Category Archives: Climate Change

Revisiting 100% Wind, Water and Sunlight for Canada – an ill-advised approach to fight climate change

Posted on November 27, 2018 by Blair

Dr. Marc Z. Jacobson, the lead scientist of the 100% Wind, Water and Sunlight (100% WWS) movement, was in Vancouver last week for a presentation. Dr. Jacobson is a proponent of relying solely on wind, water and sunlight to meet … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, Fossil Fuel Free Future, Leap Manifesto, Renewable Energy, Uncategorized | 17 Comments

More on the Southern Resident Killer Whales – this time on truthiness about acoustic threats and survivorship bias

Posted on September 27, 2018 by Blair

Well it has been a busy week on the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) Project file with the NEB initiating their review of tanker traffic. In all the news surrounding the plan to update the marine assessment one topic that caught … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Oil Sands, Pipelines, Uncategorized | 17 Comments

On the environmental and social consequences if the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project fails

Posted on September 8, 2018 by Blair

I have spent a lot of time in the last few years researching the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion (TMX) project. Throughout I have always felt confident that good environmental and fiscal sense would prevail, and the pipeline would be built. … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 20 Comments

Understanding environmental complexity: when initial impressions are wrong – wrapped banana edition

Posted on August 17, 2018 by Blair

I have spent my week on twitter in a series of quite interesting discussions about, of all things, bananas. This started thanks to a tweet from a local journalist showing a pile of individually wrapped bananas with the comment: “you … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Environmentalism and Ecomodernism, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Looking at the science linking BC forest fires to climate change

Posted on August 15, 2018 by Blair

A State of Emergency has been declared in British Columbia because of all the forest fires, and the usual suspects have started their usual game of blaming the forest fires on climate change. The problem is, as I will demonstrate … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, Uncategorized | 25 Comments

No, Kinder Morgan did not say that the Trans Mountain would cost $9.3 Billion to complete

Posted on August 8, 2018 by Blair

By now I should really be used to the bad reporting associated with the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMEP). Daily, I see reporters simply repeating talking points presented by Dogwood and Greenpeace employees who are paid to produce a constant … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Oil Sands, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

An Environmental Scientist responds to the signers of the Prime Minister’s Youth Council “Letter to the PM” about the Trans Mountain Pipeline project

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Blair

Last week selected members of the Prime Minister’s Youth Council (PMYC) wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister asking that he cancel the buyout of the Trans Mountain pipeline. While young, these representatives have a strong public appeal and an … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Why a Pragmatic Environmentalist supports the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Blair

I am a pragmatic environmentalist. I have worked in the environmental field for over twenty-five years. My area of professional expertise is the investigation and remediation of former industrial and commercial sites with a specialty in the assessment of petroleum … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Pipelines, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 42 Comments

Why efforts to fight Climate Change will change the conclusions of the BCUC Site C Inquiry Report

Posted on November 2, 2017 by Blair

I have been incredibly busy at work over the last few weeks and so was not able to get involved in the public consultation portion of the BCUC Site C Inquiry process. Such are the downsides of not being a … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Site C, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

On motivated reasoning and the Site C Dam

Posted on September 24, 2017 by Blair

As I have written numerous times, the intention of this blog is to advance the cause of evidence-based environmental decision-making. As a scientist my personal process involves collecting as much information as I can about an issue and then using … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Climate Change, Site C, Uncategorized | 2 Comments