Trevor Greene's Blog
October 6, 2014
Australia 1st Country To Axe Carbon Tax
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott kept his most noxious campaign promise shortly after taking power. He repealed the country's tax on carbon -- the most effective tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the industrial world's biggest polluter per capita.
In 2011, daily emissions were 49.3 kilograms per Aussie, almost four times higher than the global average of 12.8 kilograms. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper clapped right along to the axing of a tax that would have poured $24.7 billion ($24.8 billion) into government coffers in four years. "Canada applauds the decision by Prime Minister Abbott to introduce legislation to repeal Australia's carbon tax. The Australian prime minister's decision will be noticed around the world and sends an important message," droned Paul Calandra, Harper's parliamentary secretary.
Australia took a lead role in the war on climate change in 2011 when Abbott's predecessor Julia Gillard passed a tax on carbon that would have raised 25 Australian dollars ($23.44) per ton from some of Australia's biggest polluters. And it worked. There was a 9 per cent drop in emissions in the first six months. Abbott was opposition leader at the time and predictably went on the attack, promising to repeal it when elected.
In Australia's parliament, the parties are only about three metres apart and the prime minister and leader of the opposition face each other across a desk. In October 2012, Guillard made a speech on sexism that went viral. "I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition went outside in the front of Parliament and stood next to a sign that said 'ditch the witch.' I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition, stood next to a sign that called me a 'man's bitch.'" she said. Abbott sat smugly through the 15-minute barrage.
He leads a sports-mad country that seems to have made a sport of doubting climate change science. Prominent UK journalist George Monbiot wrote that "climate change denial is almost a national pastime in Australia." Abbott has insisted constantly that "the science is highly contentious, to say the least." Monbiot says the Australian newspaper "takes such extreme anti-science positions that it sometimes makes the [UK tabloid] Sunday Telegraph look like the voice of reason."
Australia is the world's top exporter of coal, mostly to Asia, and there are two filthy rich and controversial Aussies who dominate the coal industry. Nathan Tinkler first saw the inside of a coal mine as an apprentice electrician. He was 30 years old in 2006 when he sold his home and electrical-contracting business to raise the $1 million to buy an undeveloped coalfield close to two mining operations. By 2008, his mine was worth $530 million. Tinkler is a hefty lad whose attitude and grace hasn't kept pace with his net worth. In 2010, Tinkler responded to a reporters' questions somewhat abruptly, "you're a fucking deadbeat, people like me don't bother with fucking you. You climb out of your bed every morning for your pathetic hundred grand a year, good luck."
Tinkler bought a pro rugby team and a stable of racehorses. In 2012, he bought a luxury home on Singapore's Millionaire Row near the other Aussie mining magnate. Some believe multi-billionaire heiress Gina Rinehart will be the world's richest person by 2014 as her coal and iron projects mature and earn her annual profits of as much as $10 billion. There must be something in the DNA of Aussie miners that makes them court controversy. Rinehart's public pronouncements have made her the subject of such headlines as 12 Reasons Why So Many People Hate Australian Billionaire Gina Rinehart. Rinehart's comments about "jealous" poor people and her call for a wage cut for Australian miners didn't win her any friends. Rinehart, daughter of a virulent racist, is a climate change denier and is embroiled in a nasty, public lawsuit with three of her four children over control of the trust fund started by their grandfather. In March 2012, they reached an agreement to extend Rinehart's control of the trust until 2068. By then, Rinehart would be 114 years old and the youngest of her three children would be 83.
The endangered Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest living structure, has the misfortune to lie along the coast of mineral-rich Queensland. And not even a designation by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site is likely to be a lifesaver. In July 2013, the Australian government proposed building new coal terminals at the deepwater port of Abbot Point. There are nine proposed "mega mines" nearby that at full capacity would release 705 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere annually, according to Greenpeace Australia.
Three million cubic metres of material would have to be dredged from the ocean floor to allow access for large cargo ships. Reef scientist Terry Hughes told the Australian Senate that "... based on the science, large amounts of dredging will simply hasten the ongoing decline of the Great Barrier Reef." Scientists say that since 1986, the reef has lost half its living coral, and could lose 95 per cent of its coral by 2050 should ocean temperatures increase by the forecast 1.5 degrees Celsius. Residents and business groups in the area are enthusiastic about the economic windfall the project will bring. Aussies can't say they didn't have fair warning; a new colour had to be added to the temperature map of Australia on January 7th 2013 to mark temperatures of 54 degrees Celsius in Eucla, Western Australia.
In 2011, daily emissions were 49.3 kilograms per Aussie, almost four times higher than the global average of 12.8 kilograms. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper clapped right along to the axing of a tax that would have poured $24.7 billion ($24.8 billion) into government coffers in four years. "Canada applauds the decision by Prime Minister Abbott to introduce legislation to repeal Australia's carbon tax. The Australian prime minister's decision will be noticed around the world and sends an important message," droned Paul Calandra, Harper's parliamentary secretary.
Australia took a lead role in the war on climate change in 2011 when Abbott's predecessor Julia Gillard passed a tax on carbon that would have raised 25 Australian dollars ($23.44) per ton from some of Australia's biggest polluters. And it worked. There was a 9 per cent drop in emissions in the first six months. Abbott was opposition leader at the time and predictably went on the attack, promising to repeal it when elected.
In Australia's parliament, the parties are only about three metres apart and the prime minister and leader of the opposition face each other across a desk. In October 2012, Guillard made a speech on sexism that went viral. "I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition went outside in the front of Parliament and stood next to a sign that said 'ditch the witch.' I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition, stood next to a sign that called me a 'man's bitch.'" she said. Abbott sat smugly through the 15-minute barrage.
He leads a sports-mad country that seems to have made a sport of doubting climate change science. Prominent UK journalist George Monbiot wrote that "climate change denial is almost a national pastime in Australia." Abbott has insisted constantly that "the science is highly contentious, to say the least." Monbiot says the Australian newspaper "takes such extreme anti-science positions that it sometimes makes the [UK tabloid] Sunday Telegraph look like the voice of reason."
