Is the new B.C. government going to make the bold decisions required to fight global warming and climate change?
That is the question I’m asking myself—again—after reading the feature story by Stefan Labbé and “The Conservative War on Science” by Leslie Anthony in the March 7 Pique.
The unimaginable cost of $4.5 billion per year by 2030, projected by B.C. researchers, for flooding and wildfire damages to the B.C. economy. At the same time conservatives in the U.S. are attempting to muzzle scientists and do everything in their power to confuse the public and prevent people from making the direct, rational connections between man-made climate changes and the increasing “natural” disasters.
Is B.C. really going to double down on building pipelines, more fracking for methane gas and using the clean hydro and other new renewable power to supply to LNG plants instead of helping B.C. residents to decarbonize home heating, public transport and our cars?
We shall find out soon, starting in April with the decision about the proposed PRGT pipeline in Northern B.C. Is the B.C. government going to rubber-stamp a 10-year-old, expired permit, or are they going to enforce the mandated full environmental review? That would be taking into account all the things we did not quite know 10 years ago and before we adapted UNDRIP, the right of Indigenous communities to have a say about building new fossil-fuel infrastructure that impacts their daily lives much more than the majority of B.C. residents living in or near the big cities.
