The Livable Blog

Get involved in the 10/10/10 Dig in for Climate Justice!
Mass Direct Action against Climate Crime

Council of Canadians 10/10/10 Dig in for Climate Justice information meeting

Wednesday Sept. 15, 7.30pm sharp

Holy Trinity Church, 1440 West 12th Ave. (main floor)

Global warming related disasters, such as the floods in Pakistan, are a growing threat particularly to low income people. Now transportation is Canada’s largest and fastest growing source of the greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating this crisis, making freeway building a climate crime.

Come and get involved in making the 10/10/10 Dig in for Climate Justice a success.

About the 10/10/10 Dig in for Climate Justice:

On Sunday October 10, 2010 as part of the 350.org 10/10/10 Global Work Party people around the world will be doing hands-on projects to shift humanity off the path towards runaway global warming. In greater Vancouver, we are organizing a mass direct action against a deliberate climate crime – the South Fraser Freeway.

The South Fraser Freeway is an est. $2 billion freeway to be paved through BC's best farmland and the delicate banks of the Fraser River.

We will remove ‘preload’ sand from the proposed freeway route and fill sand bags to raise nearby flood control dikes around a diverse Surrey neighbourhood, to protect it from flooding caused by global warming.

Organized by the Council of Canadians and GatewaySucks.org

For more info visit www.dig4justice.org

email edoherty at uniserve.com or call 604-877-1223

See the Sept 7, 2010 call for mass direct action from Bill McKibben of 350.org at http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-05-call-for-direct-action-in-climate-movement-we-need-your-ideas

Note:
Our Chapter is joining with two other COC chapters and Gateway Sucks to help organize this event. Our meeting will give you some background about the South Fraser Freeway Project and then let you know how you can participate in and support this day of action on October 10th. The more people who take part, the more effective this action will be. Come and help us get our message through to the politicians and the public.

In case anyone is feeling dispirited about stopping the South Fraser Freeway, in an almost unheard of example of protest stopping a project in Russia a series of protests culminating in a banned concert has stopped a freeway project on the outskirts of Moscow. We are not alone, and the tide is turning.

See you on 10/10/10 www.dig4justice.org

MOSCOW (AFP) – President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday ordered the suspension of plans to build a motorway through a forest outside Moscow, in a rare case of the Russian authorities responding to popular protests.

His sudden announcement came after least 2,000 people turned out Sunday for a banned concert in central Moscow protesting plans to build the motorway through the Khimki forest north of the Russian capital.

The protest was much larger than previous opposition protests under the decade-long rule of strongman Prime Minister Vladimir Putin where unsanctioned rallies have been characterised by thin turnouts and police crackdowns.

"Although a decision was taken by the government to build the motorway, people including the ruling party and the opposition, social groups and experts say that additional analysis is needed," Medvedev said.

"I order the government to halt the realisation of the construction and carry out additional discussions," Medvedev added, speaking of the "increased resonance" surrounding the project.

"This decision must be carried out, taking into account the appeals and the worries," he said in a message posted on his video blog.

The numbers at Sunday's protest were undoubtedly boosted by the presence of Yury Shevchuk, a Soviet-era rock star who has become an outspoken Kremlin critic and defiantly sang at the rally.

The order came following an apparently well-choreographed appeal earlier in the day by ruling party United Russia to halt the construction of the road.

It was not immediately clear if Putin -- currently on a highly-publicised trip to the Russian Far East which has seen him chase whales and go bear-watching -- was consulted over the decision.

United Russia, whose overall leader is Putin and which dominates parliament, has become known for consistently rubber-stamping Kremlin policies without quibbles.

"We have different opinions within United Russia about this question. But the situation does not look simple," United Russia's chairman Boris Gryzlov said in a statement.

Activists welcomed the move by United Russia as long overdue but better late than never.

Environmental campaigners have campaigned for months to block the construction of the highway which aims to relieve traffic on the Moscow-Saint Petersburg route but has become a rallying cause for the opposition.

