Planet Haliburton

This episode features a conversation about the Woodland and Waterways EcoWatch project co-ordinated by Haliburton’s own Ulinks Community-Based Research group.

Provincial government environmental research has been in decline for many years as the Ministries of Natural Resources and the Environment had been reduced by successive provincial governments to mere shadows of their former selves.

Lake associations and other local voluntary organizations with ecological mandates have attempted as best they can to fill the resulting research void through citizen science and other forms of community-based research.

Ulinks’ Woodlands and Waterways EcoWatch project aims to increase the support for local research to enhance the ecological sustainability of our lakes and forests and the ecosystems that keep them healthy.

Ulinks reps, Andy Gordon, Sadia Fischer, and Jim Prince describe the history behind the creation of this new collaboration and its implications for enhancing our knowledge of local lake and terrestrial health.

“Dangerous Distractions and Canada’s “Net Zero” Emission Targets” with Marc Lee

This week, William Rees, on “Ecological Overshoot: The Existential Issue of Our Time?, September 2021

There’s been much discussion in recent years about the climate emergency being the existential issue of our time. And, to be sure, there’s no scientific doubt that human extraction and burning of fossil fuel is the principle cause of the climate emergency that poses an existential threat to all life on the planet.

At the same time, a growing number of earth-system scientists view the climate emergency as but one of a series of symptoms of a much larger problem in the relationship between humans and earth’s life-sustaining biosphere – ecological overshoot.

This episode of Planet Haliburton features an interview with Professor William Rees, the co-inventor of the “Ecological Footprint” index of human impact on the earth’s carrying capacity, about the root causes of human-caused ecological overshoot and what we can do about it.

Join Terry Moore, for a discussion with Eddy Pérez, the Climate Action Network’s International Climate Diplomacy Manager, about what climate science tells us needs to be done as the UN and world leaders prepare for the next big Climate Summit, COP 26, this fall in Scotland.

Eddy Pérez Biographical Information

CAN-Rac International Climate Diplomacy Manager

Eddy Pérez joined Climate Action Network Canada in January 2018 after working in Geneva with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and as a Climate Action Network International consultant.

Information on CAN-Rac – Climate Action Network Canada:

• https://climateactionnetwork.ca/about-can-rac/

Information on COP 26:

• https://ukcop26.org

Information on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

• https://www.ipcc.ch

Information on IPCC Working Group 1 ”The Physical Basis for Climate Change”:

• https://www.ipcc.ch/working-group/wg1/

“Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy”, July 29, 2021

In this episode of Planet Haliburton, we examine the power of fossil capital in Canada, its role in creating the climate emergency and blocking effective action to address it, as well as what can be done to overcome that resistance.

While critical comment and action directed at specific large-scale, carbon-intensive fossil fuel developments, such as the tar sands and related infrastructure projects like the TMX or Keystone pipelines is commonplace, critical analysis of the role of fossil capitalism, or capitalism more generally in creating the climate emergency, does not occupy a central place within the public pronouncements, programs or campaigns of mainstream climate action groups.

To help us understand how fossil capital has created and maintains such a powerful influence over energy and climate policy and action in Canada, as well as what can be done to overcome it, I’m joined by Professor William Carroll, co-director of The Corporate Mapping Project and the editor of the 2021 book entitled “Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy”, published by Athabasca University Press.

Paste this link into your browser for the resource list.

https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/PH-Resource-List-for-for-Regime-of-Obstruction-How-Corporate-Power-Blocks-Energy-Democracy-with-Professor-William-Carroll-July-29-2021.pdf

In this episode we look at the not so intense battle between gas-powered SUVs and battery-powered electric vehicles in the fight against global heating.

The greenhouse gas emissions from this country’s transportation sector are no small matter amounting to about 25% of our total emissions. We pump more carbon out of our vehicle tailpipes per capita than any other country in the world.

Listening to Canadian Auto Executive climate pronouncements leaves the impression that they’ve become climate champions leading the charge to decarbonize passenger vehicle and small truck production in this country and around the world.

But their production plans and advertising messages tell a very different story.

To help us cut through Auto company climate virtue-signalling and get a clearer picture of what’s really going on, I’m joined by Keith Brooks, the Program Director for Environmental Defence, and the publisher of a new report entitled “Car Wars: SUVs vs EVs and the Battle for a Cleaner Future”.

Keith Brooks Biographical Information:

Keith Brooks has been working in the environment field for over 20 years in a

**“The Liberal Climate Action Formula: The Missing Renewables and Fatal Fission Attraction” with Paul McKay, June 10, 2021

In this episode we take a look at the absence of renewable energy in the federal Liberal Climate Action Formula as well as the government’s continuing attraction to nuclear power.

Despite the Trudeau government’s carefully cultivated “climate champion” image, and the promise to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies during the 2019 federal election, the Liberals have since expanded fossil subsidies and are busy enabling Canada’s future as a fossil-fuelled hydrogen energy superpower.**

Load this link in your browser for the resource list for this podacast.

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

“More Powerful Together: Conversation with Climate Activists and Land Defenders” Jen Gobby.

On this episode we discuss Settler Climate Activist Support for Indigenous Climate Action with Jen Gobby, a white settler climate justice activist with a PHD from McGill. Dr. Gobby is the author of the new book entitled “More Powerful Together: Conversations with Climate Activists and Indigenous Land Defenders”.

This episode of Planet Haliburton features a conversation with local Haliburton family physician, Dr. Nell Thomas, about Covid-19 vaccines and how their record-breaking development and widespread use might influence our future “new normal”.

Covid-19 has taken the lives of 3.2 million people around the world to date while inalterably changing the lives of tens of millions more at the same time. Withing the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit, over 1700 people have been infected with 71 losing their lives since the pandemic was declared some 15 moths ago.

Dr. Thomas shares her pandemic memories and describes the key fault lines in our infectious disease detection, prevention and response systems that the virus has exposed.

From her views on wearing masks to the stress on frontline health care workers, to vaccines and how the covid-19 risk far surpasses that of any influenza outbreak in living memory, Dr. Thomas tells it like she sees it.

“The Federal Liberal Climate Action Formula: A Recipe for Failure”, Thursday March 25, 2021, with David Robertson from “Seniors for Climate Action Now” (SCAN!)

On this episode we take a look at the recent flurry of activity by the federal Liberal government on the climate change policy front.

In late 2020 and early 2021, the federal government announced a whole raft of climate-related initiatives including the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, A Hydrogen Strategy and a Nuclear Action Plan. To mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Climate Accord, it also released an updated Climate Plan called “A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy”, on December 11, 2020.

The Liberal Climate Plan is not a satisfying read, nor a very convincing one.

To take stock what the Federal Liberals are up to on the climate change and energy policy fronts, I’m joined by David Roberson, chair of the Education Committee of Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN!) for a conversation about the March 2021 research paper we co-authored entitled “The Federal Liberal Climate Action Formula: A Recipe for Failure”.

Link to resource list, copy and paste to your browser.

https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/PH-Resource-List-for-%E2%80%9CThe-Federal-Liberal-Climate-Action-Formula-A-Recipe-for-Failure%E2%80%9D-airing-Thursday-March-25-2021.pdf

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm