Gene McGuckin, Member of the Vancouver Ecosocialists
After the Heat Dome Killings, What Is to Be Done?
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Greetings,
I am speaking to you this evening from the traditional territories of the Quay Quayt and Kwikwetlem First Nations in a place otherwise known as New Westminster, BC.
Advocates want Osha to issue federal heat standards, requiring water, shade and rest breaks
The climate crisis is endangering farm workers around the US who work outside in excessive heat throughout the year without any federal protections from heat exposure in the workplace.
Torrential rainfall and burst rivers swamp Henan cities, with commuters trapped on subway trains
Deadly rains hit central China as subways flood and tens of millions impacted – video
Days of torrential rain and massive flooding have hit China’s Henan province, bursting the banks of rivers, overwhelming dams and the public transport system and forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
Deluge raises fears human-caused disruption is making extreme weather even worse than predicted
Severe flooding causes devastation in Europe – video report
The intensity and scale of the floods in Germany this week have shocked climate scientists, who did not expect records to be broken this much, over such a wide area or this soon.
If our budget passes, it would be one of the most important pieces of legislation since the New Deal. But we must fight for it
Now is the time.
At a time when the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, when two people now own more wealth than the bottom 40% and when some of the wealthiest people and biggest businesses in the world pay nothing in federal income taxes, the billionaire class and large profitable corporations must finally start paying their fair share of taxes.
[Editor: Saguenay, where this terminal is/was planned to be located, is 460 km NNE of Montreal and about 100 km west of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The federal review may still take place because the approach for this project is actually federal jurisdiction but it is unlikely any federal government would go against the province of QC.]
Yesterday, Minister of Natural Resources Seamus O’Regan announced that the federal government will begin to engage energy workers through consultations for Just Transition legislation, to hear worker input on transitioning to a net-zero energy sector.
We mobilize to put fires out, but — so far, at least — not to prevent them.
British Columbia is having its summer of reckoning with the climate emergency. Like other places before — California, Australia, Honduras, the Philippines — the province in which I reside is now experiencing a shift in the popular zeitgeist. With a jolt to our collective consciousness, most of us now understand the emergency is well and truly upon us.
