(jump back to How we Got Here)
A Seeming Failure
At the March 23 GHG Roundtable Mayor Jim Watson vowed that the city would renew its Air Quality and Climate Change Management Plan by mid-2014. He said also that the then-newly-established Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee (ESAC) would hold the city’s feet to the fire – his words – in making sure that climate change plan was done and done right.
From its founding Ecology Ottawa has encouraged the City of Ottawa to work with citizens to both:
Through 2011 and 2012 Ecology Ottawa worked with supportive city councillors and city staff and achieved several important milestones:
Contributors: Chelsea Bland, Kai Ip Wong, Monica Wu
1. City to Host First Ever Water Roundtable
February 18th marked the first Environment Committee meeting of 2014, with water as the major agenda item of the day. Councillor Maria McRae surprised those in attendance by announcing that a Water Conservation Roundtable would be held on June 10th, 2014.
At Ecology Ottawa, we've already heard from numerous residents in the City of Ottawa who are concerned about the proposed Energy East pipeline that would bring at least 1.1 million barrels-per-day (over 130 million litres) through the boundaries of the city, even passing under the Rideau River.
Thousands of people have signed our petition urging elected officials to prevent this pipeline from being built through the city. Though the process is still in its early stages, we've received many questions - from city officials and the general public - as to whether the city can do or say anything about the pipeline.
This is the easiest and the most effective thing you can do. Please DO IT.
We don’t reinsulate our house every month or adjust our investment portfolio every week but we do make phone calls and send emails every day. It’s easy to send a message to your elected officials.
Hearing from you helps them set their priorities. If we want to change society it’s politicians who set the rules.
Many people think that tarsands pipelines and their risk of oil spills are just the price of progress. Some argue that moving away from oil, coal and gas can’t happen overnight so we need to keep using things like pipelines until renewable energy becomes a more mature industry. Unfortunately such impressions miss a few vitally important points.
Even banks like HSBC and oil industry insiders like the International Energy Agency warn against new pipelines.
Bill McKibbon and the group 350.org are campaigning for big investors like university endowment funds to remove their investments from the fossil fuel sector (companies that sell, transport or profit from oil, coal and gas).
The logic is that divestment was one of the approaches that helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa. According to the British newspaper The Guardian the fossil fuel divestment campaign is growing faster than any previous divestment campaign. - UPDATE now The Guardian has thrown it's weight behind the campaign.
What can a person do to fight climate change? First you have to know that climate change isn’t your fault personally. This is a societal issue that society as a whole has to change.
The atmosphere is warming mostly because humans are burning oil, coal and gas to produce energy. Almost every time we switch on a light or start up the car something somewhere is burning. Almost everything that burns produces carbon dioxide (CO2) which is climate change’s biggest contributor.
TransCanada representatives were in Ottawa again yesterday to push their tar sands pipeline at a 'Open House' held in North Gower.
[caption id="2579" align="alignright" width="300"]
"No Tar Sands in the Rideau - No Climate Change in Canada"[/caption]
However, Ecology Ottawa staff and volunteers were joined by other groups - including Ottawa's famous Raging Grannies - to make sure residents would hear more critical perspectives on the pipeline.
In my last article I discussed how a pipeline rupture will impact our community as a short term crisis event. Now, I’ll discuss what a somewhat futile, longer term clean-up will look like, and how a serious spill would keep on giving.
A spill on land will have similarities to the Mayflower, Arkansas spill, where thousands of barrels of dilbit spilled in suburban Arkansas in 2013. The strong similarities will be that the spill clean-up will involve removing contaminated soil and the immediate area around the spill will permanently depopulate.
Brown-bag it on April 10 to hear four experts talk over lunch about how climate change is being felt in their area of specialty.
These experts will have just finished talking to Parliamentarians and will share their insights with you too.