Vancouver Sun: Climate Edition

Climate. We'd act but not spend, poll finds
Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

Standing United
CLIMATE CHANGE. Environmental activist groups see opportunity as the global challenge of greenhouse gases rises to the top of the public agenda
Glenn Bohn, Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

We all can enlist in the war on climate change
GLOBAL WARMING. There are common-sense ways to deal with many of the environmental problems we have created. Let's get with it
Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

Promising the world
CLIMATE CHANGE I Tough measures, not talk, will save the planet, and David Suzuki is still waiting
Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

The man mapping out B.C.'s new energy plan
SUSTAINABILITY. Bruce Sampson has a track record of inspiring and bringing people together
Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

Cities must control emissions
LIVABILITY I Energy the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas -- just ask Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini
Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

Cities show a better way
Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

Public housing upgrade to pay off in eight years
Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

Global warming has hefty price tag
ANALYSIS. Left unchecked, global warming could cost British Columbia's economy from $8 billion to $35 billion a year.
Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

Dion, Harper battle for clean air
THE LEADERS. PM labelled a 'climate change denier', while Opposition leader mocked on his former government's record
Peter O'Neil, Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

How to change the world
ENVIRONMENT. Have faith in one's power to change things, writes a Greenpeace founder
Rex Weyler, Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

Going Green
Vancouver Sun, 17-Feb-2007

and, NOT raising the level of debate ...
Tory MP says fighting pollution may lead to domestic violence, suicide
Warnings puzzle opposition MPs and environmentalists, who accuse Ontario's Jeff Watson of fear mongering
Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service, 17-Feb-2007

British Columbians have bought into the reality of climate change like never before, but half wouldn't spend even $100 a year to save the world, if that money meant an increase in taxes, results of an exclusive new Vancouver Sun poll show.

The poll comes as public awareness and concern over the environment have reached critical levels worldwide, forcing the issue to the forefront of provincial, national and international political agendas.

Conducted Feb. 7-13 by Ipsos Reid, the wide-ranging poll also tests British Columbians' commitment to changing our polluting ways in favour of a greener, more sustainable future, and our faith in governments to help bring about that change.

Certainly, British Columbians aren't questioning global warming science any longer.

According to the poll, the vast majority of residents (84 per cent) are convinced global warming is happening, and have personally seen evidence of changes taking place in the environment.

Nearly half (46 per cent) of poll respondents ranked climate change as the greatest global threat ahead of terrorism (22 per cent), pandemics such as the bird flu (17 per cent), and nuclear proliferation (three per cent). The provincial results match several national polls conducted over the last two months which also list the environment as the top public concern.

However, 50 per cent also said they wouldn't be willing to pay more tax -- even as little as $100 extra a year -- to achieve greener results.

The poll was a random sample of 715 adult British Columbians. The results are considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Pollster Kyle Braid credited significant media attention on the issue lately for helping to tip public opinion.

Whether it's movies such as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth scoring big at the box office, talk of polar bears drowning in a melting arctic, or the flurry of interest paid to the recently released International Panel on Climate Change report, "there's been a real shift in opinion and a belief that something definitely needs to be done. It's a real issue," Braid said.

Braid said it's that level of concern that has translated to poll results showing 77 per cent of respondents saying they are willing to make significant changes in their lifestyle to stop climate change.

However, just what constitutes "significant changes" is not yet clear for many people, said Braid. According to the poll, about half of respondents say they trust themselves (and other individual Canadians) to take the appropriate steps, with the level of trust in industry (24 per cent) and the federal Conservative government (23 per cent) falling much lower.

On the international stage, only one in 10 (11 per cent) of respondents say they trust U.S. politicians to lead the way.

Still, most people (66 per cent of respondents) say climate change should be a focus of the next federal election, and will be an important factor in their vote. Three-quarters of respondents (76 per cent) said Canada should take a leadership role in stopping climate change.

Braid also said it's not necessarily a bad thing that half of those polled say they aren't willing to pay more in taxes to combat global warming.

"It's rare you get half the pubic ever agreeing that they are willing to pay extra taxes on anything," he said.

Braid said it could also point to a lack of trust in government to spend the money wisely.

That attitude could spell trouble for government proposals, such as the B.C. Liberals' newly announced green initiative. Under the proposal, the provincial government says it intends to lower B.C. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 33 per cent below current levels by 2020.

Of note, said Braid, is how few British Columbians actually understand what climate change is -- even though most say they believe in the science.

Only about one in 10 British Columbians (12 per cent) say they know "a great deal" about climate change, the poll shows. Most -- two-thirds of respondents -- said they know "a fair amount" (66 per cent) while two in 10 (20 per cent) said they know "very little."

Two per cent said they knew nothing.

According to climate modelling expert and University of B.C. professor Philip Austin, there's really only one basic thing the public must understand when it comes to global warming: If the average global temperature rises two degrees higher than what it is now, we may find ourselves in serious trouble from which we cannot escape.

That magic number of two degrees -- often quoted by climate scientists -- will mean a melting polar icecap, rising sea levels and the destruction of more than half the world's species, among other predicted catastrophes, experts say.

Worse still, said Austin, "there will be no way to turn it off."

Far from being overwhelmed by the science, Austin said he finds it pretty motivating, and thinks others should too.

"This issue is not going away. It's not a fad. We've got the rest of our lives to come to a little bit of an understanding of this," he said.

dahansen@png.canwest.com

TOP FIVE FEARS

The poll asked people which of the following worried them most?

1. Climate change/global warming

2. Terrorism/religious fanaticism

3. Flu pandemic/disease outbreak

4. Energy shortages

5. Nuclear proliferation

Ran with fact box "Top Five Fears", which has been appended to the end of the story. Also See: Inside on Climate Change: The time for talk is over, climate activists warn. B1; Common-sense steps for the green in all of us. C4; Going Green: A user's guide for the world. Section L; Tory MP's suicide warning prompts outrage. A4; Major Chinese cities face huge climate challenge. A17

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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The emerging leaders and older veterans of B.C.'s feisty environmental movement pursue different campaigns and employ different tactics, but one all-embracing global challenge binds them together for a common cause: Climate change.

Environmental activists who have followed the global warming debate for a decade or more say the time for talk is over. They're demanding new legislation, and firm deadlines for cutting the air pollutants and greenhouse gases that the United Nations and most climate scientists say are fueling human-induced climate change.

They see a window of opportunity opening this year, while the environment is at the top of Canadians' awareness, and remains one of the declared priorities of mainstream political parties.

"It's a fascinating time right now," said Lisa Matthaus, a climate change campaigner with the Sierra Club of Canada. "The polls keeping showing how strongly people are thinking of the environment, putting it at the top of their minds."

Donna Morton, of the Victoria-based Centre for Integral Economics, says the challenge of delivering on sustainability is so great that it really isn't up to the environmental movement any more.

"Climate change, for example, is so huge and global that it will require system-changing strategies," she said. "It has to be a multi-sector effort, including working across the left-right political divide."

Many environmental groups have already broadened their focus, away from site-specific or single-issue campaigns.

The 27-year-old Wilderness Committee, for instance, still lobbies for the conservation of never-logged forests and wilderness areas, but is also involved in campaigns to persuade the federal government to comply with the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"There was a time when you could draw lines on a map and be reasonably assured biodiversity was protected inside the lines," said Wilderness Committee executive director Andrea Reimer. "With things like toxins and global warming, that's just not possible anymore."

The environmental activists profiled in this story were all interviewed before B.C.'s Liberal government promised to reduce the province's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 33 per cent below current levels by 2020.

