Judge denied request for injunction to block plan to give industry access to more Crown wood
The forestry plan, which gives industry access to more Crown wood, is expected to result in the harvesting of an additional 660,000 cubic metres. (Jeff Bassett/The Canadian Press)
New Brunswick’s First Nations chiefs have filed a leave to appeal a judge’s decision to deny their request to temporarily block the provincial government’s new forestry plan.
“We do not agree with [Court of Queen’s Bench] Justice [Judy]
Clendening’s claim that ‘the Rubicon has not been crossed,'” Chief Brenda Perely, the Assembly’sMaliseet co-chair, stated in a release.
“The government has clearly signalled its intention to cross that line and put the health of the forest at risk,” said Chief George Ginnish, the Assembly’s Mi’kmaq co-chair.
‘We do not believe that the forest must be irreparably harmed before we are permitted to stop them.’- Chief George Ginnish
The case will be heard by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal on Sept. 5.
The forestry plan gives industry the right to cut 20 per cent more softwood on Crown land. It also reduces the amount of public forest that is off limits to industry to 23 per cent, down from the previous standard of 28 per cent.
It is expected to result in the harvesting of an additional 660,000 cubic metres.
Earlier this month, the native leaders had applied to the court for an injunction to temporarily block the plan.
They argued the government failed to meet its obligation to consult aboriginal people, who claim title to the public land where companies will be allowed to cut more trees.
They said the plan was an immediate threat to their aboriginal and treaty rights.
But the judge ruled the risk of irreparable harm, “has not crystallized.”
Clendening did say, however, that there may be a larger constitutional issue to be tried on the government’s duty to consult First Nations.
The forestry strategy is central to the David Alward’s Progressive Conservative Party’s re-election strategy, which urges New Brunswickers to say yes to natural resource development. SOURCE
An animal’s footprint is molded into dry, cracked earth in a dry riverbed near a Castaic Lake bridge. Extremely low levels of water at sunrise at Castaic Lake and reveal the effects of the prolonged drought March 8, 2014 Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
By Veronica Rocha, reposted from the LATimes, Aug 29, 2014
The chance of a “megadrought” gripping the Southwest for more than 30 years has increased to 50%, scientists say, which means bad news for California’s already parched landscape.
The odds of a 10-year drought afflicting the southwestern U.S. have increased to 80%, according to a new study by Cornell University, the University of Arizona and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Map shows a high risk for a “megadrought” in the Southwest, according to study by Cornell University, the University of Arizona and the U.S. Geological Survey. (Toby Ault / Cornell University)
Whatever happens, California is likely to see prolonged drought and drier conditions, especially in the southern portion of the state, said Toby Ault, Cornell assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and lead author of the study, which will be published next month in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate.
The current drought, he said, is a preview of what will “happen in the future in climate change.” MORE
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Alan Adam speaks on Thursday during a news conference in Edmonton by Treaty 8 chiefs to denounce the provincial government’s proposed aboriginal consultation policy. Photograph by: Marty Klinkenberg , Edmonton Journal
BY MARTY KLINKENBERG, reposted from the EDMONTON JOURNAL, Aug 28, 2014
EDMONTON - Complaining they were not adequately consulted, a dozen First Nations chiefs from northern Alberta denounced the province’s proposed aboriginal consultation policy on Thursday and skipped an “engagement session” with Aboriginal Affairs Minister Frank Oberle.
The Treaty 8 chiefs hand-delivered a letter to Oberle saying they will no longer participate in discussions about the legislation, which allows government to decide how much consultation is needed for development projects on native lands.
“It is a violation of our human and constitutional treaty rights,” Rose Laboucan, chief of the Driftpile Cree Nation, told a news conference at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Centre in Edmonton. “We need to eliminate the paternalistic view that someone has to speak for us. We can speak for ourselves.”
The boycott means no Treaty 8 chief will meet with government representatives on the act. Nor will technical staff co-operate with government staff in the field.
Waiting for a meeting with the chiefs in the Wildrose Ballroom down the hall, Oberle expressed disappointment over the decision. Outside the hotel, members from some of the bands waved signs in protest.
“I am disappointed the chiefs have chosen this path,” Oberle said. “We have a duty to consult that we take very seriously … and that commitment will continue.
“There will always be disagreements among forms of government, but I think Alberta has an excellent relationship with First Nations. We have gone well above our jurisdictional duties here.”
The chiefs want the legislation, which has not yet been enacted, rescinded. One of the nations is preparing a legal challenge in an attempt to scuttle the policy, they said.
“It is something we oppose 100 per cent,” said Romeo Cardinal, chief of the Bigstone Cree Nation. “What they call consultation is outrageous. It is not even close. MORE
2015 is a key year for Ecocide law. The Rome Statute (codifying document for International Crimes Against Peace) can be reviewed in 2015, have amendments and additions tabled. Any country that is a signatory can put forward the proposal to amend the Rome Statute.
We know the history; the International Crime of Ecocide was removed from the earlier draft at the 11th hour. This time round, instead of it being removed (you can read the history here), we can make sure history is not repeated.
Join me with many others on Saturday the 6th of September at Lansdown Hall in Stroud, either in person or watch online, to bring local and global action together and find out what can be done. It’s all being filmed - and we shall be EcoLive Webstreaming the event to you.
The day starts at 10am. Find out more, read the programme here and check out directions as to how to get to Stroud here - be sure to check out our map (scroll down to the bottom of the page).
David Dene is a Voice for El Rio De Aguas Sorbas in Almeria, one of Spain’s oldest fossil water aquifers, which is under threat of Ecocide.
In an area of South Eastern Spain, famous for “Spaghetti Westerns”, the ancient Sorbas-Tabernas fossil water aquifer has been exploited to such a degree that it is in danger of collapse, putting at risk the livelihoods of small farmers and the fresh water supply of the whole area.
David Dene, of Ecocide El Rio De Aguas Spain and who lives in the Eco Village of El Rio De Aguas, will be one of the voices speaking at our Day of Action and he tells us that this impending death of their ecosystem is a direct result of unsustainable exploitation, exacerbated by massive irrigation which will kill the olive trees. See also: ecocideelriodeaguas.blogspot.co.uk.
The area has received just over 1 inch of rain in the last 9 months. Drinking water is being supplied by trucks to all local villages as local wells are either dry or unsafe to use as drinking water supplies.
David says: “The ecosystem of El Rio De Aguas in the Paraje Natural Karst en Yessos of Sorbas which is under the most stringent protection and unique in Europe is faced with Ecocide. This Eco-system exists as an Oasis, is host to wealth of flora and fauna and is fed from the aquifer.”
“Professor Calaforra of the Department of Geology and Biology of Almeria University informs us that if this exploitation continues the spring could well start to flow backwards and he gives us at most 3 years, after which the ecosystem will die owing to absence of water. If this tipping point is reached, the water will never return and the ecosystem will be lost forever.”
Come hear David as one of our Voices speaking on the 6th of September.
Please help us seed out our Ecocide Law Day of Action, 10am - 6pm, Saturday 6th of September.
Gaza city after an Israeli sir strike. ‘It is my firm belief that recourse to justice should never be compromised by political expediency.’ Photograph: Mohammed Othman/AFP/Getty Images
By Fatou Bensouda, reposted from The Guardian, Aug 29, 2014
Has the international criminal court avoided opening an investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza due to political pressure, as suggested in an article published in the Guardian earlier this week? The answer is an unequivocal “no”. As prosecutor of the ICC, I reject any suggestion of this in the strongest terms.
When an objective observer navigates clear of the hype surrounding this issue, the simple truth is that my office has never been in a position to open such an investigation due to lack of jurisdiction. We have always, clearly and publicly, stated the reasons why this is so.
The Rome statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, is open to participation by states. The prosecutor can only investigate and prosecute crimes committed on the territory or by the nationals of states that have joined the ICC statute or which have otherwise accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC through an ad hoc declaration to that effect pursuant to article 12-3 of the statute.
