Planet Haliburton: Recent Episodes
Terry Moore | Canoe FM
Terry Moore investigates sustainable solutions to the ecological issues of today with interviews from innovators in construction, conservation, legislation and more! Big ideas for the whole planet, from Haliburton County!
This week,Terry Moore speaks with Elizabeth Fournier author of f The Green Burial Guidebook: Everything You Need to Plan an Affordable, Environmentally Friendly Burial.
In many respects the only real certainty in life is death. All living things die and human beings are not exceptional in that regard. That hasn’t stopped many humans, however, from thinking and behaving as if we are somehow outside of the rules governing the larger “natural world” - in particular, that we’re fully capable of indefinitely living beyond the biogeophysical limits all other species face.
With the increased awareness of human-caused ecological crises since the 1960’s and the parallel growth of environmental movements over the same period, the notion of human exceptionality has come under increasing pressure.
A reassessment of our relationship to the larger natural world has in more recent times focused on not only the larger existential crises such as climate change but has also broadened into taking a critical look at conventional high impact, end-of-life practices such as conventional burial and fire cremation.
To discuss the Ecological impacts of those conventional practices as well as the efforts being made to create more environmentally-friendly alternatives, I’m pleased to welcome Elizabeth Fournier to Planet Haliburton. Elizabeth is the owner/operator of the Cornerstone Funeral Service in Boring, Oregon, the author of “The Green Burial Guidebook” and an Advisory Committee member with the largely-US based, Green Burial Council. Link to resources for this program. https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/PH-Resource-List-Why-Green-Burial-with-Elizabeth-Fournier-April-28-2022.pdf This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
This episode of Planet Haliburton, features a conversation about “energy poverty” with Tina Jackson, the Executive Director of the Central Food Hub and co-founder of Heat Bank Haliburton County.
It’s no secret that Haliburton County has one of the highest rates of poverty in Ontario, if not the country, as well as serious levels of food insecurity, precarious employment and a crisis in the supply of affordable housing. Less recognized and discussed is the level of “energy poverty” being experienced throughout the county, which has been estimated to be an astounding level 65% of households by the NGO CUSP, the Canadian Urban Sustainability Practitioners.
Report after report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reiterates the growing urgency of driving down GHG gas emissions and breaking our dependency on fossil fuels, while making as fast as possible a transition to a low-carbon energy system, at the same time.
Addressing both energy poverty and the climate emergency, without leaving anyone behind, will require Just Transition programs designed to address not only the displacement of oil and gas workers but precarious employment and housing affordability crises as inter-related challenges.
The conversation concludes with some initial thoughts on how to create the political will for urgent action at the provincial and municipal levels as we head into a June 2nd provincial election and October 24th municipal elections.
Overshadowed by the February 24th Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the release of latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report on Monday February 28th, came with renewed calls for urgent climate action.
UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, says that the evidence contained in the “Climate Change impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” Report is unlike anything he has ever seen, calling it an “atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.”
To help understand what’s contained in the second of three Reports in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Review (AR6) series since 1988, as well as its potential impact on climate policy, politics, and action, I’m joined by Mitchell Beer, the founder and editor of The Energy Mix.
The Energy Mix (https://www.theenergymix.com) is an essential climate and energy news site and digest that tracks everything and anything having to do with the climate emergency.
Follow this link to the resouce list for this episode. https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/PH-Resource-List-for-Adaptation-and-Climate-Change-with-Mitchell-Beer-March-10-2022.pdf
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
This episode of Planet Haliburton takes stock of Premier Doug Ford’s climate change record with David Robertson from “Seniors for Climate Action Now” (SCAN) in February 2022 - less than four months before the June 2nd Ontario Provincial Election.
Premier Ford has, from the day he was elected, proven to be an implacable opponent of anything having to do with serious climate action.
While Ontario is not a significant oil and gas producer it is a major source of carbon emissions, second only to Alberta, the Tar Sands juggernaut. After winning the 2018 election, Ford dismantled the previous Wynne government’s entire climate plan and joined forces with Alberta and Saskatchewan in a legal attack on the Federal carbon tax.
They lost that battle when the Supreme Court found the tax to be “critical to our response to an existential threat to human life in Canada and around the world.”
While the Federal government continues to set national GHG emission reduction targets, without Canada’s most populous province pulling in the same direction, there’s no possibility of Canada achieving its fair share of the emission cuts required to reign in the climate emergency.