This week's throne speech also included a pledge to adopt California's automobile emission standards, starting in 2009.

Before hearing those promises, Matt Price, coordinator of the Conservation Voters of BC, said California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had "raised the bar" last year when the state approved the toughest greenhouse gas curbs in the U.S.

Price also slammed proposals for two new coal-fired power plants -- facilities that the B.C. government now says it won't okay unless 100 per cent of the emissions are pumped and stored underground.

"The piecemeal approach is not getting our emissions down," Price said.

To activists, climate change is the common thread that runs through a myriad of environmental concerns and campaigns, from endangered runs of wild Pacific salmon to the B.C. government's $3-billion Gateway project, another public investment in blacktop for greenhouse gas-spouting cars and trucks. "Climate change is the mother of all environmental issues," Price declared.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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CREDIT: Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
Going green: Premier Gordon Campbell with his new hybrid Toyota.

Sixteen years ago, after an international conference in Toronto concluded that global warming posed a threat to humanity exceeded only by thermonuclear war, eight parliamentary standing committees met jointly in an urgent climate change forum.

"We are the first generation in the history of the human race that looking down on coming decades can clearly see that if we do not change we shall not survive, at least as we survive today," warned John Fraser, Speaker of the House of Commons.

By 2000, Canada's greenhouse emissions would be pushed back to where they were in 1990, the Conservative government's then-environment minister announced in 1991.

In 2007, emissions are at record levels and rising.

Just a reminder -- as Premier Gordon Campbell promises to cut British Columbia's greenhouse emissions 33 per cent by 2020 -- that politicians have played the green card before. Yet here we are having done little to confront climate change beyond talk.

Our best tools, Fraser said in 1991, were information, human adaptability and strong leadership. Instead, we've frittered away a decade on disinformation, denial and an absence of leadership.

Clearly, if real changes are to occur, it's up to citizens to lead from behind. Here's how and some objectives:

1. Be engaged citizens: This is a democracy. Let your MP or your MLA or your municipal councillor know that empty rhetoric won't be tolerated. Tell them to behave as they would if we were at war. Be relentless. Write letters, send e-mails, phone constituency offices, beard them at luncheons and cocktail parties. Raise their discomfort level. Tell them to get with your agenda or get dumped regardless of party.

2. Think globally, act locally: We can't force China or the United States to act. We can do the right thing instead of the expedient thing. That's leadership. Nor must we gut the economy to begin. Let's start curbing emissions incrementally by immediately shifting taxes to provide incentives for good behaviour while discouraging bad behaviour.

3. Get educated: Don't take the word of politicians, pundits, ideologically motivated think-tanks or the campaigns of front groups for industrial special interests. Use the Internet to research what national science academies and organizations say. Read the technical reports upon which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change bases its conclusions. Read books. For starters, Jonathan Weiner's The Next One Hundred Years, Pulitzer prize winner Ross Gelbspan's The Heat is On, George Monbiot's Heat, David Helvarg's The War Against the Greens and Wayne Grady's The Quiet Limit of the World.

4. Apply common sense: There are plenty of things we could be doing immediately, but are not. For example, let's insist politicians make serious investments in public transit. Alternatives to the car must be pleasant, efficient, inexpensive and, above all, convenient. Public transit can be all of those things. Demand that it be made so. Think big. The flat prairie landscape is ideal for high-speed trains. Why don't we have a network linking Edmonton, Calgary, Regina and Winnipeg? Why don't we provide incentives for moving truck trailers across Canada by rail? Why aren't we investigating sail-assisted carriers for bulk trans-oceanic cargos?

5. Hold ourselves accountable: The laws of physics mean heavier vehicles must burn more fossil fuel and thus release more greenhouse gas while causing more wear on road infrastructure. Okay, the heavier the car, the more of environmental and infrastructure costs we should recover in sales taxes and licensing fees; the smaller the car, the less we need to recover. Perhaps it makes sense to subsidize people to drive the very lightest, most fuel-efficient cars.

6. Insist on small: Bigger cars occupy more space. In a city, space is money. So make all downtown parking spaces the size of a smart car. Then, charge for parking according to space occupied. If your car occupies two or three or four spaces you must pay two or three or four times the hourly fee. Treat those free parking spaces at malls and workplaces as taxable benefits. Mandate park-and-ride shuttles -- they work fine at airports. What would be the economic impact of a buy-back on fuel-inefficient old cars and providing the poor, who rely disproportionately on old vehicles, with interest-free loans to acquire new, small, fuel-efficient vehicles?

7. Attack urban sprawl: Provide tax incentives to develop underused urban space. For example, encourage universities to build residential condos above their classroom, laboratory and office complexes. With their rich intellectual and cultural life, university campuses provide attractive communities for urban dwellers. Let universities use the revenues to enhance applied research activities. Tax property owners at higher rates for undeveloped property and, in inverse proportion, at lower rates for high-density developments.

8. Re-green the world: Plant trees everywhere. A tree represents a ton or more of sequestered carbon. One big tree can sequester it for hundreds of years and releases it slowly when it finally rots. So why are we still cutting the biggest trees? Protect old growth everywhere.

Harvest forests on 300-year cycles to maximize carbon sequestration instead of 30-year cycles. Require everyone who removes a tree to replace it with three. Mandate recycling of wood and paper products.

9. Re-think work: Too many managers cling to 19th-century models. Information workers needn't be tied to schedules devised for factories. Reward telecommuters. For those who must attend a worksite, make public transit a benefit.

10. Invest in our genius: Let Ottawa set aside $10 billion to fund a centre in each province for applied and theoretical research to develop the technology that can mitigate global warming. Each province could tackle a different aspect: Wind power, tidal, solar, geothermal, hydrogen, fuel cells, carbon sequestration, electric rail technology, electric car grids, desalinization technologies, more efficient air, land and sea transportation. Does $10 billion sound expensive? It is less than half the projected spending on the 2008 Olympics. It's the cost of two pipelines proposed for Arctic gas fields. However, if global warming is indeed a threat to our way of life exceeded only by nuclear war, $10 billion for such a climate change Manhattan Project is a pittance.

shume@islandnet.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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Newly appointed federal Environment Minister John Baird barely had time to change his business cards before he hopped on a plane out of Ottawa and made his way west to shake hands with an improbable ally.

His name: David Suzuki.

The Conservative MP and the veteran conservationist faced off across a board table in the Vancouver office of the Suzuki Foundation on a frosty Monday morning in January.

Suzuki was prepared. He'd shaken hands before with other new environment ministers representing other governments, and found it never did his cause much good.

His message this time was blunt: "What I said to Mr. Baird is, 'I'm interested in what you do, not what you say.' Words are cheap.

"I'm too old to get excited about meeting the next minister of the environment," Suzuki said in a later interview.

Not that he was completely unmoved by what the minister had to say. According to Suzuki, Baird opened the meeting with a vow that he is not a member of the so-called flat earth society, and that he believes the science on climate change is correct -- and the situation perhaps even more dire than we currently understand.

In a more recent interview in Vancouver, Baird reiterated that sentiment, telling The Vancouver Sun that climate change -- and, more specifically, reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming -- was a priority for his government.

"This is an issue we're committed to and there will be more to come," he said.

And earlier this month, following the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report in Paris, France, Baird told Canadians to "get ready for some tough decisions" on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"The IPCC has presented compelling scientific proof that the world's climate has changed because of human action and industrial growth," he said in a press release. "The evidence is in, and it is clear the time is now for concrete and realistic actions to deal with climate change and air pollution to improve the health of Canadians."

"That all sounds great," a wary Suzuki said, adding it's a "huge step up" from his grim predictions on where Stephen Harper's Conservative government might go on the topic of global warming.

But he's still not convinced. It was Harper's government, after all, that froze or scrapped dozens of climate-change programs upon taking office last year, promising a review of whether they were cost-effective and achieving results.

"I personally don't think Harper believes in [climate change science]. Maybe he does now. He says he does," Suzuki said.

In any case, it's not as if he hasn't heard it all before.

"Rona [Ambrose, Baird's predecessor in the environment portfolio] met with us right away after she got in, too," Suzuki said. "She did exactly what Baird is doing and she sounded great, and then within a few weeks she just clammed right up and just mouthed what was clearly the Harper line."

But Baird, said Suzuki, is a popular and savvy politician compared to the rookie Ambrose. "The question is, is he going to have a chance to do what he says?"

What's changed since the days of Ambrose -- who was dumped from the portfolio in December after less than a year in the post -- is public opinion.

In recent national polls, Canadians said they are more concerned about the environment, including pollution and global warming, than any other public issue -- including health care and taxes, issues which have traditionally topped the polls for the past two decades.

In one poll, published in January by Angus Reid, 35 per cent of respondents believe the environment is the most important issue facing the country today. Health care was second at 19 per cent, followed by tax relief, poverty, crime, and the economy.

More recently, a Canada-wide poll conducted by McAllister Opinion Research found public concern about climate change at an all-time high. Results of a February 2007 poll found 90 per cent of Canadians are "concerned" about climate change, with two-thirds of respondents saying they are "very concerned."

Pollster Angus McAllister said the level of concern cited has doubled in recent years.

"The line [measuring public opinion] just goes straight up like a rocket over the last five years," he said, adding the most significant shift in public reaction has been marked in the last two years.

Talk of global warming "used to be almost a joke," McAllister said. "But, in the last couple of years, it's not a joke anymore."

Blame the shift in public opinion on the weather, said Suzuki, who has been fighting for years to rally public attention around the environment.

Between floods, droughts, wildfires, heat waves and melting glaciers close to home and around the world, "good old Mother Nature has been kicking our asses and telling us we better start paying attention," he said.

The Conservatives' much-criticized Clean Air Act and reluctance to enforce Kyoto targets did little to fill a growing public need for government leadership -- 71 per cent of the November Environics poll respondents said Harper's actions to reduce greenhouse gases were not tough enough.

Last month in B.C., Rev. Michael Ingham, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, turned up the heat on the provincial government by issuing a public challenge to Premier Gordon Campbell to significantly reduce the province's greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize the climate.

In a letter to the premier, Ingham called the care of the planet "one of the most pressing ethical, moral and spiritual issues of our time."

Suzuki couldn't agree more, and believes we have little time to waste.

"In my experience, the public has understood that something funny is going on with weather and climate and they expect whoever gets in [to government] to stop talking and do something serious. They don't want fussing around with something like the Clean Air Act that doesn't set hard targets for reduction, or giving us more than small stuff like a break on a bus pass. They want some really hard-nose deep targets, especially for the heavy polluting industries like fossil fuels and automotive," he said.

Specifically, Suzuki wants to see hard targets for emission reduction legislated by government for heavy industrial polluters, along with tight timelines to achieve them. He believes in a system of "creative taxation" -- that is, tax the things we want to discourage such as carbon dioxide emission, and reduce the cost on things we want to encourage, such as public transit.

For his part, Baird told The Sun in January that his government is prepared to penalize industrial polluters -- a method of pollution control no federal government has been willing to carry out to date, preferring instead to impose "voluntary" pollution targets on industry.

"The days that polluters can get off with impunity, in my judgment, should come to an end very quickly," said Baird, who listed "climate change" as his ministry's first priority.

"That's something I believe in very strongly," he said.

But earlier this month, just days after the release of the IPCC report, Baird said his government won't force large industrial polluters to pay a carbon tax under new industry regulations. He also said Canada's economy would collapse if the government was to try to enforce Kyoto targets. Instead, Baird said he would deliver sector-by-sector regulations with large polluters required to buy carbon credits in order to meet government targets, while those who exceed targets will be rewarded by selling credits.)

In an interview with The Sun in January, provincial Environment Minister Barry Penner also voiced his commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.

Penner said B.C. leads the country -- at 14 per cent -- in provincially protected forests and wilderness.

"Just think what contribution those forests make to reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," he said. "It plays a very important role and that is sometimes overlooked."

At the same time, however, the provincial government was supporting proposals to build two new coal-burning power plants in Princeton and Tumbler Ridge by 2010, despite awareness that coal is a leading cause of pollution.

According to the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, the two coal plants would increase B.C.'s greenhouse gas emissions from energy sources by more than 135 per cent -- the equivalent of putting as many as 400,000 more passenger vehicles on our roads each year.

But in this week's throne speech, the provincial government effectively killed the proposed plants -- at least until there is a proven technology to stop all coal-based carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere.

"No greenhouse gas emissions will be permitted for coal-fire electricity projects anywhere in British Columbia," said the speech.

Suzuki said that if real change is going to happen, it's up to the public to force the issue.

"What I'd like is for the public to start saying to politicians, or any candidate for office, 'Where do you think we are heading and what are you doing to make sure in 25 years from now we are heading in the right direction?'," he said.

"The public has got to be recognized," he said.

dahansen@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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CREDIT: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun.
Bruce Sampson, a vice-president at BC Hydro, is working on an energy plan.

You've probably never heard of Bruce Sampson.

But if you love this planet, you should find out more about him, say those in the know -- he's the man mapping out B.C.'s new energy plan, due to be released in the spring, and someone who has managed to bring the message of sustainability into the highest-level boardrooms in the province.

"More than anything else, he gets it, and he gets it while holding senior positions in a number of different areas of government," says Ken Cameron, the CEO of B.C.'s homeowner protection office and, thanks to his former job as a senior manager with the Greater Vancouver regional district, a long-time advocate for green planning in the Lower Mainland.

"He chaired the provincial government's task force on climate change when talking about climate change was a little bit suspect."

Sampson is officially the vice-president of sustainability at BC Hydro, although he has been seconded since sometime last year to work on the province's energy plan and has been somewhat invisible since then.

Cameron and others say Sampson is the guiding spirit behind Hydro's transformation in the last few years into an organization that now promotes itself on its website as having adopted sustainability as "the driving force of our business," with a goal of becoming the leading sustainable energy provider in North America.

Creating that kind of change is not easy.

"The road to planetary ruin is paved with vice-presidents of sustainability," says Ian Gill, president of Ecotrust Canada, a conservation and community development organization.

Many companies, trying to look green, create a title, then deny the person in position the power to really change anything. "Real change is driven by the CEOs."

But Gill noted that Sampson and Linda Coady, vice president of sustainability at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics organizing committee, are those rare exceptions in that they seem to be able to influence their CEOs and the boards.

Coro Strandberg, a consultant who works with organizations like Vanoc to incorporate sustainable-purchasing networks, says Sampson's effectiveness is due to his exceptional ability to inspire and bring people together.

"He's a catalyst and those who are catalysts, it's hard to say 'I did X.' But he connects dots and brings people together. He uses his role very strategically."

That assessment is echoed by others.

"I think you could find a long list of achievements that have his fingerprints all over them," says Guy Dauncey, president of the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association. "But an awful lot of what he does is networking, and all the time he's connecting people, getting the Board of Trade engaged, just opening people's minds out to a different future."