"We are very happy," said Yevgenia Chirikova, the activist who has led the protest movement against the motorway. "But it is hard to explain because until now the authorities were not reacting to the civic protests," she told AFP.

The decision was the latest sign the authorities were keeping a beady eye on the protest movement in Russia after the economic crisis and wildfire catastrophe.
[snip]
Full text at http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100826/wl_afp/russiapoliticsenvironmentpoliticsprotest_20100826164612;_ylt=AlxarnDnq4o_YBIi12Ma5PaQOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTNnNGowN2JvBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDEwMDgyNi9ydXNzaWFwb2xpdGljc2Vudmlyb25tZW50cG9saXRpY3Nwcm90ZXN0BHBvcwMyOARzZWMDeW5

Graph: Petrobas Projection Showing the predicted gap between supply and demand - the end of the age of cheap oil.

Photo: This is what expensive oil looks like.

Charlie Smith at the Georgia Straight has scooped up this little tar ball off the beach; BC's Minister of Energy Blair Lekstrom is aware that oil production may have peaked or plateaued.

"There are people that think we have plateaued or peaked, and there are others that don't," he said, according to Hansard. "So it's an ongoing debate."

And Lekstrom is willing to share his power point presentation on the situation. Great, progress of a sort.

During the same debate, NDP energy critic John Horgan asked Lekstrom if the Oil and Gas Commission had done any work in connection with peak oil.

Peak oil is the point when global oil production will start going down because of diminishing global supplies.

Lekstrom replied that staff are following the peak oil debate.

"There are people that think we have plateaued or peaked, and there are others that don't," he said, according to Hansard. "So it's an ongoing debate, and our staff do follow that."

It's the first time the B.C. government has publicly acknowledged the possibility of global oil production peaking.

Horgan then asked Lekstrom if he's prepared to table any documents or briefing materials produced by his ministry on peak oil for the public to review.

"I will point out that we do have a PowerPoint that we will ensure that we get to the member," Lekstrom said. "As well, I would offer, if the member would want, a briefing to the member on the issue of peak oil, through our ministry."
http://www.straight.com/article-325467/vancouver/energy-minister-blair-lekstrom-acknowledges-peak-oil-and-downplays-offshore-drilling

The problem is that reports such as the US Government's Hirsh Report say we need about 20 years of all-out effort to prepare for peak oil. So, lets get this straight, our government is aware that the event that will require changing everything may have already happened. But their response it to continue their freeway building binge?

A bit of context may be helpful here. At one point the US was the world's largest oil exporter. That was the short-lived era of cheap oil, they didn't know what to do with it all and they certainly didn't have to drill in water over a Km deep to get it. After World War II it seemed to make sense to stimulate demand for oil and other consumer products, so the US government spent huge sums and built freeways right into their urban areas to stimulate automobile dependent sprawl and make gasoline into a necessity. The automobile and oil companies colluded to destroy public transit. These two actions together, along with supporting actions to foster sprawl, created a guaranteed market for oil.

This plan to stimulate demand for oil and other consumer products was so successful that in 1970 the extraction of oil peaked in the US. The easy oil is now mostly gone globally, and the peak of oil extraction is either past or just over the horizon.

Even if peak oil was 20 years away and global warming was not an issue, it would be insane to build urban freeways. We don’t have twenty years, we need to slam the brakes on freeway expansion now and use all our ingenuity to find quick ways to kick our oil dependency and stop global warming from spiraling out of control.

It is obvious that the governing Liberals have their heads in the oil-soaked sand. But what about John Horgan and the NDP? Are they prepared to discuss the needed changes? (Or is their plan to let the Liberals out-flank them on peak oil just like they did with global warming?)

What about our larger environmental and social justice groups, are they prepared to educate their supporters and push politicians on these crucial issues?

Something to discuss in person at the Garden Party, Monday at 1pm

The image above shows a short summary of the state of world shipping, in crisis and declining. And now as Charlie Smith discusses below, oil prices are again soaring "oil prices have only surpassed this level on an inflation-adjusted basis three times before: 1980, 1981, and 2008."

