News – 11 May 2012

Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
“Packing so many attacks on nature into one bill, Harper bets, will confuse citizens. Here’s what’s at stake. Usually when the Harper Conservatives bring in a new law, there is a big roll-out. … Not so for Bill C-38, known as the omnibus budget bill. Sure, it did get the fabulous title: the “Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act.” There all similarities to other pieces of legislation end. There was no announcement. No press release for first reading. There was no lock-up. There were no schematic guides to understand the changes to the 70 laws undergoing a brutal overhaul. Like surgery without an anesthetic, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act was repealed and a whole new act brought in. While the four-paragraph seniors bill, C-36, will get its own committee hearings and full debate in the House, the 420-page Bill C-38, the omnibus budget bill, will be fast-tracked through the Finance Committee.

To add injury to insult, Conservatives limited the number of days allowed for debate at second reading of C-38. Government House Leader Peter Van Loan puffed himself up to pronounce that this was a longer time for debate than other budget bills. Meanwhile the Opposition MPs are left to protest that no other budget bill in Canadian history had repealed, amended or overhauled 70 existing pieces of legislation.

Some laws are the stuff of future Conservative campaigning. They are over-sold and put in the front window. Then there is the orphaned and unloved bastard child of Harper’s legislative agenda. It is hidden. It is not to be placed in the front window, nor proclaimed as it should be: “Vote for the Conservative Party, tough on nature!” The good news in this is that Stephen Harper knows that his base would hate a lot of what’s in C-38. That’s why he is hiding it—in a way that hides it in plain sight for anyone who is willing to dig deep and read the fine print.

Here’s what is in C-38 on the environment. (C-38 threatens more than environmental damage, but this should give you a sense of why I am determined to stop this bill.)

• Canadian Environmental Assessment Act ditched. Repealed and replaced with a completely new act. “Environmental effects” under the new CEAA will be limited to effects on fish, aquatic species under the Species at Risk Act, migratory birds. A broader view of impacts is limited to federal lands, Aboriginal peoples, and changes to the environment “directly linked or necessarily incidental” to federal approval.
• Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency seriously weakened. The agency will have 45 days after receiving an application to decide if an assessment is required. Environmental assessments are no longer required for projects involving federal money. The minister is given wide discretion to decide. New “substitution” rules allow Ottawa to download EAs to the provinces; “comprehensive” studies are eliminated. Cabinet will be able to over-rule decisions. A retroactive section sets the clock at July 2010 for existing projects.
• Canadian Environmental Protection Act undercut. The present one-year limit to permits for disposing waste at sea can now be renewed four times. The three and five-year time limits protecting species at risk from industrial harm will now be open-ended.
• Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act killed. This legislation, which required government accountability and results reporting on climate change policies, is being repealed.
• Fisheries Act seriously weakened. Fish habitat provisions will be changed to protect only fish of “commercial, Aboriginal, and recreational” value and even those habitat protections are weakened. The new provisions create an incentive to drain a lake and kill all the fish, if not in a fishery, in order to fill a dry hole with mining tailings.
• Navigable Waters Protection Act hampered. Pipelines and power lines will be exempt from the provisions of this act. Also, the National Energy Board absorbs the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) whenever a pipeline crosses navigable waters. The NWPA is amended to say a pipeline is not a “work” within that act.
• Energy Board Act neutered. National Energy Board reviews will be limited to two years—and then its decisions can be reversed by the cabinet, including the present Northern Gateway Pipeline review.
• Species at Risk Act hamstrung. This is being amended to exempt the National Energy Board from having to impose conditions to protect critical habitat on projects it approves. Also, companies won’t have to renew permits on projects threatening critical habitat.
• Parks Canada Agency Act trimmed, staff cut. Reporting requirements are being reduced, including the annual report. Six hundred and thirty eight of the nearly 3,000 Parks Canada workers will be cut. Environmental monitoring and ecological restoration in the Gulf Islands National Park are being cut.
• Canadian Oil and Gas Operations Act made more industry friendly. This will be changed to exempt pipelines from the Navigational Waters Act.
• Coasting Trade Act made more offshore drilling friendly. This will be changed to promote seismic testing allowing increased off-shore drilling.
• Nuclear Safety Control Act undermined. Environmental assessments will be moved to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which is a licensing body not an assessing body—so there is a built-in conflict.
• Canada Seeds Act inspections privatized. This is being revamped so the job of inspecting seed crops is transferred from Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspectors to “authorized service providers,” the private sector.
• Agriculture affected. Under the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act, publicly-owned grasslands have acted as community pastures under federal management, leasing grazing rights to farmers so they could devote their good land to crops, not livestock. This will end. Also, the Centre for Plant Health in Sidney, B.C., an important site for quarantine and virus-testing on plant stock strategically located across the Salish Sea to protect B.C.’s primary agricultural regions, will be moved to the heart of B.C.’s fruit and wine industries.
• National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy killed. The NRTEE brought industry leaders, environmentalists, First Nations, labour, and policy makers together to provide non-partisan research and advice on federal policies. Its demise will leave a policy vacuum in relation to Canada’s economic development.
• More attacks on environmental groups funded. The charities sections now preclude gifts which may result in political activity. The $8 million new money to harass charities is unjustified.
• Water programs cut. Environment Canada is cutting several water-related programs and others will be cut severely, including some aimed at promoting or monitoring water-use efficiency.
• Wastewater survey cut. The Municipal Water and Wastewater Survey, the only national study of water consumption habits, is being cut after being in place since 1983.
• Monitoring effluent cut. Environment Canada’s Environmental Effects Monitoring Program, a systematic method for measuring the quality of effluent discharge, including from mines and pulp mills, will be cut by 20 per cent.