It's evident from Sampson's resume that he has the opportunity to plug into a lot of networks and spread his message. He is linked to almost a dozen organizations, as a board member or liaison, ranging from Fuel Cells Canada to the International Centre for Sustainable Cities to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Sampson declined to be interviewed for this story, as did his boss, BC Hydro CEO Bob Elton.

But a dig through the archeological evidence of Sampson's past reveals someone who has managed to be both corporate and off-grid at the same time -- literally.

In a profile done in The Vancouver Sun 10 years ago, Sampson, then the director of the provincial government's debt-management branch, was unusual in that he commuted to work from his home in Bird's Eye Cove near Duncan, which was not connected to power lines or roads.

The relatively unknown civil servant, who graduated from the University of Victoria in 1976 with an economics degree and spent years living and sailing on boats, joined BC Hydro in 1997.

In a small biography on him, he wrote: "I am an avid boater and have sailed up and down the inlet waters of the Province, and through these experiences I have built a strong attachment to the beauty and diversity of British Columbia, and a passion for preserving it."

fbula@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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CREDIT: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
Port Moody mayor Joe Trasolini stands in the stairwell of the city's new safety building on St. Johns street.
The open concept helps provide natural light and assists the geothermal heating system.

Taking a huge bite out of greenhouse gas emissions will be more cost-effective than most people imagine, according to experts.

Canada's reigning authority on the subject, Simon Fraser University professor Mark Jaccard, says energy costs consume only six per cent of a typical Canadian household budget -- "so it could double in cost and our economy would do fine if we have a few decades for transition."

"We currently absorb big price fluctuations without so much as an economic hiccup."

For example, the average North American price for natural gas is up 300 per cent since 1999 -- and prices were up as much as 700 per cent in the winter of 2005-2006. In spite of this, British Columbia finds itself in an era of unparalleled economic prosperity.

By 2050 energy costs will rise from their current six per cent of an average household budget "to eight per cent or 10 per cent, maximum," says Jaccard, author of the recent award winning book Sustainable Fossil Fuels.

Energy is the single largest contributor to greenhouse gas production -- and Jaccard says more efficient consumption of oil, natural gas and coal, coupled with technology to capture emissions instead of dispersing them into the atmosphere, would take humanity in the direction of sustainable energy systems.

Some recent reports suggest the cost of inaction could be many times higher, in terms of economic damage due to environmental degradation, compared to a concerted effort to slash greenhouse gases by 50 per cent or more in the coming decades.

Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini, chair of the Greater Vancouver regional district's environment committee, is an outspoken supporter of the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas reductions and believes it is essential for Canada and the rest of the world to have specific goals for reducing emissions.

"If you really look in detail at sustainability, you can conclude that at some point there is a positive financial aspect to it. The initial capital investment for many things is higher but after a number of years you are making a profit based on your original investment."

As proof, Trasolini points to a number of initiatives that are either underway or already complete in his city, which has been honoured by the United Nations for the quality of its "livability" efforts.

The city invested $700,000 in a geothermal (or underground) heating and cooling system for its new public safety building. Trasolini said the city calculates it will take 12 years to pay off the investment, at which point its heating and cooling costs will be substantially less than a similar property with conventional systems.

Port Moody has also retrofitted its existing civic buildings, "changing the way we deliver light, energy, heating" and cutting energy consumption by 25 per cent, saving taxpayers about $145,000 a year.

Electrical light upgrades, supported with a $125,000 BC Hydro grant, are saving the city $30,000 a year.

Trasolini notes that once the big changes are made, there are many opportunities for smaller efforts that cumulatively will have a major impact on reducing emissions.

"We've done the most obvious energy projects. Now we have prioritized a list of the tougher issues. This will maximize the environmental benefits for every dollar we invest.

"I don't even think most industries in Canada, or elsewhere, have done the most simple things we can do to save energy. Let's start with those, then we can tackle the more complex."

On Tuesday, the provincial government announced an ambitious plan to lower B.C. greenhouse gas emissions 33 per cent by 2020.

According to the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association, there's a payback for consumers, and the provincial economy, through the adoption of lower-emission vehicles, furnaces and appliances -- reduced energy costs give consumers more disposable income.

Jaccard says energy efficiency is only part of the formula for success.

He says a whole roster of sustainability measures will be required, including increased control over land use.

"In B.C., this means giving renewed strength to the agricultural land reserve, not eroding the pristine character of our parks, controlling land use in non-agricultural areas, and stopping big transportation expansions," such as the B.C. government's Gateway transportation initiative. Governments should also legislate "life cycle" pricing for consumer goods, in the form of fees that are big enough to compel consumers to recycle items such as cellular phones.

As well, he says, "goods should be more expensive to reflect the cost, rather than destroying the environment to improve the flow of goods."

"The cost of consumption in a sustainable economy? Some things will be 50 per cent more expensive. Some will be the same cost."

This might have a nominal impact on GDP growth, but "remember, GDP does not measure half the value we get from breathing clean air, drinking clean water, access to nature, preservation of the Earth's major biogeophysical cycles."

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development noted in January that concerns about the climate impacts of fossil fuels have overtaken oil prices and security of oil supplies as the top energy issue for developed nations.

The OECD noted that the Stern Report last November suggested that if it is unchecked, climate change will cost between five and 20 per cent of worldwide gross domestic product or GDP in the coming decades.

By contrast, Stern suggested it would cost just one per cent of annual global GDP to correct.

ssimpson@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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Vancouver Sun
Saturday, February 17, 2007

A pilot project is revealing that upgrades to make existing subsidized housing units more energy efficient can pay for themselves within eight years, according to a senior BC Housing official.

Craig Crawford said renovations to 877 low-income rental units in 32 Lower Mainland buildings administered by the provincial Crown agency should be completed by the middle of March.

Crawford, vice president of development services, said the buildings involved in the pilot project will realize an annual savings of about $160,000 a year once the heating systems are replaced, windows are upgraded and high-efficiency boilers, energy-efficient lighting, solar hot-water heaters and low-flow shower heads are installed.

He said the provincial ministry of energy, mines and petroleum resources, BC Hydro and Terasen Gas donated more than $736,000 to the pilot project, which also included an additional 17 facilities owned and managed by non-profit societies. Total cost is $1.6 million.

Crawford said there is a five-year plan to save $1.5 million annually once similar renovations are done to the 7,000 other public housing units that BC Housing directly manages. Retrofitting those units is estimated to cost $11 million.

He added an "eight-year payback" for these type of renovations is good for both the taxpayers and the environment.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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CREDIT: Lorraine Hjalte, CanWest News Service
This wind farm west of Pincher Creek, Alta., harnesses the power of the wind
to produce energy. B.C.'s first wind farm is slated to be built near Dawson
Creek, as part of the Peace Energy Cooperative. Dawson Creek, an agricultural
community for more than 60 years, has a policy that fosters the purchase of
green power.

Cities are a crucial piece of the puzzle when it comes to saving the planet. They deal with water, garbage, land use, energy, and transportation: the building blocks of environmental action. B.C. cities are tackling sustainability in a number of ways. Here are 10 innovators who are leading the way, whether it's with a specific project like organic composting, a community-wide plan for energy use, or an all-points strategy for a better environment.

1 PORT MOODY: European-style village centre. This small municipality started planning Newport Village 10 years ago with Bosa Development, when the term "sustainability" was barely a blip on people's consciousness in downtown Vancouver, let alone the suburbs. Now, the Greater Vancouver Green Guide cites Newport, which has 900 residential units clustered around a pedestrian square filled with shops and offices, all of it on transit lines, as a model of green development.