Australia is the world's top exporter of coal, mostly to Asia, and there are two filthy rich and controversial Aussies who dominate the coal industry. Nathan Tinkler first saw the inside of a coal mine as an apprentice electrician. He was 30 years old in 2006 when he sold his home and electrical-contracting business to raise the $1 million to buy an undeveloped coalfield close to two mining operations. By 2008, his mine was worth $530 million. Tinkler is a hefty lad whose attitude and grace hasn't kept pace with his net worth. In 2010, Tinkler responded to a reporters' questions somewhat abruptly, "you're a fucking deadbeat, people like me don't bother with fucking you. You climb out of your bed every morning for your pathetic hundred grand a year, good luck."
Tinkler bought a pro rugby team and a stable of racehorses. In 2012, he bought a luxury home on Singapore's Millionaire Row near the other Aussie mining magnate. Some believe multi-billionaire heiress Gina Rinehart will be the world's richest person by 2014 as her coal and iron projects mature and earn her annual profits of as much as $10 billion. There must be something in the DNA of Aussie miners that makes them court controversy. Rinehart's public pronouncements have made her the subject of such headlines as 12 Reasons Why So Many People Hate Australian Billionaire Gina Rinehart. Rinehart's comments about "jealous" poor people and her call for a wage cut for Australian miners didn't win her any friends. Rinehart, daughter of a virulent racist, is a climate change denier and is embroiled in a nasty, public lawsuit with three of her four children over control of the trust fund started by their grandfather. In March 2012, they reached an agreement to extend Rinehart's control of the trust until 2068. By then, Rinehart would be 114 years old and the youngest of her three children would be 83.
The endangered Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest living structure, has the misfortune to lie along the coast of mineral-rich Queensland. And not even a designation by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site is likely to be a lifesaver. In July 2013, the Australian government proposed building new coal terminals at the deepwater port of Abbot Point. There are nine proposed "mega mines" nearby that at full capacity would release 705 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere annually, according to Greenpeace Australia.
Three million cubic metres of material would have to be dredged from the ocean floor to allow access for large cargo ships. Reef scientist Terry Hughes told the Australian Senate that "... based on the science, large amounts of dredging will simply hasten the ongoing decline of the Great Barrier Reef." Scientists say that since 1986, the reef has lost half its living coral, and could lose 95 per cent of its coral by 2050 should ocean temperatures increase by the forecast 1.5 degrees Celsius. Residents and business groups in the area are enthusiastic about the economic windfall the project will bring. Aussies can't say they didn't have fair warning; a new colour had to be added to the temperature map of Australia on January 7th 2013 to mark temperatures of 54 degrees Celsius in Eucla, Western Australia.
Harper's Ruinous Trade Treaty
There is a famous Chinese curse that goes "may you live in interesting times." The government ushered in some interesting times indeed on September 12 when it ratified the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement [FIPA]. It's been two years since the treaty was signed at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Vladivostok in September 2012. The deed was done on the last day of the meetings, in an oily grip and grin between Stephen Harper and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Elizabeth May sent an energetic email in 2012 after the announcement that put the treaty into context: "for the first time in Canadian history, the Canada-China Investment Treaty will allow investors (including Chinese state-owned enterprises such as CNOOC or Sinopec), to claim damages against the Canadian government in secret, for decisions taken at the municipal, provincial, territorial or federal level that result in a reduction of their expectation of profits. Even decisions of Canadian courts can give rise to damages."
FIPA gifts one of the Northern Gateway pipeline's strongest proponents, national oil giant Sinopec, with the right to sue the BC government or any sub-national organization if it moves to block the pipeline. The "super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group," as its website describes Sinopec, could even demand that only Chinese workers and materials be deployed on the pipeline project. In its annual report, Sinopec dispels any and all confusion as to its status; "Sinopec is state-owned company solely invested by the State, functioning as a state-authorized investment organization in which the state holds the controlling share." There is no rule of law in China.
The Chinese Communist Party reigns supreme and its decisions are beyond appeal. FIPA could have been ratified in late October 2012, but it was delayed as a storm of protest erupted across Canada. After the news of the treaty signing squeezed out of Stephen Harper's iron grasp, CBC's Rick Mercer, never one to pass up the chance for a mighty rant, asked rhetorically if it was a scene from a James Bond movie. "Since when do Canadian prime ministers sign secret agreements with the Chinese in Russia? Was Dr. No there? Was there a naked lady painted in gold?"
Gus Van Harten is a global authority on investment trade deals and international arbitration panels. In October 2012, Van Harten wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Harper urging a comprehensive review of FIPA. Van Harten painted a glaring picture of humble servitude if FIPA is ratified: "the legal consequences of the treaty will be irreversible by any Canadian court, legislature or other decision-maker for 31 years after the treaty is given effect," Van Harten wrote. Financial Post columnist Diane Francis used a hockey metaphor to describe the FIPA deal in a November 2012 column; "Ottawa capitulated to China on everything. The deal ... allows only a select few to play on Team Canada on a small patch of ice in China and to be fouled, without remedies or referees.
By contrast, Team China can play anywhere on Canadian ice, can appeal referee calls it dislikes and negotiate compensation for damages while in the penalty box behind closed doors." Francis compared the government's negotiating skills to those of the British prime minister whose strategy of appeasement led to Hitler's Nazis running roughshod over Europe. "The Tories, backed by a naive Canadian Chamber of Commerce and a handful of big, conflicted business interests, have demonstrated the worst negotiating skills since Neville Chamberlain."
In early 2013, the 300-member Hupacasath First Nation on Vancouver Island filed an injunction against the federal government, arguing Ottawa breached its constitutional obligations to consult First Nations when negotiating the FIPA. On the 27th of August 2013, the challenge was dismissed. Chief Justice Paul Crampton wrote that the potential adverse effects of the treaty that the Hupacasath submitted "are non-appreciable and speculative in nature." Hupacasath representative Brenda Sayers said they would appeal the ruling. "Hupacasath remains steadfast in our commitment to defend the people, the land and our constitutional rights for present as well as for future generations," says. "We firmly believe the FIPA will have a deep and profound impact on our inherent Indigenous rights and for all Canadians who cherish the environmental heritage we inherited from our grandparents."