In spite of the fact that most Canadians have no idea how seriously Bill C-38 will affect their lives, the Senate is about to begin hearings so that Conservative senators can vote on it as soon as possible. This railroading version of democracy is tragic for Canada. …
(The Tyee/Elizabeth May) (May 10) (Also C-38: Environment Devastation Act campaign)

Melting sea ice could lead to pressure on Arctic fishery
“With melting sea ice opening up previously inaccessible parts of the Arctic Ocean, the fishing industry sees a potential bonanza. But some scientists and government officials have begun calling for a moratorium on fishing in the region until the true state of the Arctic fishery is assessed. …
(Yale Environment 360) (May 10)

Wales Coast Path officially opens with events in Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Flint
“The world’s first coastal path to cover an entire country has been officially opened in Wales. Stretching from the mouth of the River Dee in Flintshire in the north to Chepstow in south, the Wales Coast Path covers 870 miles (1,400km). The network also links into the Offa’s Dyke Path—creating a 1,030 mile (1660km) route around the whole of Wales. Three opening events have been held in Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Flint. It marks the pinnacle of a five-year project to link up the network of paths, backed by the Welsh government, the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), landowners and local authorities. At a ceremony in Cardiff Bay, Environment Minister John Griffiths described the new path as “a huge asset for Wales.” …
(BBC) (May 5) (Pictures)

News – 09 May 2012

The long-in-the-making (two years!) Journal of Coastal Conservation special issue on Archaeology and Coastal Conservation, guest edited by Torben Rick and Scott Fitzpatrick, has finally been published. Here are the contents and abstracts…

Rick, Torben C. and Scott M. Fitzpatrick
2012    Archaeology and Coastal Conservation. J Coast Conserv 16(2):135-136.

Erlandson, Jon McVey
2012    As the World Warms: Rising Seas, Coastal Archaeology, and the Erosion of Maritime History. J Coast Conserv 16(2):137-142.

• Abstract: The human history of coastal regions around the world has been under assault for decades, from forces that include dam building, coastal modifications, the destruction of wetlands, marine erosion, population growth and rampant development, looting, and other processes. Global warming will exacerbate the destruction of cultural resources in coastal zones through accelerated sea level rise, intensified storm cycles, and related coastal erosion. Although average global sea levels have been rising for ∼20,000 years, they slowed dramatically about 7,000 years ago. Rates of sea level rise now appear to be increasing rapidly due to growing anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Global warming and rising seas, especially when combined with population growth and the implementation of measures designed to protect endangered coastal properties, threaten the deep maritime history of human migrations, settlement, and adaptations in coastal areas around the world. Ranging in age from the mid-Pleistocene to recent historic times, coastal archaeological sites contain invaluable data on ancient coastal societies, fisheries, and ecosystems. Archaeologists, historians, and other cultural resource managers must do more to anticipate, evaluate, and mitigate the effects of global warming, sea level rise, and coastal erosion on the long history of human maritime cultures.

Pollard, Edward
2012    Present and Past Threats and Response on the East Coast of Africa: An Archaeological Perspective. J Coast Conserv 16(2):143-158.

• Abstract:  This article addresses two related themes: the response of coastal communities to the impact of environmental processes and human actions as reflected in archaeology, and threats to the archaeological record emanating from current natural and human agencies. The geographical context is the entire east coast of Africa, although emphasis is placed on Swahili settlements in the light of their long-standing dependence upon maritime resources and trading opportunities. Evidence is derived from documentary sources and field studies with detailed data from Kilwa, Tanzania. Physical conditions are relatively benign, but threats are identified in adverse weather events, erosion, and sedimentation processes. Knowledge of past climatic impacts upon shipping is restricted by limited research of the off-shore environment. On-shore, the archaeological record provides evidence of protective construction work, possibly where erosion precipitated by removal of mangroves. However, unless significant port investments required safeguarding, relocation of landing area and settlement was principal response to erosion and sedimentation. Current threats to archaeology are far more significant both from natural processes of marine erosion and vegetation growth encouraged by urban decline and neglect. Limited legislation and resources are seen as the greatest impediments to investigation and protection of heritage from urban and tourism inspired development in future.

Rowland, Michael John and Sean Ulm
2012    Key Issues in the Conservation of the Australian Coastal Archaeological Record: Natural and Human Impacts. J Coast Conserv 16(2):159-171.

• Abstract:  Australia has an extensive coastline extending over 60,000 km through diverse tropical and temperate environments. Indigenous archaeological sites are found along this coastline from the time of earliest settlement at least 50,000 years ago. However, Pleistocene sites are rare owing largely to the destructive impacts of sea-level change associated with the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago. After this sites are more numerous but there is variability around the coastline due to the impact of a range of both natural and human factors. Here we focus on six key issues impacting on the development and conservation of coastal archaeological deposits: sea-levels, climate change, cyclones, storms, tsunamis and contemporary human impacts. A number of examples of these impacts are discussed from across Australia. Managing and monitoring of sites has been limited in Australia and geoindicators are discussed as a means of developing a long-term measurement of continuing impacts.

Fitzpatrick, Scott Michael
2012    On the Shoals of Giants: Natural Catastrophes and the Overall Destruction of the Caribbean’s Archaeological Record. J Coast Conserv 16(2):173-186.

• Abstract:  In this paper I review a host of natural and cultural processes that have affected the preservation and integrity of archaeological sites on islands in the West Indies, many of which are located in low-lying coastal areas. Given the position of the Caribbean lithospheric plate—juxtaposed between four others—it is no surprise that by its very nature the region is volcanically active and frequently associated with earthquake and tsunami events. This makes coastal zones, and related archaeological sites in the region, highly susceptible to a wide range of destructive natural events. The high frequency of tropical systems (hurricanes and storms) in the Caribbean and rising sea level, coupled with human activities such as sand mining, development, and looting, makes the region’s archaeological record one of the most vulnerable and threatened in the world. Ongoing research is dedicated to understanding how past populations may have been affected by these events in the past.

Reeder, Leslie A., Torben C. Rick and Jon M. Erlandson
2012    Our Disappearing Past: A GIS Analysis of the Vulnerability of Coastal Archaeological Resources in California’s Santa Barbara Channel Region. J Coast Conserv 16(2):187-197.