What a great time to blow billions on freeways while cutting things like chronic pain clinics, school music programs, and public transit!

But others are noticing that the the age of cheap oil is over. I have pasted a Guardian article about the US military's take on the near term prospects for oil supply and prices below as well.

Forget rear view mirrors, if Campbell does not have his head completely up his rear orifice the South Fraser Freeway will be delayed and then canceled.

Trade drives provincial policies, but is Gordon Campbell looking in rear-view mirror?
By Charlie Smith

[snip]

The B.C. Liberal government has tried to position our province to be the beneficiary of growing transoceanic trade.

Part of this strategy is the Gateway Program, which is an unprecedented, multibillion-dollar road-building exercise that includes a new Port Mann Bridge, a widening of Highway 1, and a South Fraser Perimeter Road.

Agricultural land is being sacrificed for pavement and to create space for containers coming from China.

Metro Vancouver has previously reported the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure secured approximately 110 hectares of agricultural land for the South Fraser Perimeter Road and the Golden Ears Bridge projects.

According to the theory of comparative advantage, we can rely on people in other parts of the world to grow our food because they're better at this than we are. We'll just trade for more of it as we need it.

[snip]

But all might not be as well as it seems, particularly if oil prices continue rising. The current price of US $85 per barrel is relatively high on an inflation-adjusted basis.

As this chart indicates, oil prices have only surpassed this level on an inflation-adjusted basis three times before: 1980, 1981, and 2008.

The inflationary period in the early 1980s triggered the worst economic slowdown since the Second World War.

Everyone knows what happened to the world economy in 2008. International trade plummeted as a result.

It could happen again.

I'm beginning to wonder if the B.C. Liberal government and its cheerleaders in the media are looking in the rear-view mirror--and not to the future--when they promote policies like the HST that blindly assume that more international trade is inevitable.

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.

Full text at
http://www.straight.com/article-302419/vancouver/trade-drives-provincial-policies-gordon-campbell-looking-rearview-mirror

But don't worry, others are paid very well to worry for you:

US military warns oil output may dip causing massive shortages by 2015

• Shortfall could reach 10m barrels a day, report says
• Cost of crude oil is predicted to top $100 a barrel

The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.

The energy crisis outlined in a Joint Operating Environment report from the US Joint Forces Command, comes as the price of petrol in Britain reaches record levels and the cost of crude is predicted to soon top $100 a barrel.

"By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day," says the report, which has a foreword by a senior commander, General James N Mattis.

It adds: "While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/11/peak-oil-production-supply

So who thinks that blowing billions to expand container shipping capacity is a wise investment today?

Naiomi Klein has posted some very disturbing information about the so-called 'security' situation in Haiti. In many cases, it seems that the response from countries like Canada and the US is that it is OK if poor people die, as long as they do so in an orderly fashion enforced by military might.

In New Orleans after the hurricane, the police and military blocked grassroots rescue efforts from groups such as highly trained oil rig workers and experienced commercial fishermen (who had exactly the right kind of boats and equipment). The excuse: black people are too dangerous to rescue without a bunch of soldiers with guns. The reality, powerful developers wanted to make money by pushing ordinary people off prime real estate. There was no huge security threat to rescuers.

Disasters generally bring out the best in ordinary people. They do what it takes to help each other out, even when bureaucrats and 'experts' from the police and military get in the way. And the grassroots groups formed in these efforts often become powerful agents for positive change during the re-building period and after. This is what happened after the Mexico City earthquake - people got involved in trying to create the kind of city and country they want to live in.

See http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2010/01/foreign-aid-still-trickle-devastated-port-au-prince-general-hospital-struggles-meet

Regular updates at www.naomiklein.org

Also see Doctors Without Borders Cargo Plane With Full Hospital and Staff Blocked From Landing in Port-au-Prince http://doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=4165&cat=press-release

Why are military forces, including Canada`s, bringing guns in while diverting essential medical equipment away? Is it because Doctors Without Borders works well with local grassroots groups, the kind of groups that Harper and his ilk want to destroy?