Travelling Climate Rally – Friday, December 9
Wetlands | Farmland | Democracy |Yours to Protect
SUNDRIDGE Post Office 9:30 to 10:00 — Drive to Burk’s Falls (15 minutes)
BURK’S FALLS Post Office 10:15 to 10:40 — Drive to Huntsville (35 minutes)
HUNTSVILLE Town Hall 11:15 to 11:45 — Drive to BB (35 minutes)
BRACEBRIDGE Memorial Park 12:20 to 12:50 — Walk to MPP Graydon Smith’s office
GRAVENHURST Meet at Gull Lake Park 11:45am — drive to Bracebridge. – details
CAM Raises the Alarm on Bill 23
Muskoka Watershed Council Speaks Out Against Bill 23
Understanding Bill 23
“Ontario’s Housing Bill is Actually a Trojan Horse for Environmentally Catastrophic Rural Sprawl,” – Environmental Defence
“Bill 23 is bent on removing and weakening environmental protections and cutting out the public from meaningful involvement in land use planning and decision-making.” – Ontario Nature
“Together, the proposed legislative amendments and associated policy and regulatory changes are an extensive package; the biggest that CELA has seen in decades.” – Canadian Enviromental Law Association
Opinion in Local Media
Using notwithstanding clause just a smokescreen, says Muskoka reader
Voter apathy will get us nowhere, says Muskoka reader
All the Ontario environmental protections Doug Ford wants to overhaul to build more houses.
Aiming to reduce developers’ ‘regulatory obligations’ around Ontario’s parks, protected spaces and wetlands, the Ford government also wants to limit residents’ ability to object. more here
Industry Leaders Lobby Against Bill 23
November 28, 2022 – The extent of the criticism has reached a new high … after a contingent of industry leading design firms came together to pen an open letter to the Government with a clear message: Bill 23 needs to go back to the drawing board.
…The group wastes little time making their main argument, asserting that the activation of Bill 23 will only exacerbate the housing issues we are already facing in this Province while simultaneously harming the already fragile standards for climate change, mitigation, and heritage conservation. – read more here
More Outrage In The Media
Ontario New Housing Act Slammed for Promoting Sprawl, Weakening Protections | theenergymix.com
“A Death Sentence for the Greenbelt”: Experts Weigh in on Housing Plan | storeys.com
FYI – Natural gas is primarily methane. In addition, various amounts of higher alkanes and low levels of trace gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and helium are present.
Read more about Gas Expansion projects in Muskoka.
- Create YOUR Personal Action Plan to reduce your carbon footprint!
- Visit the Challenge page for ideas to get you started.
- Let’s take action together.
Warning: This is not the good news department
Atmospheric levels of all three greenhouse gases hit record high –Oct 26, 2022 -The Guardian – Scientists warn world ‘is heading in wrong direction’ amid rise in nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane
Fossils, Fertilizers, and False Solutions: How Laundering Fossil Fuels in Agrochemicals Puts the Climate and the Planet at Risk – Oct 2022 -CIEL – Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides are fossil fuels in another form … an underrecognized but significant driver of the climate crisis.
World on brink of five ‘disastrous’ climate tipping points, study finds -Sept 8, 2022 – The Guardian – Giant ice sheets, ocean currents and permafrost regions may already have passed point of irreversible change.
U.N. Secretary−General António Guterres warns of a “dangerous disconnect” between what scientists and citizens are demanding to curb climate change, and what governments are actually doing about it.
The Great Scientist Rebellion Dr. Peter Kalmus didn’t make it to his job at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab on Wednesday. The astrophysicist turned Earth scientist locked himself to the doors of a J.P. Morgan bank branch in Los Angeles instead.
UNEP: Meeting global climate goals now requires ‘rapid transformation of societies’
Oct 27, 2022 – Carbon Brief … In a stark warning, the new UNEP report says that incremental change is “no longer an option” and that avoiding dangerous levels of warming will require a “wide-ranging, large-scale, rapid and systemic transformation”.
