, and much more vulnerable system, but as if it is being constructed on a stand-alone basis. <br />
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It is a well-known aspect of prudent risk analysis that aggregate risk—the risk of the entire system everywhere along that system—is the relevant scope, not a self-serving limitation that restricts the scope of the review to half the system’s potential transport capacity, much less than half the system’s aggregate risk, and less than half its potential negative consequence. <br />
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This dangerous limitation in scope is how Kinder Morgan successfully argued that its existing Emergency Management Plan (EMP) documents <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">are not relevant to the Board</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s consideration of the Project</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">…</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Trans Mountain notes that although BC considers the EMP documents for the existing system to be relevant for the Board in considering this Application, the Board itself has never taken that position.</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</i><a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn1" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[i]</sup></sup></a><br />
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The Panel agrees, “<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the EMP (Emergency Management Plan) documents relate to the existing facilities that are not the subject of the present Project application</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">…</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Whether Trans Mountain is meeting its obligations with respect to its EMP for the existing facilities is a matter for the Board to consider outside of the hearing for this Project. The safe operation of the existing Line 1 facilities under current operating conditions is out of scope for this hearing.</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</i><a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[ii]</sup></sup></a><br />
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At the Northern Gateway proceedings the Panel relied on similar polluted logic to conclude that the Kalamazoo oil spill was irrelevant to informing the Board of the risk, and cost, Enbridge’s project posed to the Canadian public interest.<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn3" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[iii]</sup></sup></a><br />
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">(b) Review Restricted to Applied-for Capacity not Designed Capacity</strong><br />
The new pipeline is designed to carry 780,000 barrels a day of oil (for total system capacity of over 1.1 million barrels a day), but the Panel is restricting its review to the applied-for capacity of 540,000 barrels a day.<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn4" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[iv]</sup></sup></a><br />
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When Kinder Morgan comes forward to request NEB approval to increase throughput to designed capacity it will not fall within the definition of a designated project under the <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012</i>. An <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">NEB Act</i> section 52 review will not be required. The impact of an almost fifty percent increase in capacity on Line 2, including the marine traffic it triggers, will never undergo proper scrutiny. <br />
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">(c) Review Excludes Socio-economic and Environmental Effects of Bitumen Exploitation, Upstream and Downstream Activities</strong><br />
On April 2, 2014, the Board released its List of Issues. Intervenors were offered no opportunity to comment. The Panel excluded economic, environmental and social impact activities that are of significant concern to Canadians. In particular, the Board <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">does not intend to consider the environmental and socio-economic effects associated with upstream activities, the development of the oil sands, or the downstream use of the oil transported by the pipeline.</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</i><a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn5" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[v]</sup></sup></a><br />
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This means the Board will not consider: <br />
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(i) greenhouse gas emissions from the production of diluted bitumen shipped down the pipeline and from its use in foreign markets; <br />
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(ii) environmental impacts of tanker traffic beyond a 12 nautical mile territorial sea limit; <br />
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(iii) risks and costs of climate change; <br />
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(iv) crowding out of economic activity and the erosion of quality of life in British Columbia as English Bay and Burrard Inlet become oil tanker parking lots for Alberta’s heavy oil; <br />
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(v) the opportunity cost to the Canadian economy when raw bitumen is exported to foreign markets for upgrading and refining at the expense of value added, job creation, and economic wealth generation in Alberta; and <br />
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(vi) the cost to the Canadian economy of a condensate import dependency. Roughly one of every three barrels intended for Trans Mountain’s expansion consists of imported condensate from the US, much of it brought into Canada on Kinder Morgan Cochin. The expansion is pitched to Canadians as a Made-in-Canada heavy oil export strategy when it is in no small part a US condensate export strategy, making its way to foreign markets via Trans Mountain pipeline and our marine waterways. <br />
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The Board received Notices of Motion from the <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">City of Vancouver</i> and <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Parents from Cameron Elementary School in Burnaby</i> requesting expansion of the List of Issues. Ten Intervenors supported the motions, including the Intervenor Robyn Allan. <br />
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The Board argued that,<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Oil sands projects, including expansions, have and continue to be subject to provincial environmental assessment or combined provincial and federal assessment. This supports the conclusion that the CEAA 2012 does not require the Board to include in its environmental assessment activities that have been so assessed.</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</i><a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn6" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[vi]</sup></sup></a><br />
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The Board provides false assurances. The Board has accepted Kinder Morgan’s supply forecasts in Volume 2 of its Application. These forecasts include production volumes from some projects that have not received regulatory approval, therefore it is not possible that the environmental costs of these projects have been considered. The NEB attempts to lull Canadians into the delusion that they have. <br />
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The Board also argues that it <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">is mindful that the environmental and socio-economic effects of petroleum exploration and production activities in Canada are assessed in other federal and provincial processes that involve those conducting those activities, and that the end use of oil is managed by the jurisdiction within which that use occurs.</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</i><a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn7" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[vii]</sup></strong></sup></i></a><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </i>This spurious reasoning is nonsense since subsection 52 (2) of the <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">NEB Act</i> grants the Board <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">authority to determine what is relevant to it in fulfilling its mandate</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</i>.<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn8" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[viii]</sup></sup></a><br />
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The duplicity of the Board becomes glaringly apparent when its reasons to exclude upstream activities, oil sands extraction, and downstream use are viewed in light of the Board’s decision on marine transport issues. The Board has no authority with respect to marine shipping, navigation, safety and spill prevention and yet, the Board included <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the potential environmental and socio-economic effects of marine shipping activities that would result from the proposed project, including the potential effects of accidents or malfunctions that may occur.</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</i><a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn9" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[ix]</sup></sup></a><br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">(d) Review Restricts Marine Shipping Activities Assessment to 12 Nautical Miles</strong><br />
Strangely, the Panel has limited the assessment of marine shipping activities to 12 nautical miles, as if somehow environmental impact and spill threat cease beyond this limit.<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn10" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[x]</sup></sup></a> The Board is deluding us with this territorial limit. The environmental threats from oil tankers must be evaluated throughout the entire marine vessel trip. For example, Canada is a signatory to the North American Emissions Control Area (ECA)<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn11" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xi]</sup></sup></a> requirements, which assist in reducing air pollution from ships, but the boundary extends to only 200 nautical miles. Once past this point, tankers shift to much dirtier, and more environmentally challenging fuel sources, most notably Bunker C—the same oil that spilled recently in English Bay. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
If the Board is purporting to assess the potential environmental and socio-economic effects of marine shipping activities then the full atmospheric and spill threat of oil tankers transiting to and from Westridge must be included, not just the incremental tanker traffic within an arbitrary limit of 12 nautical miles.<br />
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2. </strong><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Compromised Principles of Procedural Fairness and Natural Justice</span></strong><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"></span></strong> </div>
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Much has been written about the Panel’s unprecedented exclusion of cross examination and how this undermines the integrity of the review process. The Intervenor, Robyn Allan, formally requested that it be re-introduced into the hearing schedule.<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn12" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xii]</sup></sup></a> Numerous Intervenors sent in letters of support. The Board rejected the request siding with Kinder Morgan, the beneficiary of the Board’s decision. <br />
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The Board assured participants that two rounds of written requests would be sufficient to test the evidence. The Board’s assurances are without merit. The first round of information requests resulted in Intervenors formally petitioning the Board to compel Kinder Morgan to answer thousands of questions, but the Board granted only 5% of them. In the second round, the Board compelled Kinder Morgan to answer less than 3%. Separate Information Requests, required because of late TERMPOL and Seismic reports, have experienced similar, unsatisfactory, responses from the Board. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
The absence of oral cross has turned this public hearing into a farce, and the written information request process into an exercise in futility. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">For two centuries past, the policy of the Anglo-American system of evidence has been to regard the necessity of testing by cross-examination as a vital feature of the law. The belief that no safeguard for testing the value of human statements is comparable to that furnished by cross-examination, and the conviction that no statement (unless by special exception) should be used as testimony until it has been probed and sublimated by that test, has found increasing strength in lengthening the experience.</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</i><a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn13" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xiii]</sup></sup></a><br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
The Board was advised by the Department of Justice that the absence of oral cross is a failure of the process pointing out that beyond any doubt cross examination <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">is the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth.</i><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</i><a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn14" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xiv]</sup></sup></a><br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
The Board claims to be an independent regulatory tribunal guided by the principles of natural justice and procedural fairness. It is a court of record and has a duty to act fairly. The NEB has failed in upholding these responsibilities.<br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">3. </strong><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Biased Decision Making</span></strong><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"></span></strong><br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"></span></strong>One of the fundamental features of our market system is that the risk borne by shareholders is balanced against the financial reward they expect to receive. This risk-reward trade-off sends appropriate market signals and supports a more efficient and effective allocation of capital. <br />
