Tag Archives: BC

Inspiring Story: Team Green

28 Tuesday Dec 2010

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Introducing youth leader Armin!  He is energetic, modest, and making change every day; now joining Plug Out Tune In with a piece on his environmental initiative: Team Green.

Written by Armin Rezaiean-Asel:

Student government, music council, humanitarian clubs, leadership clubs, and various other venues for student involvement were certainly not scarce at my school, Dr. Charles Best Secondary. It seemed the only thing missing was an opportunity for environment-loving students to meet and take action. That’s where it all began.
Having heard of a local trail cleanup project, Adopt-a-trail, being run by the city of Coquitlam, I wanted to get myself involved. One small obstacle presented itself; I would not be able to cover the few kilometres of trail myself to meet the expected requirements. Luckily, an easy solution was available. I go to a school full of overly-involved students; therefore, there must be enough people willing to, once again, get involved and volunteer their time with this program.
As I waited for September and with it, the opportunity to get students involved environmentally, to come along, more and more ideas started flowing in. The possibility of shore line cleanups, presentations encouraging environmentalism to younger students, school-wide awareness campaigns, and much more started presenting itself and as such, a list of these ideas was made. When the summer was finally over, I wrote everything up into a new club proposal. Upon receiving the proposal, my principal was, as usual, very supportive of even more student involvement and approved the new club.
Since then, dozens of students have gotten involved with Dr. Charles Best’s Team Green, and with our team effort, we have started working in the Adopt-a-trail program, raising school awareness through board decorations and quick speeches in assemblies, and initiating school-wide paper, candy wrapper, and cell phone recycling programs. Organizing these activities as well as others has lead to an increase of environmental awareness within our school, and it’s safe to say there has also been an increase in passion for some of our members.
Throughout the next several years, many things will definitely change within Dr. Charles Best Secondary. One thing that’s certain, however, is that those environment-loving kids will have a time and place to meet and take action.

Federal Inquiry into BC’s Sockeye Draws Criticism

25 Monday Oct 2010

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As British Columbians were becoming increasingly aware of declining sockeye salmon stocks, 2010 ended the trend with the inundation of the Fraser River in what Mark Hume of The Globe and Mail described as “the biggest sockeye salmon run in nearly 100 years.”

The salmon issue, while having become highly political over the past few years, is essentially about fish farms and their relation to sockeye and the overall health and vitality of these Fraser River resources. Salmon farming and sea lice, in addition to climate change, are possible causes of the previously declining stocks. Prime Minister Harper last year described it as “a serious matter.”

After three consecutive years of closed fisheries in British Columbia, a federal inquiry into sockeye salmon stock declines was commissioned by the federal government in November of 2009. Under BC Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, the Cohen Inquiry is meant to identify the reasons for the decline, make long term projections and determine the necessary policy direction to ensure salmon sustainability.

Then, approximately 34.5 million sockeye returned to their spawning ground for this year’s run. A significant advantage though this may be, there is frustration amongst a wide cross section of the fishery community, concerned with DFO’s (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) lack of capacity to accurately predict salmon returns. Pending the final report, a movement to protect natural resources in BC has begun. Alexandra Morton, a known voice on salmon issues, led the “Get Out Migration” from the Ahta River to Victoria in April, calling for Norwegian salmon farming companies to ‘get out’ of the region, or move to closed containment.

“Government is allowing Norwegian salmon farmers to continue denying even the most basic issues, like sea lice and ISA virus introduction,” said Morton. “If we let this play out, our wild fish simply will not survive.”

While a federal inquiry has been indentified as long overdue and essential to BC’s salmon sustainability, thorough support for the process is distinctly sparse. In this battle over BC salmon, the very nature of the Cohen Inquiry is being challenged by the broader community. Rafe Mair, BC minister of environment from 1978-79, has suggested that the inquiries are politically motivated.

“….while the Commissioner Bruce Cohen may not be political, his boss, Stephen Harper—a man whose only demonstrated interest in the environment has been to let corporate friends destroy it—sure as hell is,” said Mair in a column last month.
READ THE REST ON THE UBYSSEY: HERE

Guest Column: Ben West on Incineration

01 Thursday Apr 2010

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South Fraser Perimeter Road Townhall

Opposing Garbage Incineration a “No Brainer”

People around the world are looking for meaningful things they can do to stop climate change and its source. Carbon intensive energy production is the low hanging fruit for those seeking to make a difference. People are fighting to shut down coal fired power plants in China, the USA, England and elsewhere because it is traditionally seen as the dirtiest form of energy production. What most people in BC don’t know is that there is a plan to burn a fuel source even worse than coal right here in our province, its garbage. The plan to build new “Waste to Energy” incinerators would be a big step in the wrong direction. According to the US Environmental Protection agency waste incineration releases 1355 g of carbon per KWH vs. 1020 g per KWH for a coal fired power plant. To put that in perspective natural gas creates 515 g per KWH. Clearly our garbage is not ideal for making electricity. So given BC’s reputation as a leader on addressing climate change then why then is this issue even up for discussion?

Well first of all nobody likes garbage. Landfills are unattractive and they have environmental consequences of there own. The organic material in landfills decompose overtime and release methane which is very potent green house gas. When you compare emissions per tonne of garbage from landfilling vs. incineration it can give the impression that incineration actually results in less emissions but if you take a closer look its easy to see that this is false. First of all it is the organic material such as food waste that creates emissions in landfills not the plastics and other fossil fuel derived materials. If we simply banned organics from landfills we could virtually eliminate emissions these emissions. The same is not true for incinerators. Incinerators create emissions both from organic material and fossil fuel based material. Therefore incinerators actually create a whole new source of emissions from burning plastics. Meanwhile even if less garbage was going into landfills today we still need to deal with the methane being released from landfills from all the decomposing waste left there over the decades. Any reduction in methane wouldn’t take place for years and years either by banning organics from landfills and composting it or putting it in an incinerator. Clearly composting is the better way to go because of climate change and because it helps maintain soil fertility which is so important to our food security and long term viability of our farmland in the region.

The total emissions generated by burning garbage if the Metro Vancouver plan is allowed to go ahead would be approximately 1 million tonnes of CO2 a year. That would make it the largest source of CO2 in the lower mainland and the 2nd biggest source of emissions in the province overall.

It is very important that we all let our elected official at all levels of government know that this is just not acceptable. A good place to start would be writing to directors on the board of Metro Vancouver and letting them know that you don’t want them to go ahead with this plan. To do this simply send your email to waste.incinerators@writewild.net and it will be forwarded to all of them on your behalf. Also you could visit http://wildernesscommittee.org/write_wild_waste_incinerators or www.ZeroWasteBC.org for more information and for opportunities to take action. Time is of the essence. They will vote on this proposed plan at a meeting next Friday April the 9th 2010.

Together we can find sensible solutions that reduce waste, create jobs and are climate responsible.

Thanks,
Ben West | Communications Coordinator; Healthy Communities Campaigner

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