“Posing As Canadian – How Big Foreign Oil Captures Canadian Energy and Climate Policy” with Professor Gordon Laxer, January 27/29 2022
After winning the 2018 provincial election, Premier Jason Kenney set up a 3-year, $3.5 million “Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns”, AKA the “Allen Inquiry”.
Allen handed in his final report on October 21, 2021 having found only a dibble of so-called foreign “anti-Alberta” money where Kenney had alleged gushers. In fact, the amount of foreign money directed to anti-fossil fuel campaigns turned out to be less than the cost of the Public Inquiry itself.
While Allen came up dry on the issue of foreign anti-fossil fuel financing, his Inquiry sparked renewed interest in foreign influence over Canadian energy and climate policy.
This episode of Planet Haliburton features an interview with Professor Gordon Laxer, the author of a December 2021 report entitled “Posing As Canadian: How Big Foreign Oil Captures Canadian Energy and Climate Policy”.
This week's episode features an update on the status of the County’s Climate Change Planning initiatives with Korey McKay, the County of Haliburton’s Climate Change Co-Ordinator.
Climate scientists, UN Climate Reports and Summits, like the recently concluded 26th Conference of the Parties or COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021, continue to remind us of the urgency of the climate challenge we face, the need for immediate and deep cuts to carbon emissions and a rapid transition off fossil fuels.
In the face of the failure of senior levels of governments to stop, let alone reverse, the rise of GHG concentrations in the atmosphere, pressure has been increasing on municipal governments to take a greater role in cutting emissions and putting adaptive measures in place to address current and future impacts of warming already in the pipeline.
Haliburton County is warming at greater then twice the global average. Will the Haliburton’s climate planning process make difference? Will it take a fair share of responsibility to address the climate emergency at the scale of the crisis we face?
This episode features a conversation about the “Highlands Corridor Project” for reducing carbon emissions at the root of the climate emergency as well as enhancing the local ecological resiliency essential to adapting to the warming already in the pipeline.
Canada has committed to increasing the amount of protected spaces and intact ecosystems from its current level of 12% to 30% by 2030. Currently, only about 11% of Ontario’s land mass is protected so we have a very long way to go.
Guests Shelley Hunt, the Chairperson of the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust and Paul Heaven, a wildlife biologist with Glenside Ecological Services discuss how the Highlands Corridor Project, can help make a significant contribution to climate resilience by protecting key species and spaces within the County and beyond.
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
This episode of Planet Haliburton features an interview with Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist and communicator extraordinaire as well as author of a recent book entitled “Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World”
By the time this interview first aired on November 11, 2021, the 26th UN Climate Summit, running from October 31st to November 12th in Glasgow, Scotland was down to the closing media conferences.
Unfortunately, the size of pre-COP 26 national greenhouse gas emissions reduction commitments by the 190 plus countries attending the summit fell far short of what’s required to avert turning a relatively human-friendly climate system into our worst nightmare. A process that, as the growing incidence of extreme weather events illustrates, is well underway.
Despite the urgent calls to action from the world’s climate scientists going all the way back to the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, earth warming gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to rise year after year taking an ever-increasing toll on people and all other life on the planet.
Given the lack of progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting continuous rise in C02 concentration in the atmosphere it is easy to be skeptical about the prospects for an organized stepping back from the brink of climate chaos and all the increased suffering that will cause.
Despite her deep understanding of just how serious a threat the climate crisis poses to humanity, Canadian climate scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, insists it is not too late to avoid the most serious and dangerous impacts and that our future choices will determine what happens.
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
This episode features a conversation about the Woodland and Waterways EcoWatch project co-ordinated by Haliburton’s own Ulinks Community-Based Research group.
Provincial government environmental research has been in decline for many years as the Ministries of Natural Resources and the Environment had been reduced by successive provincial governments to mere shadows of their former selves.
Lake associations and other local voluntary organizations with ecological mandates have attempted as best they can to fill the resulting research void through citizen science and other forms of community-based research.
Ulinks’ Woodlands and Waterways EcoWatch project aims to increase the support for local research to enhance the ecological sustainability of our lakes and forests and the ecosystems that keep them healthy.
Ulinks reps, Andy Gordon, Sadia Fischer, and Jim Prince describe the history behind the creation of this new collaboration and its implications for enhancing our knowledge of local lake and terrestrial health.
