We Are The Boat

On June 9, 2023 Guilbeault indicated that he will not promise to “limit Canada’s oil exports by requiring that they not exceed Canada's current percentage of total world exports.” This came in the form of his response to a petition presented to the House of Commons by Robert Oliphant (who is also a Liberal). See link.   Part of the petition states, “Increasing Canadian oil export would negate some or all the gains made from domestic reductions and contribute to an increase in climate change damage to many parts of the country.” This part of the petition implies and recognizes that further "downstream emissions" are created when the exported/sold product, oil, is used/burned. Yet, in response to that petition, Guilbeault appears to be ignoring the subject of downstream emissions when he states, Quote: “[Our] objective is to limit the emissions from the production of oil and natural gas as the cap becomes more stringent over time, irrespective of whether the production is f...

  About the Benchmark: A passenger flight is 160 gCO2e per pkm. This means that flying is better than taking a car only if you’re the only person in the car (see benchmark in table above.) Note: Contrail Pollutants Contribute Twice the Impact of Airline CO2 Emissions (see below) See calculations below The various “people in car” percentages in the above table are first extrapolated from the data below as they compare with “ implied car occupancy rate: 1.6 [people in a car] .” Then all percentages in the above table are extrapolated from the below data as they compare with the flight benchmark. Figure 1: Average GHG emissions by motorised mode of passenger transport, EU-27, 2014-2018 Source : Fraunhofer ISI and CE Delft, 2020 *Notes : pkm = passenger kilometre; implied car occupancy rate: 1.6 Source – European Environment Agency. See link. See PDF named “ Rail and waterborne — best for low-carbon motorised transport." Cars: The number of people in the car affect...

  “The day before [the Bay du Nord project was approved], the federal and Newfoundland and Labrador governments took the word "petroleum" out of the name of the regulatory body that has been overseeing the offshore oil industry since 1986. Once the legal niceties are done, the soon-to-be-former C-NLOPB will be known as the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Energy Board, or the C-NLOEB.” Notice that the federal govt was involved in this name change. I dug a little deeper into this odd coincidence. I found this article from Apr 5: “N.L. government lifts 15-year ban on onshore wind farms” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/nl-wind-moratorium-lifts-1.6409296 Also, on Dec 18, 2012, in order to ensure the economic viability of the Muskrat Falls Hydro Electric Dam, the province enacted legislation prohibiting any other electricity producers on Nfld. This de fact prohibited wind energy . https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/resea...

        Fair Vote Canada links to research showing that countries with an electoral system based on proportional representation act faster on climate change, score higher on Yale’s Environmental Performance Index, and have made 117% greater use of renewable sources of energy. The climate crisis is now the most frightening symptom of the ongoing massive political crisis that gave rise to it and that underpins it at its root. One of the main sources of that “root rot” in Canada, both federally and provincially, is an electoral system based on false majorities and voter inequality. For many decades our deception-riddled electoral system has been undermining our attempts to hold elections that try to uphold even the most basic of democratic principles: the principle of “majority rules.”  For far too long we have mislead ourselves by using the phrase, “majority government” to refer to a government that has won a majority of seats instead of a majority of votes fr...