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In an unprecedented decision—the Firm 50 decision—the NEB violated this important principle by allowing Kinder Morgan to amass $136 million to pay for the pre-development costs related to the Trans Mountain expansion project. This fund was not accumulated through shareholder, at risk, capital, but through a pre-approved surcharge on shipper tolls.<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn15" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xv]</sup></sup></a> Ultimately, this cost is borne by the Canadian economy and public through foregone tax revenue and—as Kinder Morgan told the NEB during the Firm 50 Hearing—higher oil prices.<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn16" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xvi]</sup></sup></a> In contrast, there is no risk to Kinder Morgan’s shareholders for the pre-development phase of its project. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
Not only did the NEB undermine the market system by granting Kinder Morgan a fund to push through its project, it has knowingly stacked the deck in favour of the Proponent. The NEB did not ensure concomitant financial resources would be available to Intervenors during these same NEB proceedings.<br />
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The NEB socialized project approval costs onto the backs of Canadians while it knows the project’s vast financial returns—some $850 million a year—will be privatized into the pockets of Kinder Morgan’s US based investors.<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_edn17" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xvii]</sup></sup></a> When the Intervenor, Robyn Allan, requested the Board compel Kinder Morgan to reconcile inconsistencies between the economic benefits claims in its application against what it has told its shareholders in Texas—that it intends to siphon away close to a billion a year from the Canadian economy while paying almost no Canadian corporate taxes—astonishingly, the Board concluded this is outside the scope of its review. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
By its actions it is clear the Board has no intention of considering the economic impact and financial viability of this application but for accepting Kinder Morgan’s bogus case in Volume 2. Refusing to compel Kinder Morgan to answer questions, the Board allows Kinder Morgan to pretend benefits exist where they do not. When Intervenors submit evidence on the economic issues the Board will give it little, if any, weight; it has already ruled meaningful critique is outside the scope of issues. This is a travesty. <br />
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The Board’s unfair approach is also reflected in its determination that the application was complete when it was not. This is most clearly illustrated by Kinder Morgan’s uncertainty over its route and the Board’s accommodation of Kinder Morgan’s lack of preparation inside the review process. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
Although aware of the Panel’s violation of the public trust, Peter Watson, NEB Chair and CEO has not sought to rectify the broken process. The entire National Energy Board is perpetrating a fraud on the Canadian public. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
Withdrawing as an expert intervenor is not only a form of formal protest against the broken system, it is also a reasoned decision considered in light of efficiency and effectiveness. Protection of our democracy and market economy is best undertaken outside the industry contrived, and controlled, NEB failed system. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
The NEB is not a national energy board; it is a parochial board steeped in Calgary petro culture, run by corporate interests. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
Industry bias began in the 1990s when the NEB moved from Ottawa to Calgary, leaving two-thirds of its staff behind and requiring permanent Board members to live in proximity to Calgary. Regulatory capture continued as the Federal Government and Board adopted the practice of offering Board and staff positions to people with energy industry backgrounds, at the expense of establishing a diversification of interests. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
The Board abandoned prudent and sound economic and financial analysis when these led to decisions recommending projects be rejected because costs outweighed benefits. Rather than continuing to rely on Cost-Benefit analysis as a sound analytical approach, the NEB rejected it in favour of Input-Output analysis; a flawed and misleading substitute that presents impacts as if they are benefits and ignores known and reasonable costs. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
The Board is charged with environmental assessment without appropriately skilled and experienced staff to undertake it. The Board does not have the expertise, or will, to understand complex corporate structures designed to minimize corporate taxes, siphon vast financial wealth out of the country, and leave Canadians holding the bag when major or catastrophic events happen. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
I withdraw from this process in defence of the market system and a sound economy. I withdraw from this process in defence of sustainable economic progress that promotes resource development rather than resource exploitation. <br />
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The fight to protect the Canadian public interest must be conducted in an open and transparent forum, where those who desire to participate, have a right and opportunity to do so. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
The fight to protect the Canadian public interest must include those issues that fully represent the Canadian public interest, not limit them—as the Panel has done—to a definition serving industry. We are being conned by the very agency entrusted to protect us. This must stop. The health and welfare of our economic, social and environmental systems are at stake. <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
Sincerely, <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
Robyn Allan <br />
<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
cc<br />
Intervenors<br />
Kinder Morgan<br />
Peter Watson, Chair and CEO, NEB</div>
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<div class="Footnote" id="_edn1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[i]</sup></sup> Kinder Morgan Response to the Province of BC Motion December 5, 2014, page 5, <a href="https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll-eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/548311/956726/2392873/2451003/2584291/B296-1_-_Response_to_Province_of_British_Columbia_Notice_of_Motion_dated_December_5%2C_2014_-_A4F9H5.pdf?nodeid=2583678&vernum=-2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Letter</a></div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[ii]</sup></sup></a> NEB Ruling No. 31, September 24, 2014, page 4, <a href="https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll-eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/548311/956726/2392873/2449981/2524921/A79-1_-_Ruling_No._31_-__Trans_Mountain_Pipeline_ULC_-_Request_to_file_Emergency_Management_Program_documents_confidentially_-_A4C3Y5.pdf?nodeid=2523862&vernum=-2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Ruling</a></div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn3" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref3" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[iii]</sup></sup></a> Vancouver Sun, NEB Review Panel Violated Public Trust, January 9, 2014, Robyn Allan, <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Opinion+review+panel+violated+public+trust/9370276/story.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Article</a></div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn4" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref4" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[iv]</sup></sup></a> Kinder Morgan Pipeline Expansion Designed to Carry Much More Oil, The Tyee, May 28, 2014, Robyn Allan, <a href="http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/05/28/Kinder-Morgan-Pipeline-Expansion/" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Article</a> In contrast, the NEB approved the $5.4 billion capital budget that includes costs for the designed capacity and incorporated these into approved tolls to be charged to shippers.</div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn5" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref5" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[v]</sup></sup></a> NEB Hearing Order OH-001-2014, Appendix A—List of Issues, page 18, <a href="https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll-eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/548311/956726/2392873/2449981/2445930/A15-3_-_Hearing_Order_OH-001-2014_-_A3V6I2.pdf?nodeid=2445615&vernum=-2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Hearing Order</a></div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn6" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref6" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[vi]</sup></sup></a> NEB Ruling No. 25, page 3, <a href="https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll-eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/548311/956726/2392873/2449981/2487600/A63-1_-_Ruling_No._25_-_A3Z5I4.pdf?nodeid=2487522&vernum=-2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Ruling</a></div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn7" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref7" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[vii]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., page 6.</div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn8" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref8" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[viii]</sup></sup></a> Ibid., page 6.</div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn9" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref9" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[ix]</sup></sup></a> NEB Hearing Order, List of Issues #5, op. cit. The Board provided a follow-up to Issue #5 on September 10, 2013 titled Filing Requirements Related to the Potential Environmental and Socio-Economic Effects of Increased Marine Shipping Activities, <a href="https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll-eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/548311/956726/956924/1035381/A3K9I2_-_Filing_Requirements_Related_to_the_Potential_Environmental_and_Socio-Economic_Effects_of_Increased_Marine_Shipping_Activities_-_Trans_Mountain_Expansion_Project.pdf?nodeid=1035506&vernum=-2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Attachment 1</a></div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn10" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref10" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[x]</sup></sup></a> NEB Letter September 10, 2013, Attachment, Ibid, page 1. 12 nautical miles translates into 22.2 km from the low water mark of the coast.</div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn11" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref11" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xi]</sup></sup></a> Canada Implements North American ECA Requirements, May 10, 2013. <a href="http://www.gard.no/ikbViewer/Content/20735485/Gard%20Alert_Canada%20implements%20North%20American%20ECA%20requirements.pdf" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Article</a></div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn12" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref12" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xii]</sup></sup></a> Notice of Motion, Robyn Allan, April 14, 2014, <a href="https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll-eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/548311/956726/2392873/2449925/2451015/2450279/C9-1-2_-_Notice_of_Motion_1_Robyn_Allan_April_14%2C_2014_-_A3V8U7.pdf?nodeid=2450280&vernum=-2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Motion</a></div>
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<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref13" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xiii]</sup></sup></a> Wigmore on Evidence (Chadbourne Rev. 1974) vol 5, p.32, para 1367.</div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn14" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref14" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xiv]</sup></sup></a> Attorney General of Canada, June 27, 2014, page 5, para 16. <a href="https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll-eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90464/90552/548311/956726/2392873/2481845/2481483/2484427/E2-5-2_-_Written_Answer_of_the_Attorney_General_of_Canada_-_A3Y6K7.pdf?nodeid=2483868&vernum=-2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Written Response</a></div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn15" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref15" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xv]</sup></sup></a> The National Energy Board Guaranteed Kinder Morgan a Fund to Push Pipeline Expansion Through Regulatory Review, June 17, 2014, Robyn Allan, <a href="http://www.robynallan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Trans-Mountains-NEB-Guaranteed-Funding-June-17-2014.pdf" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Report</a></div>
<div class="Footnote" id="_edn16" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref16" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xvi]</sup></sup></a> Application for Firm Service to Westridge Marine Terminal, RH-2-2011,<a href="https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll-eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90465/92835/552980/954147/655087/768172/768253/A2J3V8_-_Reasons_for_Decision_RH-2-2011.pdf?nodeid=768090&vernum=-2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Reasons for Decision</a>, page 13.</div>