“Dangerous Distractions and Canada’s “Net Zero” Emission Targets” with Marc Lee This week this program looks at the “Net Zero” greenhouse gas emissions reduction pledges that have come to occupy a central place in Canada’s federal climate action plans as well as international discussions taking place under the leadership of the United Nations. While many view the widespread adoption of Net Zero emission pledges as a significant step forward, others are concerned that the Net Zero framework has the potential to reduce the political pressure to achieve real emission reductions in favour of unproven future technologies and so-called “nature-based solutions”. To helps us sort out some of the confusion around what Net Zero means as well as the pros and cons associated with its wide-spread adoption, I’m joined by Marc Lee, a senior economist with the BC Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the author of a recent Net Zero Report entitled “Dangerous Distractions: Canada’s carbon emissions and the pathway to net zero”.
This week, William Rees, on “Ecological Overshoot: The Existential Issue of Our Time?, September 2021
There’s been much discussion in recent years about the climate emergency being the existential issue of our time. And, to be sure, there’s no scientific doubt that human extraction and burning of fossil fuel is the principle cause of the climate emergency that poses an existential threat to all life on the planet.
At the same time, a growing number of earth-system scientists view the climate emergency as but one of a series of symptoms of a much larger problem in the relationship between humans and earth’s life-sustaining biosphere – ecological overshoot.
This episode of Planet Haliburton features an interview with Professor William Rees, the co-inventor of the “Ecological Footprint” index of human impact on the earth’s carrying capacity, about the root causes of human-caused ecological overshoot and what we can do about it.
Join Terry Moore, for a discussion with Eddy Pérez, the Climate Action Network’s International Climate Diplomacy Manager, about what climate science tells us needs to be done as the UN and world leaders prepare for the next big Climate Summit, COP 26, this fall in Scotland.
Eddy Pérez Biographical Information
CAN-Rac International Climate Diplomacy Manager
Eddy Pérez joined Climate Action Network Canada in January 2018 after working in Geneva with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and as a Climate Action Network International consultant. He is the International Climate Diplomacy Manager at Climate Action Network Canada. Eddy is a lecturer at the University of Montreal and teaches Climate justice and international cooperation. Eddy is an expert on climate diplomacy, analyzing and monitoring international climate negotiations from a Canadian and North American perspective. He chairs the G7 Climate and Energy WG within the G7 Global Taskforce. He sits on the Canadian Domestic Advisory Group (CEDAG) for the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Eddy holds a Master of Science degree from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique du Québec (INRS). Eddy loves poetry and attributes part of his passion for climate justice to the work of Eduardo Galeano. One of his favourite quotes from this author is: “Recordar, from the Latin records, to pass back through the heart.”
-
Information on CAN-Rac – Climate Action Network Canada:
- https://climateactionnetwork.ca/about-can-rac/
-
Information on COP 26:
-
https://ukcop26.org
-
Information on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):
-
https://www.ipcc.ch
-
Information on IPCC Working Group 1 ”The Physical Basis for Climate Change”:
-
https://www.ipcc.ch/working-group/wg1/
“Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy”, July 29, 2021
In this episode of Planet Haliburton, we examine the power of fossil capital in Canada, its role in creating the climate emergency and blocking effective action to address it, as well as what can be done to overcome that resistance.
While critical comment and action directed at specific large-scale, carbon-intensive fossil fuel developments, such as the tar sands and related infrastructure projects like the TMX or Keystone pipelines is commonplace, critical analysis of the role of fossil capitalism, or capitalism more generally in creating the climate emergency, does not occupy a central place within the public pronouncements, programs or campaigns of mainstream climate action groups.
To help us understand how fossil capital has created and maintains such a powerful influence over energy and climate policy and action in Canada, as well as what can be done to overcome it, I’m joined by Professor William Carroll, co-director of The Corporate Mapping Project and the editor of the 2021 book entitled “Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy”, published by Athabasca University Press.
Paste this link into your browser for the resource list.
https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/PH-Resource-List-for-for-Regime-of-Obstruction-How-Corporate-Power-Blocks-Energy-Democracy-with-Professor-William-Carroll-July-29-2021.pdf
In this episode we look at the not so intense battle between gas-powered SUVs and battery-powered electric vehicles in the fight against global heating.
The greenhouse gas emissions from this country’s transportation sector are no small matter amounting to about 25% of our total emissions. We pump more carbon out of our vehicle tailpipes per capita than any other country in the world.
Listening to Canadian Auto Executive climate pronouncements leaves the impression that they’ve become climate champions leading the charge to decarbonize passenger vehicle and small truck production in this country and around the world.
