The Livable Blog

I just got an climate action email from Ben West at the Wilderness Committee about their new report - Coal: BC's Dirty Secret. He writes:

At the Wilderness Committee we have just published a new report entitled Coal: BC's Dirty Secret that explores the the glaring hypocrisy of the BC government on climate change . While our government projects its self to be a leader on addressing climate change it continues to support constructing new coal mines. Our report focuses on several of the proposed new coal mines across the province. Stopping these mines would be a very real step towards meaningful action on climate change.

The report points out that "Each year BC ships over 20 million tonnes of coal to foreign markets,where it is burned and adds to climate change, but not to BC’s reported
emissions. BC only measures fossil fuels burned here, not the end emissions of the dirty coal we mine and export to offshore markets in Japan, Korea, India and China."

The report also notes that Deltaport is the largest coal export facility in North America, and that expanding Deltaport is part of the 'Pacific Gateway Strategy'. Deltaport is on the front cover of the national version of the report, shown below.

What these short reports don't have enough space to cover thoroughly is that we re-import many of the products made by burning BC coal. Products like automobiles and auto parts are huge coal consumers, as is all the consumer crap pushed in big box stores. And the Gateway freeways are designed to stimulate demand for cars, and to create space for more big box stores on our best farm land.

So everything is connected, but it is not very complex. The things we need to do to reduce the consumption of tar sands oil are often the same as needed to reduce coal burning. And we need to tackle the consumption and productions ends at the same time. Both are essential to tackle the climate crisis.

To get involved in kicking our coal habit, sign up for the Wilderness Committee's climate action list at http://wildernesscommittee.org/coal