• Abstract:  Coastal archaeological resources around the world often coincide with dense contemporary human populations and a rapidly changing physical environment. Projected sea level rise and urban expansion during the 21st century threaten to destroy much of our global coastal archaeological heritage. In this study, we adapt an environmental vulnerability analysis to quantify the threats of modern development and sea level rise on archaeological sites in California’s Santa Barbara Channel region. Using spatial and statistical techniques, we create a Cultural Resource Vulnerability Index that combines environmental factors, current and projected urban footprints, and archaeological site positioning. We illustrate the importance of this method for targeting threatened archaeological sites for mitigation and salvage research. In the process, we highlight the significance of coastal archaeological sites for helping better understand contemporary environmental and cultural issues, underscoring the need to preserve or salvage these sites for their significant research value.

Nunn, Patrick D.
2012    Disruption of Coastal Societies in the Pacific Islands from Rapid Sea-Level Fall about AD 1300: New Evidence from Northern Viti Levu Island, Fiji. J Coast Conserv 16(2):199-209.

• Abstract:  This paper reports preliminary findings of a study in northern Viti Levu Island (Fiji) intended to test the model of the AD 1300 Event. This holds that around AD 1250–1350, during the transition between the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age, there was a rapid climate-driven sea-level fall of 70–80 cm which created a food crisis for coastal dwellers throughout the tropical Pacific Islands and led to conflict and the abandonment of open coastal settlements in favour of those in more defensible locations. Two main areas were targeted—the Ba River Valley and adjoining Vatia Peninsula (plus offshore islands)—and inland/offshore sites in defensible locations, particularly in caves, ridge-top rockshelters, and isolated hilltops, were surveyed and test excavations made. Results show that while some of these sites were established during the AD 1300 Event, most were established shortly afterwards, which is exactly what the model predicts. It is concluded that prehistoric populations in Fiji (and similar island groups) were affected by the food crisis during the AD 1300 Event and did respond in ways that profoundly and enduringly altered contemporary trajectories of societal evolution. This study has great implications for the preservation of the record of prehistoric settlement in Fiji (and other tropical Pacific Island groups) because, as a consequence of this climate-forced migration from coasts to inland/upland sites, large amounts of sediment were released from island interiors and carried to their coasts where they buried earlier settlements or redistributed their material signature. Since European arrival in such places around 150 years ago, a second wave of coastal sedimentation, largely driven by plantation agriculture development had similar effects. The current rise of sea level around Pacific Island coasts is the latest in a series of (largely human) threats to the preservation of their cultural heritage.

Costa, Gustavo and Francisco Taveira Pinto
2012    Modelling of the Coastal Defence Scheme of Espinho, Portugal. J Coast Conserv 16(2):211-221.

• Abstract:  The most recent intervention on the coastline of Espinho, located on the Portuguese West Atlantic coast, was part of the General Plan for Coastal Protection in 1980/81. As a result, two unusually large groins/headlands were built which were reinforced and enlarged in 1997, slightly changing their geometry and orientation. However, due to the decreased sediment supply from the north and the impact of energetic sea conditions common to the northwest coast of Portugal the coastal evolution has not developed as desired, although in general terms the initial expectations were fulfilled. The numerical modelling of the Espinho coastline using SMC software focused on both hydrodynamic and hydromorphological aspects. The purpose of this study is to analyse the most vulnerable areas of the Espinho seafront for current velocities and littoral drift, as well as to confirm the effectiveness of the two groins in terms of coastal protection. To achieve this, various simulations were performed, taking into account diverse sea conditions.

Milner, Nicky
2012    Destructive Events and the Impact of Climate Change on Stone Age Coastal Archaeology in North West Europe: Past, Present and Future. J Coast Conserv 16(2):223-231.

• Abstract:  Archaeological investigations along the coastlines of Denmark and northern Germany have produced invaluable data concerning the Stone Age, and particularly our Mesolithic fishing, hunting and gathering ancestors. However, a number of different natural and human forces have partially or totally destroyed this important resource, particularly in other parts of North West Europe such as Britain and Ireland. What is more, further problems can be predicted as a consequence of climate change with possible rising sea levels and storm events. This paper considers the value of Mesolithic coastal archaeology, the threats posed to it, and the steps which are being taken to address these threats. The conclusion is that although research and policy is moving ahead, much more needs to be done in order to understand and preserve these sites before it is too late.

+++

Also, here is the report to accompany yesterday’s post (08 May 2012) on the CBC article ‘Treaty process mires B.C. First Nations in $420M debt.’ Prepared for federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan by land use and treaty consultant James Lornie, it is referred to as the ‘Lornie Report.’

FINAL REPORT WITH RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING THE POSSIBILITY OF ACCELERATING NEGOTIATIONS WITH COMMON TABLE FIRST NATIONS THAT ARE IN THE BC TREATY PROCESS, AND ANY STEPS REQUIRED  (pdf)

News – 08 May 2012

Treaty process mires B.C. First Nations in $420M debt
“Ottawa needs to consider a flexible exit strategy for British Columbia First Nations frustrated and debt-challenged by slow-moving treaty negotiations, says a special report prepared for federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan. The 47-page report by former Campbell River, B.C., mayor James Lornie, appointed Duncan’s special B.C. treaty representative last year, states First Nations treaty negotiations debt now tops $420 million, which is insurmountable and an unsustainable barrier to reaching treaties. The report doesn’t suggest dumping the treaty process after more than 20 years of negotiations, but states First Nations need the option to leave the table without feeling intense pressure to pay off debts and with nothing to show after years of talks. …
(CBC) (May 7)

Opinion: Climate change will shape B.C. in 2035, one way or another
“We live on a different planet from the one our parents grew up on, says American environmentalist Bill McKibben. Climate change from our rampant combustion of fossil fuels has pushed the world into a new era of bizarre weather anomalies. In British Columbia, warming has been greater that the global average, with costly consequences, including the pine beetle epidemic, downtime for ferries and highways, raging forest fires and flooding. The big question is whether carbon emissions can be stabilized at some level by human collective action, or whether we will soon pass critical thresholds that will trigger a runaway climate change scenario.

