Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Carbon capture and storage — a method for capturing emissions created during industrial processes and transporting them to store deep underground — is having another moment in the sunshine in Canada.  Both federally and provincially, in Alberta, governments have pointed to it as a solution for how to balance oil and gas development with climate targets ... ... carbon is an essential ingredient in carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat close to the earth. Decreasing carbon is key to mitigating the impacts of climate change. And from forests to peatlands to the kelp forests that line the coast, Canada’s western ecosystems are in a much better position to absorb greenhouse gases ... CLICK HERE for the fuel story

In many pages of this blog I urge, and encourage, the provincial government to protect, nurture and enhance ecosystems. I regularly stand in the legislature and address the habitat degradation and wildlife extinctions currently happening in British Columbia. This was brought home for us this holiday season. Silas got a new board game called Forestation . It's a lot of fun! This game encourages players to take the health and well-being of a forest into their own hands. For sixteen rounds, broken into four seasons and four years, players are rewarded for making good and sustainable decisions about the landscape they are managing. The goal is to plant diverse forests, attract and keep prey and predator species while maintaining a balance by ensuring that all the various animals have their needs met. Good landscape managers also build nature houses to encourage visitors which generates much needed revenue. They also hire park wardens and wildlife o...

I have a few Google alerts set up. One of them is associated with my name. It turns up stories about me and also every time St. Louis Cardinals team athletic trainer “ Adam Olsen ” makes the news, I get the update. Additionally, any news that Google picks up about “ salmon ” and “ fish farms ” is also dropped into my email inbox. Image CBC News: " Pink Liquid Flows in Fortune Bay "   Recently, it’s been difficult to escape the stories about the massive die-off in the industrial salmon feedlots in Newfoundland & Labrador. While MP’s for the Liberal Party of Canada, on the east coast, have been in the news defending their fish farming industry, boats have been pumping pink fluid from the carcasses of millions of dead salmon back into the ocean. Industry representatives are quick to brush it aside, it's all organic matter so it mush be fine. However, at the very least it must be noted that any discharge of the volume of fat and organic matter in this case ca...

Last week the Minister responsible for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson, had to announce that only 13% of the sockeye the federal Ministry expected to enter the Fraser River system had actually showed up. It's another chapter in the epic tragedy of the disappearing salmon. They said the sockeye run this year would near 5 million fish. Just slightly more than 600,000 have come home. There is a lot of blame to go around. Seemingly, there are more excuses for the situation than actual fish in the river. Many of the causes they point to are legitimate problems: climate change, marine heat waves, the provincial liquidation of forests and unimpeded destruction of watersheds, and so on. There is also the other problem that we raised with the Minister: they can't count. It's not that the people at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans can't actually count, but rather they are woefully under-resourced so their ability to get accurate numb...

We rarely hear about the dark side of renewable energy sources like windmills. Governments and the media are determined to convince us that wind power is part of our future and refuse to admit that there may be problems that affect our ecosystems. Our hysterical approach to climate change as an emergency precludes realistic assessment of the risks that wind farms entail. Hysterical people toss common sense, critical assessment and reason out the window. That is why our government talks of climate change in terms of “ an emergency ”. They don’t want us poking around and finding the multitude of flaws in their policies and positions. Fortunately, we have enough cooler heads to question the government’s motives and their position is increasingly difficult to justify. We will see many governments crash and burn long before pred...