This means that the alleged crimes committed in Palestine are beyond the legal reach of the ICC, despite the arguments of some legal scholars that fundamental jurisdictional rules can be made subject to a liberal and selective interpretation of the Rome statute. They appear to advocate that as the object and purpose of the ICC is to end impunity for mass crimes, the court ought to intervene, even where clear jurisdictional parameters have not been met. This is neither good law nor does it make for responsible judicial action.
The Palestinian Authority sought to accept the jurisdiction of the ICC in 2009. My office carefully considered all of the legal arguments put forth and concluded in April 2012, after three years of thorough analysis and public consultations, that Palestine’s status at the UN as “observer entity” was crucial – since entry into the Rome statute system is through the UN secretary general, who acts as treaty depositary. Palestine’s status at the UN at that time meant it could not sign up to the Rome statute. The former ICC prosecutor concluded that as Palestine could not join the statute, it could also not lodge an article 12-3 declaration bringing itself under the ambit of the treaty, as it had sought to do.
In November 2012, Palestine’s status was upgraded by the UN general assembly to “non-member observer state” through the adoption of resolution 67/19. My office examined the legal implications of this development and concluded that while this change did not retroactively validate the previously invalid 2009 declaration, Palestine could now join the Rome statute.
That Palestine has signed various other international treaties since obtaining this “observer state” status confirms the correctness of this position. Nonetheless, to date, the statute is not one of the treaties that Palestine has decided to accede to, nor has it lodged a new declaration following the November 2012 general assembly resolution. It is a matter of public record that Palestinian leaders are in the process of consulting internally on whether to do so; the decision is theirs alone and as ICC prosecutor, I cannot make it for them.
By virtue of the nature of the court’s mandate, every situation in which the ICC prosecutor acts will be politically fraught. My mandate as prosecutor is nonetheless clear: to investigate and prosecute crimes based on the facts and exact application of the law in full independence and impartiality.
Whether states or the UN security council choose to confer jurisdiction on the ICC is a decision that is wholly independent of the court. Once made, however, the legal rules that apply are clear and decidedly not political under any circumstances. In both practice and words, I have made it clear in no uncertain terms that the office of the prosecutor will execute its mandate, without fear or favour, where jurisdiction is established and will vigorously pursue those – irrespective of status or affiliation – who commit mass crimes that shock the conscience of humanity. My office’s approach to Palestine will be no different if the court’s jurisdiction is ever triggered over the situation.
It is my firm belief that recourse to justice should never be compromised by political expediency. The failure to uphold this sacrosanct requirement will not only pervert the cause of justice and weaken public confidence in it, but also exacerbate the immense suffering of the victims of mass atrocities. This, we will never allow. SOURCE
Returns diminish as energy companies resort to higher-cost, higher-risk hydrocarbons.
Over 100 of the world’s largest energy companies are running out of cash. Photo of Keystone pipeline in Nebraska by Shannon Ramos. Creative Commons licensed.
Some of the summer’s biggest news stories took place in the bombed schools of Gaza, the abandoned hospitals of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the wheat fields of eastern Ukraine and the bloody mountains of northern Iraq.
But one of the most important made virtually no headlines at all, and seemed to only appear on the website of the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Last July the government agency, which has collected mundane statistics on energy matters for decades, quietly revealed that 127 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies are running out of cash.
They are now spending more than they are earning. Profits have lagged as expenditures have risen. Overburdened by debt, these firms are selling assets.
The math is simple. The 127 firms generated $568 billion in cash from their operations during 2013-2014 while their expenses totalled $677 billion. To cover the difference of $110 billion, the energy giants increased their debt load or sold off assets.
Given that the gap between earned cash and spending stood at a modest $10 billion in 2010, that’s a significant change for the industry as well as the global economy it fuels.