Canada has recently thumbed its nose at global negotiations, in favour of digging ever deeper into the hole of extreme energy that is causing the problem. Even though climate costs are mounting—in Canada and especially in poorer and more vulnerable countries—the immense profits from our exports of coal, gas and oil dominate Canadian politics. British Columbians in 2035 will be facing a variety of climate-related challenges to a decent quality of life. Food supplies from California will dry up; storms will be more devastating; animal and plant species will be threatened. Even if we are lucky, climate impacts in other parts of the world could lead millions to our shores. High and growing inequality undermines trust in our fellow citizens, and threatens to erode the social foundation of this future. As federal and provincial governments tear page after page from the social contract, we are moving to a society where you are on your own.

Our current period of official denial cannot last much longer. It may, tragically, take another Hurricane Katrina-scale disaster, or two or three, but sooner or later, the realities of climate change will catch up to Canadian and United States politics. …
(Vancouver Sun) (May 1)

Should environmental law changes be pulled out of bill C-38?
“Eleven environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund and the David Suzuki Foundation took out newspaper ads Monday to draw attention to proposed changes to environmental law contained in the government’s latest budget implementation bill. Bill C-38 is more than 400 pages long and makes substantial changes to many Canadian laws, including many that affect the government’s stand on the environment:

• It repeals the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act.
• It sets timelines for environmental assessment hearings and allows Ottawa to hand off assessments to the provinces.
• It gives the federal cabinet the authority to approve new pipeline projects and sets time limits for regulatory reviews.  
• It makes changes to how permits under the Species at Risk Act are authorized.
• It overhauls the Fisheries Act to focus only on major waterways, not every single body of water.
• It sets out stiffer fines for industry players who break environmental regulations and laws.

On Thursday, the House of Commons votes to impose time allocation on the bill, which limits debate to just seven sitting days. The NDP announced on Monday that it would ask for the omnibus budget bill to be split into parts to that it can be properly debated.  The environmental groups are calling on Canadians to “black out” their websites on June 4 in protest as part of their Black Out, Speak Out campaign. The groups behind the campaign say the changes to environmental law in the budget bill will “weaken environmental rules and silence the voices of those who seek to defend them.” “What we want is the environmental law changes out of the budget. They have no business being in the budget,” said John Bennett, executive director for Sierra Club Canada. …
(CBC) (May 7)

Globe to Harper govt: Stop ‘smearing’ green critics
“The federal government’s claim that Canada’s environmental movement is “laundering” money for foreign charities is apparently part of a deliberate campaign to “smear and intimidate” its critics, reads a Globe and Mail editorial. “Environment Minister [Peter Kent] has accused unnamed environmental charities of criminal activity, and yet provides no specifics,” reads the editorial, which runs in the Globe’s Monday edition. “There is paranoia, there is partisanship, there are wild allegations. But evidence? No.” …
(The Tyee) (May 7)

Greenland glaciers speed up, swelling rising seas: Study
“Some of Greenland’s glaciers are moving about 30 per cent faster than they did 10 years ago, contributing to rising global sea levels, but that still may not be enough to reach the most extreme projections for 2100, scientists reported on Thursday. Researchers have been monitoring the big ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica for decades as one indication of the impact of human-spurred climate change. Made of compacted snow, these glaciers can move toward the sea, and when they get there, they dump water into the oceans around them. The faster they move, the more water they add, and the higher the oceans get. Not all glaciers move at the same pace, according to Twila Moon and her co-authors at the University of Washington and Ohio State University, whose research is published in the current issue of the journal Science. The satellite data came from Canada, Germany and Japan between the years 2000 and 2011. Inland glaciers with no outlet to the sea poke along at top speeds of 9 to 100 metres a year, the researchers found, while those that end at the ocean can travel 11.2 km a year. The glaciers that flow to the sea around Greenland are the ones to watch, Moon said in a telephone interview, because that is where four-fifths of the loss of ice in Greenland occurs. …
(Vancouver Sun) (May 3)

UW study: Greenland losing ice fast, but not runaway pace
“Greenland’s glaciers are hemorrhaging ice at an increasingly faster rate but not at the breakneck pace that scientists once feared, a new study says. Greenland’s glaciers are hemorrhaging ice at an increasingly faster rate but not at the breakneck pace that scientists once feared, a new study says. The loss of ice from the glaciers that cover the island is about 30 percent faster than it was a decade ago, researchers said. That means Greenland’s contribution to future sea level rise would be about 4 inches by the year 2100 if ice loss doesn’t speed up much more, a study author said. That may not sound like much, but when other causes of sea rise around the globe are added, the total could still be about 3 feet by the end of the century, researchers said. “‘Glacial pace’ is not slow anymore,” said study author Twila Moon, a glacier researcher at the University of Washington. At the same time, “some of the worst-case possibilities that we had imagined are not coming true at this point,” Moon said. “So it’s not good news, but it’s not bad news.”. …
(Seattle Times) (May 3)

Kalakala quagmire: Ferry owner stuck between eviction lawsuit and vessel being unfit to move
“An heir to Tacoma’s Concrete Technology Corp., Karl Anderson was wealthy and well connected; he had business savvy and owned one of the only graving docks in Puget Sound big enough to pull the 276-foot Kalakala into and restore it to its original condition. A lawsuit pending in Pierce County Superior Court shows just how badly that turned out. …
(Tacoma News Tribune) (May 5) (Video)

News – 04 May 2012

Musqueam seek to swap land to save burial site: Accuse B.C. government of dragging the issue
“The Musqueam Nation says it is willing to swap some of its lands in order to prevent construction of a condominium on an ancient Musqueam burial site, but accused the provincial government of dragging its feet on the issue. “The Musqueam are so set on protecting that land we would be willing to swap that land,” Musqueam councillor Wade Grant Thursday. He said the province “told us they can’t move back a permit [for the developer to build the condominium on the site]. They told us it was up to us to come up with a solution and we proposed one two weeks ago and we have still not heard a response back.” He said the solution would be to trade some of the $4.9-million worth of yet-to-be-identified Crown land the government promised the first nation in 2008 for the ancestral burial site, located on 0.8 hectares (two acres) in an area known as Marpole Midden near the airport.

