Ben West2013-05-22T00:07:42-04:00Ben Westhttp://www.huffingtonpost.ca/author/index.php?author=ben-westCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Ben WestGood old fashioned elbow grease.Lessons Learned From The BC Electiontag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32836802013-05-16T01:49:25-04:002013-05-16T14:14:30-04:00Ben Westhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-west/
When they came outside, they found a quote in chalk from Jack Layton, the former Leader of the Federal NDP, who passed away in August 2011. It read: "my friends, love is better than anger, hope is better than fear, optimism is better than despair." These were his beautiful, final words to Canada in a letter he wrote from his hospital bed. When he passed, those words were written in chalk all over the country.
Later that night, at home watching the final results, I found myself wondering what happened. B.C. is such a magnificent and creative place filled with progressive people--what went wrong? Why did so many people (like, 48% of people) not even vote?
Well as Vancouver Canucks hockey fans, we are used to disappointment, and this month was not an exception. You could say in some ways the BC NDP played like the Canucks when they have the lead, circling around trying not to lose.
As a pipeline opponent, I wanted the NDP to win because, of any party with a real chance of forming government, they were in the strongest position to stick up to Prime Minster Stephen Harper and stop the pipelines.
It seems to me that perhaps as an environmental movement some of our key tactics worked but not our strategy overall.
At ForestEthics Advocacy we picked five champions for the coast that we wanted to win and take the lead on the issues of pipelines and tankers. Almost all of them won, including David Eby, the candidate running against our province's current premier, Christy Clark. David is a progressive lawyer who ran a strong campaign based on the issue of stopping tanker traffic expansion. He beat the premier in her own riding. Other winners last night included George Heyman, the former Sierra Club Executive Director, Claire Travena and Jenn Rice--all outspoken opponents of Enbridge and Kinder Morgan. Sadly, Janet Routledge in Burnaby didn't win; she was a real hero on this issue as well and will continue to be, I am sure.
The environmental movement successfully made pipelines an issue all the parties were fighting to show they cared about. At times during this campaign it seemed all the leaders were talking about was pipelines and tankers. We made these pipelines a massive election issue, and that's no small accomplishment.
So where did we go wrong? As the old political saying goes, "it's the economy, stupid." I think we failed to put the green jobs economy front and centre in what we were asking the future government to focus on. Dr. David Suzuki and Jim Sinclair, President of the BC Federation of Labour, wrote a great op-ed about the need to focus on green jobs. And yet our movement as a whole hasn't come together to paint a clear picture of where we want the jobs of tomorrow to come from. We should--we have the opportunity to tell the exciting story of healthier lives and local jobs that we can feel good about. This is a fundamentally important task for the years to come.
Another take away? Coalitions are critical. The provincial Liberals, which are the right-wing party in B.C., are a successful coalition between federal Conservatives and federal Liberals. The provincial Conservatives at first seemed like they may have split the right-of-centre vote. By the time the election happened, the BC Conservatives weren't considered a threat in terms of votes. Perhaps their biggest contribution was making the BC Liberals, a party that has many federal conservatives in staff positions, as well as provincial candidates with ties to the federal conservatives, seem like a more moderate and centrist party.
By contrast, the conflict between the NDP and Greens was really hurtful. Our movements simply must come to together to solve the problem of Canada's tar sands and to make green economic alternatives a reality. There are very real differences between Greens and the NDP in B.C., but if we are going to learn anything from the BC Liberals' success, it's that coalitions win.
For my part, I feel like I owe my Green friends an apology. I was very involved in the party for many years but chose to support the NDP in this election because I really wanted to make it clear that I believed we needed a new government. No one imagined that the Greens would form government in this election.
The "splitting" between the NDP and Greens wasn't just in terms of votes (although some great candidates like Janet Routledge paid the price and felt the sting of vote splitting); it was also a major split in terms of trust and clarity for progressive voters.
The Greens have proven they aren't going away. A few days ago, I had an illustrative conversation with a potential voter at his doorstep, while campaigning for George Heyman. This potential voter told me he wasn't voting because he didn't feel like the NDP was good enough after listening to the Greens, but he knew that the Greens weren't going to be the government anytime soon. My guess is that many well-intentioned folks had a hard time knowing how to vote for similar reasons and it might have had something to do with why only 52% of people in the province voted.