The report finds that the world is likely heading for around 2.6C warming above pre-industrial levels, under policies in place today though uncertainties in the climate system mean that warming of up to 4C cannot be fully ruled out. Watch this animation of the ‘carbon budget’
Pakistan’s Floods Beggar the Imagination
Aug 28, 2022 – Bill McKibben
I could—and probably I should—write a column every single day about the effects of the climate crisis now playing out daily around the world. But there’s some balance that must be struck between chronicling the ongoing horror and becoming inured to it. Most of the time, it’s more important to figure out how the hell we’re going to slow the train down.
Read this edition of “The Crucial Years” by Bill McKibben
This is the good news department
Busiest ferry routes inside Arctic Circle go electric – Norway’s successful transition to zero-emission transport sector continues. By the end of 2022, the last remaining ferry connection along European route E6, Bognes-Skarberget, will operate on batteries.
This 100% solar community endured Hurricane Ian with no loss of power and minimal damage – Oct 2, 2022 – CNN
… 700,000 individual panels — generates more electricity than the 2,000-home neighborhood uses, in a state where most electricity is generated by burning natural gas
More people now work in clean energy than in fossil fuels – Sept 8, 2022 – Quartz – Nearly 40 million people worldwide work in jobs related to clean energy, according to a report from the International Energy Agency.
Hammond Bus To Purchase Electric School Buses – August 26, 2022 – Muskoka – announcing the purchase order for 10 all-electric LionC school buses from Lion Electric.
The buried pipes that will help U of T turn carbon positive. – April 19, 2022 – Toronto – A geothermal exchange system that in conjunction with major building retrofits and other measures will help the St. George campus become carbon positive by 2050.
Sophie Howe has a uniquely forward-looking job. – April 5, 2022 –Since 2016, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales has been tasked with ensuring her country’s public institutions are taking into consideration how their actions affect Welsh citizens who haven’t been born yet.
Halton Region votes against developing 5,000 acres of farmland. – Feb 17, 2022 – Ontario – The decision flies in the face of the Ford government, which has pushed to open up more land for development.
The City has banned natural gas in new buildings, – Dec 24, 2021 – New York City –a move that could help the country’s largest city slash carbon emissions and toxic air pollution.
Canada Infrastructure Bank to fund 4,000 electric school buses – Nov 24, 2021 – Quebec – “It’s a loan that’s based on the expected savings that the buses are going to generate over their life”
Hamilton Votes to End Sprawl – Nov 26, 2021 -Hamilton -Stop Sprawl HamOnt, Environment Hamilton, and Environmental Defence Supporters, worked tirelessly to take their city’s future back from the hands of sprawl developers and rich landowners.
Fast transition to renewables will save the world $18 trillion, says Oxford study
14 September 2022 – Giles Parkinson – Renew Economy
“Renewable costs have been trending down for decades. They are already cheaper than fossil fuels in many situations, and our research shows they will become cheaper than fossil fuels across almost all applications in the years to come…
“And, if we accelerate the transition, they will become cheaper faster. Completely replacing fossil fuels with clean energy by 2050 will save us trillions.”
Ontario Regulator Refuses New Pipeline, Tells Enbridge to Plan for Lower Gas Demand
May 29, 2022 – The Energy Mix
The Ontario Energy Board sent minor shock waves through the province’s energy regulatory and municipal energy communities earlier this month with its refusal to approve the final phases of a $123.7-million pipeline replacement project in Ottawa proposed by Enbridge Gas.
… laying bare an operating model in which the companies’ revenue is based primarily on the kilometres of pipe they can install, rather than the volume of gas their customers actually need.
Canada Post unveils plan to convert half its 14,000 last-mile vehicle fleet to zero-emission by 2030, the rest by 2040
The Crown corporation’s CEO was on hand in Ottawa today to unveil Canada Post’s fleet electrification plan, part of a $1-billion effort to reach net zero emissions across the entire organization by 2050