Ukrainian climate activists are right, IPCC wants fossil fuel projects cancelled, and why Kenney is mired in culture wars
Um, the federal government didn't get the memo - here's what happened April 4-17
I am grateful to be producing this newsletter in Moh’kinsstis, and the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. I understand that this territory is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. In the spirit of truth and reconciliation, I recognize that the land I work and live on was stolen from these nations and I have been afforded privileges as a result.
As the war in Ukraine raged, the release of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on April 4 was somewhat overshadowed. Even so, members of Ukrainian Climate Network endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty as a way forward for Ukraine and the world.
"As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its second month, it is deafeningly clear: fossil fuels are a weapon of mass destruction, one for both this war and the ongoing climate crisis."
The focus of the latest report was on mitigation and I was fortunate to join a team effort by journalists for The Energy Mix in writing a summary of the report.
On the day of the report’s release, I was assigned the task of summarizing one of the chapters. I tuned into the news conference that morning, which contained this dire warning.
"If there’s no advance in the kind of pledges that countries are making before we get to COP 27 in Egypt at the end of this year, we may well have to conclude that indeed 1.5 is gone," said Jim Skea, Working Group III Co-Chair.
The IPCC also concluded that "without a much more determined worldwide response, temperatures will go on rising to 3.2°C by century’s end. To avert that outcome...global use of coal in 2050 must fall by 95% compared to 2019; oil by 60%, gas by 45%."
Oil Change International Research Co-Director Kelly Trout said, “governments must stop listening to fossil fuel corporations and start heeding the science and the urgent pleas for action from communities facing droughts, fires, floods, and rising seas.”
The IPCC report said, "to overcome the inertia created by 'carbon lock-in,' planned new fossil capacity needs to be cancelled, and existing installations must be decommissioned or cut back."
The report also said demand-side strategies across all sectors of the economy could reduce emissions by up to 5.7 billion tonnes in buildings, eight gigatonnes in food demand, 6.5 Gt in land transport, and 5.2 Gt in industry.”
The Energy Mix special edition featured summary articles covering the main themes of the massive report, including:
Land Use: Indigenous Peoples, private forest owners, local farmers, and communities manage a significant share of global forests and agricultural land and play a central role in land-based mitigation options.
Energy: The cost of electricity from renewables and batteries to store the energy they produce have come down so dramatically in last five years that they are out-competing fossil fuels in most places on the planet.
Cities: To successfully slash emissions, cities need to do 3 things: slash energy and material use at all points along their production and consumption chains; electrify everything using green energy; and increase urban carbon uptake and storage by all means possible.
Industry: Reducing emissions from industry requires a reorientation from the historic focus on incremental improvements to transformational changes in energy and feedstock sourcing, materials efficiency, and more circular material flows.
I wrote about changes required in the Transport sector. Even if the 2050 target shifted to 2℃, the sector would need to cut its emissions by 29% from 2020 levels, the IPCC finds. But the transport sector likely won’t achieve net-zero emissions by 2100 unless it balances increases in some areas with negative emissions elsewhere.
Scenarios indicate that without intervention, carbon dioxide emissions from transport would grow between 16% and 50% by 2050.
No, not THAT slap in the face
Almost immediately after the release of the report, the Trudeau government announced the approval of an offshore oil megaproject that one critic called “a slap in the face” to climate science.
Caroline Brouillette, national climate policy manager at Climate Action Network-Canada said it best in a tweet: "Moments like these show how inadequate our governments’ (even the most 'progressive’) response to the crisis are. How unwilling JustinTrudeau is to be honest with Canadians about the need to plan for a future climate and economy that is safe and sustainable.”
On a more hopeful note, Germany announced a plan over the Easter weekend to reach nearly 100 per cent renewable energy by 2035, largely compelled by its dependence on Russia for cheap fuel.
“The plan laid out in the Easter Package show that by 2030, Germany aims to more than double its onshore wind capacity to 115 gigawatts, and quadruple its offshore wind and solar generation to 30 and 215 gigawatts, respectively. It also requires power suppliers to reduce energy bills for consumers, and signals that the country will complete its coal phaseout by 2030,” reported The Energy Mix.
