Climate Change

WASHINGTON – It was difficult for speakers at the March For Science here Saturday, Earth Day, to follow the organizers’ instructions not to attack the Trump administration, but just to “celebrate the role of science.”

Denis Hayes, founder of Earth Day, was one speaker who ignored the official guidelines. The Trump White House, he said, “reeks of greed and sleaze and mendacity.”

Canada, and not just Mexico, may be in for a rough ride when it renegotiates NAFTA with the United States. A draft letter from the U.S. Trade Representative to Congress outlining renegotiation objectives, which was leaked on March 30, reveals that the U.S. agenda goes far beyond the modest tweaking implied earlier by President Trump.

When it comes to fighting climate change, however, the ride will be rougher. Trade provisions will likely continue to be a stumbling block in any efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Americans reject terminals, so Montana’s coal heads to Asia through the Lower Mainland.

If you’ve ever been to the ferry terminal in Tsawwassen, you’ve seen them. The big, black piles of coal framed against the mountains as you drive down the causeway. But not all coal is created equal.

One day the train crawling past beachgoers and tourists might be from Teck’s Elkview mine in the Kootenays. Its load of metallurgical coal will sail away on a bulk carrier, perhaps to a steel foundry in Seoul.

• The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere continues to accelerate upwards despite global efforts
• The last two years had "unprecedented" increases
• Canadian CO2 extraction is playing an oversized role

The primary driver of global warming, disruptive climate changes and ocean acidification is the ever-increasing amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.

March 25, 2017 — Alexandre Araujo Costa, a Brazilian ecology activist, spoke to Belgian ecology writer and activist Daniel Tanuro on a range of questions concerning ecology and ecosocialism.

[Editor: Climate change is already affecting populations to the point of migration, (see http://www.ecosocialistsvancouver.org/article/why-we-climate-activists-s...), so more immigrants can be expected and in turn we can expect more activity from racist anti-immigrant groups]

[See original for video of police clashing with Soldiers of Odin at Vancouver anti racism march]

Global warming makes temperature patterns that cause heatwaves, droughts and floods across Europe, north America and Asia more likely, scientists find 

Back in 2015, the world’s governments 

The extent of Arctic ice has fallen to a new wintertime low, as climate change drives freakishly high temperatures in the polar regions.