FIPA gifts one of the Northern Gateway pipeline's strongest proponents, national oil giant Sinopec, with the right to sue the BC government or any sub-national organization if it moves to block the pipeline. The "super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group," as its website describes Sinopec, could even demand that only Chinese workers and materials be deployed on the pipeline project. In its annual report, Sinopec dispels any and all confusion as to its status; "Sinopec is state-owned company solely invested by the State, functioning as a state-authorized investment organization in which the state holds the controlling share." There is no rule of law in China.
The Chinese Communist Party reigns supreme and its decisions are beyond appeal. FIPA could have been ratified in late October 2012, but it was delayed as a storm of protest erupted across Canada. After the news of the treaty signing squeezed out of Stephen Harper's iron grasp, CBC's Rick Mercer, never one to pass up the chance for a mighty rant, asked rhetorically if it was a scene from a James Bond movie. "Since when do Canadian prime ministers sign secret agreements with the Chinese in Russia? Was Dr. No there? Was there a naked lady painted in gold?"
Gus Van Harten is a global authority on investment trade deals and international arbitration panels. In October 2012, Van Harten wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Harper urging a comprehensive review of FIPA. Van Harten painted a glaring picture of humble servitude if FIPA is ratified: "the legal consequences of the treaty will be irreversible by any Canadian court, legislature or other decision-maker for 31 years after the treaty is given effect," Van Harten wrote. Financial Post columnist Diane Francis used a hockey metaphor to describe the FIPA deal in a November 2012 column; "Ottawa capitulated to China on everything. The deal ... allows only a select few to play on Team Canada on a small patch of ice in China and to be fouled, without remedies or referees.
By contrast, Team China can play anywhere on Canadian ice, can appeal referee calls it dislikes and negotiate compensation for damages while in the penalty box behind closed doors." Francis compared the government's negotiating skills to those of the British prime minister whose strategy of appeasement led to Hitler's Nazis running roughshod over Europe. "The Tories, backed by a naive Canadian Chamber of Commerce and a handful of big, conflicted business interests, have demonstrated the worst negotiating skills since Neville Chamberlain."
In early 2013, the 300-member Hupacasath First Nation on Vancouver Island filed an injunction against the federal government, arguing Ottawa breached its constitutional obligations to consult First Nations when negotiating the FIPA. On the 27th of August 2013, the challenge was dismissed. Chief Justice Paul Crampton wrote that the potential adverse effects of the treaty that the Hupacasath submitted "are non-appreciable and speculative in nature." Hupacasath representative Brenda Sayers said they would appeal the ruling. "Hupacasath remains steadfast in our commitment to defend the people, the land and our constitutional rights for present as well as for future generations," says. "We firmly believe the FIPA will have a deep and profound impact on our inherent Indigenous rights and for all Canadians who cherish the environmental heritage we inherited from our grandparents."
The Plastic-Eating Mushroom Of The Amazon
We've all felt like a mushroom at one point; kept in the dark and fed on s--t. But the humble fungus has taken on a noble role in the fight against the burgeoning global waste crisis. Oyster mushrooms feed on cellulose, the main material used in disposable diapers. The mushrooms have enzymes that break down cellulose, which is why they make for artsy pictures growing on dead trees in the forest. That property also makes them ideal for a less esthetically pleasing role: breaking down soiled disposable diapers in landfills. Cultivating oyster mushrooms on the gooey poop packages breaks down 90 per cent of the diaper in two months. Within four, they are rich soil. Mushrooms can also break down uranium and diesel-contaminated soil. Plastic is by far the worst waste offender. In the 100 years since it was invented, plastic has gone from being a wondrous time-saving material to a modern-day scourge, clogging our landfills, killing marine birds and animals and swirling in our oceans in massive garbage gyres the size of countries. When Yale University students found Pestalotiopsis microspor in the rainforests of Ecuador two years ago, they discovered the first fungus that not only has a voracious appetite for plastic, but can thrive in an oxygen-starved environment, like landfills. Yale is waiting for permission from Ecuador to continue research.
The wondrous plastic-eating mushroom defines Ecuador's development dilemma. Caught between the Scylla of wholesale rainforest destruction for oil wealth and the Charybdis of endless generations of grinding poverty for preserving the rainforest for free, the leaders of an extremely poor country like Ecuador probably have a hard time feeling altruistic. Hundreds of corporations have made billions of dollars from products that were sourced from things like the Amazon fungus with a taste for plastic. The cure for cancer is undoubtedly waiting in the Amazon in the toenails of some bright-blue tree frog, or the slimy underside of some exotic, insect-eating bush or another. It's obvious that the Amazon must be fiercely protected from destruction. I think multinational companies, particularly pharmaceuticals, who have made hundreds of millions of dollars from products based on the natural treasures of the Amazon, have a vested interest in preserving the rainforest, but I hold out scant hope that they will act. I firmly believe there is a solution out there and I invite readers with philosophical or economics training to write my Facebook page with their solutions on how to compensate Amazon countries for preserving the Amazon so they don't have to rely on rapacious development. I will give full credit and try to pass your ideas on to the right agencies.
The lure of oil wealth in Ecuador has divided two sisters who were inseparable as kids in the remote community of Sana Isla on Ecuador's Napo River. Two generations ago, the Kishwa tribe of Sana Isla were still using blowpipes and had only recently made contact with the outside world. The tiny community is in one of the most bio-diverse places on Earth. Scientists say a single hectare in this part of the Amazon contains a wider variety of life than in all of North America. The country's biggest oil company, Petroamazonas, made an offer in 2011 to start seismic surveys in their homeland. Blanca Tapuy and her sister Innes were at loggerheads over the offer, with Blanca saying she is willing to die to stop its advances and Innes passionately asserting that petrodollars are vital for the future of the community, which numbers only 422 residents on 43,000 hectares. Many had to paddle along the Napo river or hike through the jungle to attend community meetings on the divisive, heartbreaking issue. In January 2013, Petroamazonas finally backed down.