Grant said the Musqueam Nation has been in discussions with the City of Vancouver and the co-developers of the site, Century Holdings Ltd. and Fran and Gary Hackett, and believes they would be supportive of the land-swap solution. The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Operations said in an emailed statement: “The province is involved and has appointed Geoff Freer as a facilitator to work with the parties.” Grant said three skeletons, one of an adult and two infants, have been found on the site, and the developer has applied for a permit to allow it to remove the remains from the site.

Leaders from the First Nations Summit held a rally Thursday to show their support for the Musqueam Nation, saying it’s yet another example “of disrespect and apathy” the provincial government continues to show first nations people in B.C. “It is unfathomable to believe that even though the complete remains of two Musqueam infants and an adult have been found on the site, little has been done to ensure the site’s protection, said Dan Smith, an executive on the First Nations Summit. “These sites are supposed to be protected. B.C. is all about protecting its heritage sites that only go back 125 years, but when it comes to protecting first nation sites, an attitudinal barrier crops up,” he said. …
(Vancouver Sun) (May 3)

News – 02 May 2012

Climate change: Washington coastal tribes hosting symposium blending indigenous knowledge with western science
“The inaugural First Stewards symposium, to be held July 17-20 in Washington, D.C. is a national event that examines the impact of climate change on indigenous coastal cultures and explores solutions based on millennia of traditional ecological knowledge. Hundreds of native leaders, witnesses and climate scientists will join policy-makers and non-government organizations for groundbreaking dialogue in what is planned to be an annual meeting at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

The Hoh, Makah and Quileute tribes and the Quinault Indian Nation created the symposium because indigenous coastal people are among the most affected by climate change. “We need everyone engaged in working on adaptations, mitigation and strategies and solutions to climate change,” said Micah McCarty, chairman of the Makah and of the First Stewards steering committee. “Even the polar bears and people of the Arctic Circle cannot escape the second-hand smoke of the vehicle tailpipe and the smokestack that leave such a large carbon footprint. Arctic Circle villages must adapt and change now while still trying to preserve their culture and way of life. The rest of us have a little time if we act now,” McCarty said. Traditional knowledge is needed to make climate science and subsequent models meaningful on a human and local scale.

“Coastal Indian people are already dealing with the effects of climate change,” said Billy Frank Jr., chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC). The NWIFC is an inter-tribal support services organization that assists 19 member tribes in western Washington with natural resources management. “The glaciers that feed our life-giving rivers are melting. Reservations are flooding more often, forcing some tribes to have to move their homes to higher ground. Tribes are the natural choice to lead the nation in the response to climate change, beginning with this symposium in July.”

Regional panels will share climate adaptation strategies from coastal and island ecosystems nationwide where Indian Country, Alaskan Natives and indigenous U.S. Pacific Islanders are at the forefront, creating an incubator for climate change solutions. Tribal regulatory environments allow for demonstrations of solutions to pressing needs, such as renewable energy and adaptation strategies for villages. “We want to see meaningful collaboration borne out of this first symposium that over the coming years yields effective work to make changes in the way we live on earth to sustain all of us for centuries to come,” McCarty said.

The symposium is in partnership with scientific, tribal and governmental and non-governmental organizations including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and National Marine Fisheries Service, The Nature Conservancy, National Congress of American Indians and Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council. Other partners include Salmon Defense, United South and Eastern Tribes, Uncas Consulting Services, American Native Renewables, and EA Engineering, Science, and Technology.
(Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission) (First Stewards press page) (May 1)

News – 30 April 2012

B.C. mining company wants aboriginal ‘spirituality’ ignored in project review
“Taseko Mines Ltd. is pushing the Harper government to reconsider a controversial gold-copper mining project in the B.C. interior.  A Vancouver company pushing the Harper government to reconsider a controversial gold-copper mining project in the B.C. interior has privately urged Ottawa to ignore aboriginal requests to consider native “spirituality” as a factor in their determination, according to a letter the company sent to Environment Minister Peter Kent. A new federal environmental review panel “does not have any right to attribute significance to the spirituality of a place per se,” wrote Taseko Mines Ltd. President Russell Hallbauer in a letter obtained under the Access to Information Act and provided to The Vancouver Sun by B.C. independent MLA Bob Simpson.

Taseko, which failed in its 2010 bid to get federal approval after a “scathing” federal review, also asked Ottawa to not permit aboriginal prayer ceremonies at pending hearings on the revised proposal. And children’s plays should also be banned, Taseko President Russell Hallbauer told Kent in his November letter that was released through the Access to Information Act. The panel allowed “a group of kindergarten children to present a play, in which the children wore fish cut-outs on their heads, moved around the floor, and then all fell over simultaneously, symbolizing the death of the fish,” Hallbauer wrote. Allowing opening prayers wasn’t “appropriate” and a “sensational” anti-project film and the children’s play also shouldn’t have been part of a process that is supposed to be “objective and fact-based.” …

One native leader said Taseko’s letter is an affront to aboriginal spirituality. “We are tied to the land and that’s a spiritual area,” said Tsilhqot’in National Government (TNG) Tribal Chair Chief Joe Alphonse of the proposed open-pit mine about 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake. “To not even have that as part of the review, you may as well not have a review at all. Let’s go turn the Vatican into a casino hall. This is exactly what we’re talking about when a company is allowed to make those kinds of suggestions. It’s wrong.” Another local First Nations leader, Xeni Gwet’in Chief Marilyn Baptiste, likened Taseko’s proposal to the former government-sanctioned residential schools that “outlawed our spirituality, our drumming and our language.” …
(Vancouver Sun) (April 30)

Nature is not a commodity: The path to Rio+20
“Indigenous wisdom reveals a path to the future that does not include a buy-out of the earth’s natural systems.  With these three words, Karma Tshiteem, Secretary of the Bhutan Gross National Happiness Commission, ended his brief description of Bhutan’s distinctive approach to economic development. It caught my attention because of the striking contrast to our common Western phrase, “Time is money.”

