Category Archives: Environment

FFS Why?

I want to make it perfectly clear that Trudeau & the Liberal government of Canada is no friend to the environmental movement, they’re frauds.  Imagine the amount of outrage there would be on the left if Stephen Harper wanted to build an oil pipeline for the benefit of a private company, but hey Trudeau is doing it so it’s ok right.  Well I for one say it’s no ok and have no problem calling out the total hypocrisy of the moment.

The estimated cost of completing the entire expansion project was originally estimated at $7.4 billion, but Anderson said in February the budget had grown to $12.6 billion.

Source: CBC

Well the Liberals are printing and borrowing money like there’s no tomorrow so what does it matter anyway, anything to help our private corporation overlords right.  See I can complain about the Liberals and not make it about guns. 😉

Not good enough Canada!

So the World Economic Forum released a report on green energy transition and Canada came in a devastating 28th place (article behind a pay wall that you can get around by pressing escape) out of 115 countries.  To put things into perspective, our PM Justin Trudeau who likes to fancy himself an environmentalist, under his leadership we’re two spots above the US where Donald Trump openly questions climate change.

Sweden leads the overall rankings for the third consecutive year, followed by Switzerland and Finland. The performance of G20 countries is mixed. France and United Kingdom are the only G20 countries in the top 10. China, India, and Italy made consistent improvements on overall ETI score since 2015, while Russia, Japan, South Korea and Germany made moderate gains. Scores for United States, Canada, Brazil and Iran were either stagnant, or declining.

Source: WEForum

This is not good enough, not good enough at all but Trudeau & the Liberal Party of Canada’s energy policies mirror the Conservatives so is there any reason we’d expect progress?  As usual with the Liberals, it’s all fluff not backed up by any substance and we deserve better.  Needless to say this is something else I’m going to complain to my MP about, lol a real environmentalist who likes guns what a great combination lol.

FFS! Thanks Trudeau…

So much for an environmental PM, Trudeau is such a fraud I absolutely can’t stand this guy!

The cost of expanding the federally owned Trans Mountain pipeline has gone up by 70 per cent, reaching $12.6 billion — but despite criticism from across the political spectrum, Justin Trudeau’s government is betting the project will be worth it, a political observer says.

Source: The Star

For those who are not following the Trans Mountain pipeline fiasco, the federal government bought it for the benefit of a private oil company.  Other than transportation taxes (crumbs) we get nothing from this and it’s an absolute travesty.  What’s the point in voting Liberal if they’re just going to govern like Conservatives…

Lost hope

So a friend asked me why I haven’t blogged about the Australian fires and well my answer back was pretty depressing, I’ve lost hope that humanity can save itself from climate change.  It makes me really sad to think about the future Brandon and the younger generation are going to inherit.  Australia is on fire, the Amazon is on fire but when a stupid church in France burns down, people pledge billions.  Then there are the stupid conspiracy theories, my god anyone who believes that crap is truly moronic.

I don’t get why people don’t understand, we’re not trying to save the planet but rather ourselves.

LOL this guy…

During the election there was flowery talk about the environment & Mr. Trudeau was with Canadians during the climate marches and what does he do when he is reelected, vow to build the trans mountain pipeline.

Two days after much of Western Canada rejected the Liberals on election day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today vowed to be more sensitive to the needs of Alberta and Saskatchewan and to build the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline in the face of entrenched opposition from environmentalists.

Source: CBC

What’s the point in voting for the Liberals when they govern like conservatives?  This fucking guy is all talk, well whatever Kinder Morgan really needs the billions in profits that it’ll reap from its oil sands pipeline and we’ll be stuck with the clean up costs when it leaks because all pipelines leak.

Toronto Climate March!

So today a few of my colleagues from work and I decided to go to the climate march and it was a lot of fun to shoot!

It was great to see all the energy and I hope the younger generation is really able to sustain this because if they don’t our planet really is screwed.  A lot of great signs and it was really fun, let’s see what comes of this.

What a road trip!

So from the August long weekend and all of last week, we were away on a road trip out to the Maritimes and it was absolutely awesome.  We’re doing a lot of road trips recently because it’s just so darn cheap to drive the Toyota Prius around, all in all we travelled 5,200 km and spent ~$220 on gas.  I only averaged 4.7L/100km (50 mpg) because driving along the Appalachian mountains was bad for gas consumption but still it was a lot of fun.  We didn’t spend any time in New Brunswick except one night in Fredericton but stayed two nights in Charlottetown PEI and the rest of the time in Cape Breton Nova Scotia.