I'm happy we now have an elected climate scientist in the legislature, Professor Andrew Weaver. And as Elizabeth May, who I love dearly, has proven, one person in elected office can make a huge difference.
I also feel bad for BC Green Party leader Jane Sterk and the 84 other BC Greens who lost in every riding other than Andrew Weaver's; they had a similar night to a lot of my NDP friends. The concerns the Green Party rose about fracking and other key issues were totally valid, but we need to find a way to have this conversation amongst progressives before the election instead of fighting amongst ourselves mid-election. This sort of negativity between progressives turns everyone off, and distracts attention from the bigger threat from politicians more likely to support bad projects. We need to work harder to find common ground.
I think both the NDP and the Greens owe it to the public to make a peace treaty and find a way to show everyone that we can work together for solutions that are good for people and the planet. This is an important lesson for us to learn before the upcoming federal election, while we still have time to find ways to work together.
Big Oil won a battle this week but they haven't won the war.
The 2015 Federal Election is right around the corner, and our fight against Enbridge and Kinder Morgan in B.C. is still far from over. Real change comes from social movements. During this election, we achieved stronger commitments from all parties to address these issues. No matter who won our motto will still be "no let up no let down."
The BC Liberals have told us that they have five conditions that must be met before any pipeline is built in the province; it's our job now to hold them to that. We all know those conditions cannot be met. In fact the condition around First Nations support is already clearly not being met, with over 100 First Nations saying 'no' to pipelines and tankers across their long-held territories.
Let's focus on continuing to build our movements, especially in the areas where a progressive message did not elect a progressive MLA. We can and must come together and stop these pipelines in B.C., and work together to defeat Harper in the Federal Election.
Jack's words--"my friends, love is better than anger, hope is better than fear, optimism is better than despair"--hold true. Now more than ever, we need to work together. Big Oil won't go down without one heck of a fight. We have won before and we will win again, because that's what our planet and everyone on it needs to have happen.
Originally published by ForestEthics Advocacy at http://forestethics.org/blog/bc-election-what-happened-and-where-do-we-go-here]]>Harper Tanker Safety Plan Changes Nothing in Pipeline Debatetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.29026012013-03-18T15:41:26-04:002013-05-18T05:12:01-04:00Ben Westhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-west/closing the Vancouver Coast Guard station and the Vancouver Marine Traffic Control centre, Stephen Harper has come out with a new plan for tanker safety. Of course we need the best safeguards available to deal with the increased tanker traffic we are already facing in the time since Kinder Morgan bought the Trans Mountain pipeline but this doesn't replace the Coast Guard stations.
When Kinder Morgan bought the Trans Mountain pipeline in 2005 there were approximately 20 tankers a year in the Vancouver harbour and most of them were carrying oil that would ultimately be consumed in B.C. after being refined in California. Since then annual tanker traffic has increased to approximately 80 tankers per year.
In early 2013, Harper's government closed the both the Kitsilano Coast Guard station and the Vancouver Marine Communication Terminal in the Vancouver harbour, shifting responsibilities to stations in Richmond, B.C. and on Vancouver Island.
This looks to me like Harper is trying to save face after closing the Kitsilano Coast Guard station. It's a shame that it takes the strong opposition to new pipeline proposals to get the Harper government to put in place the kind of safety measure we should have had already, given Kinder Morgan's quiet increases to tanker traffic in the Vancouver harbour. Frankly they should start by re-opening the Coast Guard stations and admitting they made a huge mistake closing them in the first place.
Kinder Morgan's new proposed pipeline would bring over 400 tankers a year to Burrard Inlet. Each one carries 600,000 barrels of tar sands oil, three times as much as was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
The Enbridge pipeline proposal would bring 225 larger supertankers carrying up to two million barrels of tar sands oil. These vessels are much bigger than what can fit through the shallow narrows of Burrad Inlet in the Vancouver Harbour where the Kinder Morgan terminal is located.
I think our prime minister is missing the point. The people of B.C. are making it clear that we don't want the West Coast to be sacrificed to be a tar sands export zone. This is a question of more tar sands oil tankers or less tar sands oil tankers, more risk or less risk, new pipelines or no new pipelines. It's about trajectories.
Prime Minister Harper can make all the safety announcements he wants but it doesn't change the fact that the people of B.C. are moving in the opposite direction he is. We are saying less tar sands oil not more, thank you very much. The truth is the safest thing we can do is say no to the Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines.
]]>Obama, Dix Talk Climate Action Amid Pipeline Decisiontag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.28137262013-03-06T12:50:09-05:002013-05-06T05:12:01-04:00Ben Westhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-west/U.S. State Department's report about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. It made me wonder if the U.S. officials are really paying attention to what's happening up here in B.C.
The report claimed the pipeline is "not likely" to "result in significant environmental effects" and that it would make "no substantive change in global greenhouse gas emissions." The underlying assumption was that even if Keystone XL wasn't built that Enbridge and/or Kinder Morgan's pipelines would be built and the tar sands would continue to grow.
Meanwhile last weekend, the clear favourite to be the next premier of B.C., NDP Leader Adrian Dix, made climate change and pipelines a key feature of a campaign launch speech in Burnaby. Clearly Dix is of course much more aware of the public opposition to these pipeline proposals on Canada's West Coast.
I was in the room for Dix's speech, and I was very pleased to hear the B.C. NDP leader make multiple references to our responsibility to take action to stop climate change and renew his pledge again to oppose the Enbridge Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline.
This echoed the strong words from U.S. President Barack Obama who also emphasized the issue of climate change in his inaugural speech and State of the Union address. The re-elected president said: "We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations."
Right now, the whole world is watching to see if Obama's talk about climate change will impact his decision to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project. Regardless of the State Department's report, ultimately it takes Obama's signature to make this proposed pipeline a reality.
The State Department report was written as if we were living in a "business as usual" world. The reality is that the business-as-usual mentality must be a thing of the past if we are to truly act to stop climate change. Sure, if the tar sands was going to expand at the same rate regardless of the Keystone XL decision then they would be right; it wouldn't make a difference in terms of greenhouse gases. But that isn't the case as none of those pipelines are a done deal -- far from it.
Dix's NDP is promising -- if it forms government in B.C. -- to establish a "made in B.C." environmental review of the Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines which would take back B.C.'s power to reject these proposed pipelines through our province. This is an important step since the Stephen Harper government has made it crystal clear they will continue to push these pipelines through regardless of the opposition in B.C.
There is a massive movement to stop these tar sands pipelines on both sides of the border, and we are working hand in hand with people all over the globe who want to see this continent play a responsible role in the global community in the era of climate change. Those of us that are on the ground working hard to stop these pipelines are seeing the world very differently than the U.S. State Department. We see real momentum for meaningful change.
Obama and Dix can choose to plot a course. A course towards more dependence on dirty tar sands oil -- a business-as-usual approach -- or, towards a shift in focus with a reduced dependence. The good news is that choosing the better path actually creates opportunity for lots and lots of jobs. Moving beyond tar sands oil means more public transit, more high speed rail, more green building and, overall, a more diversified economy.
Ultimately, make no mistake, we will stop these pipelines and the growth of the tar sands with or without these political leaders. Sooner or later in a democracy, people power will win. Their comments on climate action are a good sign, but these pipeline decisions are a real fork in the road.
Both of these men, Obama and Dix, hold in their hands the power to reject tar sands pipelines and in doing so put into action their pledge to reduce the kind of pollution that causes climate change. It's up to them to decide which side of this struggle they are really on.
The options at hand are either the side of big oil corporations or the side of the people on planet earth who want to see change for the better. To put it plainly, they have to decide if they want to be on the right side of history or not.
]]>What Non-Indigenous People Can Learn From Chiefs' Anti-Oil Sands Effortstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.25647932013-01-28T14:38:11-05:002013-03-30T05:12:01-04:00Ben Westhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-west/
Rueben and I met a couple years ago as allies working to stop Houston-based oil giant Kinder Morgan, from building a new pipeline that would bring over 400 oil tankers a year into Vancouver's Burrard Inlet. Rueben's people, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (which means people of the inlet), have been the stewards of Burrard Inlet since time immemorial.
We have become good friends over the last couple years and my life has been so enriched by opportunities, such as taking part in ceremony, and learning of ancient stories and teaching. In the last year I have taken on the role of fire keeper for Rueben's sweat lodge, a huge honour. Our friendship now led me, a white Jewish guy with roots in Eastern Europe born in Vancouver, to join Rueben on a trip to the Lakota Nations territory and a powerful, sacred ceremony.