"There definitely was a conscious effort here to plan how this would all contribute to a complete community," says Colleen Rhode, Port Moody's director of economic and strategic planning. "Sustainability principles are definitely on the radar here and have been for a decade."

Port Moody has carried on with that kind of planning in the more recent Suter Brook development, which is grouping 1,250 housing units with shops and offices on a former industrial site. The development, being built by the Onni Group, will have as its main feature a large greenway that will protect Suter Brook, one of the few streams in the Lower Mainland that hasn't been paved over or damaged by intense development around it.

2 CITY OF NORTH VANCOUVER: District heating. Almost all new condominiums built in B.C. are heated with electric baseboards, a heat source that is not only expensive but inefficient.

In 2002, the city of North Vancouver broke new ground by creating a district heating system to supply heat to new buildings, which meant it had to get involved in energy planning -- something cities don't typically do. The heating system, which burns natural gas in high-efficiency condensing boilers, is generated from two (soon to be three) mini-plants in different parts of the city. Those plants heat water that is then run through buildings in pipes, warming interior spaces the way old-fashioned radiators used to do, but with new technology and pipes in ceilings.

All new construction is required to use the heating system, with the result that more than 500 new units of residential space are now heated using the district plants. The city expects to be heating a million square feet of residential and commercial space by the end of this year.

Now the district, which has won numerous awards for its system, is looking at more innovations.

"We're developing solar-energy panels on roofs and we'll put that collected energy into our district system," says Bill Susak, the engineer in charge of the city's Lonsdale Energy Corporation.

3 VANCOUVER: Net-zero building. Vancouver has been a leader for years when it comes to green building and planning. It also keeps pushing the boundary incrementally, with innovations like sustainable-street experiments, new ways to do urban agriculture, and higher environmental standards for new buildings.

One of its latest green firsts is a "net-zero building" that is being planned for the Olympic athlete's village. That building, which will provide part of the 250 units of social housing on the site, will produce as much energy as it uses.

That happens two ways, says architect Stu Lyon, who is designing the 67-unit seniors' building, which will sit beside and on top of the village's grocery store. Some of the energy is saved passively, by having windows on both sides of all units to increase natural light and cross-ventilation. The units will also have high-efficiency walls and windows that reduce heat loss, and energy-efficient appliances.

On the active side, the complex will also have photovoltaic cells installed, to capture solar energy and put it into the grid. And it will take waste heat from the adjoining grocery store's refrigeration units and use it to heat the residential units.

4 SURREY: Urban transit village. Surrey is often pictured as the epitome of unsustainable sprawl. But it is home to East Clayton, a new suburban neighbourhood planned to be sustainable, and it is working on a "sustainable truck parking" policy. But one of its biggest efforts is happening in the heart of this huge municipality. Its planners, with the help of a Transport Canada and TransLink program, have spent the past two years planning to transform its Surrey Central SkyTrain neighbourhood in Whalley into a pedestrian-friendly urban centre.

"There's been a lot of redevelopment around the station, but at the core, there are a lot of smaller properties on very big street patterns," says Judy McLeod, Surrey's long-range-planning manager. The idea is to turn that intimidating landscape into an area that feels more like a real downtown, which will encourage people to walk around.

If council gives final approval to the plan this month, Surrey will start work on that project, creating a new street network that breaks up the big blocks around the station. To complement that, TransLink will move the connecting buses out of the giant loop and onto the nearby streets

5 MAPLE RIDGE: Sustainable town centre. This suburb is one of the few in the Lower Mainland that, thanks to its history, has a real downtown. Now it is reshaping that downtown to be more sustainable, by turning it into a place where people live and walk around. The city is planning to house half of the 25,000 new residents it expects by 2021 in the downtown area. It is offering tax exemptions to developers who will build higher than four storeys, as part of its plan to integrate 7,000 new housing units into its existing centre. And it is working to make that denser downtown more livable by putting in new sidewalks, paths and bike routes.

"We're trying to be different by making sure our density goes where it belongs," says planner Jane Pickering. That town-centre plan is the result of a collaboration between Maple Ridge and a program called Smart Growth on the Ground. That program is a collaboration between Smart Growth B.C., the Real Estate Institute of B.C. and the Design Centre for Sustainability at UBC. That group is working with 10 communities in the next decade to help them plan greener towns as they grow.

Maple Ridge was a natural. "This community is very interested in pursuing environmental and sustainable programs. They want to do things differently than it's been done."

6 DAWSON CREEK: Alternative energy. The province's first wind-power project is being planned here, with that initiative from the Peace Energy Cooperative getting enthusiastic support from the city. Solar panels on the city hall building and the firehall heat the water for those buildings. The city has a policy that fosters the purchase of green power.

All of that is the result of a decision a couple of years ago, after holding a string of public meetings, to develop a community energy plan and to focus on environmental issues.

"This has been an agricultural centre for 60-70 years, and there is some harmony with the land that is respected in the community," says Mayor Calvin Kruk. Although the 12,000-resident town is close to B.C.'s oil fields, it wasn't content to rely on that energy supply. "You have to look broader than just one source."

The town is planning to keep putting solar panels on buildings. It is also trying to support the creation of a green-technology centre at the local college. Northern Lights College, in keeping with the town's alternative-energy focus, has made the subject of solar heating a core course in its plumbing program.

7 OLIVER: Protecting local agriculture. "We want to protect our farmland and grow up, not out," says Oliver Mayor Ron Hovanes. That's not just for sentimental reasons. The wine industry throughout the Okanagan continues to boom and is a key part of the economic base.

Spurring them on, the planners and politicians in Oliver have seen what's happened to other communities throughout the valley. "Oliver is in kind of a good position," says Hovanes. "We have not had the unprecedented growth that others have so far. It's just starting here."

In order to prevent future sprawl into the rural areas around town, Oliver has worked with the local regional district and Smart Growth on the Ground to come up with strategies to encourage people to live within the town limits. It has changed its zoning policies to allow secondary suites and carriage houses, to encourage multi-family housing. And it is contemplating establishing an urban-growth boundary, adjusting those boundaries at the same time to make sure agricultural land isn't included inside the limits.

All of that complements past work Oliver has done to protect its local environment, like its efforts to recycle treated sewage by using it to water the local golf course and cemetery, rather than putting that water back into the local river.

8 WHITE ROCK: Recycling rainwater. When White Rock staff were making the decision to build a new operations plant for basic city functions -- garbage, roads, sewers -- it decided to go green (with the help of federal government funding aimed at creating green infrastructure). That meant using recycled materials, designing the building to take advantage of natural light and ventilation, putting on a green roof and incorporating other elements that are becoming standard in green building. But designers also worked creatively with one unusual component -- the former sewage-digestion pond that was on the site.

Instead of digging up the old concrete tank, the designers re-routed one of White Rock's storm sewers into it. Now the rainwater that collects in the tank is used for flushing the building's toilets, washing down the city's utility vehicles and filling up tanks in the city's street-washing trucks. As a finishing touch, heat from the water is extracted with a heat-transfer pump and used in the building.

The building uses 60 per cent less energy than standard. Dave Pollock, White Rock's operations manager, says none of that is particularly noticeable. The only difference about the building: "It's very pleasant to work in with the amount of natural light, and there's no air conditioning. It's a very pleasant building."

9 LADYSMITH: Organic composting. Residents here don't just have the blue box. They have the green box, which is the step beyond recycling and composting.

Ladysmith is the first B.C. town to have introduced organic composting, which means taking everything from the standard compost material like fruit peels and eggshells to items like pizza boxes, flour bags, and soiled paper towels.

