A6 - North Shore News - Sunday, May 11, 2014
VIEWPOINT PUBLISHED BY NORTH SHORE NEWS A DIVISION OF LMP PUBLICATION LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, 100-126 EAST 15TH STREET, NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. V7L 2P9. DOUG FOOT, PUBLISHER. CANADIAN PUBLICATIONS MAIL SALES PRODUCT AGREEMENT NO. 40010186.
Future is now
F
or years we’ve been told that climate change is going to be the unfortunate legacy we leave to our children. But it turns out we don’t have to wait that long. As a new report by more than 300 top scientists made clear this week, climate change is already here. Although meteorologists are at pains to point out that weather is not climate, most adults can’t help but be struck by the remarkable changes in temperatures, seasons and unusual weather patterns discernible to even non-scientists in our lifetimes. As the report makes clear, the changes are borne out by science.They are caused by human activity generating greenhouse gases and they are happening faster than predicted. Most of the effects are extremely detrimental. They include increasing numbers of
hurricanes and tornadoes, heavy rains in some parts of North America and drought in others. On the West Coast, reduced snow pack, rising sea levels and ocean acidification, storm surges and forest infestations are just some of the challenges likely to get worse in the future. The question remains, what are we willing to do about it? Despite widespread acknowledgement of concern, Canada’s own efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions remain inadequate. Oil and gas production is one of our country’s largest contributors to the problem.Yet our government largely refuses to recognize this, much less move to mitigate it. As the report this week makes clear, however, the time to act is now. Because a dramatically altered planet will soon be everyone’s problem.
Identity rooted in our thin green line
“A nation is a communion of hopes and memories.” – Anatole France
It’s the spring conference season and that means elevated levels of information-trading. At a Seattle event this past week there was plenty of talk within the business and civic community about China’s direct investment in North America. It’s one of the most important trends of our time and in the U.S. it topped $14 billion last year. That’s the first time the Chinese have turned the table on our southern neighbour. Numbers from 2012 reflect the same picture here. Despite Canada’s much smaller population we drew $12 billion in Chinese investment. That’s a lot of foreign ownership. Even with major energy and natural resource sales we
Trevor Carolan
Poetic Licence
lose $50 billion annually in general trade with China. Good news for North Shore entrepreneurs? The hottest sectors for outbound Chinese investment are in advanced, innovationintensive industries. That translates as high-tech, “clean-tech,” biotech, and advanced transportation opportunities. Luck found me on a
CONTACTUS
seminar panel with Eric de Place, policy director of Seattle’s highly regarded Sightline Institute, an independent non-profit think tank. He’s headed our way shortly, invited by Mayor Gregor Robertson to address Vancouver area decision-makers on the economic and ecological implications of fossil fuel export strategies within the Pacific coast’s Cascadia region. South of the line, coal export issues dominate the agenda similar to oil pipelines in B.C. Their hot-button issue is coal trains from Wyoming and Montana. But there’s a new concern: increased coast-bound trains carrying volatile shale oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields. That’s the same fuel that brought tragedy to Lac Mégantic in Quebec last July. Why should the North
Shore care? Washington State has five oil refineries; one at Cherry Point near Blaine, another at Ferndale and two at Anacortes. U.S. corporations already ship their coal dust through Vancouver-area depots which have recently bulked up in size to accommodate them. What’s a little volatile oil between friends, especially if tanker shipping capacity fattens up in Burrard Inlet for an expanded Kinder Morgan pipeline? North Vancouver’s Tsleil-Waututh community understands what’s at issue in its legal challenge to the National Energy Board’s cosy review of the KM proposal.They contend the NEB review should broadly consider not just the pipeline but expansion of the fuller Burnaby-side Westridge marine terminal area and its storage tanks, and the impact
of this upon the immediate environment’s human and natural geography.They contend that as historic stewards of this region they should have been consulted about this, and legal precedent says they’re correct.They’ve petitioned the Federal Court of Appeal for relief. If the combined West Coast pipeline, coal and oil proposals go through, climatically the impact will be far greater than the Keystone project President Obama can’t seem to abide. Ironically, as Eric de Place explains, “by historic accident this greenest corner of North America will play an outsize role in determining our planet’s climate future in this century.” De Place calls our Cascadia region the “thin
YOU SAID IT
“Moby Doll just followed like a dog on a leash.” FormerVancouver Aquarium director Murray Newman recalls harpooning orca Moby Doll in 1964 (from a May 4 Focus story). “He views the Canadian court system as something akin to a perpetual all-day all-you-can-eat buffet.” Ontario Superior Court Justice Colin McKinnon rules against formerWestVan teacher Roger Callow, who has fought his dismissal for 29 years (from a May 9 news story). “Get the chainsaws out, get them the hell out of there.” WestVan Coun. Michael Lewis calls for the removal of cedar trees at the entrance toWest Bay Park (from a May 7 news story).
See Coalitions page 11
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