Before we started the trip, Rueben asked our friend Josh, an environmental lawyer, to draft something for the spiritual leaders to sign that would be like the Save the Fraser Declaration — a statement of sovereign authority for indigenous people to protect their land and water.
En route, Rueben's two children both shared their thoughts and feelings about the declaration, as did our other traveling companions, all participants in Rueben's sweat lodge ceremonies back home. After our long journey, we finally arrived at Crow Dog's Paradise, located on the Lakota Reservation in Rosebud, S.D.
Crow Dog's Paradise is a magical place. The sacred tree is covered in colourful prayer ties dancing in the wind. Bright dragonflies paint the air. The sound of the drums resonates deep inside your body. The sunrises turn the clouds into a pink gateway over the arbor's east gate. Spectacular rainbows follow the overpowering thunder and lightning of summer storms. All of this is home to Chief Leonard Crow Dog, a powerful spiritual leader and activist who has touched the lives of many, many people. Perhaps it should not be surprising that this place is so special, as the area is not far from where the legendary Crazy Horse once lived, hunted and did battle.
Crow Dog can trace his lineage back to a long line of Lakota medicine men. As the medicine man for the American Indian Movement, he played a critical role in bringing back traditional ceremonies that had almost been lost. He was part of the seven-month occupation of Wounded Knee in 1967, and many other actions in the fight for the sovereignty and strength of the Native American people. It was Crow Dog that made Rueben a Sundance Chief and this year was his 17th year in a row dancing in the sacred ceremony.
After the declaration was drafted there was a process of consulting with Chief Crow Dog and the other chiefs to revise the text. I will never forget the smile on Rueben's six-foot-five, 15-year-old son Cedar's face one day as he giggled and said, "They just called for all the chiefs and Ben West ... you better run".
At first I didn't believe him because Cedar often gets me good with his practical jokes. I hadn't heard the announcement, but after I realized he wasn't joking I ran across the camp barefoot and then awkwardly sat down behind Rueben at this meeting of larger-than-life spiritual leaders as they discussed the declaration.
Cedar and I spent several afternoons driving back and forth to use the wi-fi in a nearby grocery store and the printer in a small town library in Mission, S.D., working on drafts and revisions to share with the Sun Dance chiefs. Later, Cedar and I were off across state lines into Valentine, Neb. for one final print run on the weekend when the library was closed. We found an embroidery shop that was open and they were nice enough to print a big version of the declaration to be signed by the leaders.
At last, the declaration was complete. It was a hot, dry day in the Arbor at the Sun Dance ceremony. Everyone listened silently as Rueben spoke, standing under the cedar bough roofs of the outer circle of the Arbor during a break between rounds of the ceremony. Over 600 people danced in the hot sun as part of Chief Leonard Crow Dog's Sun Dance ceremony this year, supported by thousands of others from across North America. Rueben has a rare ability to touch the hearts and minds of people, and when he finished reading all in attendance erupted with support. These chiefs and supporters had come from all the way from South America to Alaska. They lined up close to the west door of the arbor, all wearing stunning ceremonial regalia. They signed the declaration on Chief Leonard Crow Dog's desk as he watched and smiled approvingly.
Now half a year later Rueben was back in South Dakota last week taking his resolution to a gathering he organized along with Chief Phil Lane Jr. and others called "Gathering to Protect the Sacred." They were joined by native Americans and First Nations fighting the Keystone XL pipeline proposal and others fighting the Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines. This time I wasn't able to join Ruben in person but I loved watching the live stream and blog from the event and on his new website, ProtectTheSacred.org.
I feel strongly that as non-indigenous people living here in what we now call North America that we all have a lot to learn from those that were here long before we were. Working together, we need to find ways to heal from the history of colonialism and find new ways to work together to make healthy alternatives to dangerous tar sands oil, a reality. There are very real energy, housing and transportation solutions already readily available.
As a fitting next step in this process I am excited to pass on the news that the Tsleil-Waututh people are organizing a two-day conference on April 18 and 19 entitled "Transitioning From Oil Dependency" with the support of local municipalities and environmental groups.