In November 2012, Ecuador tried to auction off a huge swath of pristine Amazonian rainforest -- Ecuador's last remaining tract of virgin rainforest -- but encountered fierce protests at home and around the world. Potential investors were put off by the furour and the deal died. The Rainforest Action Network estimates that between 2000 and 2010 there were 539 oil spills in Ecuador -- almost one a week. The seven indigenous groups who live on the land were furious that they hadn't been consulted on the auction. Ecuador actually has a secretary of hydrocarbons and Andres Donoso Fabara sneered, "these guys [indigenous tribespeople who've lived in the Amazon for thousands of years] with a political agenda, they are not thinking about development or about fighting against poverty." He reminded everyone in March 2013 that "we are entitled by law, if we wanted, to go in by force and do some activities even if they are against them."
The wondrous plastic-eating mushroom defines Ecuador's development dilemma. Caught between the Scylla of wholesale rainforest destruction for oil wealth and the Charybdis of endless generations of grinding poverty for preserving the rainforest for free, the leaders of an extremely poor country like Ecuador probably have a hard time feeling altruistic. Hundreds of corporations have made billions of dollars from products that were sourced from things like the Amazon fungus with a taste for plastic. The cure for cancer is undoubtedly waiting in the Amazon in the toenails of some bright-blue tree frog, or the slimy underside of some exotic, insect-eating bush or another. It's obvious that the Amazon must be fiercely protected from destruction. I think multinational companies, particularly pharmaceuticals, who have made hundreds of millions of dollars from products based on the natural treasures of the Amazon, have a vested interest in preserving the rainforest, but I hold out scant hope that they will act. I firmly believe there is a solution out there and I invite readers with philosophical or economics training to write my Facebook page with their solutions on how to compensate Amazon countries for preserving the Amazon so they don't have to rely on rapacious development. I will give full credit and try to pass your ideas on to the right agencies.
The lure of oil wealth in Ecuador has divided two sisters who were inseparable as kids in the remote community of Sana Isla on Ecuador's Napo River. Two generations ago, the Kishwa tribe of Sana Isla were still using blowpipes and had only recently made contact with the outside world. The tiny community is in one of the most bio-diverse places on Earth. Scientists say a single hectare in this part of the Amazon contains a wider variety of life than in all of North America. The country's biggest oil company, Petroamazonas, made an offer in 2011 to start seismic surveys in their homeland. Blanca Tapuy and her sister Innes were at loggerheads over the offer, with Blanca saying she is willing to die to stop its advances and Innes passionately asserting that petrodollars are vital for the future of the community, which numbers only 422 residents on 43,000 hectares. Many had to paddle along the Napo river or hike through the jungle to attend community meetings on the divisive, heartbreaking issue. In January 2013, Petroamazonas finally backed down.
In November 2012, Ecuador tried to auction off a huge swath of pristine Amazonian rainforest -- Ecuador's last remaining tract of virgin rainforest -- but encountered fierce protests at home and around the world. Potential investors were put off by the furour and the deal died. The Rainforest Action Network estimates that between 2000 and 2010 there were 539 oil spills in Ecuador -- almost one a week. The seven indigenous groups who live on the land were furious that they hadn't been consulted on the auction. Ecuador actually has a secretary of hydrocarbons and Andres Donoso Fabara sneered, "these guys [indigenous tribespeople who've lived in the Amazon for thousands of years] with a political agenda, they are not thinking about development or about fighting against poverty." He reminded everyone in March 2013 that "we are entitled by law, if we wanted, to go in by force and do some activities even if they are against them."
Book Review by Journalist Barry Moores
There Is No Planet B is a storm warning for the impending environmental impacts certain to stagger our planet. The history and current state of greed-fuelled corporate and political hypocrisy which brought the world to a dire precipice is detailed in this cleverly-compiled volume of less than 200 pages, short on rhetoric but providing all the context necessary to understand the condition our condition is in, from a Canadian but nonetheless globally-aware perspective.
There Is No Planet B wastes no time laying out the breadcrumb trail of responsibility for accelerated climate change, never belabouring the point, presenting their case in 30 easy-to-read and understand subsections, a brilliant method of explaining a tsunami of data essential to understanding and appreciating the planet's prognosis. This is not arcane knowledge or long-winded bluster. These are critical issues we Stephen Harper, are facing right now: bitumen pipelines crisscrossing the country, the eerily draconian FIPA agreement with the Chinese government, the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway projects, the insane suggestion of using Kitimat as some sort of offloading port, or the condescending and antidemocratic behavior of the current administration in Ottawa. If you want to understand what's making you puzzled, irritated or angry, this book is an essential read, a survival guide for the concerned Canadian. Solid journalism and first-person storytelling create a compelling style. You'll find yourself up to speed and wanting to stay there.
Far from a pity party where the silly virgins sit and wait in the cellar for an axe to fall from a beam, the authors also provide a barometer of the exciting technology poised to turn back the clock. If these ideas find fair room to move in the marketplace, they are geared to usher in a new normal, to bolster and eventually replace the carbon-soaked fuel devastating our globe. These sustainable, common sense, economically-intelligent and often elegant solutions range from cold fusion to a desktop unit extracting oil from plastic to a mushroom that actually lives off evil plastic. A mushroom, folks.
There Is No Planet B deserves to be the first of a series, a publication continuing to examine the evolving nature of how citizens, industry and the environment coexist. The authors start from a humble position, self published and text-only, but this quality of research and writing deserves graphics and photos in subsequent editions, to take it to the proper level.