Meanwhile in Alberta…it’s a Fox News rerun
While the rest of the world was concerned with a devastating war and the threat of climate change, Alberta’s conservatives continued to squabble over leadership and there are serious doubts about the integrity of the upcoming vote on Jason Kenney’s leadership.
The Sprawl had a cartoon explainer of the clown show that was the previous UCP leadership race, which is still under investigation by the RCMP. You'll think "this cartoon can't be true." But it is.
As usual, Kenney tried to distract from the vote controversy by launching into a GOP-inspired culture war. He used his speech at the recent special meeting of the party to spew out talking points from Fox News - including saying that Critical Race Theory would not be allowed in Alberta’s curriculum (as if it ever was or will be!).
He babbled on saying, he’d ensure “inappropriate sexual content” (code for LGBTQ+ information?) wouldn’t be allowed. I’m with Alberta teachers who called his speech “utter nonsense.”
By the way, if you're calling for a ban on teaching critical race theory, you are a white supremacist. Full stop.
It’s pretty much what you would expect from him at this point. He’s on record calling intersectionality a “kooky academic theory,” while the rest of us roll our eyes at his casual ignorance of basic concepts of race, gender and sexuality.
Interesting that he‘s appealing to the far right in this speech while at the same time was recorded in a private meeting calling them “lunatics.” When this was released to the media, he didn’t deny it and urged moderates to vote for him in order to prevent these folks from “taking over the asylum.” As usual, he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth, as the expression goes.
Why is Kenney jumping on the anti-woke bandwagon with a hugely unpopular new curriculum? Probably for the same reason it's being done in the US...to push privatization of public education. And ultimately to facilitate segregation of students.
When asked by a reporter to define what Critical Race Theory was and to point out where it could be found in the Alberta curriculum, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange completely ducked the question.
Crossing the line and stolen symbols
Speaking of racism and white supremacy, the Calgary Police had a good week. The police commission gave the Chief more time to convince officers to remove the infamous “Thin Blue Line” badges. This came after police union representatives encouraged their members to ignore the directive from the commission.
"It begs the question: who is in control of the police if they don't listen to direct orders from their superiors?" asked one community activist in an interview with Global TV.
Jeremy Klaszus had a conversation on the Sprawlcast with Councillor Courtney Walcott and I highly recommend it as a summary of the situation, how we got here and how we can possibly get out of this mess.
Walcott makes an important point about the Thin Blue Line controversy. A lot of the anger from the police association about the negative perception of the patch seems directed at the commission but the symbol hasn’t been “taken away” from the police by the police commission. He says it was stolen and used by white supremacists, which is where the focus should be directed.
My thought is the police need to ask themselves how they can take a more active role in preventing their symbols - especially if they replace this with another one - from being co-opted for nefarious purposes. It’s up to them to protect the integrity of their symbols. This means speaking out when it is used inappropriately - news releases can be issued by the police union any time - and issuing strong statements disavowing connections with white supremacists.
But, who are we kidding. That will never happen.
So yes, Police Commission member Heather Campbell won my heart for her tweet on the controversy:
Also on the law and order front, Alberta’s 380 crown prosecutors are not happy. They met recently to seriously consider strike action.
"As far as I know, it's the first meeting of its kind in the 50-year history of our association," Association president Dallas Sopko said.
The Alberta Crown Attorneys Association alleges that "chronic underfunding" of Alberta's prosecution service is coming to a head and that all attempts to meet with the current and former justice ministers had been rejected.
What’s going on with Alberta’s justice ministers?
While we’re talking about former justice ministers, Jonathan Denis, the justice minister under Alberta’s PC government was cited for contempt of court. The decision came after one of the lawyers in his law firm sent a letter to Dr. Anny Sauvageau in the middle of her testimony in a $7.5 million lawsuit against the provincial government.
Calling the correspondence an “act of intimidation,” Justice Doreen Sulyma said Denis is liable “on a beyond reasonable doubt basis.”
Well, well, well.
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I couldn’t wrap this week’s newsletter without a bit of bicycle content.
Students at Crescent Heights high school are fixing bikes at a temporary bike shop outside their school.
Grade 10 student Riley Friesen said. “It’s great, because it will promote people to use bikes instead of cars.”
The first outdoor bike shop will run from 3:45-5:45 p.m. on May 4 and continuing at that time for the following four Wednesdays. The students will be accepting donations, but charging no set fees for their services.
And finally, this…