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<a href="https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/robyn-allan-withdraws#_ednref17" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><sup style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[xvii]</sup></sup></a> Ian Anderson, Kinder Morgan Inc. <a href="https://docs.neb-one.gc.ca/ll-eng/llisapi.dll/fetch/2000/90465/92835/552980/954292/828580/865824/872903/918042/_C15-12_-_Transcript_of_Ian_Anderson_Investor_Presentation_-_A3F3Y8.pdf?nodeid=917929&vernum=-2" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #427597; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Transcript</a> Part IV Toll Hearing Evidence, January 30, 2013, page 3.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 8.88888931274414px;"><i>Reprinted with permission</i></span></div>
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Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-48769857340829410332015-02-08T19:17:00.000-08:002015-02-08T19:17:30.419-08:00Sad Story of Target Workers is all too familiar<div class="post_title" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px;">
<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The story is always the same. Target store employees, steel workers, bank staff are all dispensable so the wealthy corporate owners can get even richer.</span></div>
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Just before Christmas, it was Scotia Bank slashing 1,500 jobs so it can make more than its current $2 billion a year in profits. And Hamilton workers have been dumped on the streets for decades as big corporations shifted production to low-wage countries like China.</div>
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CBC has revealed that the severance package for the Target CEO is bigger than the combined compensation for the chain’s 17,600 Canadian employees.</div>
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It’s outrageous but hardly even surprising that Oxfam now reports that by the end of this year the richest one per cent will have more wealth than all the other 99 per cent of us put together. We have an economic system that benefits a tiny handful while squeezing pretty much everyone else – and it just gets worse.</div>
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It’s also not surprising that nothing serious is being done about climate change and other environmental degradation both locally and globally because that might cut into the obscene profits of the oil companies.</div>
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What’s good for the big corporations is bad for the rest of us. This is particularly obvious when jobs are sacrificed for corporate profits, and when the environment and climate are trashed to extract and transport more oil, gas and coal.</div>
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We’re seeing it right now in Hamilton as the railways carry more oil tankers through the city, and Enbridge increases oil flows by 25 per cent in its 40-year old Line 9 pipe. The same scenario is playing out in northern Ontario where TransCanada wants to convert an aging gas pipeline to carry tar sands oil from Alberta to the Atlantic Ocean. The rewards all go to the corporate side; and the risks all get dumped on us.</div>
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Where’s the breaking point? We might be able to negotiate with large corporations, but we can’t change the laws of nature.</div>
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As Naomi Klein points out, the climate crisis changes everything and forces us to fight together for real change.</div>
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<b>Hamilton 350 Blog</b></div>
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Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-44561846721216789282014-09-16T17:52:00.001-07:002014-09-16T17:52:11.173-07:00March for Climate Change<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', helvetica, arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;">
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On Sunday, September 21st, a huge crowd will <a href="http://peoplesclimate.org/march/" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">march</a> through the middle of Manhattan. It will almost certainly be the largest rally about climate change in human history, and one of the largest political protests in many years in New York. More than 1,000 groups are coordinating the march -- environmental justice groups, faith groups, labor groups -- which means there’s no one policy ask. Instead, it’s designed to serve as a loud and pointed reminder to our leaders, gathering that week at the United Nations to discuss global warming, that the next great movement of the planet’s citizens centers on our survival and their pathetic inaction.</div>
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As a few of the march’s organizers, though, we can give some sense of why we, at least, are marching, words we think represent many of those who will gather at Columbus Circle for the walk through midtown Manhattan.</div>
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We march because the world has left the Holocene behind: scientists tell us that we’ve already raised the planet’s temperature almost one degree Celsius, and are on <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/19/were-on-pace-for-4c-of-global-warming-heres-why-the-world-bank-is-terrified/" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">track</a> for four or five by century’s end. We march because Hurricane Sandy filled the New York City subway system with salt water, reminding us that even one of the most powerful cities in the world is already vulnerable to slowly rising ocean levels.</div>
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We march because we know that climate change affects everyone, but its impacts are not equally felt: those who have contributed the least to causing the crisis are hit hardest, here and around the world. Communities on the frontlines of global warming are already paying a heavy price, in some cases losing the very <a href="http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/kiribati-a-nation-going-under/590/" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">land</a> on which they live. This isn’t just about polar bears any more.</div>
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But since polar bears can’t march, we march for them, too, and for the rest of creation now poised on the verge of what biologists say will be the planet’s sixth great extinction event, one unequaled since the last time a huge asteroid <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">struck</a> the Earth 66 million years ago.</div>
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And we march for generations yet to come, our children, grandchildren, and their children, whose lives will be systematically impoverished and degraded. It’s the first time one century has wrecked the prospects of the millennia to come, and it makes us mad enough to march.</div>
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We march with hope, too. We see a few great examples around the world of how quickly we could make the transition to renewable energy. We know that if there were days this summer when Germany <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/13/3436923/germany-energy-records/" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">generated</a> nearly 75% of its power from renewable sources of energy, the rest of us could, too -- especially in poorer nations around the equator that desperately need more energy. And we know that labor-intensive renewables would provide far more jobs than capital-intensive coal, gas, and oil.</div>
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And we march with some frustration: why haven’t our societies responded to 25 years of dire warnings from scientists? We’re not naïve; we know that the fossil fuel industry is the 1% of the 1%. But sometimes we think we shouldn’t have to march. If our system worked the way it should, the world would long ago have taken the obvious actions economists and policy gurus have recommended -- from taxing carbon to reflect the damage it causes to funding a massive World War II-scale transition to clean energy.</div>
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Marching is not all, or even most, of what we do. We advocate; we work to install solar panels; we push for sustainable transit. We know, though, that history shows marching is usually required, that reason rarely prevails on its own. (And we know that sometimes even marching isn’t enough; we’ve been <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175435/tomgram%3A_bill_mckibben,_jailed_over_big_oil%27s_attempt_to_wreck_the_planet/" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">to jail</a> and we’ll likely be back.)</div>
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We’re tired of winning the argument and losing the fight. And so we march. We march for the beaches and the barrios. We march for summers when the cool breeze still comes down in the evening. We march because Exxon <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-09/exxon-raises-capital-budget-to-as-much-as-37-billion-a-year-1-.html" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">spends</a> $100 million every day looking for more hydrocarbons, even though scientists tell us we already have far more in our reserves than we can safely burn. We march for those too weak from dengue fever and malaria to make the journey. We march because California has lost <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-63-trillion-gallons-of-groundwater-lost-in-drought-study-finds-20140821-story.html" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">63 trillion gallons</a> of groundwater to the fierce drought that won’t end, and because the glaciers at the roof of Asia are disappearing. We march because researchers told the world in April that the West Antarctic ice sheet has begun to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/13/west-antarctic-glacial-collapse-what-you-need-to-know/" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">melt</a> “irrevocably”; Greenland’s ice shield may soon <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/01/new-satellite-maps-show-polar-ice-caps-melting-at-unprecedented-rate" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">follow suit</a>; and the waters from those, as rising seas, will sooner or later drown the world’s coastlines and many of its great cities.</div>
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We don’t march because there’s any guarantee it will work. If you were a betting person, perhaps you’d say we have only modest hope of beating the financial might of the oil and gas barons and the governments in their thrall. It’s obviously too late to stop global warming entirely, but not too late to slow it down -- and it’s not too late, either, to simply pay witness to what we’re losing, a world of great beauty and complexity and stability that has nurtured humanity for thousands of years.</div>
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There’s a world to march for -- and a future, too. The only real question is why anyone wouldn’t march.</div>
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<em>Eddie Bautista is executive director of the </em><a href="http://nyc-eja.org/" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em>New York City Environmental Justice Alliance</em></a><em>. LaTonya Crisp-Sauray is the recording secretary for the </em><a href="http://www.twulocal100.org/" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em>Transport Workers Union Local 100</em></a><em>. Bill McKibben is the founder of </em><a href="http://350.org/" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em>350.org</em></a><em> and a </em><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175765/bill_mckibben_x-ray" style="color: #9b3921; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em>TomDispatch regular</em></a><em>.</em></div>
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Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-32218387239016422302014-03-06T19:55:00.003-08:002014-03-06T19:55:50.228-08:00Lac Mégantic a grim warning for Hamilton<h1 class="printable-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; border: none; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 25px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">
Lac Mégantic a grim warning for Hamilton</h1>
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Federal rail safety deregulation means city has to look after itself</h2>
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<span style="border: none; color: black; font-size: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; text-shadow: none;">By</span> <span itemprop="author" style="border: none; color: black; font-size: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; text-shadow: none;">Ken Stone</span></div>
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Since the Lac Mégantic tragedy, Hamiltonians have grown increasingly worried about crude oil shipments by rail. And well they should! The tankers that exploded in Lac Mégantic may have passed through Hamilton. They were apparently filled with fracked oil from North Dakota, which contain highly flammable chemicals. Trains probably also carry bitumen from the Alberta tarsands through Hamilton. If bitumen-carrying tankers derailed and ruptured close to Hamilton watercourses, bitumen could sink to the bottom, poisoning our water, as occurred when Enbridge's pipeline ruptured in Kalamazoo, Mich. A billion dollars and four years later, it still has not been completely removed.</div>
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Regrettably, shipping dirty fossil fuels from fracking and from the tarsands is growing enormously by pipeline and by rail. There's been a 28,000 per cent increase in volumes of oil shipped by rail during the past five years. The Canadian Railway Association forecasted about 140,000 oil tankers to be shipped in Canada in 2013, up from only 500 carloads in 2009. And railroads plan to continue this exponential expansion.</div>
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Triggering this vast increase is the reckless plan to quintuple the output of the tarsands and to introduce fracking all across North America. These plans to exploit dirty sources of oil are motivated by profit-seeking corporations owned mainly by foreigners. Yet, the projects have the solid backing of the Harper government. Ordinary Canadians are left to live with the negative economic, social, health and environmental costs of this rapid plundering of Canada's finite natural resources.</div>
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For the Hamilton 350 Committee, the question of rail versus pipelines for shipping oil misses the point. We hold that two-thirds of all fossil fuel reserves need to stay in the ground. Climate change is happening and it's already hurting Hamilton with extreme weather, such as floods and ice storms. Unless Canadians reduce their use of fossil fuels, we're heading for ecological disaster.</div>
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But why should city councillors be concerned about rail safety during budget deliberations? The answer is liability. In Lac Mégantic, the MM&A Railway had $25 million in insurance and declared bankruptcy when it became clear the cleanup would cost hundreds of millions. What steps has Hamilton taken to avoid financial catastrophe should an oil-bearing train derail in Dundas and ignite? Has Hamilton done its due diligence on defects in hundreds of aging DOT-111 tankers passing daily through Dundas? These tankers make up 70 per cent of North America's rail-tanker fleet. Yet, their propensity to rupture is well-documented. CP Rail's CEO Hunter Harrison recently declared the DOT-111's should be "removed from the rails tomorrow." Let's take him up on that call. Unionized workers at National Steel Car, where many were built, would be working three shifts and a lot of overtime for years to come to retrofit or replace them.</div>
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What about other safety factors such as better track maintenance, slower train speeds, in-cab cameras, and automatic stopping systems? Since the Lac Mégantic inferno, Transport Canada has instituted a weak hazardous-materials reporting regulation. The railways themselves instituted some voluntary new safety rules.</div>
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However, weak and voluntary measures won't adequately protect Hamilton from an oil tanker spill. Why? Because the Lac Mégantic tragedy was the direct result of deregulation of rail transport. The federal government has, for decades, been cutting resources to Transport Canada while placing increasing reliance on railways to police themselves. This move is akin to placing the fox in charge of the proverbial chicken coop. For example, just weeks before the Lac Mégantic catastrophe, the Canadian Railway Association formally asked Transport Minister Lisa Raitt to permit them to stop railway inspectors from examining brake, axle, wheel and car components. The request was quietly withdrawn after the tragedy. The regulatory downsizing of train crews was also a factor in the catastrophe. The MM&A train that destroyed Lac Mégantic's core had a one-person crew, a far cry from decades ago when trains had much larger crews plus a caboose for them to stay in.</div>
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Because of lax federal regulations, city councillors must budget staff time to investigate what measures to protect itself from train wrecks a municipality can undertake on its own or in concert with other municipalities.</div>
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But even the best safety rules for trains (and pipelines) can't prevent all accidents, since people make mistakes. The best long-term protection against oil spills from trains (and pipelines) is to reduce and eventually eliminate the shipment of such hazardous materials.</div>
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This brief was originally delivered by Ken Stone to the General Issues Committee of Hamilton city council during its 2014 budget deliberations, on behalf of the Hamilton 350 Committee.</div>
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Hamilton Spectator, March 6th, 2014</div>
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Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-86871611817732056622014-03-05T19:01:00.003-08:002014-03-05T19:01:39.610-08:00National Energy Board Decision on Line 9<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
It has been announced that the
National Energy Board (NEB) decision on Line 9 will be released late Thursday
afternoon (March 6, 2014). In response, the Hamilton 350 Committee has called a rally
for noon Friday, anticipating that approval will be granted to Enbridge’s
controversial plan to expand the flows in the <st1:city w:st="on">Sarnia</st1:city>
to <st1:city w:st="on">Montreal</st1:city>
pipeline and include bitumen in the products being shipped through it.</div>
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It’s already clear that the <st1:state w:st="on">NEB</st1:state> decision won’t
address many of our most significant concerns including the effects on climate
change of increasing both the extraction and transport of fossil fuels, and the
economic impacts on manufacturing of additional oil exports.</div>
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In the Line 9 review and
hearings, the <st1:place w:st="on">NEB</st1:place>
categorically refused to even consider “the environmental and socio-economic
effects associated with upstream activities, the development of oil [tar]
sands, or the downstream use of the oil transported by the pipeline.” </div>
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So the climatic effects of the
expansion of flows in Line 9 have not been considered by the NEB. The climatic
and other environmental impacts of expansion of the <st1:place w:st="on">Alberta</st1:place> tar sands to supply the bitumen
being sent through Line 9 have also not been examined. </div>
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And while the current federal
government claims to be focused on the economy, not even the economic impacts
of exporting more oil were examined. The increasing reliance of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> on the export of fossil fuels has already
done great damage to manufacturing, especially in <st1:state w:st="on">Ontario</st1:state>
and <st1:state w:st="on">Quebec</st1:state>,
by driving up the exchange rate of Canadian currency and making export of
manufactured goods less competitive.</div>
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It is clear that we must wean
our society off fossil fuels. The minimum first step is stop making things
worse. When you find yourself in a hole, the first rule is to stop digging.
Therefore, at minimum, no increase in the extraction or transportation of
fossil fuels should be contemplated. </div>
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The science is beyond doubt. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has confirmed that human burning of
fossil fuels is the main cause of global climate change. Great harm has already
resulted and even the best case scenarios promise much greater damage ahead. We
are very likely seeing some of that harm here in <st1:place w:st="on">Hamilton</st1:place> in the form of extreme events such
as torrential rain, ice storms, flooding and other increasingly unusual and
disruptive weather.</div>
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The <st1:state w:st="on">NEB</st1:state> is incapable or unwilling to deal with
these key issues. In addition, its requirement that individuals and
organizations apply in writing to even hope to obtain permission to submit
written reviews is clearly undemocratic. </div>
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The transparency of this
so-called regulatory agency must also be questioned after it quietly approved
expanded flow in an Enbridge pipeline parallel to Line 9 without even requiring
notification of the affected First Nations or municipalities including
Hamilton, or the individuals across whose private lands the pipeline runs. </div>
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Join us on Friday, March 7, 2014, at
12-noon at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hamilton</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">City Hall</st1:placetype></st1:place> for a Line 9
rally.</div>
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Hamilton 350 Blog</div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /><!--[endif]--></span>Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-25497352482021925232013-11-18T05:53:00.000-08:002013-11-19T05:54:19.515-08:00What does it take for Canada to act?<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">
Typhoon Haiyan has devastated the Philippines with almost four thousand confirmed dead and tens of thousands more injured.<o p=""></o></div>
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It is irresponsible to discuss this natural disaster without mentioning COP 19 — the United Nations Climate Change Conference, on now in Warsaw, Poland. It is at COP19 that the world is supposed to be working on solutions to climate change.<o p=""></o></div>
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At this conference, the Philippines delegate, Yeb Sano, announced he "will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this COP, until a meaningful outcome is in sight." As part of his tearful speech, he pleaded: "What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness, the climate crisis is madness. We can stop this madness right here in Warsaw."<o p=""></o></div>
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Traditionally, scientists shy away from linking specific weather events with climate change. Instead, they tend to say things like "more intense storms like Typhoon Haiyan are the types of weather events we can expect more frequently as a result of climate change."<o p=""></o></div>
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<b>Canada’s performances under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s leadership at climate talks such as COP19 have been absolutely shameful. For the last six consecutive years, the Climate Action Network has declared Canada the most obstructive nation at each annual conference.<o p=""></o></b></div>
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These types of comments should be enough to inspire action. If the global community wants to avoid storms like Typhoon Haiyan, then we need to do something about global warming.<o p=""></o></div>
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Professor Will Steffen, a researcher at the Australian National University and a climate change expert, has made an even stronger link between climate change and Typhoon Haiyan. He is quoted as saying: "Once (cyclones) do form, they get most of their energy from the surface waters of the ocean. We know sea-surface temperatures are warming across the planet, so that's a very direct influence of climate change on the nature of the storm."<o p=""></o></div>
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Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are not the only reasons we need to combat climate change.<o p=""></o></div>
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There are frightening conclusions just released via a leaked draft version of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report called "Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability." IPCC publications are the most diligently vetted scientific documents ever produced.<o p=""></o></div>
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There are many concerns worth noting, but just to give a scope of the potential damage consider these points:<o p=""></o></div>
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<br /></div>
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•"Climate change indirectly increases risks from violent conflict in the form of civil war, inter-group violence, and violent protests by exacerbating well-established drivers of these conflicts such as poverty and economic shocks."<o p=""></o></div>
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•"Throughout the 21{+s}t century, climate change impacts will slow down economic growth and poverty reduction, further erode food security, and trigger new poverty traps, the latter particularly in urban areas and emerging hot spots of hunger."<o p=""></o></div>
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We often think of climate change as a faraway problem. The image of a polar bear clinging to a small block of ice in the Arctic generally comes to mind. What we are learning through IPCC research publications is that climate change can be linked to and exacerbate serious, deadly problems that have major impacts on people across the planet.<o p=""></o></div>
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Annual international climate change conferences like the one in Poland are the only opportunities the international community has to come together and develop an agreement to slow the rate of anthropogenic climate change.<o p=""></o></div>
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<b>Canada's performances under Prime Minister Stephen Harper's leadership at climate talks such as COP19 have been absolutely shameful. For the past six years, the Climate Action Network has declared Canada the most obstructive nation at each annual conference.</b><o p=""></o></div>
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Our prime minister is currently offering condolences and aid money to the Philippines. However, in addition to condolences, Canadians should be offering our apologies. Canada has offered the Philippines $5 million and deployed our emergency response team to the ravaged nation. Instead of calling our financial support "aid," we should be calling them "reparations" for our reckless behaviour.<o p=""></o></div>
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Above all else, Canadians have a moral duty to the world to remove Harper from power and replace him with a prime minister who has a competent strategy to solve this problem.<o p=""></o></div>
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Hamilton 350 Blog<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">
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Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-82700582939697923842013-10-30T16:38:00.000-07:002013-11-01T16:40:26.405-07:00A Withdrawal that could change the Weather<h2 class="detail-page-sub-title" style="background-color: white; border: none; color: #282828; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">
Climate action group promoting credit unions over big banks</h2>
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CARSON</h2>
<small style="border: none; color: #888888; display: block; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cathie Coward,The Hamilton Spectator</small><div class="scrollable-text scrollable no_scroll_v" style="border: none; height: 75px; line-height: 11px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden !important; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 360px;">