But their production plans and advertising messages tell a very different story.
To help us cut through Auto company climate virtue-signalling and get a clearer picture of what’s really going on, I’m joined by Keith Brooks, the Program Director for Environmental Defence, and the publisher of a new report entitled “Car Wars: SUVs vs EVs and the Battle for a Cleaner Future”.
Keith Brooks Biographical Information:
Keith Brooks has been working in the environment field for over 20 years in a variety of different roles. Keith is a frequent commentator in the media and has been published in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Hamilton Spectator, the Hill Times, and the Huffington Post. He sits on the Board of Directors for Blue Green Canada, an alliance between Canadian labour unions and environmental organizations, and has been the Programs Director at Environmental Defence since 2014 where he oversees the organization’s climate, energy, water and plastics programs. Keith holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science from the University of Guelph and a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University. He's an avid cyclist and canoeist, and lives in Toronto. About: https://environmentaldefence.ca/about-us/ Full Report “Car Wars: SUVs versus EVs and the Battle for a Cleaner Future” https://environmentaldefence.ca/report/car_wars/
**“The Liberal Climate Action Formula: The Missing Renewables and Fatal Fission Attraction” with Paul McKay, June 10, 2021
In this episode we take a look at the absence of renewable energy in the federal Liberal Climate Action Formula as well as the government’s continuing attraction to nuclear power.
Despite the Trudeau government’s carefully cultivated “climate champion” image, and the promise to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies during the 2019 federal election, the Liberals have since expanded fossil subsidies and are busy enabling Canada’s future as a fossil-fuelled hydrogen energy superpower.**
Load this link in your browser for the resource list for this podacast.
https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/PH-Resource-List-Final-for-%E2%80%9CThe-Liberal-Climate-Plan-Missing-Renewables-and-Canada%E2%80%99s-Fatal-Fissile-Attraction%E2%80%9D-June-10-2021-with-Paul-McKay.pdf This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
“More Powerful Together: Conversation with Climate Activists and Land Defenders” Jen Gobby.
On this episode we discuss Settler Climate Activist Support for Indigenous Climate Action with Jen Gobby, a white settler climate justice activist with a PHD from McGill. Dr. Gobby is the author of the new book entitled “More Powerful Together: Conversations with Climate Activists and Indigenous Land Defenders”. Indigenous resistance to ecologically destructive resource extraction projects, ranging from the Ring of Fire mining development in northern Ontario to the oil and gas driven industrialization of Alberta’s Tar Sands, has been intense and unrelenting. Indigenous opposition to fossil fuel mega projects has inspired a growing climate justice movement in this country and around the world demanding real action to eliminate climate-killing fossil fuel emissions after decades of political lip-service. This interview examines some of the powerful possibilities and well as the complexities involved in building solidarity between Settler-based Climate Action groups and Indigenous communities.
This episode of Planet Haliburton features a conversation with local Haliburton family physician, Dr. Nell Thomas, about Covid-19 vaccines and how their record-breaking development and widespread use might influence our future “new normal”.
Covid-19 has taken the lives of 3.2 million people around the world to date while inalterably changing the lives of tens of millions more at the same time. Withing the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit, over 1700 people have been infected with 71 losing their lives since the pandemic was declared some 15 moths ago.
Dr. Thomas shares her pandemic memories and describes the key fault lines in our infectious disease detection, prevention and response systems that the virus has exposed.
From her views on wearing masks to the stress on frontline health care workers, to vaccines and how the covid-19 risk far surpasses that of any influenza outbreak in living memory, Dr. Thomas tells it like she sees it.
“The Federal Liberal Climate Action Formula: A Recipe for Failure”, Thursday March 25, 2021, with David Robertson from “Seniors for Climate Action Now” (SCAN!)
On this episode we take a look at the recent flurry of activity by the federal Liberal government on the climate change policy front.
In late 2020 and early 2021, the federal government announced a whole raft of climate-related initiatives including the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, A Hydrogen Strategy and a Nuclear Action Plan. To mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Climate Accord, it also released an updated Climate Plan called “A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy”, on December 11, 2020.
The Liberal Climate Plan is not a satisfying read, nor a very convincing one.
To take stock what the Federal Liberals are up to on the climate change and energy policy fronts, I’m joined by David Roberson, chair of the Education Committee of Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN!) for a conversation about the March 2021 research paper we co-authored entitled “The Federal Liberal Climate Action Formula: A Recipe for Failure”.