I sincerely hope that these challenges that we collectively face can provide an opportunity for cultural exchange, healing, empowerment and a clear pathway to move forward together.]]>Is Kinder Morgan Better Than Enbridge?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.22296222012-12-05T10:08:11-05:002013-02-04T05:12:01-05:00Ben Westhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-west/Trans Mountain pipeline project in British Columbia is a better proposal than the one Enbridge has put forward, and that they're a more responsible company. Of course, as a climate activist I don't see any oil company proposing to expand oil consumption as playing a positive role in today's day and age. But given all of Enbridge's bungling as of late, some folks may be swayed by this argument.
We have heard a lot recently about all of Enbridge's faults -- and there have been a number of them -- in the midst of their public consultation for the highly controversial Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal:
The Kalamazoo oil spill was not only an ecological disaster but also a public relations nightmare for the company because of their mismanagement of the incident.
The missing islands on the company's graphical representation of the Douglas channel were another major snafu.
And that is just to name two of the embarrassing situations that Enbridge has had to explain to the public.
It seems more and more like the Enbridge pipeline proposal is dead in the water. It still is quite possible that it will receive approval from the National Energy Board, but if the NDP wins the upcoming B.C. election and/or First Nations lawsuits and injunctions come forward (both likely scenarios), then this project seems destined to be postponed, if not abandoned outright, before any shovels actually hit the ground.
Meanwhile, Kinder Morgan has been waiting like a snake in the grass ready to strike. The company plans to file its official application to the National Energy Board for its new pipeline project -- which is equal in size to the Enbridge proposal -- in late 2013. That's around the same time that Enbridge is likely to be in real serious trouble, after the B.C. election and the final decision from the National Energy Board.
So what about Kinder Morgan's track record? Well for starters, Richard Kinder and Bill Morgan are both former Enron executives; in fact, the company itself was once called Enron Liquid Pipelines LLP.
Enron may not be a name that most people associate with trust and responsibility, but to give Kinder and Morgan the benefit of the doubt, neither of them was actually charged in the case that left their predecessors facing prison sentences. As a result, Richard Kinder is now one of the richest men on earth and is now operating one of the biggest pipeline companies on the planet -- but they have had more than their fair share of problems.
SCATHING REPORT
Earlier this week, the National Energy Board wrote a scathing report about Kinder Morgan's mismanagement of the oil spill at their Sumas Mountain tank farm in Abbotsford in January 2012. Staff failed to act for hours after the incident took place, much like in the case of the Kalamazoo spill that got so much negative attention for Enbridge.
A B.C. court also found Kinder Morgan liable for the 2007 oil spill on the Trans Mountain route in Burnaby, and fined the company for failing to adequately respond to the incident. Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan has called them the "Keystone Cops" because of their mismanagement of the 2007 spill, echoing comments made about Enbridge in Kalamazoo.
This is on top of several other small spills that the company has experienced during the brief time they have been responsible for this pipeline. In total, there have been 78 spills reported to the NEB in the total lifetime of the pipeline.
Things look even worse when you explore other incidents that Kinder Morgan has been associated with outside of Canada. Earlier this year, one of the company's gas pipelines in Powell County, Kentucky exploded. Just this September, Kinder Morgan was fined over $300,000 dollars for violating risk management provisions at two Wyoming natural gas plants.
Also in the news recently has been the tragic story of a cluster of cancer cases in children at a school in Nevada, where a Kinder Morgan jet fuel pipeline is alleged to have been slowly leaking into the school yard. The mother of a child from the school who died of a rare brain cancer is now suing Kinder Morgan, and hopes to use the money to set up a cancer treatment centre to help the other affected children.
The company later faced a $10 million criminal fine plus related civil charges for "serious willful" negligence in a 2004 incident that killed five people in Walnut Creek, Calif., where city workers struck a gas pipeline and accidentally caused an explosion. Similar to the 2007 spill in Burnaby, the pipeline was not adequately marked and the company's response was considered inadequate.
Later that same year, a Kinder Morgan pipeline burst in the Mojave Desert in California. For 12 hours, it spewed diesel more than 70 feet into the air. The fuel seeped an estimated 50 feet below the surface and the clean-up involved removing 10,000 tons of dirt from the site.
HEALTH, SAFETY VIOLATIONS
In 2011, the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) cited Kinder Morgan for, among other violations, failing to maintain current maps showing pipeline locations, failing to test pipeline safety devices, failing to maintain proper firefighting equipment and failing to adequately inspect its pipelines.
In addition, Kinder Morgan has a lengthy record of Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA) violations.