The impetus for this pioneering environmental move was money. Ladysmith had been paying to truck all its garbage to Cache Creek for the previous eight years, and organic material accounts for up to 50 per cent of garbage.

When it came time to renew the contract, the city decided to go with a private company that had started an organic-composting business, International Composting Corp. in Nanaimo.

Since the program started last February, it's been a huge success.

"It's easier to implement than recycling because people don't have to wash anything," says Mayor Rob Hutchins.

The town's regular garbage volume has now dropped by almost 40 per cent in the past year. Oddly, people also started putting more into their regular recycling boxes at the same time. The result is that the town now sends only 43 per cent of its total solid waste to Cache Creek, instead of the previous 71 per cent.

10 PORT COQUITLAM: Sustainable development. The city introduced a policy a year ago to have all building projects go through a "triple bottom line" checklist -- that's economic, environmental and social sustainability -- before they get approved.

For developer Onni, that has meant not just talking about floor space and parking requirements for the 26-storey tower it is planning in Port Coquitlam's downtown.

It also means discussions about using recycled building materials, building units of different sizes to bring in residents with different income levels, putting in low-flow toilets, and planning ways to absorb stormwater.

The tower now being planned will have, to use one tiny example, a green roof over its parkade, using plant species specifically chosen for their capacity to absorb storm water.

"A lot of other places you go, you hear a lot of talk, but not that much follow-through. This is different," says Onni development manager Daniel Diebolt.

fbula@png.canwest.com

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Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, February 17, 2007

VICTORIA - When Sir Nicholas Stern, head of the British Government Economics Service, was asked to put a price tag on global warming, his mission got little public attention. But when he presented his price tag in October, the number was staggering enough to shake government leaders around the world.

If the global climate heated up between three and five degrees celsius -- something that this month's UN report on climate change warns is likely to happen -- the flooding, loss in food production, forest fires, melting of the Arctic and other disasters could cut the world's current annual global GDP by five per cent to 20 per cent.

In dollar terms, it means that global warming could knock up to $7 trillion off the current global GDP of $35 trillion.

Stern added that action needs to be taken within the next 10 to 20 years or the price-tag will soar and any eventual mitigation measures will have less of a positive impact.

The question that Stern, a former chief economist of the World Bank, doesn't answer, is how those numbers play out locally. What would global warming cost British Columbia, for example?

The B.C. government, which has been revamping its energy plan to take into account the rising fears of global warming's impacts, has released no such number. In fact, few governments have publicized such risk analysis.

However, environmental groups have begun to tackle the cost to British Columbia. Out in front is the Sierra Club. Here's their first crack at the global warming math, presented by Lisa Matthaus, the group's expert on climate change.

First, says Matthaus, take British Columbia's current provincial gross domestic product of $168 billion. Then extrapolate Stern's conclusions that global warming will reduce that figure by five to 20 per cent. In today's terms, that would cost the B.C. economy anywhere from $8 billion to $33 billion dollars. (The number would be higher at mid-century because the B.C. economy would grow.)

It is, of course, less than scientifically rigorous to extrapolate in such a manner. The fact is that climate change's impacts are likely to vary from country to country, Matthaus acknowledges. But extrapolating the global warming impact costs to B.C., she adds, does have the important function of at least beginning to understand the scope of financial risk facing British Columbians. She also says that it helps build the case for an early, multibillion-dollar mitigation effort to stave off climate change's damages.

That conclusion comes from another important finding from the Stern Report: Much of global warming's impact could be lessened if governments invest about one per cent of global GDP on mitigation efforts. If that is done, Stern says the world's economy could eventually benefit by $2.5 trillion annually.

Extrapolating again for B.C., Matthaus says that if one per cent of the province's GDP today were put toward mitigation it would mean an investment of $1.6 billion annually.

"It just makes sense to do something now, there's really no disputing the economic rationale of it," says Matthaus. "We are already paying the cost for climate change. Look at the mountain pine beetle disaster, the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of trees being lost because of this."

In his report, Stern concluded that the drive to reduce carbon dioxide emissions could fuel a $500-billion annual market in new technologies. He also concluded that spending to reduce CO2 was economically sound, suggesting that each tonne of CO2 we emit causes damages worth at least $85 per tonne, while those emissions can be reduced for less than $25 a tonne.

"Global GDP is currently around $35 trillion, so if the full one per cent were applied to the current period, it would imply around $350 billion in costs," added Stern in his report. "Global GDP is likely to be around $100 trillion by 2050, so this would mean annual costs in the order of $1 trillion by then.

"These costs are not trivial in absolute terms, but they will not disrupt economic growth. The overall impact can be thought of as equivalent to a one-off increase in the average price level of one per cent."

But is it as easy as all this? Jock Finlayson, the chief economist at the B.C. Business Council, doesn't think so.

He acknowledges the world is now moving to what he calls a "carbon-constrained" economy. By this he means that thanks to the Stern Report, and the recent UN scientific panel's conclusions, there will be increasing emphasis on all elements of the economy to reduce greenhouse gases.

The debate, however, will be centred on how quickly to introduce mitigation measures and how draconian such green regulations set by governments ought to be. Again, there are no studies yet setting out the economic costs for the private sector in B.C., but there has been one local issue that suggested the major obstacles to putting Stern's one-per-cent target in place on a local level.

Five years ago, says Finlayson, the Greater Vancouver regional district contemplated regulations ordering many of the region's major office and commercial buildings to install more efficient boilers. As a green initiative it was a no-brainer, but as a business decision it posed enormous costs, said Finlayson.

The reason is that environmentalists and regulators tend to want to see new green technologies introduced as soon as possible, to improve the environment.

But businesses and landlords want to carry out their "capital stock turnover," when equipment is near the end of its useful life.

Simply put, they want to maximize their capital investment.

"There's not much problem with replacing an old boiler that needs to be replaced in the natural business course with a more efficient one -- there's not much extra cost in that," said Finlayson. "But if you force every permitted building in Vancouver to do that it would have costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars."

For the consumer, added Finlayson, the equivalent would be being forced to switch to a hybrid car before you were ready to sell your old model.

"Many people will be happy to move to a hybrid car when their old car has run its course," he said. "But if you were ordered to do it, we would be talking a loss in the tens of thousands of dollars. That's the difficulty we're facing in all of this, bringing in the changes in a reasonable, efficient manner."

mcernetig@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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Dion, Harper battle for clean air

CREDIT: Tom Hanson, Canadian Press
(Stephane Dion and Stephen Harper)

OTTAWA - Political insults about dogs and denial are obscuring the tough question facing Canadians if there is a 2007 election fought on the environment. What are the two leaders currently in a position to form a government after the next vote -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Official Opposition leader Stephane Dion -- actually prepared to do to meet Canada's obligations under the Kyoto Protocol?

The Harper government has already launched a full-scale political assault on Dion's credibility, hounding their Liberal rival by running TV ads mocking the former government's record on the file. Harper also regularly pokes fun at Dion's decision to name his dog after the Japanese city where international leaders agreed in 1997 to slash emissions. The Conservative government is also doing an about-face to blunt Liberal accusations that Harper, while in opposition and during his first year as prime minister, was a "climate change denier" who questioned the science behind the global warming debate.

"I think the science is clear that these changes are occurring. They're serious and we must act," Harper said Feb. 2 after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported there is "unequivocal" evidence the climate is warming and a 90-per-cent probability that human activity, mainly through the burning of fossil fuels, is producing the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

Dion, meanwhile, insists Harper remains a closet denier and says only the Liberals have a credible plan to meet Kyoto commitments to cut emissions, now an estimated 775 megatonnes a year, to the target of 563 megatonnes by 2012.

