Category Archives: General Politics

Academics getting it wrong about the role of private sector consultants in BC’s Environmental Assessment processes

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Blair

On November 19th a group of “scientists based in British Columbia” produced an open letter to Premier John Horgan, and several of his cabinet colleagues, about improving British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment (EA) process. The letter, was from the Earth to … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Environmentalism and Ecomodernism, General Politics, Risk Communication, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

On Jason Kenney’s threat to shut off Vancouver’s gasoline supply

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Blair

In the last week Jason Kenney was on a West Coast swing as part of his continued attempt to replace Rachel Notley as Premier of Alberta. During the trip Mr. Kenney repeatedly threatened to stop the flow of oil to … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, General Politics, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Are we getting a balanced story from the media on Site C

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Blair

This morning I turned on my radio to listen to Jon McComb do a piece on the Site C dam with his special guest “international energy expert” Robert McCullough, the Peace Valley Landowner Association’s hired gun from Oregon. Now from … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, General Politics, Site C | 3 Comments

On the Wilderness Committee’s sophomoric screed against the oil sands

Posted on July 1, 2017 by Blair

Recently, I was directed to a sophomoric screed prepared by a climate campaigner at the Wilderness Committee. The paper (or possibly fundraising pamphlet?) “Time’s Up for the Tar Sands” represents some of the worst writing I have recently encountered on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, General Politics, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

On the costs of fighting climate change and the Site C dam

Posted on June 10, 2017 by Blair

The other day I was invited to present some information about the Site C Dam for a local news broadcast on Global BC. After a telephone pre-interview, I met a reporter for an interview on tape. After asking all the … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, General Politics, Site C, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

On those proposed Northwest refineries, neatbit and the Trans Mountain expansion project

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Blair

As everyone interested in Canadian oil production knows, the new NDP/Green coalition (or not-coalition as the case may be) in BC has made one of the core planks of their agreement a promise to block the construction of the Kinder … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, General Politics, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The climate crew: alienating allies and fighting the wrong fights

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Blair

As readers of this blog know, I am a pragmatic environmentalist. I believe in the dangers of climate change and unlike most of my critics, I live a low-carbon lifestyle and have actually helped achieve policies that reduced my province’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, General Politics, Uncategorized | 41 Comments

No, the area to be flooded by the Site C Dam could not feed 1 million people

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Blair

One of the reasons I started this blog is to advance the idea of evidence-based environmental decision-making. As such I have spent a lot of time dealing with topics like the Site C Dam project where so much ridiculous information … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, General Politics, Site C, Uncategorized | 41 Comments

On tolerance for ‘alternative facts’ in the climate change debate

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Blair

I have just spent the last couple weeks on twitter having heated discussions with a variety of climate change specialists (and many self-styled experts) regarding a tweet I posted on January 12, 2017. The tweet presented a quote from a … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, General Politics, Uncategorized | 20 Comments

Electrifying BC’s transportation system, debunking the myths: Part II night charging of vehicles

Posted on December 16, 2016 by Blair

In my last post I started the process of debunking some of the fallacies being put forward by the electric vehicle (EV) community as part of their program to encourage people to convert to EVs while simultaneously maintaining their NIMBY … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Fossil Fuel Free Future, General Politics, Renewable Energy, Uncategorized | 14 Comments