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<i style="border: none; color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dave Carson of Hamilton 350</i></div>
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<span style="border: none; color: black; font-size: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; text-shadow: none;">By</span><span style="border: none; color: black; font-size: inherit; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; text-shadow: none;">Meredith MacLeod</span></div>
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A Hamilton climate change action group is urging consumers and institutions to take their money out of Canada's big banks.</div>
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Hamilton 350 is joining 350.org and OurClimate.ca in declaring Nov. 5 Move Your Money Day. The campaign is aimed at universities and colleges, municipalities, religious organizations and individual investors and targets 200 oil, natural gas and coal companies.</div>
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Dante Ryel, a member of Hamilton 350, says the same tactic worked to undermine apartheid in South Africa.</div>
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But it's not just a moral stance but a sound economic argument too, said a group of Hamilton 350 representatives who spoke to The Spectator's editorial board Tuesday.</div>
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The World Bank, the International Panel on Climate Change and other investment groups have said there is more "carbon in the ground than we can afford to burn if we're going to survive," said member Dave Carson.</div>
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"But those assets are valued into the companies' stock prices. If they are stranded, that bubble would burst."</div>
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The International Energy Agency calculates that the fossil fuel industry will need to leave about 80 per cent of their reserves of coal, oil, and gas in the ground in order to meet targets set for global warming. It's estimated the reserves are worth about $20 trillion.</div>
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Consumers, communities and institutions should invest in credit unions, which are member-owned, invest in community development and don't directly invest in fossil fuel holdings, says Ryel.</div>
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About 40 schools, local governments and churches have committed to divesting from oil, gas and coal in the United States, according to 350.org. They include Seattle, San Francisco. Portland, Ore., and Ann Arbor, Mich.</div>
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The impact could be huge if widely adopted. It's estimated the top 500 university endowments alone hold nearly $400 billion in investments.</div>
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Ryel, an energy systems engineering student at Mohawk College, says he has reached out to Mohawk, McMaster and the City of Hamilton to talk about bank divestment. Ryel says his calls and emails aren't returned.</div>
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"I think the biggest roadblock is Canada's culture. The influence of the fossil fuel industry has on every single aspect of Canadian culture is incredible."</div>
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The Move Your Money Day campaign began in the United States out of the Occupy movement and resentment over the bailout of big banks.</div>
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There are ethical and green investment funds but Ryel says so far there isn't one that filters out fossil fuel companies.</div>
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350.org says giant oil, gas and coal are profiting while environmental damage climbs.</div>
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"If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage," has become a mantra.</div>
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The 350 in the organization's name refers to the measurement of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in parts per million. Leading climate scientists have determined that 350 parts per million is a safe level for the earth. But each year, the needle climbs a little so that it sits at about 390 ppm today.</div>
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That will mean rising temperatures and sea levels, increased frequency of extreme weather and famine and drought, local 350 members warn.</div>
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"We believe climate change is not an issue, it's the issue," said Carson. He accused a number of institutes funded by big oil companies of disregarding the science of climate change and spreading misinformation.</div>
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"The International Panel on Climate Change determined that it is 95 per cent certain that climate change is happening and that it's caused by human activities," echoed Ryel.</div>
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"That's the same level of certainty that cigarettes are bad for human health."</div>
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Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-43785701451838628352013-06-28T15:35:00.002-07:002013-06-28T15:35:40.048-07:00A Line in the Sand<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KUEQIDiY5tw/Uc4PRVBv3yI/AAAAAAAAADw/eRD4CWGWaTw/s609/Beverly+Swamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KUEQIDiY5tw/Uc4PRVBv3yI/AAAAAAAAADw/eRD4CWGWaTw/s1600/Beverly+Swamp.jpg" /></a>Headwaters to streams and rivers leading to Lake Ontario </div>
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There is an increasingly polarized but submerged dynamic in Canada which revolves around pipelines, resource extraction, First Nations, and climate change. Sometimes the tensions rise to the surface and more awareness is created. This is what is happening right now in Ontario, Canada, in areas traversed by the “Line 9” pipeline.<br /><br />Enbridge Inc. currently uses a 38 year old pipeline (Line 9) to transport petroleum from Montreal to Sarnia. Thirty-eight year old pipelines are not thick: this one is ¼ inch thick, and it measures 30 inches in diameter. Replacement pipes are ½ inch thick.<br /><br />Enbridge is proposing to reverse the flow of this pipe (so that “product” runs from west to east), increase the volume of flow by 25%, and run diluted bitumen through it to Montreal, then to Portland Maine, where it can be refined and exported.<br /><br />Years ago, the notion of running diluted bitumen through such a pipe would not have been considered. Not only does diluted bitumen (dil bit) have the consistency of peanut butter, but it contains abrasives such as pyrite and quartz. The flow creates friction, which raises the material's temperature, and makes it more corrosive. Additionally, cancer-causing condensates such as benzene, toluene, hydrogen sulphide, n-hexane, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons must be added to the toxic mix.<br /><br />New pipelines dedicated to the transport of diluted bitumen are ¾ of an inch thick. They are coated outside for corrosion, and inside for abrasion, and they are 36 inches in diameter.<br /><br />Normally, such a reckless proposal would at least trigger a federal Environmental Assessment with full public disclosure; however, now that Omnibus Bills C-38 and C-45 have been passed, the company is only required to request a National Energy Board (NEB) hearing (scheduled for August). Unfortunately, though, the NEB process is akin to a “rubber stamp” process, since public access to the hearings is restricted by an onerous application protocol, and the findings of the hearing can be overturned by the federal government.<br /><br />An important impediment for Enbridge is the fact that the pipeline runs through unceded Mohawk Territory. According to the Canadian Constitution (1982), projects such as this that cross First Nations territories must first secure Free, Prior, and Informed Consent from First Nations, and this has not been secured.<br /><br />Enbridge, likely anticipating that there would be resistance to its project, engaged in what could accurately be defined as "influence peddling" in communities through which the pipeline runs. In Hamilton, for example, Enbridge donated money to the police. Near the pumping station in Flamborough, home to the Beverly Swamp, ( a Class 1 protected wetland, and headwaters to streams and rivers feeding Lake Ontario), they provided funding for a baseball diamond.<br /><br />Some may be fooled, but Enbridge’s track record is not exceptional. Between 1990 and 2010, they had 804 reportable spills in North America. If/when Line 9 leaks or bursts, the air will be contaminated by cancer-causing toxins, and the land and waters will be contaminated by diluted bitumen, which sinks to the bottom of wetlands, rivers, etc. A recent spill in Kalamazoo, Michigan bears all the hallmarks of what a spill will look like here.<br /><br />It is in this context, and with late night construction crews working on reversing the lines at the North Westover Pumping Station BEFORE securing NEB approval, that a tipping point was reached which triggered a blockade and occupation of the station.<br /><br />The protestors included First Nations peoples and a diverse contingent of peaceful (and well-informed) activists. Police made a number of arrests, and the blockade/occupation is now over, but the activism has already created a pause for reflection and awareness.<br /><br />Awareness sometimes means debunking corporate myths. For example, people who support pipelines often mention jobs, but pipelines are largely self-sustaining once installed, and alternate sources of energy offer far more jobs. Additionally, increased reliance on a rip and ship extractive economy creates a high petro dollar which eliminates rather than creates jobs.<br /><br />Others think of tar sand pipelines as a “necessary or lesser evil”, but why choose evil? The global atmospheric levels of carbon are now at 400 parts per million (ppm), and climate change is already wreaking fatal and expensive havoc throughout the world.<br /><br />Discussions also involve First Nations issues. Increasingly, Canadians are learning that First Nations issues and their issues are intertwined. Canada’s neglect of its peoples and its environment are interconnected issues that are tarnishing our country and our international reputation.<br /><br />Many of us are no longer willing to settle for Canada’s diminished stature, and many more are becoming aware of the imperatives of science-based policy-making, and the need to transition away from fossil fuels.<br /><br />The blockade at Flamborough is a sign of our discontent, and a sign of our need for progressive change.<br /><br /><i>Mark Taliano</i><br />
<br />MarkTaliano is based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and is an Anchor for Allvoices.<br />Report Credibility<br />Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-12827817022755583022013-06-21T05:45:00.000-07:002013-06-21T05:50:35.190-07:00Alberta FloodsA simple message to Albertans and all Canadians: <u><b>Connect the Dots</b></u><br />
<br />
Tar sands oil releases carbon into the atmosphere...<br />
<br />
.... Global Warming ...<br />
<br />
... Climate Change ...<br />
<br />
... Severe Weather...<br />
<br />
... Catastrophic Events...<br />
<br />
... This: <br />
<br />
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Hamilton 350 BlogHamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-46028607242370223242013-06-14T18:55:00.000-07:002013-06-14T18:56:16.583-07:00Fighting Pipelines is not EnoughFor the first time in three million years our planet has approached <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-carbon-dioxide-400-20130513%2c0%2c7196126.story" target="_blank">400 parts per million</a>(ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) in the atmosphere. CO<sub>2</sub>,
as many people know, is the most important greenhouse gas (GHG)
emission particle contributing to the dangerous environmental crisis we
know as climate change. For reference, many scientists suggest that the
safe level of GHG emissions is 350 ppm. For those of us concerned about
climate change, and the future of our species, 400 ppm is a significant
landmark, prompting reflection on Canadian climate change policy and
environmentalist strategy.<br />
<br />
One of the most significant threats to climate change mitigation in
Canada is the expansion of the carbon-intensive tar sands industry.
Environmentalist organizations and concerned citizens across North
America are trying to prevent the expansion of tar sands extraction by
blocking pipelines. To the south of Alberta there is the battle over
Keystone XL, to the west there is the Northern Gateway pipeline and to
the east there is the reversal of the Line 9 pipeline. Blocking these
pipelines is an essential part of climate change mitigation, but it is
also important to consider the bigger picture.<br />
<br />
People trying to address the problem of climate change are on the
defensive. If our atmosphere were a bathtub, then we could say that
Canada is cranking open the tap at a time when the tub is already about
to overflow. Pipeline activists are focused on opening the tap less
quickly when our society needs to be draining the tub. The rate at which
GHG emissions are pumped into our atmosphere should be <i>decreasing</i> at this point in history, not just increasing less quickly.<br />
<br />
Nothing will address the root cause of climate change more effectively than putting a significant price on C0<sub>2</sub>.
With a price on carbon we can make polluting so expensive that emitting
massive amounts of GHG emissions is no longer an economically viable
option. A price on carbon targets all sources of GHG emissions in one
fell swoop, including but not limited to tar sands’ diluted bitumen
pipelines.<br />
<br />
Gone are the days when Conservative fear-mongering around a price on
carbon can sway voters. In the recent BC provincial election the debate
was not about whether there should be a price on carbon but instead on
how high this price should be.<br />
<br />
At the federal level things might seem less hopeful. Peter Kent, our
environment minister, recently said that the five consecutive “fossil”
awards Canada has received for obstructing progress at international
climate change conferences are “<a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/kent-says-fossil-awards-are-worn-with-honour-1.1271877" target="_blank">worn with honour</a>.”