Mining messy bitumen
The Energy Information Administration doesn’t explain why the world’s major hydrocarbon producers are now spending more and making less. But an August report by Carbon Tracker, a non-profit financial think-tank, provides some possible answers.
Most companies are now investing in high-cost and high-risk projects to mine difficult hydrocarbons such as bitumen or shale oil, according to Carbon Tracker. Hydraulic fracturing, the land equivalent of ocean bottom trawling, adds to the cost of oil, too.
It’s not only the firms deploying fracking that are racking up high debt loads. Chinese state-owned corporations, for example, plopped down $30 billion to develop junk crude in the oilsands over the last decade.
But with a few exceptions, none of the investments are making a good dollar return due to the difficult and costly nature of mining messy bitumen as well as problematic quality of the reserves, combined with huge cost overruns.
Source: EIA.
By Carbon Tracker’s calculation, bitumen remains the world’s most expensive hydrocarbon. The extraction of this fuel signals that business as usual is over, and mining of extreme hydrocarbons comes with extreme financial and political risks.
Cheap and easy days are over
The Chinese aren’t the only ones facing diminishing returns from high-cost projects in the oilsands.
Most of the world’s oil and gas firms are now pursuing extreme hydrocarbons because the cheap and easy stuff is gone. The high-carbon remainders include shale oil, oilsands, ultra deepwater oil and Arctic petroleum. (Industry now wants to frack the Northwest Territories, too.)
But given that oil demand in places like Europe, the United States and Japan is flattening or declining, many analysts don’t think that high-carbon, high-risk projects (which all need a $75 to $95 market price for oil to break even) make much economic sense in a carbon-constrained world.
“Our analysis demonstrates that a blind pursuit of reserve replacement at all costs or a focus on high expenditure regardless of returns could go against improving shareholder returns,” recently warned Carbon Tracker.
The capital costs for liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals supplied by heavily fracked coal or shale fields is also rising. Highly complex LNG projects in Norway, Australia and Papua New Guinea have all experienced major cost overruns.
Goldman Sachs now reckons more than half of the oil companies listed on the stock market — are spending five times more than what they did in 2000 chasing extreme hydrocarbons. As a consequence they need an oil price of $120 a barrel to remain cash neutral in the future.
Spending more cash to get less energy has major implications for the global economy, a creature of oil. Whenever nations spend lots on oil, they record crazy exponential growth, like China. And whenever nations spend less on petroleum, like Europe and the U.S., there is stagnation.
Oil’s slavish hold
To explain oil’s slavish hold on the global economy, the Russian physicists Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia M. Makarieva employ a useful metaphor.
Imagine a town of 100 people. Ten own the air, the oil of the modern economy, and they force everyone else to pay to breathe. The other 90 work hard and give the air owners about 10 per cent of their production.
Whenever the price of air goes up quickly (and the cost of extracting oil has increased substantially in the last decade — about 12 per cent a year), then economic growth slows to a crawl. The air owners have killed the growth potential of the workers.
Sooner or later the owners of the air realize they have to lower the price. “As the air price goes down, the workers feel better…. This, in short, is the scenario of the global economic crisis, how it starts and how it develops,” explains Gorshkov and Makarieva. “Curiously, none of the economic analysts relate the world crisis to the abnormally high oil prices that preceded it.”
But diminished returns from extreme hydrocarbons will do more than slow down productivity and increase price volatility. They will impose lasting and material adjustments on all of us.
In addition to seeing fewer vehicles on the road (a startling U.S. reality already), we shall also see lower wages (except in the hydrocarbon industry), rising food prices, rising personal debt loads, increased demands on governments increasingly short of revenue, explosive inequalities in wealth and rising political conflict.
Our new narrative
We shall also see more of what the U.S. Energy Information Administration dutifully recorded: soaring debt loads to support massive energy sprawl. That means industry will spend more good money chasing poor quality resources. They will inefficiently mine and frack ever larger land bases at higher environmental costs for lower energy returns.
Combined with its twin brother, climate change, this is the great energy narrative that will shape our destiny in the years to come.