I have well-founded concerns about the environment. The Come by Chance oil refinery is a short car ride southeast of where I live, and there is tanker traffic steadily up and down Placentia Bay, an ecologically sensitive and totally irreplaceable pocket of breathtaking Atlantic Coast. On the other side of life, I grew up in Newfoundland when the unemployment rates were high and the self-esteem was low. Families who scraped and scravelled and starved for generations now have comfort and security because of the Alberta oil industry and the subsequent oil boom in the Atlantic East. There are longstanding concerns in this province about the self-determination of rural communities to harvest from the sea. We are nervous the ruralism baby will be thrown out with urban-directed sustainability bathwater.
I have a well-founded bias towards this book. Trevor Greene and I completed the Honours Journalism program together at King's College. A straightforward, no-nonsense, genuine guy all the way through, the fellow everybody likes for the right reasons. It isn't an urban myth: these people do exist. We attended a reunion together before he shipped off to Afghanistan.
When he says "not on my watch," you know it's serious business. For you and me and Trevor Greene and Mike Velemirovich: There Is No Planet B.
There Is No Planet B wastes no time laying out the breadcrumb trail of responsibility for accelerated climate change, never belabouring the point, presenting their case in 30 easy-to-read and understand subsections, a brilliant method of explaining a tsunami of data essential to understanding and appreciating the planet's prognosis. This is not arcane knowledge or long-winded bluster. These are critical issues we Stephen Harper, are facing right now: bitumen pipelines crisscrossing the country, the eerily draconian FIPA agreement with the Chinese government, the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway projects, the insane suggestion of using Kitimat as some sort of offloading port, or the condescending and antidemocratic behavior of the current administration in Ottawa. If you want to understand what's making you puzzled, irritated or angry, this book is an essential read, a survival guide for the concerned Canadian. Solid journalism and first-person storytelling create a compelling style. You'll find yourself up to speed and wanting to stay there.
Far from a pity party where the silly virgins sit and wait in the cellar for an axe to fall from a beam, the authors also provide a barometer of the exciting technology poised to turn back the clock. If these ideas find fair room to move in the marketplace, they are geared to usher in a new normal, to bolster and eventually replace the carbon-soaked fuel devastating our globe. These sustainable, common sense, economically-intelligent and often elegant solutions range from cold fusion to a desktop unit extracting oil from plastic to a mushroom that actually lives off evil plastic. A mushroom, folks.
There Is No Planet B deserves to be the first of a series, a publication continuing to examine the evolving nature of how citizens, industry and the environment coexist. The authors start from a humble position, self published and text-only, but this quality of research and writing deserves graphics and photos in subsequent editions, to take it to the proper level.
I have well-founded concerns about the environment. The Come by Chance oil refinery is a short car ride southeast of where I live, and there is tanker traffic steadily up and down Placentia Bay, an ecologically sensitive and totally irreplaceable pocket of breathtaking Atlantic Coast. On the other side of life, I grew up in Newfoundland when the unemployment rates were high and the self-esteem was low. Families who scraped and scravelled and starved for generations now have comfort and security because of the Alberta oil industry and the subsequent oil boom in the Atlantic East. There are longstanding concerns in this province about the self-determination of rural communities to harvest from the sea. We are nervous the ruralism baby will be thrown out with urban-directed sustainability bathwater.
I have a well-founded bias towards this book. Trevor Greene and I completed the Honours Journalism program together at King's College. A straightforward, no-nonsense, genuine guy all the way through, the fellow everybody likes for the right reasons. It isn't an urban myth: these people do exist. We attended a reunion together before he shipped off to Afghanistan.
When he says "not on my watch," you know it's serious business. For you and me and Trevor Greene and Mike Velemirovich: There Is No Planet B.
Book Review by Journalist Barry Moores
There Is No Planet B, by Trevor Greene & Mike Velemirovich … Review by Barry Moores
There Is No Planet B is a storm warning for the impending environmental impacts certain to stagger our planet. The history and current state of greed-fuelled corporate and political hypocrisy which brought the world to a dire precipice is detailed in this cleverly-compiled volume of less than 200 pages, short on rhetoric but providing all the context necessary to understand the condition our condition is in, from a Canadian but nonetheless globally-aware perspective.
There Is No Planet B wastes no time laying out the breadcrumb trail of responsibility for accelerated climate change, never belabouring the point, presenting their case in 30 easy-to-read and understand subsections, a brilliant method of explaining a tsunami of data essential to understanding and appreciating the planet's prognosis. This is not arcane knowledge or long-winded bluster. These are critical issues we Stephen Harper, are facing right now: bitumen pipelines crisscrossing the country, the eerily draconian FIPA agreement with the Chinese government, the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway projects, the insane suggestion of using Kitimat as some sort of offloading port, or the condescending and antidemocratic behavior of the current administration in Ottawa. If you want to understand what's making you puzzled, irritated or angry, this book is an essential read, a survival guide for the concerned Canadian. Solid journalism and first-person storytelling create a compelling style. You'll find yourself up to speed and wanting to stay there.
Far from a pity party where the silly virgins sit and wait in the cellar for an axe to fall from a beam, the authors also provide a barometer of the exciting technology poised to turn back the clock. If these ideas find fair room to move in the marketplace, they are geared to usher in a new normal, to bolster and eventually replace the carbon-soaked fuel devastating our globe. These sustainable, common sense, economically-intelligent and often elegant solutions range from cold fusion to a desktop unit extracting oil from plastic to a mushroom that actually lives off evil plastic. A mushroom, folks.
There Is No Planet B deserves to be the first of a series, a publication continuing to examine the evolving nature of how citizens, industry and the environment coexist. The authors start from a humble position, self published and text-only, but this quality of research and writing deserves graphics and photos in subsequent editions, to take it to the proper level.
I have well-founded concerns about the environment. The Come by Chance oil refinery is a short car ride southeast of where I live, and there is tanker traffic steadily up and down Placentia Bay, an ecologically sensitive and totally irreplaceable pocket of breathtaking Atlantic Coast. On the other side of life, I grew up in Newfoundland when the unemployment rates were high and the self-esteem was low. Families who scraped and scravelled and starved for generations now have comfort and security because of the Alberta oil industry and the subsequent oil boom in the Atlantic East. There are longstanding concerns in this province about the self-determination of rural communities to harvest from the sea. We are nervous the ruralism baby will be thrown out with urban-directed sustainability bathwater.