• “Time is life.”

The event I was attending was a small international gathering primarily of indigenous environmental leaders. I was privileged to be among the few nonindigenous writer-activists invited to join them. …

Competing Worldviews

Those indigenous people who maintain their cultural identity view the world through a very different lens than do those of us who view the world through a Western cultural lens. The implications of the difference are profound. The summaries below represent my understanding of the contrasting Western and indigenous worldviews regarding our perception of time, relationships, and place. The Western lens leads further down the scorched Earth path we are currently on. The indigenous lens leads to the path to a viable and prosperous human future. For clarity, I’ve intentionally emphasized the differences.

Contemporary Western Worldview

Time:  Time is money and plays out in an exponential unidirectional growth in financial assets, consumption, and the market value of economic activity. Decision-making properly gives priority to maximizing financial gain to grow the economic pie and thereby improve the lives of all. Indices like Gross Domestic Product that assess economic performance based on the rate of flow of money through the economy and stock price indices like the Dow Jones average that track the value of financial assets are natural and logical metrics for assessing economic performance.

Relationships:  Individual liberty and economic efficiency are paramount and are maximized by basing human relationships on financial exchanges in which each individual seeks to maximize his or her individual financial gain. This in turn maximizes the general well-being and improves the lives of all. Nature exists for the benefit of humans, who rightfully control and dominate it.

Place:  Earth is a resource to be owned, valued by the price it will fetch in the marketplace, and exploited for maximum financial return. Our individual identity is defined by the brands we consume. Our individual worth is determined by the price we command in the marketplace and our accumulated financial assets. We maximize our personal economic efficiency by minimizing our individual connection and commitment to any place, person, or community and maximizing our readiness to move on when presented with greater financial opportunity elsewhere. Property rights are properly treated as individual, total, and freely tradable if the price is right.

The affirmation and celebration of extreme individualism, instant self-gratification, and alienation from one another and nature characteristic of the contemporary Western worldview resonates with the primitive core of the human brain, commonly known as the reptilian brain. This is the site of our most basic, individualistic, and predatory hide, fight, or flight survival instincts unmediated by the more highly evolved mammalian brain that is the source of our human capacity for compassion and bonding and the neocortical brain where our distinctive human capacity for self-awareness and reason resides.

Suppressing our capacity for reason, we raise the pursuit of money to the status of a sacred mission, failing to notice that money is nothing but a number of no intrinsic value and that we are destroying the real wealth of people, community, and nature to grow the numbers on financial asset statements.

The traditional indigenous worldview presents a very different, what we might call a whole brain, perspective on ourselves and our relationship to nature.

Traditional Indigenous Worldview

Time:  Time is life and is experienced through the rhythms of life’s daily, seasonal, and generational circular flow. As humans we must be ever mindful of our responsibility to meet our own needs in ways that assure life’s continued healthful flow and balance now and for generations to come. The Gross National Happiness Index developed by the nation of Bhutan appropriately assesses economic performance based on indicators of the health and well-being of people living in harmonious balance with one another and nature.

Relationships:  All beings are related and interconnected. It is our individual human duty to recognize and honor the rights of all beings, including the river, the rock, and the glacier. Mother Earth provides our means of living. Her bounty is a gift that we received in common and must share, respect and care for in common. None among us created that bounty and no one has a right to claim it for their exclusive personal benefit. We are entitled only to take what we need and bear a sacred responsibility to give back or share the rest—all the while respecting the natural balance of creation and the Original Instructions that constitute a higher law to which all human laws are inherently subordinate.

Place:  Earth is our sacred mother. Each being has intrinsic value and its rightful place within an interconnected whole. Our personal and collective connection to our place on Earth is sacred and inalienable. Individual human identity is linked to and defined by a deep and enduring relationship to our place and to the vocation through which we sustain ourselves and fulfill our responsibility to and for the community that in turn sustains us.

There is good reason why the wisdom at the heart of the traditional indigenous worldview strikes a deep and appealing chord in the human psyche. Modern science is now telling us what indigenous wisdom keepers have known and taught across countless generations. We humans evolved over millions of years to live and prosper in community with one another and nature. Our happiness and sense of well-being depend in substantial measure on our connection to nature and a caring community. Science now acknowledges that the Original Instructions are, in effect, genetically encoded into the more highly evolved mammalian and human centers of our brain.

What we of the Western worldview embrace as progress is best understood from an evolutionary perspective as a regression to a more primitive state of awareness. Our Western separation from nature—from life—has allowed us to greatly deepen human understanding of the inner mechanics of life. It has, however, alienated us from our understanding of life’s purpose; life’s capacity for non-mechanical self-direction, adaptation, and resilience; and what is truly sacred. We are just beginning to wake up to the self-deflating truth that to find our way to the path of the new green future, we must turn for guidance to the indigenous keepers of the original instructions who have survived the brutally invasive cultural and institutional forces of Westernization. …
(Alternet) (April 26)

Oregon asks to kill salmon-eating birds
“Oregon officials were successful in getting permission to kill sea lions that feed on protected salmon trying to swim upriver to spawn. Now they want federal approval to shoot a sea bird that eats millions of baby salmon trying to reach the ocean. In an April 5 letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service obtained by The Associated Press, Oregon Wildlife Chief Ron Anglin says harassment has “proved insufficient” in controlling double-crested cormorants, and officials want the option of killing some of the birds. Oregon needs federal approval to start shooting double-breasted cormorants because the birds are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Anglin wrote that the birds are threatening restoration of wild fish protected by the Endangered Species Act, as well as hatchery fish important to sport and commercial fishing.