Many analysts say it remains unclear whether either party has a legitimate plan to meet Kyoto. The Harper plan, still a work in progress, includes a $1.5-billion, 10-year program to fund renewable energy projects to tap alternative sources like wind, solar and wave energy. The government also announced $300 million to promote energy efficiency in homes and buildings, and another $230 million to fund clean energy research. Together, the three initiatives would reduce annual emissions by roughly 10 megatonnes, according to Natural Resources Canada.

The Tories also say their fulfilled 2006 election promise to give public transit users a modest tax break supports the clean air agenda, although University of B.C. political scientist Kathryn Harrison said the transit program is similar to many Liberal programs in which a considerable portion of the tax dollars are subsidizing activities that would have taken place anyway. In a speech Feb. 6, Harper vowed further concrete action, saying his government will set out regulatory targets for industry for the "short, medium and long term," and will regulate fuel efficiency for cars starting with the 2011 model year. "The era of voluntary compliance is over," he said.

But much uncertainty remains about the Tory plan, because Harper has submitted his government's Clean Air Act -- ridiculed by critics when it was tabled last fall as far too weak -- to a parliamentary committee. He has hinted at a possible deal with Jack Layton's New Democratic Party, though Layton's pricetag includes strict auto industry regulations and the elimination of tax breaks for the oil sands industry.

Environmentalists and most analysts give Dion higher marks than Harper because the Liberal leader has said he has a plan to meet the Kyoto target of cutting emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels between 2008-2012. Julia Langer of World Wildlife Federation-Canada said Harper's plan remains "ambiguous," whereas she describes Dion's as compatible with Kyoto though "hobbled" by lax commitments from the Jean Chretien era to not be too onerous on induindustry regulations.

Dion's key proposal, taken from the 2005 Project Green initiative when he was environment minister, is a so-called "cap and trade" system that would take the first step towards forcing industries to pay a price for the pollution they put in the air. The idea behind "cap and trade" is to create a trading market that gives monetary values, or credits, towards measures undertaken in Canada and internationally to reduce emissions, like construction of wind-power farms. The federal government would concurrently set limits on emissions for major industries, like the energy and pulp and paper industries. Companies could only exceed those limits by buying off-setting credits.

Dion's proposed Climate Fund would use tax dollars to buy credits in Canada and internationally to help Canada meet its obligations, as well as to stimulate investments in green technology.

But the Liberal plan, which seeks to cut as many as 308 megatonnes from Canada's projected emissions in 2012, is far from onerous towards the major industry emitters. Just 36 megatonnes in annual reductions will be cut because of industry regulations.

This is because Dion has agreed to mandate only reductions in "intensity" by 2012. His plan would allow expanding industries like the oil sands sector to release larger quantities of carbon dioxide as long as they found a way to make their operations more energy-efficient.

Dion's 53-page program is dominated not by regulation but by credit-buying initiatives as well as subsidies and programs to stimulate voluntary reductions.

Mark Jaccard, professor of resource and environmental management at Simon Fraser University, produced a C.D. Howe Institute study last year on Project Green titled Burning our Money to Warm the Planet. He argues Dion is largely mimicking the failed "information and subsidy" approach that dates back to the first Green Plan launched by Brian Mulroney's Tory government in 1990.

Jaccard and his team argued Dion's Project Green would have resulted in the reduction of only 175 megatonnes annually by 2010, and not the 230 to 300 megatonnes projected by the former government. Roughly half of the 175-megatonne reduction would take place within Canada. The other half would be acquired by buying credits outside Canada. Jaccard argues that a political backlash would prevent Canadian governments from actually following through on the purchase of potentially dubious carbon credits overseas. He estimates that a continuation of the Liberal approach beyond 2012 would cost $80 billion over 35 years.

But unless Dion follows through with his commitment to impose hard caps in the post-2012 era, emissions could hit 1,000 megatonnes by 2040, close to double the Kyoto target of 563 megatonnes.

Jaccard advocates two options. His preference is for a gradually-rising carbon tax that would be revenue neutral, in that other taxes would be reduced. The government could give tax breaks to help exporting industries adjust and pay for investments to reduce emissions.

Jaccard has proposed an alternate plan to create a "carbon management standard." This concept would require gradually tightening regulations to limit industry's ability to use the atmosphere as a "free waste receptacle." The rules would stimulate industry investments in zero-emission fossil fuel technology, as well as development of other technologies to capture carbon and store it underground.

poneill@hotmail.com

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As an American college student in the 1960s, I witnessed television images of the war in Vietnam and made two vows: I would never participate in such brutality and I would do what I could to end it. As naive as I may have been about the world, I believe now that the peace movement of that era helped end that war and save thousands of lives. Likewise, civil rights protesters such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King helped enshrine human equality in the modern world. People with vision can change the world.

I pursued journalism, also perhaps naively, because I believed journalists could help transform society. After witnessing oil spills and burning rivers, I embraced the environmental movement. In 1972, I immigrated to Vancouver and met a group of ecologists who wanted to change the world, the early Greenpeace Foundation. To bring about environmental change, we borrowed tactics from social reformers such as Gandhi and media theory from Marshall McLuhan. We pulled off stunts on the global stage with the intention of changing people's minds about peace and ecology. It worked.

I remain optimistic about the ability of people to change society, but before we can be optimistic, we must be realistic. The ecology movement helped cajole society into accepting some environmental limits, but humanity's efforts remain inadequate.

The fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change unequivocally attributes increased global warming to human actions, principally burning fossil fuels and destroying forests. Industrial civilization has been heating the planet since at least 1750, and the warming will likely continue for a millennium, regardless of what we do now.

Keep in mind that other environmental urgencies -- depleted ocean fisheries, species loss, soil erosion, and toxic pollution -- remain on our agenda. A 2005 UN assessment found that two-thirds of all natural services to humankind were in decline. Over two billion people face water and food scarcity. Nine million starve to death each year. These crises are driven primarily by the consumptive habits of the richest 15 per cent of humanity. The developing world -- largely China, India, and South America -- now want to share in the material wealth, putting more pressure on resources and accelerating the heating trends.

Even if we in the rich west achieved environmental enlightenment, we still remain uncertain about what to do. We don't want to slow down our economies. We don't want to lose our competitive advantages or limit our children's bright futures. Even if we do the right thing, how do we convince China, Chile, and Indonesia to do the right thing? And besides: what is the right thing?

To begin, we will have to abandon certain precious beliefs. An old saying says that insanity is doing the same thing we've always done while hoping for a different result. We must accept the crisis honestly and react accordingly.

Our models for operating are wrong-headed and destructive. Economists have misjudged the significance of ecology and the impacts of industrialism. Disappearing forests, dry rivers, and toxic fish are costs of doing business paid for by the entire human community.

This has to change on a colossal scale. The environment is the economy. We must account for nature's bounty as a global asset, develop renewable energy, minimize the harmful effluents of industry, and begin the long road back toward living within our ecological means.

At the social level, we will need to let go of outmoded politics. Right-left bickering over the spoils of industrial wealth will not save us. Socialist China and capitalist America produce virtually identical ecological disasters.

Social justice remains a worldwide problem, and much of this injustice is driven by ecological degradation. For those of us in rich nations, who enjoy the opportunities of industrial wealth, our ecological mistakes result in worldwide misery. If we care about social justice on our streets, we must also care that our use of the world's resources contribute to poverty and violence in Nigeria, Burma, and in the streets of Sao Paulo.