I have a well-founded bias towards this book. Trevor Greene and I completed the Honours Journalism program together at King's College. A straightforward, no-nonsense, genuine guy all the way through, the fellow everybody likes for the right reasons. It isn't an urban myth: these people do exist. We attended a reunion together before he shipped off to Afghanistan.
When he says "not on my watch," you know it's serious business. For you and me and Trevor Greene and Mike Velemirovich: There Is No Planet B.
There Is No Planet B is a storm warning for the impending environmental impacts certain to stagger our planet. The history and current state of greed-fuelled corporate and political hypocrisy which brought the world to a dire precipice is detailed in this cleverly-compiled volume of less than 200 pages, short on rhetoric but providing all the context necessary to understand the condition our condition is in, from a Canadian but nonetheless globally-aware perspective.
There Is No Planet B wastes no time laying out the breadcrumb trail of responsibility for accelerated climate change, never belabouring the point, presenting their case in 30 easy-to-read and understand subsections, a brilliant method of explaining a tsunami of data essential to understanding and appreciating the planet's prognosis. This is not arcane knowledge or long-winded bluster. These are critical issues we Stephen Harper, are facing right now: bitumen pipelines crisscrossing the country, the eerily draconian FIPA agreement with the Chinese government, the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway projects, the insane suggestion of using Kitimat as some sort of offloading port, or the condescending and antidemocratic behavior of the current administration in Ottawa. If you want to understand what's making you puzzled, irritated or angry, this book is an essential read, a survival guide for the concerned Canadian. Solid journalism and first-person storytelling create a compelling style. You'll find yourself up to speed and wanting to stay there.
Far from a pity party where the silly virgins sit and wait in the cellar for an axe to fall from a beam, the authors also provide a barometer of the exciting technology poised to turn back the clock. If these ideas find fair room to move in the marketplace, they are geared to usher in a new normal, to bolster and eventually replace the carbon-soaked fuel devastating our globe. These sustainable, common sense, economically-intelligent and often elegant solutions range from cold fusion to a desktop unit extracting oil from plastic to a mushroom that actually lives off evil plastic. A mushroom, folks.
There Is No Planet B deserves to be the first of a series, a publication continuing to examine the evolving nature of how citizens, industry and the environment coexist. The authors start from a humble position, self published and text-only, but this quality of research and writing deserves graphics and photos in subsequent editions, to take it to the proper level.
I have well-founded concerns about the environment. The Come by Chance oil refinery is a short car ride southeast of where I live, and there is tanker traffic steadily up and down Placentia Bay, an ecologically sensitive and totally irreplaceable pocket of breathtaking Atlantic Coast. On the other side of life, I grew up in Newfoundland when the unemployment rates were high and the self-esteem was low. Families who scraped and scravelled and starved for generations now have comfort and security because of the Alberta oil industry and the subsequent oil boom in the Atlantic East. There are longstanding concerns in this province about the self-determination of rural communities to harvest from the sea. We are nervous the ruralism baby will be thrown out with urban-directed sustainability bathwater.
I have a well-founded bias towards this book. Trevor Greene and I completed the Honours Journalism program together at King's College. A straightforward, no-nonsense, genuine guy all the way through, the fellow everybody likes for the right reasons. It isn't an urban myth: these people do exist. We attended a reunion together before he shipped off to Afghanistan.
When he says "not on my watch," you know it's serious business. For you and me and Trevor Greene and Mike Velemirovich: There Is No Planet B.
April 26, 2014
Learning To Love Nuclear
Editorializing in the UKs Independent newspaper in 2004, renowned scientist James Lovelock, shocked the mainstream environmental movement by voicing support for nuclear power: "Sir David King, the Government's chief scientist, was far-sighted to say that global warming is a more serious threat than terrorism. Nuclear energy has proved to be the safest of all energy sources," he said. "Its worldwide use as our main source of energy would pose an insignificant threat compared with the dangers of intolerable and lethal heat waves and sea levels rising to drown every coastal city of the world." Lovelock said that worrying about getting cancer from nuclear radiation is pointless taken in the context of global warming. "We must stop fretting over the minute statistical risks of cancer from chemicals or radiation. Nearly one third of us will die of cancer anyway, mainly because we breathe air laden with that all-pervasive carcinogen, oxygen." Other high-profile proponents of nuclear energy are Christine Todd Whitman, former New Jersey governor and head of the Environmental Protection Agency, respected scientist James Hansen and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates. In 2013, Academy Award-winning director, Robert Stone, made a controversial documentary called Pandora’s Promise, which argues in favour of nuclear energy. The film follows five leading environmental activists who had become pro-nuclear because they realized that the measures used to fight pollution haven’t made a dent in climate change. Pandora’s Promise argues that the problem with nuclear is the outdated technology, developed when the Cold War raged, of light-water reactors instead of new-generation breeder reactors. A breeder reactor can run off of the fuel it produces at a higher rate than it consumes. It basically breeds. This fuel can be cycled many times through the reactor as opposed to the light water reactors, which have only one cycle. The film makes the startling assertion that only wind turbines are safer than nuclear. It then claims that many more people are killed by air pollution from burning coal than from nuclear energy generation. Renowned earth scientist James Conca says “the poorly-considered drive to swap nuclear with natural gas and gas-dependent renewables will erase the recent benefits gained from replacing old coal plants with gas. ” Even nuclear-skeptic Al Gore has started to come around to the merits of the new generation of reactors. On the seven-year anniversary of An Inconvenient Truth in May 2013, Gore said, “if they can successfully build these smaller, safer, passably safe modular reactors that come in smaller increments at an acceptable cost, then I think we could see a renaissance in the nuclear industry, 10, 15, 20 years from now.” Westinghouse Electric will definitely be part of that renaissance. The same company that made your blender and toaster started fuel tests for its Small Modular Reactor [SMR] in 2013. The SMR produces only 225 megawatts, far smaller than traditional reactors, but can be built in pieces and assembled on-site. Its containment vessel is 89 feet tall as opposed to a traditional reactor’s 250 feet. The SMR is cheap to build because it uses standard turbines from General Electric rather than custom-made parts from overseas. The day when we embrace nuclear power rather than shrink from it There Is No Planet B: Promise and Peril on Our Warming World
April 25, 2014
Excerpt: Promise For Planet B
Sustainable energy holds promise for a cleaner world and clear promise for economic prosperity. When more governments around the world realize that their economies will flourish in a sustainable energy future, the inevitable conversion to renewable energy will be triggered.