Documents obtained by NaturalGasWatch.org revealed that Kinder Morgan and its subsidiaries have been cited for 45 violations of workplace safety regulations since 2006, including 35 "serious" violations, which the OSHA defines as violations that are "likely to cause death or serious harm" to the employee. Kinder Morgan and its subsidiaries have paid nearly $55,000 in fines as a result of these violations.
This is not exactly what I would describe as a good track record. Right now Kinder Morgan is in the midst of "public open houses" along the Trans Mountain route, where they are setting up displays and inviting the public in to discuss the pipeline proposal with their staff. The company staff all wear Trans Mountain jackets and the company's website for this pipeline proposal uses the name "Trans Mountain" as well.
It seems to me that their public relations staff know that their own brand is toxic, so they have chosen instead to use the name of the pipeline they bought in 2005 instead of their own when pitching their project to the people of B.C.
TIP OF THE ICEBERG
This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's missing from the "information" provided at these sessions or on the project's website. Most notably, Kinder Morgan has yet to provide a detailed community-level map of the existing pipeline route--let alone the newly proposed pipeline route. Burnaby MP Kennedy Stewart went so far as to create his own map, by having staff use old surveyors' maps from the 1950s to create up-to-date maps for the public.
The company currently claims they will run the new pipeline alongside the existing Trans Mountain pipeline route. This is hard to believe given the number of schools, golf courses, homes and shopping centres that were built on top of the pipeline route since 1952. We need to demand that Kinder Morgan come clean about where this pipeline is being proposed before they start meeting with the public and asking for feedback. None of the people who attended these open houses should be counted as having been "consulted", given that there was insufficient information to be consulted about.
Kinder Morgan is going to try to use a "divide and conquer" strategy by making the case that they are a better choice for B.C. than Enbridge. We can't let this happen.
We need a unified response to all of these proposals. What is clear to me is that there really is no such thing as a "safe" oil company. It is inherently a dirty and dangerous business that at its most fundamental level is unsustainable. We aren't going to kick our addiction to fossil fuels overnight, but the decisions we make around these pipelines will set us on a course for either more oil dependence or less. This is a no-brainer -- we simply cannot continue to increase our dependence on these dirty fuels.]]>Climate Silence In U.S. Elections Stumps Concerned Canadianstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.20776272012-11-05T13:22:49-05:002013-01-05T05:12:01-05:00Ben Westhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-west/Business Week right now. This is of course a reference to Bill Clinton's internal campaign slogan from 1992 -- "It's the economy, stupid" -- which was made famous by the documentary film The War Room. The slogan is a play on the old adage, "Keep it simple, stupid," sometimes known as the "KISS" principle.
As Canadians, we are well aware that we are sleeping next to an elephant, and that the choices made by the American president have broad implications not only for Canada but for rest of the world.
Much to the chagrin of many conscientious Canadians, the implications of a changing climate were off the radar in the American election before Hurricane Sandy swept in. The topic was not raised even once during the 2012 U.S. presidential debates. You would think it would be a no brainer to talk about this issue, given that the United Nations has called climate change "the single biggest threat facing humanity today."
This "climate silence" has perhaps been a reflection of the power of the fossil fuel industries in U.S. politics. In one of the debates, Obama and Romney actually fought over who was more supportive of the coal, oil and gas industries. Romney attacked Obama for stopping the Keystone XL pipeline and Obama responded by bragging that he had built enough pipeline during his presidency to "... wrap around the earth once."
The fact checkers at Politifact checked it out and it's true. Over 29,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines were built in the U.S. in the last four years; the circumference of the globe at the equator is a little less than 25,000 miles.
Even with that, Obama looks like a tree hugger compared to Romney, who is heavily backed by barons of the oil industry -- like the infamous Koch brothers who are behind much of the junk science that still to this day is trying to undermine the international consensus that human activity is causing climate change.
WAKE UP CALL
Hurricane Sandy has been a wake up call for many Americans. When seen in the context of the record-breaking droughts this past summer and other extreme weather events, all of a sudden the climate silence is coming to an end. New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg even endorsed Obama because of his climate policies.
The Business Week article does a good job of explaining the connection between global warming and extreme weather events. It offers, among other things, this baseball analogy:
"We can't say that steroids caused any one home run by Barry Bonds, but steroids sure helped him hit more and hit them farther. Now we have weather on steroids."