Eventually, however, change comes down to human activity at the most local level. You and I must take daily actions that make large-scale changes possible. We must act as if the age of ecological enlightenment has already arrived. Here are some ways we can share the burden of change and be part of the solution:

- Stop hydrocarbon use. At every opportunity, walk, ride a bike, or take public transport. Urge politicians to create non-polluting public transportation. B.C. spending $2 billion to build more highways into Vancouver represents ecological insanity.

- Grow and eat local food. Dining on exotic food that is wrapped in plastic and shipped around the world with fossil fuels is not sustainable on any large scale. Help preserve local agricultural land and start a backyard or community garden.

- Slow down consumption. We must stop consuming certain products and slow down all consumption. Make global responsibility your fashion statement. Shop second hand. Recycle everything.

- Build community. Urban society abandoned the community ethics that once sustained humanity. We need to rebuild that ethic in our neighbourhoods.

- Believe. To change the world, one must have faith in personal power. To foster personal confidence, begin somewhere, anywhere, probably in your most local environment.

- Stand up. Making a stand for a principle sharpens our own ideas and induces others to sharpen their ideas. When one person stands up, others are inspired to stand up.

- Have courage. Challenging the status quo can attract ridicule. We need the quiet courage of decent people doing the right thing. Do not be intimidated by the consequences of having a conscience.

- Research. Would-be reformers need to understand not only the problem, but also the forces that preserve the problem. One must possess a genuine curiosity about how society and nature works.

- Use your skills. The best way to change the world is through the things you already know how to do and love to do.

- Practice self-reflection. The greatest failures among would-be reformers are ego mistakes. Individuals, groups, and social movements become their own worst enemy when they lack self-critique.

After decades of looking for ways to reform society, I know one thing for sure -- action eradicates the feeling of hopelessness.

If a poor seamstress like Rosa Parks can quietly sit on a bus in Alabama and change the world, so can we.

Rex Weyler is the author of Greenpeace: The Inside Story, from Raincoast Books, and is a cofounder of Hollyhock retreat centre on Cortes Island. Contact: www.rexweyler.com

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Reduce rubbish -- get a roomie
The amount of solid waste Canadians send to landfills is on the rise, according to Statistics Canada.

Green facts in your pocket
The Greater Vancouver GreenGuide, produced by the Design Centre for Sustainability and the University of B.C., is a handy pocket guide to projects around the Lower Mainland that are setting the standard for sustainable urban living in action.

Calling all cellphone users
Cellphones contain a cocktail of hazardous chemicals, all of which will end up in the landfill and, potentially, the groundwater, if you chuck your old handset in the garbage. www.charitablerecycling.ca

Climate rage sure to become the new darling
Back before global warming was all the rage, we raged wildly and indiscriminately about other petty assaults. There was road rage, daycare drop-off rage, sports-parent rage, air rage, too-long-lineup rage, sales clerk-stupidity rage and so on.

Green your sick building back to health
Just as the Amazon rainforest is considered the lungs of the planet, so can house plants breathe fresh air into your home or office, reducing sick-air side effects such as respiratory problems, allergies and fatigue.

Dog poop an environmental challenge
Dog poop is a 26,000-pound-a-day environmental challenge in Vancouver, according to a report on the City's website, Dealing With Dog Waste in Vancouver Parks.

How to green up your home inside and out
INSIDE: You don't need to grow a carpet of dandelions in your living room to be one with nature.

How to green up your home inside and out
OUTSIDE: Transforming your exterior space from a patch of concrete or chemically addicted lawn into a lush jungle of organic, pesticide-free indigenous blossoms is easy, says Bob Tuckey, owner of The Natural Gardener on West 10th Avenue.

Family fears for the future of a planet in peril
In November The Vancouver Sun spoke to Langley couple Marnie and Graham Naples about their hopes and fears about the world they are leaving for their two young children, and asked for their opinions on the topic Canadians have recently named a national priority -- the environment.

Celebrities are doing their bit to be good eco-citizens, too
Environmental concern is no longer the sole domain of hemp-wearing anti-capitalists. These days, it's downright trendy to reduce, reuse and recycle, no matter how many millions of dollars you have in the bank.

Is the future really so bleak?
Will future generations remember us as badly as we remember those who did nothing while Jews were rounded up in Nazi Germany, women were refused full citizenship, homosexuals were reviled and blacks denied civil rights?

Natural nuptials
Saving the planet one "I do" at a time, green weddings are growing in popularity, according to the British daily, the Independent.

A green burial offers an ecological end to life
Want to be kind to Mother Nature in death as in life? Consider planning a green burial.
www.memorialsocietybc.org
www.naturalburial.ca

How local is your local food?
You can find out just how local your local food is by logging in to the 100 Mile Diet website before you dig into your dinner.

Vancouver Valuation Summit 2007
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OTTAWA -- Opposition MPs and environmentalists are baffled and outraged by warnings from a Conservatives MP that aggressive action to fight climate change and air pollution could lead to an increase in domestic violence and suicides.

The remarks were made Thursday by Tory member of Parliament Jeff Watson at a parliamentary committee studying the minority government's proposed "clean air" legislation.

"With short-term transition toward medium- and long-term targets, there's potential for a lot of dislocation, which is a term for some very painful costs along the way: job loss, anxiety, depression, bankruptcy, domestic violence, costs to employment insurance or retraining, loss of charitable dollars in communities for people who used to have high-paying jobs but don't any more and the social services that are funded by those, and in rare instances, suicide," said Watson, the MP for the Windsor, Ont., riding of Essex.

When asked to clarify his comments, Watson, who previously ran as a federal candidate for the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties before being elected as a Conservative in 2004, said he was enthusiastic about environmental action, but equally concerned about a high unemployment rate in his riding, and the impact of tough regulations for industries like the auto sector.

"Let's be clear, I said in very rare instances, it could lead to suicide," he said. "But there are costs, when you lose your job, or when you lose a $30 an hour job to work for $8 or $10 an hour, there are changes. You can experience depression. There could be any of a number of other social ills that cost governments too."

Watson's comments drew an immediate reaction from expert witnesses and environmentalists appearing at the parliamentary committee who accused him of fear mongering.

"No one's talking about closing down the automotive industry in Canada. No one is talking about creating unemployment," said Dr. Norman King, an epidemiologist at the urban environment and health department at Montreal's public health agency. "On the contrary. I think during the international conference in Montreal in December of 2005 there were many speakers who showed that working on the environment creates jobs, creates economic benefits, while at the same time creating better air quality and better health."

NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen said Watson should retract his comments, because they are damaging the government's credibility on reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.

"It's intellectually dishonest to connect what we do about our environmental obligations to people hurting themselves, or their children or wives," Cullen said in an interview. "The more I think about it, the more ridiculous and hurtful it is to the issues that he's talking about."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said this week his government would respect an opposition private member's bill that, if adopted, would force it to come up with a plan to meet Canada's international obligations under the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 30 per cent below current levels. But he has maintained the target is unrealistic and could devastate the Canadian economy.

In a Kyoto report card released on Friday, the Sierra Club of Canada noted some countries are on track to meet their Kyoto targets without any negative impact on their economies, including Sweden, which has reduced its dependence on oil from 77 per cent to 32 per cent of energy needs.

The report described 2006 as a "lost year" for Canada, in terms of fighting global warming, because of the Conservative government's decision to retreat from its international obligations and freeze spending of federal climate change initiatives before it relaunched them as new programs in 2007.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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