shale gas

Wed, 2013-02-27 10:07Erin Flegg
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Fueling the Future: Is BC to become a Global Frack Zone?

On day one of the two-day LNG conference titled Fueling the Future: Global Opportunities for LNG in BC, Premier Christy Clark announced in her keynote address that BC would lead the world in transitioning “to the cleanest fossil fuel on the planet.”

But efforts to bill LNG development as the province’s ticket to long-term prosperity may be missing the big picture.

A report published jointly by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the University of Victoria highlights a divide between water use policy and energy resource management policy. The discrepancy could have a direct impact on the province’s decision to promote natural gas development. A dramatic increase in the hydraulic fracturing required to remove natural gas from BC’s shale gas fields means a dramatic upswing in under regulated water use and, in turn, water contamination.

Read more: Fueling the Future: Is BC to become a Global Frack Zone?
Wed, 2013-02-06 10:22Guest
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Surveillance of the Environmental Movement: When Counter-Terrorism Becomes Political Policing

By Jeffrey Monaghan, researcher with the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen’s University and Kevin Walby, Assistant Professor, Sociology, University of Victoria.

A recent example of RCMP surveillance of environmental activists was reported last month by the Montreal Gazette.  According to documents released under the Access to Information Act, it appears that a branch of the expansive RCMP national security apparatus - the Critical Infrastructure Intelligence Team - has been monitoring a group of Quebec residents opposed to shale gas development.  The group under surveillance - la Regroupement Interrégional sur le gaz de schiste de la Vallée du St-Laurent - represents more than 100 anti-shale gas citizen committees in Quebec. 

Surveillance practices targeting the environmental movement should not be surprising given recent trends toward an increasing allocation of resources to counter-terrorism programs across the country.

Read more: Surveillance of the Environmental Movement: When Counter-Terrorism Becomes Political Policing
Fri, 2013-01-25 05:00Carol Linnitt
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Canadian Scientists Must Speak Out Despite Consequence, Says Andrew Weaver

“If people don’t speak out there will never be any change,” says the University of Victoria’s award-winning climate scientist Andrew Weaver. 

And the need for change in Canada, says Weaver, has never been more pressing.

“We have a crisis in Canada. That crisis is in terms of the development of information and the need for science to inform decision-making. We have replaced that with an ideological approach to decision-making, the selective use of whatever can be found to justify [policy decisions], and the suppression of scientific voices and science itself in terms of informing the development of that policy.”
 
Read more: Canadian Scientists Must Speak Out Despite Consequence, Says Andrew Weaver
Tue, 2013-01-22 17:54Carol Linnitt
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Approaching the Point of No Return: The World's Dirtiest Megaprojects We Must Avoid

Canada's tar sands are one of 14 energy megaprojects that are "in direct conflict with a livable climate."

According to a new report released today by Greenpeace, the fossil fuel industry has plans for 14 new coal, oil and gas projects that will dangerously increase global warming emissions at a time when massive widespread reductions are necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change. In conjunction these projects make it very likely global temperature rise will increase beyond the 2 degrees Celsius threshold established by the international community to levels as high as 4 or even 6 degrees.

Read more: Approaching the Point of No Return: The World's Dirtiest Megaprojects We Must Avoid
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