While Conservatives are flaunting their incredibly immoral climate
change policies, and in the process undermining the interests of the
majority of Canadians who are desperate for climate change action, their
popularity is suffering as a result.<br />
<br />
It is only a matter of time before Canada, and the world, adopts a price on carbon. <a href="http://citizensclimatelobby.ca/home" target="_blank">Citizen’s Climate Lobby Canada</a>
is attempting to lubricate this process by promoting one of the most
exciting carbon pricing options available. They call it the <a href="http://citizensclimatelobby.ca/sites/default/files/files/CARBON%20FEE%20AND%20DIVIDEND-%20A%20CARBON%20TAX%20THAT%20heavily%20TAXES%20the%20carbon%20intensive%20habits%20of%20the%201%25%2C%20SPARES%20THE%20MIDDLE%20CLASS%20AND%20PROTECTS%20THE%20POOR.pdf" target="_blank">carbon fee and dividend</a>.
This policy mandates that the government collects money from polluters
who emit GHG emissions and that this revenue is dispersed back to the
public in equal amounts in the form of a dividend. Unlike other carbon
taxes, this revenue neutral strategy <a href="http://citizensclimatelobby.ca/sites/default/files/files/CARBON%20FEE%20AND%20DIVIDEND-%20A%20CARBON%20TAX%20THAT%20heavily%20TAXES%20the%20carbon%20intensive%20habits%20of%20the%201%25,%20SPARES%20THE%20MIDDLE%20CLASS%20AND%20PROTECTS%20THE%20POOR.pdf" target="_blank">would financially benefit poor and middle class Canadians</a> who live a low carbon lifestyle.<br />
<br />
For those of us who are serious about combating climate change, we
need to speak out in favour of a price on carbon while we are also
speaking out against tar sands pipelines.<br />
<br />
Hamilton 350 BlogHamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-21281711461632304482013-05-09T05:46:00.002-07:002013-05-09T05:49:21.275-07:00Twelve Canadian Scientists weigh in on Climate Change Read CBC News article here: <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/05/08/pol-climate-scientist-letter-joe-oliver.html" target="_blank">Government should 'grow up' on climate change</a><br />
<br />
Letter to Joe Oliver:<br />
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<br />Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-65732446731609976582013-01-20T17:55:00.000-08:002013-02-28T06:43:47.124-08:00Stop Line 9 ReversalHere are reasons why we have to stop the reversal of Line 9 pipeline from Sarnia to Montreal.<br />
<br />
I am not going to discuss the inevitable environmental destruction when Line 9 ruptures and spills its toxic contents into the Green Belt of Southern Ontario. I am not going to delve into the facts as to why the condition of the 40-year old pipeline will be incapable of safely transporting the more corrosive tar sands bitumen.<br />
<br />
Here is what is the real push behind the Line 9 reversal.<br />
<br />
The Harper government and its constituents, Big Oil companies, are in a panic. Expansion plans for tar sands development are on hold. Big Oil cannot deliver its product to its customers. TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline through the U.S.A. to Texas, while temporarily suspended by U.S. President Barack Obama, has divided citizens south of the border. It has received fierce opposition in Nabraska and other states.<br />
<br />
Big Oil's Plan B is Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline with hopes to bring tar sands oil to tanker terminals in Kitimat, B.C., to be shipped to China. Harper and his oil men are so desparate that they have sold out to China, and given CNOOC (Chinese National Offshore Oil Company) the right to sue for damages at any level, federal, provincial or municipal, if decisions are made that damage CNOOC's expected return on investment.<br />
<br />
The Northern Gateway pipeline will never see the light of day. Our First Nations brothers and sisters will make certain of that.<br />
<br />
Which brings us to Plan C, to reverse the flow of Line 9 in order to move tar sands oil as diluted bitumen (dilbit) from Alberta through Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, Vermont, New Hamshire, to Portland, Maine.<br />
<br />
Why is the Harper goverment and Big Oil so desparate and in such a hurry to sell tar sands oil?<br />
<br />
Because of global warming and climate change.<br />
<br />
The rest of the world, particularly European countries, are able to see the potential devastation caused by escalating carbon emissions. European countries are light years ahead of U.S.A. and Canada "we'll do what big brother does" in developing renewable energy. The Alberta tar sands deposits are the second largest deposits of carbon on the planet, next to the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. If the carbon from the Alberta tar sands were to be released, it would be game over for humanity. European nations know this. The rest of the world knows this. It is only a matter of time when the global community boycotts Canada for its role in poisoning the global atmosphere.<br />
<br />
Here is the ultimate irony. Harper and Big Oil needs to get tar sands bitumen out of the Alberta fast because of global warming and climate change. It is only a matter of time when the global community suffers irreversibly from the release of too much carbon into the atmosphere. And time is running out!<br />
<br />
The tar sands is cash in the ground as Harper and Big Oil see it. Liquidating the tar sands is not about the well-being of Canadians or protection of the environment. It is about Big Oil stuffing their pockets with money. Harper and Big Oil is desperate and determined to cash in on this bounty before the door closes.<br />
<br />
This is not just about pipelines. This is about tar sands.<br />
<br />
This is a Call for Action!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://hamiltonline9.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Hamilton Line 9</a><br />
<a href="http://canadians.org/energy/issues/pipelines/index.html" target="_blank">Council of Canadians</a><br />
<a href="http://canadians.org/blog/?p=17878" target="_blank">http://canadians.org/blog/?p=17878</a><br />
<a href="http://canadians.org/blog/?p=15345" target="_blank">Council of Canadians Line 9 blog</a><br />
<a href="http://www.stopline9-toronto.ca/" target="_blank">Stop Line 9 - Toronto</a><br />
<a href="http://environmentaldefence.ca/issues/tar-sands/line-9" target="_blank">Environmental Defence</a><br />
<a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120626/dilbit-diluted-bitumen-enbridge-kalamazoo-river-marshall-michigan-oil-spill-6b-pipeline-epa" target="_blank">The dilbit disaster in Kalamazoo</a><br />
<a href="http://rabble.ca/news/2012/09/enbridge-line-9-other-other-pipeline" target="_blank">http://rabble.ca/news/2012/09/enbridge-line-9-other-other-pipeline</a><br />
<a href="http://rabble.ca/news/2012/11/toronto-conference-lays-basis-mass-challenge-tar-sands-pipeline" target="_blank">http://rabble.ca/news/2012/11/toronto-conference-lays-basis-mass-challenge-tar-sands-pipeline</a><br />
<a href="http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/line-9-shipping-tar-sands-crude-east" target="_blank">http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/line-9-shipping-tar-sands-crude-east</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Hamilton 350 BlogHamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-37208180207178263432012-11-12T09:07:00.001-08:002012-11-12T09:07:16.677-08:00Council should challenge dangerous Hamilton pipeline application<div class="pageBody">
<div>
An environmental disaster is waiting to happen in
Hamilton: the rupture of Enbridge’s Hamilton-to-Sarnia
pipeline, pouring diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands
into the Beverley Swamp or one of the many creeks and rivers
along the way that flow into lakes Ontario and Erie. The
pipeline hub is at Westover in Flamborough.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Enbridge applied last month to the National Energy Board
(NEB) to reverse the flow of its 37-year-old Pipeline 9
through Hamilton and ship diluted bitumen from west to east,
rather than crude oil from east to west. Pipeline 9 uses the
same type of steel pipe that ruptured last year in
Kalamazoo, Michigan, causing a $750-million spill that’s still
not fully cleaned up. It took Enbridge 17 hours even to turn
off the flow of that pipeline after the rupture.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Crude oil isn’t corrosive but diluted bitumen is. Crude
oil requires less pressure to move through a pipeline than
diluted bitumen. And diluted bitumen, when bursting from a
break in an outdated pipe that is under greater pressure
than it was built for, does not float on water. Rather, it
sinks to the bottom where it’s hard to remove, and releases
toxic solvents into the atmosphere that could cause
respiratory problems and even deaths among residents, first
responders, livestock, and wildlife nearby. Six hundred
people became ill during the Kalamazoo spill. Two later
died.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Enbridge Pipeline 10 from Hamilton to Buffalo spilled
once in Binbrook in 2001 and, according to Binbrook resident
John McGreal, it took 12 hours for the company to shut off
that 29-year-old pipe.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
On Oct. 17, 2012, Enbridge was supposed<var id="yui-ie-cursor"></var> to address Hamilton council
regarding its proposal. For the third time, it failed to
show up. Instead, Enbridge representatives privately lobbied
councillors but apparently failed to tell them diluted
bitumen was to be shipped. Hamilton, incidentally, does not
have a compulsory lobbyist registry.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
In Enbridge’s place, a number of citizen delegates
addressed council. I argued that, because the Stephen Harper
government recklessly cancelled the environmental assessment
of the Enbridge proposal (along with 3,000 others in its
omnibus budget bill), council should direct its legal staff
to initiate a legal challenge forcing the project to undergo
one. Until then, I recommended the city amend its building
code to idle oil pipelines over 30 years of age within city
limits. At the very minimum, I urged that Hamilton’s idle
blast furnaces should be churning out steel for a brand new
pipeline.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Harper, I pointed out, is the voice of the oil industry
in Canada. Line 9 through Hamilton represents the last hope
of the oilsands consortium to ship out its environmentally
unfriendly product to world markets. The proposed Keystone
pipeline for oilsands bitumen through the United States for
refinement in Texas has been nixed for now by Barack Obama.
The proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to transfer bitumen
to the West Coast for shipment to Asian markets by
supertanker (shades of the Exxon Valdiz) has been stopped by
British Columbia. So, Enbridge wants to ship diluted bitumen
through Hamilton to be refined in Maine.</div>
<div>
I also explained why the oilsands development should be
shut down. That mining operation is environmentally
unsustainable and represents an obsolete 1950s paradigm of
the use of fossil fuels to power a completely outdated
system of private transportation using cars and trucks. It
is the world’s largest single polluter producing CO2, a
greenhouse gas that promotes climate change.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Other presenters called for council to demand a $1
billion performance bond from Enbridge, to be apprised of
the results of 84 recent “integrity digs” on pipelines near
Hamilton, to intervene in Enbridge’s NEB application, to
approach other municipalities for joint action, and to force
Enbridge to appear at public informational meetings, among
other initiatives. On Oct. 17, with Brian McHattie in the
chair, city councillors listened attentively and asked many
questions of presenters and city staff. Hopefully, council
will act promptly on these suggestions.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Hamiltonians wanting to learn more about this issue would
be well advised to hear Andrew Nikiforuk deliver the annual
Spirit of Red Hill Lecture on Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 7:30
p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 170 Dundurn South. The
topic of this award-winning journalist will be Bitumen,
Pipelines and the Petro-State. Admission is free.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<i>Ken Stone is a member of Environment Hamilton and Hamilton 350 Committee.</i></div>
</div>
Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-87243786364628124032012-11-12T08:34:00.000-08:002012-11-12T08:34:01.010-08:00Tribute to Maggie HughesMaggie
Hughes has died after a long struggle with multiple sclerosis. Maggie
was an independent journalist and a tireless advocate for social
justice, citizen activism and environmental sustainability. For 12
years she produced a weekly radio program on CFMU 93.3 FM called <i>The
Other Side</i> that reported and examined news and events from a grassroots
rather than an institutional perspective.<br /><br />Her topics of interest
included the Alberta Oilsands, global warming, pollution, corporate
globalization, justice for First Nations communities, sustainability,
civil rights, the concentration of wealth, environmental destruction,
and government accountability. She published interviews with
scientists, activists and advocates to present more detailed
information and background that could not be found in the sound-bite
media.<br /><br />Just before her death, Maggie focused on the Enbridge
plan to run diluted bitumen through a 37 year old pipeline that passes
through Hamilton on its way east. On October 30, she published audio
recordings of the citizen delegations to the City's General Issues
Committee on the plan.<br /><br />Maggie suffered from multiple sclerosis,
a degenerative inflammatory disease that attacks the nervous system and
leads to progressive physical and cognitive disability. <br /><br />Despite
her disease and its unpredictable but increasingly debilitating
symptoms, Maggie continued single-handedly to publish detailed reports
on important issues, producing thousands of hours of audio and video
recordings from public meetings, protests, lectures and other events.<br /><br />James
Tennant, program director at CFMU, writes about her dedication. "We
remember a woman who needed a motorized chair, yet hitched a ride on
the back of a motorcycle to gather news from Caledonia in 2006."<br /><br />In her last email to me, Maggie expressed her deep frustration dealing with MS:<br /><br />"I
can tell you it is like living in a circus of constant change. Very
difficult. ... Be nice if I made some people understand that MS isn't
just about going lame, or having speech struggles. It is far more."<br /><br />Maggie's
relentless dedication to social justice in Hamilton has long been a
major inspiration for me, not only through her willingness to get
involved but also as an example of what a difference one person can
make with determination and skill.<br /><br />She will be deeply missed.<br />
<br />
Ryan McGreal<br />
<br />
Published November 09, 2012 on RaiseTheHammer.orgHamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-86288884245153228942012-11-09T21:30:00.000-08:002012-11-09T21:30:42.781-08:00What are we leaving for future generations?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">On the
issue of climate change, Canada is failing our global
community. Canadians are failing future
generations. We are also failing
ourselves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Public
figures as diverse as Prince Charles and Stephen Hawking
have declared climate
change the biggest threat to human kind.
A report published earlier this year estimates that even
early,
relatively subtle, climatic changes cause as many as
400,000 deaths a year,
mostly as a result of associated hunger and communicable
diseases. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It should
not be surprising that climate change could be responsible
for so much death
and destruction. Hurricane Sandy is just
the most recent reminder of exactly the type of the damage
we can expect. Hamiltonians and local farmers are sure to
remember the strange, early, warm spring followed by a
cold snap which
devastated so many local fruit tree crops.
Images of dead corn stalks as a result of this hot dry
summer should
also be fresh in our memory. Climate change
has the ability to diminish our most basic necessities:
food, water and
shelter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Many
prominent figures in the military industrial complex refer
to climate change as
a threat multiplier. Gwynne Dyer, in his
book <i>Climate Wars</i> often repeats the chilling mantra that
“people always raid
before they starve”. It is no wonder
that the United Kingdom’s Climate and Energy Security
Envoy has officially made
the same declaration we heard from Charles and Hawking. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">More
alarming still, Jared Diamond popularized the idea that
our unsustainable
practices could lead to a collapse of civilization as we
know it. The casualties of such a serious event would
be unprecedented. The truth is that it
is impossible to know how climate change will impact human
civilization and our
biosphere. All we know is that the risks
we are exposing ourselves to are immense.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Our Prime
Minister is focused on removing oil from Alberta as
quickly as we possibly can
at the expense of significant action on climate change.
Canada is repeatedly been given Colossal Fossil
awards for being the most obstructionist nation at climate
change conferences,
like the most recent one in Durban. We
also recently made headlines for lobbying against an
international ban on oil
subsidies, which tax paying Canadians still provide to the
tune of $1.4 billion
a year.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Canadians
are some of the highest greenhouse gas emitters on the
planet per populace,
emitting more than a hundred times more emissions than
people in undeveloped
nations like Bangladesh, who will probably suffer most as
a result of climate
change. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As a 29
year old, my generation has often been referred to as the
new lost
generation. I wonder how all Canadians,
young and old, will be remembered if we continue to
contribute so heavily to
the problem of climate change. Surely,
our behavior is an insulting tribute to the great
generation that won World War
II. Many died for the democracy and
freedom we have today and we have the responsibility to
put these gifts to good
use. Canadian citizens have a moral duty
to confront a problem as immense as climate change.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Please join
Hamilton 350 as we fast for 24 hours starting November 23<sup>rd</sup>
at 8am
in an effort to highlight the relationship between climate
change and food
security. This is just one small part of
the response we, as Canadians, owe our global community.
Visit Hamilton350.org for more information.</span></div>
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Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-61071333297687998092012-10-14T19:51:00.000-07:002012-10-14T19:51:02.653-07:00Rally October 17th urging Council to Oppose the Line 9 Reversal<b>Wednesday October 17th, 9:00am</b><br />Hamilton City Hall (Main St, between Bay and McNab)<br />Join us for a half-hour rally before your workday starts<br /><br />On Wednesday October 17, the General Issues Committee (GIC) of the<br />Hamilton city council will be receiving a report from their staff about<br />Enbridge's reversal of their Line 9 pipeline. Line 9 runs through Hamilton<br />and is being reversed to move Tar Sands oil to eastern Canada, ports on<br />the Atlantic, and the United States. After the Conservative federal<br />government cancelled the environmental assessment of this plan (along with<br />thousands of other EAs), Hamilton city council decided to commission their<br />own study of the issue.<br /><br />We are optimistic about the council's decision to study the Line 9<br />reversal, and we are gathering on the 17th at 9am to ask council to do<br />everything in their power to oppose the Line 9 reversal and any attempt to<br />move Tar Sands oil through the Hamilton area. We will rally until about<br />9:30, then attend the meeting of the GIC to support the speakers calling<br />on council to oppose the Line 9 reversal. A representative from Enbridge<br />had been scheduled to address council as well, but after twice changing<br />the date, they have now backed out all together. This is a continuation of<br />Enbridge's plan of secrecy and dishonesty, as they refuse to reveal their<br />full plan for Line 9.<br /><br />The Tar Sands produces the dirtiest oil in the world – its extraction has<br />devastated the Athabaska river, and accidents in transporting the toxic<br />goop have lead to more than a dozen deaths in Michigan, following a<br />pipeline burst into Michigan's Kalamazoo river. All pipelines spill. If<br />Tar Sands oil travels down Line 9, this thirty-five year-old pipeline will<br />experience more frequent leaks of more toxic oil directly into the Beverly<br />Swamp in the headwaters of the Spencer Creek, Hamilton's largest<br />watershed.<br /><br />This dirty inefficient oil also drives the catastrophic climate change,<br />of which Hamilton got a taste this past summer with the record-breaking<br />heat and drought. We also call for the Federal government to respect the<br />sovereignty and treaty rights of Indigenous nations, both in Alberta and<br />locally. Line 9 crosses the territory of the Haudenosaunee, and in the<br />spirit of the Two Row wampum treaty, we call on the municipal government<br />to help see these treaties upheld.<br /><br />We organize in Hamilton as part of a broader movement to stop the flows of<br />Tar Sands oil, of the natural gas that fuels its extraction, and the money<br />that props the industry up. This movement did not begin with Hamilton's<br />council and it will not end with it. But this is a chance for Hamilton's<br />government to be on the right side of this issue and to lend their support<br />to the grassroots struggles that will keep stopping the Line 9 reversal<br />and the Tar Sands – with or without them.<br /><br />For updates about this and other events, get on the Hamilton Line 9 mailing<br />list by writing to hamiltonline9@ecologyfund.net or visit <br /><a href="http://hamiltonline9.wordpress.com/">hamiltonline9.wordpress.com</a> <br />
<br />
Hamilton 350 BlogHamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-85998072115781823792012-10-14T19:43:00.002-07:002012-10-14T19:43:54.736-07:00Enbridge bails as opposition growsCanada’s largest pipeline company has withdrawn its request to speak to councillors about planned flow reversal for its 37-year-old Line 9 running across rural Hamilton. But local opposition is growing, fed by the expectation that the pipe will carry diluted bitumen from the Alberta tar sands to foreign markets. Opponents have called a rally at city hall on Wednesday morning and a protest next Sunday at Enbridge Inc’s pipeline hub in rural Flamborough.<br />