Marion King Hubbert, a Shell geologist, predicted this development decades ago and presented the cultural conundrum clearly: “During the last two centuries we have known nothing but an exponential growth culture, a culture so dependent upon the continuance of exponential growth for its stability that is incapable of reckoning with problems of non-growth.”
But why would such a radical development be news in the dog days of summer? SOURCE
WINNIPEG, August 6, 2010 - Premiers today endorsed the Council of the Federation Water Charter recognizing the collective obligation of Canadians and their governments to be responsible water stewards.
Water is a vital natural resource that is a necessity for all life on earth. Yet, Canada is ranked second highest among OECD countries for per capita water consumption.
Canadians can and must do better.
An adequate and safe water supply is critical for every community and provides for the health and welfare of its residents. Ensuring water quality in rural and remote areas is particularly important.
Water technologies and services represent a tremendous economic opportunity in a four hundred billion dollar global market. Premiers agreed to continue to support research, development, and adoption of innovative technologies to advance water conservation and quality.
Premiers directed their Ministers to use the Water Charter as a guide in their work.
Premiers challenged individual Canadians, businesses and governments to reduce water consumption; increase water efficiency; and protect our water quality.
As this past year has demonstrated, some Canadians have also been faced with too much water due to excessive runoff and excessive rain, while others have grappled with prospects of drought and water scarcity. Canadians in coastal communities are increasingly at risk of salt water intrusion into fresh water supplies due to rising sea levels and larger storm surges. Canadians also need to be better prepared to deal with diverse water-related events, particularly as our climate changes.
Environment All Canadians have an important role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting the environment and adapting to the effects of climate change. Premiers reviewed the current state of international discussions on climate change and energy. They agreed to continue to closely monitor developments in the United States and with the United Nations and Copenhagen Accord. Premiers continue to work in their own jurisdictions to advance climate change initiatives and also encourage the federal government to partner with provinces and territories by strategically investing in programs that support climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Premiers are pleased to announce that an online community of practice on climate change adaptation was launched in July, which will be initially sponsored by the Council of the Federation. The online community will facilitate the sharing of knowledge among academics and experts across the country with the goal of assisting governments on climate change adaptation and supporting all provinces and territories in their efforts to incorporate climate change adaptation into planning and policies.
Premiers expressed support for the wide range of initiatives already underway in provinces and territories and agreed that:
Integrated Community Energy Systems (ICES) is an innovative approach that coordinates the planning of energy delivery across multiple sectors. Premiers look forward to seeing the results of ICES-related pilot projects in Canada and asked Energy Ministers to look at ways to incorporate green building policies, low-temperature geothermal, energy efficient housing measures under the ICES model.
It is important that Canada’s wetlands and boreal forest be protected. The boreal forest is one of the world’s largest remaining intact forests, totaling 1.4 billion acres. Premiers called on businesses and communities to partner with us towards the UN goal of planting one tree for every person on the planet.
Having just returned from the “Polar Bear Capital of the World” (Churchill, Manitoba), Premiers look forward to Ministers concluding their work with the federal government towards a National Polar Bear Conservation Strategy.
Environmental Assessment
It is essential that major infrastructure projects in our provinces and territories be reviewed through a comprehensive and scientifically sound environmental assessment process. However, billions of dollars in projects and thousands of jobs can be tied up by duplicative environmental assessment processes – without improving environmental protection.
Premiers welcomed the progress the federal government has made to enhance existing processes but agreed more work needs to be done. Premiers urge the federal government to agree to a one project–one assessment approach to reduce wasteful duplication and delays while ensuring the highest standards of environmental protection. An effective process lowers risks for all critical economic development projects.
The single environmental assessments in the Yukon and Nunavut and in the offshore areas of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia are examples of assessment processes that should be maintained. SOURCE
The day starts at 10am. Find out more, read the 
David Dene is a Voice for El Rio De Aguas Sorbas in Almeria, one of Spain’s oldest fossil water aquifers, which is under threat of Ecocide.
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