PEI is very pretty with rolling hills and man is life laid back in the mainly rural province.  Even in the capital things seemed to move by a bit slower and we found it rather relaxing.  Nova Scotia was much of the same but prettier, so darn scenic and we did a lot of outdoor activities.  Did a hike, a couple of boat tours to see the birds & whales and just mingled around.  On a side note, everything closes at 9pm so I hope you’re not a night owl or it’ll be pretty boring lol.

I told Maggie, PEI is probably a good place to hold up during a zombie apocalypse since if you destroy the main bridge, there’s no other way to get to the island but by boat.  While we were in Cape Breton NS, we did two boat tours, one with the Bird Island Boat Tours where we photographed most of the birds and I’m particularly proud of the bald eagle flying pictures.  I saw it flying and had about 2 seconds to capture things and well it turned out pretty well.  Even Brandon had a great time taking photos, Maggie was a sourpuss and decided not to join, too bad because it was great.

We also went with Oshan Whale Watch and there I was a bit more disappointed.  I understand finding whales can be difficult but the boat developed problems just after we spotted the animals and had to return home.  While I did enjoy myself, the lack of seeing whales after we did find them was a downer and I think it would have been better if we didn’t see them altogether.  I understand that animals might not work on our schedule but the fact that there were problems with the boat was a bit unacceptable and we weren’t offered a make good.  If we go back to Nova Scotia (and I’d like to), I’ll go with someone else instead.

We also drove the Cabot Trail and my god was it beautiful!  Those are the pics with the mountains and the scenery was stunning.  We stopped off many times to take photos and to check out the small tourist outposts for fun activities, all in all if you’re going plan on a good 5-8 hours and have a full tank of gas too.  Gas stations are sparse, I have no problem with my Toyota Prius but if I were driving a normal car I would be sweating a bit especially since the gas stations do close up early too!

It was an amazing trip and while I was behind the wheel the whole time, I feel really rested and relaxed.  It was good to get back to work but man I’ll have memories for a lifetime. 🙂

Happy Earth overshoot day!

Today is Earth overshoot day, that means by today we’ve used up all the resources that the planet can produce in a year, yes we did that by July 29th and there’s still 5 months left in the year.

If Earth’s resources were a bank account, today would mark the date we’d officially be in the red.

As of July 29, humanity has officially used up more ecological resources this year than the Earth can regenerate by the end of the year. The occasion even has a name: Earth Overshoot Day.
The Global Footprint Network, a sustainability organization which calculates the day, says humanity is currently consuming nature 1.75 times faster than the planet can regenerate.
That means we’re overspending our natural capital, compromising resources in the future as a result and leading to things like deforestation and carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere.
Source: CNN
God humanity is in such trouble, yet people in Western world (mainly the US but Canada too) bicker whether climate change is real or not.

The world is melting!

While it was cold in Toronto last weekend, in the balmy arctic ocean near Russia it was 29C.

Saturday’s steamy reading was posted in Arkhangelsk, Russia, where the average high temperature is around 12 C this time of year. The city of 350,000 people sits next to the White Sea, which feeds into the Arctic Ocean’s Barents Sea.

In Koynas, a rural area to the east of Arkhangelsk, it was even hotter on Sunday, soaring to 30.6 C. Many locations in Russia, from the Kazakhstan border to the White Sea, set record-high temperatures over the weekend. The warmth also bled west into Finland, which hit 25 C Saturday, the country’s warmest temperature of the season so far.

Source: The Star

Climate change is the largest threat to humanity and the modern conservative movement is going nuts denying science for the benefit of private industry…  Sigh we’re doomed

We’re doomed

I remember when I was a teenager and in my 20s talking about climate change, I really did believe that we could avert disaster but as I’ve grown older I’ve become a pessimist and frankly I can only imagine dystopic futures.  I try to do my part as I try and eat less meat, drive a hybrid, have solar panels on my house and reuse rain water but it’s not enough.  We have in place a system of power that only forces politicians to look 4 years into the future and wonder why we’re not tackling our civilization’s greatest problems…

The world is failing in its effort to avert catastrophic climate change, a United Nations panel warned on Monday, and the result will be more deaths and climate refugees due to extreme weather and rising seas, a greater rate of species extinction and reduced economic growth.

In a report released late on Sunday, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the global community still has a chance of limiting the average increase in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a goal sanctioned by the Paris climate agreement three years ago.

Source: The Globe & Mail

I hate how politicians talk about economic growth as if it’s the most important thing, we’ll continue to grow economically till we’re all dead great.