<br />A staff report going to the general issues committee on Wednesday says there are dozens of residential wells within a kilometre of the site where Enbridge will be carrying out construction activities near the village of Westover, as well as a Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW), and four city-designated Environmentally Significant Areas (ESAs). The construction activity is expected to employ 30 people for about four months and includes “installation of a short section of pipe”, but the report concludes that the city has no jurisdictional authority over federally-regulated pipelines and that no action is required by councillors.<br /><br />“Based on the above, staff is satisfied that the National Energy Board has addressed the issues surrounding pipeline safety and emergency response protocol through their approvals process. Since there are no planned impacts to Hamilton’s Environmentally Significant Areas and/or to existing land uses, residents and water supplies as a result of Enbridge’s proposal to reverse the direction of flow within the existing section of pipeline between Sarnia and Westover, it is concluded that there are no foreseeable impacts to the City of Hamilton.”<br /><br />While Enbridge has been unwilling to reveal what it plans to put through the pipeline, the Globe and Mail and other media have reported that it will carry diluted bitumen (also known as dilbit), an unrefined composite of materials extracted from the Alberta tar sands mixed with chemical solvents to make the heavy viscous material flow. The company is also considering expanding the capacity of Line 9 once it has approval to reverse the flows all the way to Montreal.<br /><br />The eastern plan is apparently an option to the company’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline across hundreds of lakes and streams in northern British Columbia that is mired in controversy. Moving the unrefined tar sands material in that direction would also involve supertankers traveling through the Great Bear rainforest and other treacherous BC coastal waters.<br />
<br />Opposition to the Ontario flow reversal by Environmental Defence and others has focused on the shift from oil to the much more corrosive dilbit that also requires increases in both temperature and pressure in the pipeline. The staff report, however, makes no mention of dilbit, tar sands or bitumen, referring only to “crude oil” which it notes was transported easterly through the pipeline for many years after it was first constructed in the mid-1970s.<br /><br />“However, in the 1990s, when off-shore oil from areas such as the North Sea, West Africa and the Middle East was more affordable, Line 9 was reversed to westbound to carry crude oil from the Montreal terminal to Sarnia.”<br /><br />It was dilbit from the Enbridge pipe that feeds into Line 9 at Sarnia that contaminated over 60 kilometers of Michigan’s Kalamazoo River in July 2010, and sickened dozens of residents when the solvents spread into the local community. The company’s response to the spill has been lambasted by US regulatory authorities and last week the Environmental Protection Agency ordered it to expand a cleanup that has already cost the company over $800 million.<br /><br />Huffington Post reported that “on the same day that Enbridge told its investors that its tar sands spill and cleanup had made the Kalamazoo River cleaner, EPA ordered the Canadian tar sands pipeline company to resume its cleanup of the Kalamazoo River after finding that submerged oil ‘exists throughout approximately 38 miles of the Kalamazoo’.”<br /><br />Eight delegations have been approved to speak on the Enbridge report at Wednesday’s general issues committee that begins at 9:30 am in council chambers. They include representatives of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy.<br /><br />Opponents of shipping tar sands through Hamilton have called a rally prior to the meeting. They point to the cancellation of a federal environmental assessment of the Line 9 flow reversal and ask councillors to oppose the Enbridge project and to help uphold the treaties with indigenous peoples.<br /><br />“This movement did not begin with Hamilton's council and it will not end with it,” their statement notes. “But this is a chance for Hamilton's government to be on the right side of this issue and to lend their support to the grassroots struggles that will keep stopping the Line 9 reversal and the Tar Sands – with or without them.”<br /><br />The <b>Hamilton 350 Committee</b> on climate change is also inviting the public to a protest potluck picnic at Enbridge’s Westover hub at noon on Sunday, October 21. Cyclists are invited to ride there from Westdale, leaving at 10 am from My Dog Joe’s Café.<br /><br />Hamilton 350 BlogHamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-56375295240840915712012-09-08T19:04:00.000-07:002012-09-09T19:08:59.680-07:00Our leaders fiddle as our planet burns<h1 class="tdH1Article">
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Have
you noticed how the climate scientists keep getting it wrong?<br />
<br />
Every prediction seems to come up way short.<br />
<br />
The
weird weather has come much faster and much weirder than
expected. The Arctic ice cap was supposed to last until late in
this century but now appears nearly certain to be gone by 2030
or maybe 2020. It hit a record low last week — with three more
weeks of melting still expected. Greenland is also showing
unprecedented melting, and sea levels are rising much quicker
than anticipated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) even in its most recent report.<br />
<br />
The
droughts and extreme rainstorms have even shown up to some
extent in Hamilton. Local farmers have been clobbered by a lack
of rain, and hundreds of homes were flooded in the July 22
deluge that dumped six inches of rain in three hours on Binbrook
and upper Stoney Creek. That was the 18th time in the last 100
months that Hamilton homes have been inundated by storms. All of
this was predicted by mainstream climate science — but not so
quickly and dramatically. It was supposed to be a problem for
our grandchildren, not us.<br />
<br />
In
hindsight, we should have expected prediction failures.
Scientists are super cautious, unwilling to predict until nearly
certain. That reluctance is magnified in the IPCC reports where
every sentence is negotiated by researchers from over 100
countries under substantial political pressure to be the least
disturbing possible.<br />
But
this is not news to political decision-makers. It can’t be
surprising to an intelligent man like Stephen Harper who seems
to have so much personal power over the government of Canada.
And it can’t be surprising to our local councillors who have
adopted Harper’s targets as their own and refuse to do anything
that might cost money to reduce climate change, while being
forced to spend millions because of flooding.<br />
<br />
The
weather events this year — especially the devastating drought
that made over half the counties in the United States official
disaster zones — are giving us a taste of what has already
happened in other parts of the world over the last few years.
And all of this is occurring when average planetary temperatures
have gone up by only four-fifths of a centigrade degree. The
official target is a maximum two degree increase, and the only
hope of stopping there is with drastic steps taken almost
immediately.<br />
<br />
So
why are our leaders doing so little? The public may still be
unclear because of the confusion-mongering financed by big oil
and other fossil fuel corporations to protect their obscene
profits, but our governments should know all about that kind of
corporate lobbying, and should assume those companies have no
more ethics than the tobacco magnates demonstrated in the past.<br />
<br />
Have
the elites already decided not to act, and instead hope their
personal wealth or status will protect them and their loved ones
from the worst effects of the climatic catastrophes coming at
us? There seems no doubt that the federal Conservative party has
decided exporting tar sands bitumen is the top priority.<br />
<br />
The
United Nations calculates that tens of thousands of people per
year are already dying because of climate change and it’s likely
that a planet that’s even just two degrees warmer will mean
death for tens of millions more. What’s worse is the growing
likelihood that vicious feedback loops will drive temperatures
beyond the control of humans. A four-degree increase is expected
to convert most of the planet’s most productive areas to
deserts.<br />
<br />
There
don’t appear to be any Winston Churchills in Canada or the U.S.
who will lead us back from the brink. That leaves it up to us —
not just to drastically reduce our personal emissions (even if
that’s cancelled out by the tar sands expansion) but to force a
fundamental change in direction.<br />
<br />
The
Occupy movement provides an example. Until that began, the gross
differences in wealth were ignored. It didn’t take many people
in the street to make inequality a public issue, although it
will take a lot more to actually force change.<br />
<br />
But
at this point, only a handful are in the streets demanding real
climate action. That has to change — very fast!<br />
<br />
Hamilton 350 Blog <br />
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Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-14523251258471350952012-07-12T20:01:00.000-07:002012-08-22T20:02:17.940-07:00Who should pay for climate disasters?The weird weather that all but wiped out this year’s apple crop is a
disaster for local farmers and a setback for those of us who try to
support them by buying local fruit whenever possible. But when are we
going to start really sharing the pain of climate change and doing
something serious about it?<br />
<br />
In the last 100 months, we’ve had 17 rain storms severe enough to
flood homes in Hamilton. Nearly half of those storms have been only
supposed to occur once every 50 years. Most of the costs have been borne
by those whose properties and possessions have been flooded.<br />
<br />
It’s good to see local councillors seeking more information about
flood dangers arising from more development of rural Stoney Creek, but
it should be obvious by now that paving over agricultural land and
natural areas will inevitably make things worse.<br />
<br />
Beyond our community, the damages from extreme weather are far more
severe. In the couple of weeks alone, 350 homes were destroyed in the
Colorado wildfires and more than 40,000 people evacuated, while18 people
were killed and two million left without electricity on the east coast
as the United States suffered through a massive heat wave that set or
tied over 2,100 high temperatures records.<br />
<br />
Overseas flooding and drought clearly connected with climate change
are killing tens of thousands every year according to the United
Nations.<br />
<br />
Everyone knows this is the ugly face of global climate change, but
incredibly, the media barely mention this – apparently frightened that
some Conservative ideologue will denounce them. Instead, the weather
forecasters talk about the “new normal” and the “unusually warm
winter/spring/summer.”<br />
<br />
And our politicians aren’t much better – especially the bunch in
charge in Ottawa who only seem to work for the big oil companies, and
who ‘combat’ climate change by firing or silencing the federal
scientists gathering evidence about it.<br />
<br />
So have we decided – without any official admitting it – that we’re
not going to do anything and just hope that it won’t get really bad?<br />
<br />
The fossil fuel corporations make billions digging out tar sands,
coal, natural gas and other causes of the problem, but no one dares
demand that they at least be forced to pay the bills generated by their
mad rush for profits. On the contrary, the Harper government continues
to provide over a billion dollars a year in subsidies, and eliminates
any environmental laws that might slow them down.<br />
<br />
There’s a rumour out there that humans are the most intelligent species on the planet.<br />
<br />
Too bad.<br />
<br />
Hamilton 350 Blog Hamilton 350http://www.blogger.com/profile/10596962547448139253noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3991999885438192742.post-42504023461178454282012-06-17T20:08:00.001-07:002012-06-17T20:09:21.516-07:00How do we stop Bill C-38?<br />
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