WE TAMPER WITH THE "CARBON BOMBS" AT OUR PERIL

SCIENCE DENIAL & HELLFIRES. A LETTER.

 Dear Editor,

Seldom has contempt for science sunk as low as it has now. And my beloved Manitoba may not only be one example of that, but the worst! Winnipeg has long hosted what is perhaps the most renowned environmental “think-tank” the world has never heard of - “The International Institute for Sustainable Development.” Just the other day, the IISD revealed, Canada is home to no less than twelve fossil fuel reserves which it calls “carbon bombs.” (I call them the dirty dozen.) Just one, under Alberta and BC, has the potential to blow Canada past her emissions targets thirty times over. And, “If the resources from all twelve are extracted and burned, it would be catastrophic for the world's efforts to slow rising global temperatures.” Yet, “down the street” in the halls of power, our University-educated Premier is gleefully embracing more pipelines and the shipping of oil through Hudson Bay. Mr. Premier, how do you really think future Manitobans will regard your legacy as they lose their homes, fleeing for their lives to escape evermore frequent and devastating Hellfires?

Larry Powell,

SHOAL LK MB

Canada is Sitting on Twelve Carbon Bombs.

 International Institute for Sustainable Development

Just under the surface of B.C. and Alberta, in a rock formation known as the Montney Play, lies enough potential greenhouse gases to blow past Canada's 2030 emissions targets 30 times over. It's one of 12 fossil fuel reserves researchers in the journal Energy Policy have identified in Canada — called "carbon bombs" — that would each release a billion tonnes or more of carbon into the atmosphere if their resources were extracted and burned. This would be catastrophic for the world's efforts to slow rising global temperatures, the authors argue.

Here  is where those "bombs" are.

LNG carbon bomb tops Carney’s list of major projects

Canada's National Observer

A major carbon bomb sits atop Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first tranche of major projects, sparking backlash from environmental and Indigenous communities who say that doubling down on liquified natural gas is placing a dangerous bet on Canada’s future. Story here.

Ottawa to invest in biofuel production

Manitoba Co-Operator

Carney announces $370 million to biofuel production. 

Story here.

CAJ condemns targeted killing of journalists in Gaza

Canadian Asn. of Jouralists

Earlier this summer, a team of four Al Jazeera journalists and two freelance reporters were killed in a bombing by Israel. In the hours and days since we learned of the killing, we have also received considerable correspondence from members who have expressed their desire to see the CAJ issue a statement condemning the killings.

The CAJ’s position has always been, and always will be, that attacks on journalists anywhere in the world are attacks on journalism. Full stop.

Sunday’s deliberate attack was a devastating, appalling, and tragic loss of life. Once again, we join the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and other media organizations in condemning Israel’s killing of a team of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, and more than 190 others since Oct. 7, 2023. These acts are egregious breaches of humanitarian law and require independent investigations.

Full story here. 

MY LATEST LETTER IN THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

 DEAR EDIITOR, 

If our current crop of political leaders at all levels (Liz May excepted), is intentionally setting out to poke the gods of climate calamity with a stick - it couldn’t be doing a better job! In a grotesque display of either “eco-stupidity” or “climate illiteracy,” it’s gleefully setting out to turn (or burn) Canada into “an energy superpower!” That’s eerily identical to the goal uttered by Stephen “climate change is a Socialist plot” Harper more than a decade ago. And it’s all under the phoney guise of “nation-building.” These poor sods either don’t know, or care, that you can’t gain an upper hand on the climate beast by unleashing evermore greenhouse emissions into our air. And the main opposition voice federally, isn’t speaking out AGAINST these abominations, but going to bat for the gasoline car instead. As for our newly-minted PM, who’s shown loudly and clearly on the public stage he understands that climate change is "an existential threat," must not be acting out of ignorance or stupidity now, but rather something resembling malice aforethought. When you think about it, what could go wrong when we elect a world banker as our supreme leader? Perhaps the saying, “at least the Tories stab you from the front,” is true, after all. In any case, if any of them love their children, they have an odd way of showing it.

Larry Powell

SHOAL LK MB