The letter was a formal request to add Oregon to the 28 states authorized to kill cormorants to protect public resources, such as game fish. The Fish and Wildlife Service is updating the authorization, which expires in 2014. Oregon also is preparing an application to shoot enough cormorants at the mouths of the Rogue, Umpqua and Tillamook rivers to reduce nesting colonies there by 10 percent, said predatory bird coordinator Lindsay Adrean. The department already pays volunteers to harass cormorants with speedboats and firecrackers to keep them from feeding on young salmon and steelhead on five coastal estuaries, she said. The estuaries are the Tillamook, Nahalem, Hebo, Alsea and Coquille. …
(Statesman Journal) (April 26)

Now off case, judge weighs in on dams
“A federal judge who spent a decade presiding over one of the most contentious environmental court fights in the Northwest — the fate of endangered salmon in the Columbia River Basin and four hydroelectric dams that interrupt their migration — has said in a recorded interview that the dams should be removed to help the fish. “I think that we need to take those dams down,” the judge, James A. Redden of Federal District Court in Portland, Ore., told Idaho Public Television in an interview for a documentary to be released this summer. “And I’ve never ordered them, you know, or even tried to order them, that you’ve got to take those dams down, but I have urged them to do some work on those dams and they have done it.”

Judge Redden, who is 83, handed over the case to another judge last fall, and his statement has no legal impact. But his comments stirred debate among those fighting to protect salmon and hydropower supporters, and they added context to his past rulings. Although he has never publicly said he favors removing the four dams, on the lower Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia, he has rejected parts of three plans the federal government has proposed for saving salmon. All of the proposals, under Republican and Democratic administrations, left intact the four dams, which provide power but also affect the ability of adult fish to make their way to spawning groups up river and young ones to make it to the Pacific Ocean. Advocates say other sources of power, including wind, can compensate for the lost hydropower. …
(New York Times) (April 26)

Fort Severn First Nation works to save fleet of historic canoes
“It’s a restoration project rich in symbolism. What could be more Canadian than saving a canoe, particularly a huge canoe steeped in history, one that carried generations across the rivers of Northern Ontario and waters of Hudson Bay. Fort Severn First Nation, located on the shore of the Severn River upstream from Hudson Bay, is the northernmost community in Ontario. It was founded as a fur trading post in the late 1600s, and canoes have been an integral part of the community’s subsequent history of hunting and trade. But over the years, the isolated native community lost the skills needed to maintain its wooden canoes. The band recently decided to restore the craft that were so central to its history and teach the skills to a new generation. But the challenge was finding tens of thousands of dollars to fund the project, along with tools, material and restoration experts willing to spend weeks at a time working and teaching in the north.

The community teamed up with experts from southern Ontario and Manitoba in 2011, and work on the canoes started earlier this year. The team is planning to restore up to a dozen canoes — two have been finished, and they’ll be re-launched when the ice is out of the river. …
(CBC) (April 29) (Two videos)

News – 28 April 2012

Does consumption need tackling before population?
“The Royal Society has published today a landmark report—21-months in the making—that it says is the “first substantive offering” in its 350-year history on the topic of the “impacts of human population and consumption on the planet.” The report (pdf, 5.7MB) lays out nine recommendations for, what it hopes, will “be a springboard for further discussion and action.” In doing so, it appears to imply that rising consumption levels need tackling ahead of rising population levels:

In the short term it is of the utmost urgency to reduce consumption and emissions that are already causing damage, for example greenhouse gases, deforestation, and land use change amongst others. Furthermore, unless the goal is a world in which extreme inequality persists, it is necessary to make space for those in poverty, especially the 1.3 billion people living in absolute poverty, to achieve an adequate standard of living.

The intertwined issues of consumption and population have, of course, long been cornerstones of the wider environmental debate. But, in recent years, the consensus among environmental commentators seems to have moved towards the view that over-consumption is, indeed, the more pressing concern. In 2011, when the human population reached 7bn for the first time, a major report by French national agencies concluded rather bluntly that “the rich must stop consuming so much.” …
(The Guardian) (April 26)

World needs to stabilise population and cut consumption, says Royal Society
“World population needs to be stabilised quickly and high consumption in rich countries rapidly reduced to avoid “a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills,” warns a major report from the Royal Society. Contraception must be offered to all women who want it and consumption cut to reduce inequality, says the study published on Thursday, which was chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston. The assessment of humanity’s prospects in the next 100 years, which has taken 21 months to complete, argues strongly that to achieve long and healthy lives for all 9 billion people expected to be living in 2050, the twin issues of population and consumption must be pushed to the top of political and economic agendas. Both issues have been largely ignored by politicians and played down by environment and development groups for 20 years, the report says.

“The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption … or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future,” it says. At today’s rate of population increase developing countries will have to build the equivalent of a city of a million people every five days from now to 2050, says the report. “Global population growth is inevitable for the next few decades. By 2050, it is projected that today’s population of 7 billion will have grown by 2.3 billion, the equivalent of a new China and an India.” But the sheer number of people on earth is not as important as their inequality and how much they consume, said Jules Pretty, one of the working group of 22 who produced the report. …
(The Guardian) (April 26)

Cut world population and redistribute resources, expert urges
“The world’s most renowned population analyst has called for a massive reduction in the number of humans and for natural resources to be redistributed from the rich to the poor. Paul Ehrlich, Bing professor of population studies at Stanford University in California and author of the best-selling Population Bomb book in 1968, goes much further than the Royal Society in London which this morning said that physical numbers were as important as the amount of natural resources consumed. The optimum population of Earth—enough to guarantee the minimal physical ingredients of a decent life to everyone—was 1.5 to 2 billion people rather than the 7 billion who are alive today or the 9 billion expected in 2050, said Ehrlich in an interview with the Guardian.