The perils of fossil fuel become more obvious every day as we foul our air, poison our water and push tides ever higher. About a century ago, fossil fuel was popular because it was plentiful and cheap and allowed nations to rebuild after a world war and modernize life for millions of people.
Decades later the unthinkable happened -- fossil fuel began to run out. Peak oil has long since been passed as reserves diminish and we must either squeeze oily sand or drill down miles below the floor of the deepest oceans in fragile, untouched ecosystems like the Arctic for ever more expensive oil.
Billions and billions of dollars in tax subsidies flow every year to the American Big Oil companies, who regularly post billions of dollars in profits. President Obama's attempt in March 2012 to slash $4 billion in subsidies every year to the big five oil companies; Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and Shell, was thumped in the Senate.
Exxon made nearly $4.7 million an hour in 2012. If even a fraction of this largesse were to be diverted to greentech firms, then the assertion made by legendary CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, that "green is the new black" would be proven.
The past 10 years have been the warmest in the 160 years that records have been kept. The highly precise analyzers atop the Mauna Loa volcano have been sniffing carbon dioxide above Hawaii for over half a century. The reading reached the highest level in three million years in the 24 hour-period that ended at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, May 10th 2012: 400 parts per million. It is long past time for us to realize that we are merely stewards of the Earth we will bequeath our children and grandchildren. Long past time for us to accept that there is no magical Planet B waiting for us to blast off to from our ruined Earth.
The Maldives archipelago is slowly being reclaimed by the sea but Maldivians are committed to carbon neutrality by 2020 and every child is educated in sustainability practices. There is an urgency there that can only be engendered by watching your homeland slowly being eaten away. We must all be Maldivians.
We must all feel the seawater rising inch by inch on our ankles. We must all stand as one and rage against the soulless corporations pillaging our earth with impunity. We must all rant at the spineless politicos slavishly doing their bidding. We must all roar with one voice at the greedy bastards gang-raping the earth: not on my watch.
The perils of fossil fuel become more obvious every day as we foul our air, poison our water and push tides ever higher. About a century ago, fossil fuel was popular because it was plentiful and cheap and allowed nations to rebuild after a world war and modernize life for millions of people.
Decades later the unthinkable happened -- fossil fuel began to run out. Peak oil has long since been passed as reserves diminish and we must either squeeze oily sand or drill down miles below the floor of the deepest oceans in fragile, untouched ecosystems like the Arctic for ever more expensive oil.
Billions and billions of dollars in tax subsidies flow every year to the American Big Oil companies, who regularly post billions of dollars in profits. President Obama's attempt in March 2012 to slash $4 billion in subsidies every year to the big five oil companies; Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and Shell, was thumped in the Senate.
Exxon made nearly $4.7 million an hour in 2012. If even a fraction of this largesse were to be diverted to greentech firms, then the assertion made by legendary CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, that "green is the new black" would be proven.
The past 10 years have been the warmest in the 160 years that records have been kept. The highly precise analyzers atop the Mauna Loa volcano have been sniffing carbon dioxide above Hawaii for over half a century. The reading reached the highest level in three million years in the 24 hour-period that ended at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, May 10th 2012: 400 parts per million. It is long past time for us to realize that we are merely stewards of the Earth we will bequeath our children and grandchildren. Long past time for us to accept that there is no magical Planet B waiting for us to blast off to from our ruined Earth.
The Maldives archipelago is slowly being reclaimed by the sea but Maldivians are committed to carbon neutrality by 2020 and every child is educated in sustainability practices. There is an urgency there that can only be engendered by watching your homeland slowly being eaten away. We must all be Maldivians.
We must all feel the seawater rising inch by inch on our ankles. We must all stand as one and rage against the soulless corporations pillaging our earth with impunity. We must all rant at the spineless politicos slavishly doing their bidding. We must all roar with one voice at the greedy bastards gang-raping the earth: not on my watch.
Excerpt: Pathological Governance
Dr. Warren Bell, a British Columbia GP, addressed the Joint Review Panel hearings on the Enbridge pipeline on January 28, 2013. Bell, who has training in psychology, said the toxic Enbridge controversy is a symptom of "structural pathology" at the heart of Canada's government.
He traces it back to the first Europeans who through a "combination of force of arms, disease, mass immigration and various legalistic arrangements -- including a genocidal strategy called the residential school system -- relentlessly marginalized our First Nations and irreparably destroyed their intimate connection to the ecosystem." Bell points out that hundreds of First Nations communities are squarely in the pipeline route.
The second pathological element is our much-maligned electoral system. Our first-past-the-post system is "psychologically grossly inefficient. Especially in complex or conflictual situations, it generates a mixture of cynicism, despair and anger." The third element, the all-powerful Prime Minister's Office, is "an invitation to social disaster. The illusion of efficiency in political decision-making is subverted by the opportunity for hardline autocracy," Bell suggests.
The final element is the surge in corporate influence that absolves employees of personal responsibility for often-disastrous decisions and puts profit above all else. Bell describes a patient in his mid-twenties who said he was deeply depressed and anxious "about the overheated, depleted future he was heading towards.
He felt that the government in this country was acting now to make it worse for him and his young children later." Bell co-founded the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment [CAPE] in 1995, which scientifically examines the intimate inter-relationship between human and ecosystem health. Bell discusses Stephen Harper's autocratic ways, and his "willingness to mask his own renowned intensity behind a rigidly bland persona is a truer indication of his deep commitment to power."