Link to resource list, copy and paste to your browser.
https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/PH-Resource-List-for-%E2%80%9CThe-Federal-Liberal-Climate-Action-Formula-A-Recipe-for-Failure%E2%80%9D-airing-Thursday-March-25-2021.pdf
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
On this episode of Planet Haliburton we take a look at the challenges, possibilities and limitations of protecting Cottage Country lake water quality and shoreline health via municipal by-laws and other planning tools with Dr. Neil Hutchinson, of Hutchinson Environmental Sciences Ltd. in Bracebridge.
Development pressure on Haliburton and other cottages country shorelines has been increasing in recent years and the Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions on vacation travel has turned that trend into a virtual feeding frenzy.
All this is happening coincident with rising concerns over lake water quality, declining levels of natural shoreline vegetation and climate change with its associated increase in air and water temperatures, blue -green algal blooms, extreme weather events, insect and disease infestations and biodiversity loss.
These tensions have increased the pressure on local municipalities to assume a large and more aggressive regulatory presence on the shoreline at the same time as decades of austerity-driven budgets and downloading of responsibility from senior levels of government have severely stretched their capacity to do so. The Lakeshore Capacity Assessment (LCA) model is a planning tool developed by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) to predict the impacts of shoreline development on water quality of inland lakes on the Canadian Shield Dr. Neil Hutchinson, the owner of Hutchinson Environmental Sciences Ltd, an environmental consultancy firm in Bracebridge, worked on the Lakeshore Capacity project policy development for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment from 1988 – 1998 and since that time for various municipalities as a consultant.
Copy this link into your browser for a resource list for this program. https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/PH-Resource-List-for-March-11-2021.pdf
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
This episode of Planet Haliburton features a conversation about Eco-Socialism, the Covid-19 and Climate Emergencies and the Green Party of Canada. Two of the eight candidates to replace Elizabeth May as Green Party leader in the fall of 2020 campaigned as “Eco-Socialists”. One of those candidates, Dimitri Lascaris, finished a close second to the winner, Annamie Paul, on the eighth and final ballot, with 42% of the vote. In this conversation Terry Moore and Dimitri Lascarus discuss what “EcoSocialism” is, how it factored into the leadership campaign, as well as what it may mean for the future of the Green Party of Canada.
Resource List Link: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/PH-Resource-List-for-Planet-Haliburton-Februarya-25-2021.pdf This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
“Blue-Green Algae: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” with Dr. Elizabeth Favot
“This episode of Planet Haliburton focuses on the causes and consequences of the increased incidence of blue-green algae blooms across Ontario and, more recently, here in Haliburton County in the fall of 2020.
Blue-green algae, or “cyanobacteria”, is naturally present in all our lakes and plays a very important role in aquatic ecosystems. But, as is common with many other essential things on our planet, too much of a good thing can also be very bad for people, other creatures and biosphere, not to mention the local economy.
My guest on its program is Dr. Elizabeth Favot, a new resident of Haliburton Village, who’s just completed her doctorial thesis on the Long Term Environmental Trends in Ontario Lakes Impacted by Cyanobacterial Blooms, at Queens University in Kingston.
Among other the other things that can be done to minimize the risk posed by blue-green algae, in this age of global warming and climate disruption, this program emphasizes the need to reduce the amount and speed with which phosphorus, rock salt and other harmful substances enter into our lakes.
Well-vegetated natural shorelines are one of the key ways to reduce the risk of blue-green algae blooms and all the disruption they can leave in their wake.’
https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Resource-List-for-Planet-Haliburton-January-28-2021.docx
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
Terry Moore talks with Paul McInness about the Draft Shoreline Preservation Bylaw. This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
“Building Back Better from the Pandemic and Climate Emergencies”, with Annamie Paul, Leader of the Green Party of Canada, December 10, 2020
This episode features a conversation with Annamie Paul, the newly-elected leader of the Green Party of Canada about “Building Back Better From the Covid-19 and Climate Change Emergencies”.
Key systemic fault lines in Canada’s economic and social institutions have been on stark display during the covid-19 pandemic. From the failure to stockpile enough personal protective equipment to the disastrous impact of covid-19 on the elderly residents of our increasingly privatized long term care facilities, the virus has exposed just how vulnerable and dependent our public and private health systems have become on global corporate supply chains.
And, now that a number of promising vaccines are headed for final regulatory approval, the consequences of Canada’s lack of domestic vaccine production capacity has become painfully obvious. And, of course, the Climate Emergency continues to loom ever larger in the background and there’s no vaccine for that.