Essentially, climate change may not directly cause natural disasters, but it increases the number and severity of storms.
The outcome of the American election will have consequences here in Canada, but we also have our own huge choices to make. The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is sometimes called the "gateway to global warming."
One of the biggest and dirtiest sources of climate changing pollution is land-locked in Alberta, and the industry needs pipelines though our province to get it to market. They already have the existing Kinder Morgan Tran Mountain Pipeline, which is the one way oil from the tar sands is currently making its way to markets in the Asia Pacific region. The company's owner, Texas billionaire (and major Romney donor) Richard Kinder has plans to build a pipeline the size of Enbridge's Gateway proposal along the route of the existing pipeline, which Kinder Morgan bought in 2005.
Either one of these pipelines would be a big step in the wrong direction for the climate. Perhaps it's poetic justice that in order to make these pipe dreams into realities, these projects would need to go though the birthplace of Greenpeace and David Suzuki and so many concerned environmentalists and First Nations.
The good news is that both the economy and the climate would benefit from doing the right thing. Reducing oil consumption means smart land use and transportation planning, which helps us get out of our cars, reduce pollution and protect farmland. It means investing in new alternative energy technologies that bring jobs to British Columbians.
If done right, these kinds of projects can actually create far more jobs per dollar invested than we can get by extracting and exporting raw resources, while simultaneously respecting First Nations rights and the local environment.
That is the choice we face all over North America. We can either be part of the problem, or be part of the solution.
No matter who gets elected in the U.S. -- or on our side of the border in the years to come -- we will have a lot of work to do. The fossil fuel companies have all the money in the world, and they are fighting for their lives. On the other side of the equation is the global movement to address the climate crisis and move beyond oil. Let's keep it simple, and do what is right.]]>An Oil Spill 'Perfect Storm'tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19628702012-10-13T14:10:23-04:002012-12-13T05:12:01-05:00Ben Westhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-west/
The Harper government has decided to close the marine traffic control communications terminal in Vancouver. I spoke as an environmentalist along with allies from the unions that represents the effected workers who know first hand how important these emergency services are. As Allan Hughes from the CAW said, "The Coast Guard saves lives."
Closing this centre and moving marine traffic control for Vancouver to the Victoria centre would be unbelievably dangerous and short sighted all by itself. But when you see this closure in the context of increased tanker traffic its beyond belief.
Kinder Morgan plans to build a new pipeline that would bring over 300 tankers a year carrying three times as much oil as was spilled by the Exxon Valdez. At the same time our prime minister has also seen fit to cut the funding for the environmental emergency response staff which includes the folks in B.C. that coordinate oil spill response. That will now be co-ordinated out of Montreal apparently.
Also amazingly they are about to shut down the Kitsilano coast guard station, so if and when any accident occurs the closest coast guard ship is about 30 minutes away in Richmond. So as our government proposes that we become a "super highway" for oil tankers they are simultaneously reducing both the prevention and the response capacity to deal with an accident in what is already Canada's busiest port. This represents a perfect storm of the conditions that could lead to an oil spill.
To make things worse, what we were doing to begin with already wasn't good enough. The auditor general's office in their fall 2010 Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development said we were woefully unprepared to deal with an oil spill. The report's lead author, Scott Vaughan, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, said the following in his comments to the related government committee:
"Every day, on average, at least one oil spill is reported to the Canadian Coast Guard. Fortunately, most are small. However, given the findings of this audit, I am troubled that the government is not ready to respond to a major spill."
In the time since that report was written, we have already seen an increase in tar sands exports through the Vancouver harbour. Kinder Morgan has been quietly increasing exports incrementally since they bought the pipeline, which for many years has primarily served our domestic consumption needs.
In 2011 the the National Energy Board gave Kinder Morgan permission to reduce local refinement and increase exports from 50,000 barrels per day to 75,000 barrels a day.
Before Kinder Morgan, Americas biggest pipeline company, bought the Trans Mountain pipeline it was used primarily for supplying 90 per cent of B.C.'s oil but since day one Kinder Morgan has been trying to convert the pipeline and Vancouver harbour into an export route for unconventional oil from the tar sands.