“How many you support depends on lifestyles. We came up with 1.5 to 2 billion because you can have big active cities and wilderness. If you want a battery chicken world where everyone has minimum space and food and everyone is kept just about alive you might be able to support in the long term about 4 or 5 billion people. But you already have 7 billion. So we have to humanely and as rapidly as possible move to population shrinkage.” “The question is: can you go over the top without a disaster, like a worldwide plague or a nuclear war between India and Pakistan? If we go on at the pace we are there’s going to be various forms of disaster. Some maybe slow motion disasters like people getting more and more hungry, or catastrophic disasters because the more people you have the greater the chance of some weird virus transferring from animal to human populations, there could be a vast die-off.”

Ehrlich, who was described as alarmist in the 1970s but who says most of his predictions have proved correct, says he was gloomy about humanity’s ability to feed over 9 billion people. “We have 1 billion people hungry now and we are going to add 2.5 billion. They are going to have to be fed on more marginal land, from water that is purified more or transported further, we’re going to have disproportionate impacts on how we feed people from the population increase itself,” he said. “Most of the predictions [in Population Bomb] have proved correct. At that time I wrote about climate change. We did not know then if it was warming or cooling. We thought it was going to be a problem for the end of this century. Now we know it’s warming and a problem for the beginning of the century; we didn’t know about the loss of biodiversity. Things have been coming up worse than was predicted. We have the threats now of vast epidemics.” …
(The Guardian) (April 26)

The road to Rio+20: how has the UN process developed?
“From the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 to this June’s conference, how has the UN summit process evolved? Sustainability pioneers reflect on the shift of focus from the environment to sustainable development and discuss how business has become an essential element…
(The Guardian) (April 27) (Video)

+++

Climate change will shape B.C. in 2035, one way or another
“We live on a different planet from the one our parents grew up on, says American environmentalist Bill McKibben. Climate change from our rampant combustion of fossil fuels has pushed the world into a new era of bizarre weather anomalies. In British Columbia, warming has been greater that the global average, with costly consequences, including the pine beetle epidemic, downtime for ferries and highways, raging forest fires and flooding. The big question is whether carbon emissions can be stabilized at some level by human collective action, or whether we will soon pass critical thresholds that will trigger a runaway climate change scenario. Canada has recently thumbed its nose at global negotiations, in favour of digging ever deeper into the hole of extreme energy that is causing the problem. Even though climate costs are mounting—in Canada and especially in poorer and more vulnerable countries—the immense profits from our exports of coal, gas and oil dominate Canadian politics.

British Columbians in 2035 will be facing a variety of climate-related challenges to a decent quality of life. Food supplies from California will dry up; storms will be more devastating; animal and plant species will be threatened. Even if we are lucky, climate impacts in other parts of the world could lead millions to our shores. High and growing inequality undermines trust in our fellow citizens, and threatens to erode the social foundation of this future. As federal and provincial governments tear page after page from the social contract, we are moving to a society where you are on your own. Our current period of official denial cannot last much longer. …
(Vancouver Sun) (April 27)

A community in Delta adapts to rising sea levels. Photo courtesy of UBC's CALP.

Visualizing BC’s climate changed future
“In five to six decades, this could be Delta, B.C. Where there were once streets, now commuters row through canals to reach the morning ferry, just in time for an 8:30 a.m. arrival in downtown Vancouver. What was once agricultural land now holds farms for sustainable aquaculture. “Oceanfront property isn’t just an option here, it’s come to be expected,” real estate agents tell potential homeowners of the future. That may be the future, but the long-term effects of climate change are slow to manifest. As Jared Diamond explains in his 2005 book Collapse, big environmental changes are unrecognizable to humans as they occur, because of the rate at which their impacts alter our environment—a dynamic known as creeping normalcy.

In response, Stephen Sheppard and the team at UBC’s Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning (CALP) are working to bypass the inherent time-blindness of human societies by making the future visible in the present, including a dark forecast for B.C. at the behest of climate change. Sheppard started CALP with colleague Mike Meitner in 1997 to research practical ways of planning communities and landscapes using methods derived from environmental psychology, a field that seeks to understand how the human mind interacts with nature. After six years of work, he realized that climate change was accelerating and communities weren’t responding fast enough. “Around 2003 we started becoming very worried about climate change and so we started adapting our tools to help designers, planners and visual experts communicate this reality,” Sheppard explains. The hope is that by making the impacts of big environmental changes visible, the creeping norm will be for humans to take faster action on their rapidly altering world. …
(The Tyee) (April 28)

A community in Delta adapts to rising sea levels. Photo courtesy of UBC's CALP.

Will climate change kill off Washington state’s oysters?
“The first suspects were bacteria. Something was killing the microscopic oyster larvae at the hatcheries in Washington’s Dabob Bay and in Oregon’s Netarts Bay in recent years. The tiny oyster shells were crumbling faster than they could grow back, says Bill Dewey, public policy director for Taylor Shellfish Farms, which harvests geoducks, oysters, and other shellfish around Puget Sound. And soon, hatchery experts realized increasing ocean acidification was the true culprit. But what exactly that means, is yet to be determined. “Ocean debasification is a bit awkward and not scientifically precise,” says Jan Newton, a senior principal oceanographer at the University of Washington. …
(Grist) (April 26)

Tribes celebrates new treaty fishing access site
“Native American tribes and federal officials celebrated the completion of the last of 31 tribal fishing access sites along the lower Columbia River on Monday, following years of collaboration to restore fishing rights to treaty tribes. Congress authorized the federal government in 1988 to establish access sites for tribes guaranteed fishing rights by treaties but whose traditional fishing areas were flooded when the lower Columbia River dams were built. Construction of the first sites began in 1995. The last site near Dallesport, a 64-acre site about 75 miles east of Portland, Ore., includes eight campsites for tribal members, a boat launch and dock, restroom and shower facilities, net repair racks and a fish cleaning table. In addition, the site required extensive environmental restoration by workers, most of whom Pacific Northwest tribal members. The site cost $4.8 million. … Representatives of the tribal commission, the four tribes, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Corps of Engineers cooperated to implement the project. Together, the 31 fishing access sites occupy about 700 acres along the Columbia River from Bonneville Dam to McNary Dam.
(Bellingham Herald) (April 25)