The doctor's fourfold cure is nothing new: repairing the relationship with our First Nations, electoral reform, loosening the iron grip of the PMO and reining in the overwhelming power and influence of the corporate sector. "Until we do these four things, our country is vulnerable to political, social and ecological upheaval that will retard our development as a nation, and likely offer ruin to the lives of future generations."
The renowned filmmaker Bonnie Klein was part of a wave of over 200,000 Vietnam-era women and men who immigrated to Canada out of opposition to the war. Her children, Naomi and Seth are noted social activists. Bonnie Klein received the Order of Canada in May 2013 and made an impassioned speech lamenting the direction her adopted country has taken: "rather than protect our precious resources; our land, water, air and our own health from climate disaster, we are shaming dissenting individuals and groups by labelling them naive or subversive. We are allowing partisan interests to silence our scientists and civil servants."
The Vancouver Sun reported in March 2013 that a new code of conduct at Library and Archives Canada [LAC] dictated that federal librarians and archivists who visit classrooms, attend conferences or speak up at public meetings on their own time are engaging in "high risk" activities. Staff has to clear such "personal" activities with their managers in advance to ensure there are no conflicts or "other risks to LAC."
The Library and Archives Canada's Code of Conduct: Values and Ethics came into effect in January 2013 and dictates that employees have a "duty of loyalty" to the "duly elected government." Toni Samek, a professor of library and information studies at the University of Alberta told the Sun "once you start picking on librarians and archivists, it's pretty sad." Samek characterised several clauses in the Code as "severe" and "outrageous."
Our archivists are top-notch and often invited to lecture internationally -- apparently not for much longer: "On occasion, LAC employees may be asked by third parties to teach or to speak at or be a guest at conferences as a personal activity or part-time employment. Such activities have been identified as high risk to LAC and to the employee with regard to conflict of interest, conflict of duties and duty of loyalty."
The wording wouldn't be out of place in an internal memo in China or North Korea: "As public servants, our duty of loyalty to the Government of Canada and its elected officials extends beyond our workplace to our personal activities," the Code says, adding that public servants "must maintain awareness of their surroundings, their audience and how their words or actions could be interpreted (or misinterpreted)."
This is an excerpt from Capt. Trevor Greene's new, self-published book, There Is No Planet B: Promise And Peril On Our Warming World.
He traces it back to the first Europeans who through a "combination of force of arms, disease, mass immigration and various legalistic arrangements -- including a genocidal strategy called the residential school system -- relentlessly marginalized our First Nations and irreparably destroyed their intimate connection to the ecosystem." Bell points out that hundreds of First Nations communities are squarely in the pipeline route.
The second pathological element is our much-maligned electoral system. Our first-past-the-post system is "psychologically grossly inefficient. Especially in complex or conflictual situations, it generates a mixture of cynicism, despair and anger." The third element, the all-powerful Prime Minister's Office, is "an invitation to social disaster. The illusion of efficiency in political decision-making is subverted by the opportunity for hardline autocracy," Bell suggests.
The final element is the surge in corporate influence that absolves employees of personal responsibility for often-disastrous decisions and puts profit above all else. Bell describes a patient in his mid-twenties who said he was deeply depressed and anxious "about the overheated, depleted future he was heading towards.
He felt that the government in this country was acting now to make it worse for him and his young children later." Bell co-founded the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment [CAPE] in 1995, which scientifically examines the intimate inter-relationship between human and ecosystem health. Bell discusses Stephen Harper's autocratic ways, and his "willingness to mask his own renowned intensity behind a rigidly bland persona is a truer indication of his deep commitment to power."
The doctor's fourfold cure is nothing new: repairing the relationship with our First Nations, electoral reform, loosening the iron grip of the PMO and reining in the overwhelming power and influence of the corporate sector. "Until we do these four things, our country is vulnerable to political, social and ecological upheaval that will retard our development as a nation, and likely offer ruin to the lives of future generations."
The renowned filmmaker Bonnie Klein was part of a wave of over 200,000 Vietnam-era women and men who immigrated to Canada out of opposition to the war. Her children, Naomi and Seth are noted social activists. Bonnie Klein received the Order of Canada in May 2013 and made an impassioned speech lamenting the direction her adopted country has taken: "rather than protect our precious resources; our land, water, air and our own health from climate disaster, we are shaming dissenting individuals and groups by labelling them naive or subversive. We are allowing partisan interests to silence our scientists and civil servants."
The Vancouver Sun reported in March 2013 that a new code of conduct at Library and Archives Canada [LAC] dictated that federal librarians and archivists who visit classrooms, attend conferences or speak up at public meetings on their own time are engaging in "high risk" activities. Staff has to clear such "personal" activities with their managers in advance to ensure there are no conflicts or "other risks to LAC."
The Library and Archives Canada's Code of Conduct: Values and Ethics came into effect in January 2013 and dictates that employees have a "duty of loyalty" to the "duly elected government." Toni Samek, a professor of library and information studies at the University of Alberta told the Sun "once you start picking on librarians and archivists, it's pretty sad." Samek characterised several clauses in the Code as "severe" and "outrageous."
Our archivists are top-notch and often invited to lecture internationally -- apparently not for much longer: "On occasion, LAC employees may be asked by third parties to teach or to speak at or be a guest at conferences as a personal activity or part-time employment. Such activities have been identified as high risk to LAC and to the employee with regard to conflict of interest, conflict of duties and duty of loyalty."
The wording wouldn't be out of place in an internal memo in China or North Korea: "As public servants, our duty of loyalty to the Government of Canada and its elected officials extends beyond our workplace to our personal activities," the Code says, adding that public servants "must maintain awareness of their surroundings, their audience and how their words or actions could be interpreted (or misinterpreted)."
This is an excerpt from Capt. Trevor Greene's new, self-published book, There Is No Planet B: Promise And Peril On Our Warming World.