When they bought the pipeline in 2005 there was about 20 tankers a year in the inlet and most of that was headed to California to be refined and brought back for our consumption. Today over 80 tankers a year pass through the inlet and if there's a new 450,000 barrel a day pipeline along the route of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, that number will grow to between 300 and 400 tankers a year.
Ultimately it is up to us as the residents and stewards of this land to decide if these pipelines should be allowed to go forward. What is clear is less oil being exported across our land and water means less risk. Already it's clear that there is overwhelming opposition to both the Kinder Morgan and Enbridge pipelines.
Even without expanding the pipeline there already is a substantial threat to everyone around the Vancouver harbour. We should be increasing the Coast Guard's capacity to prevent and respond to an accident as laid out in the auditor general's report just to deal with the existing threat posed by supplying our own oil as we move towards reduced demand. That should be a bottom line before we even begin the conversation about new pipelines.
We have partnered with a number of allies to start a letter writing campaign calling on all federal and provincial party leaders to restore funding for the coast guard and oil spill response. Please help us spread the word and stop these irresponsible and dangerous plans. Working together we can stand up to these giant oil corporations and their supporters in our government.]]>Rogue Weather Girl Reminds Us To Put Climate Back On Agendatag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19370362012-10-03T16:19:10-04:002012-12-03T05:12:02-05:00Ben Westhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-west/
Yeah, I don't remember either.
The United Nations' international climate policy negotiations in Copenhagen back in 2009 was the last time that global warming was consistently front page news.
That seems strange, doesn't it? Particularly given that the United Nations has stated repeatedly that climate change caused by global warming is the "single biggest threat facing humanity today"!
Okay, I know, the end of the world is "so yesterday," right? We need new ways of telling the same story to keep it interesting. Climate campaigns have to ride waves of public interest at critical moments, as if somehow the stability of our biosphere were just "a story" or "a belief."
Some reporters have closely followed the science and accurately reported the biochemical realities of what is happening to the planet as the result of too much pollution that contains heat-trapping greenhouse gases being dumped into Earth's atmosphere.
There is nothing hypothetical about it. All countries in the world agree that it's a crisis, yet they all are pointing their fingers at each other, effectively saying "I won't change unless you do first." Meanwhile the evening news continues to show business-as-usual stories every day, with rarely a word about the climate crisis.
This is even more frustrating as we see increasingly extreme -- even record-breaking -- weather events and little, if any, connection being made to this internationally recognized cause.
Have you ever wished that a weather person on the news would "go rogue" and express his or her fears about all the extreme weather? Well, I guess the cool kids at Deep Rogue Ram felt that way too, because they have made a comedy sketch in which a "weathergirl goes rogue" and actually lays out the full scale and severity of what is currently underway.
I was so stoked to see my buddy Pippa Mackie show up in this YouTube video on my Facebook wall. She was so fantastic I literally laughed out loud. I shared it all over the place and so did a bunch of other people -- this rogue weathergirl went viral fast.
Thanks to this creative video, hundreds of thousands of people have been laughing and learning all at once.
Kai Nagata is sublime as the straight-faced anchorman trying to keep things on script. Apparently the fantastic Heather Libby from Tck Tck Tck helped write the sketch, so it's no wonder that it's awesome, funny and terrifyingly accurate.
This video has re-inspired me to talk about climate change. Lately, I've been so focused on stopping oil spills locally that I haven't been talking as much about the big-picture reasons why we need to stop the growth of the tar sands. As the CEO of Enbridge was kind enough to point out recently, there is an international "energy revolution" underway; we should all more actively embrace the revolutionary shift off of fossil fuel energy that we need so urgently to make as a society.
If we don't talk about global warming, who will?
I think the next generation will be the ones to change our course. This latest video is part of an emerging youth movement that is ecologically literate and has a kickass sense of humour.
Speaking of inspiring youth, I'm excited by the recent efforts of the organization called "Power Shift". It's a great name that explains exactly what we need -- in more ways than one. They have a big conference coming up in Ottawa next month, which I'm looking forward to taking part in.
Let's all get re-inspired to see ourselves as part of the global climate movement.
We need to see more "rogue" weather reports, and news reporters too -- people who have the courage to cover the issue of climate change with the urgency it deserves. People who will tell the hard truths.
UPDATE: Since this piece was first published on Rabble.ca on Sept.12, the first in the "Weather Girl Goes Rogue" video series got over half a million hits. Today the second video in the series was released.