Discussion also touches on what role Paul sees the Green Party playing in the building of a Climate Justice Movement strong enough to force climate action commensurate with the scale of the climate emergency.
This is a link to a resource list for this episode. https://app.box.com/s/as8lkxv7k4gzupzaxtohfjdcuy7hp79m
On this episode we continue our environmental impact assessment of the Doug Ford government.
From the immediate hollowing out of Ontario’s Climate Change laws and his cancellation of 752 green energy projects, within weeks of becoming Premier in June of 2018, to his more recent efforts to undermine what remains of the ecological protection and restoration capacity of Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities, Doug Ford has cut a wide swath. So wide that its difficult to keep an up-to-date list, let alone take proper stock, of the real on-the-ground impact of Ford Nation’s on-going war on public sector environmental stewardship.
It would be hard to find someone better placed to help us appreciate the cumulative environmental impact of what Doug Ford has been up to, than Dianne Saxe, the last independent Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, following Ford’s legislated elimination of her position and agency, effective in May of 2019.
Dianne, has recently been appointment as Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Ontario.
https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/PH-Resource-List-Doug-Ford-Env-Impact-Assessment-With-Dianne-Saxe-Nov-26-2020-Rev-1.pdf
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
“A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency” With Seth Klein.
All mainstream Canadian political parties say they accept what climate scientists are saying about the seriousness of climate emergency and the need to urgently cut GHG emissions. At the same time, however, they allow those emissions to continue, unabated, year after year.
To discuss the growing gulf between what our leaders say and do about the climate emergency, as well as how citizens can mobilize to change all that, this episode of Planet Haliburton features a discussion with Seth Klein, author of the recently published book “A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency”.
This link will take you to a resource list for this episode.
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
“Pension Fund Capitalism and the Covid-19 Pandemic” Program Description
On this episode of Planet Haliburton we take a look at the relationship between the Covid-19 Pandemic, the incredible rate of infection and death in our Long Term Facilities and the investment practices of large public sector pension funds.
It’s no secret that the SARS-Cov-2 virus has wrecked disportioncate havoc among elderly residents of our country’s Long Term Care Facilities.
Less attention has been paid to who owns and operates those private for-profit long term care facilities and why private facilities are experiencing higher than average rates of infection and death.
Join me for a conversation about the connections between Covid-19, for-profit long term care, and public sector pension funds with Kevin Skerrett, a long time researcher with the Canadian Union of Public Employees and an author of the 2018 book “The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism”.
Resource List for “Pension Fund Capitalism and the Covid-19 Pandemic”, with Kevin Skerrett, October 26, 2020
https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Resource-List-for-%E2%80%9CPension-Fund-Capitalism-and-the-Covid-19-Pandemic%E2%80%9DJ-with-Kevin-SkerrettJ-October-26J-2020.pdf
This week Tery Moore and Korey McKay cover Climate Change Planning in Haliburton County. Links mentioned in this episode:
``` 1. Korey McKay Biographical Information: • https://ca.linkedin.com/in/korey-mckay-57257513b • https://haliburtonecho.ca/climate-change-co-ordinator-plans-to-lead-the-way/
-
County of Haliburton Climate Change Mitigation Plan, Adopted September 23, 2020: https://www.haliburtoncounty.ca/en/planning-and-maps/climate-change.aspx#Corporate-Climate-Change-Mitigation-Plan
-
County of Haliburton Climate Change Website: ```
https://www.haliburtoncounty.ca/en/planning-and-maps/climate-change.aspx
``` 4. County of Haliburton Climate Change implementation and monitoring process: https://haliburton.civicweb.net/FileStorage/F91C7C3B59FA401CB36B1E3BCCAF238F-Climate%20Change%20implementation%20and%20monitoring%20pr.pdf
-
Planning for Climate Change in Muskoka Report, 2016: https://www.muskokawatershed.org/wp-content/uploads/ClimateChange_Muskoka-2016.pdf
-
UN 1.5 C Report, November 2018, Summary for Policy Makers: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/
-
Scientists’ “Warning Letter to Humanity”, October 2019: https://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu
-
“County Plans 15% Carbon Reduction Target”, The Highlander January 20, 2020: https://thehighlander.ca/2020/01/14/county-plans-15-per-cent-carbon-reduction-target/
-
“County Declines Declaration of Climate Emergency”, The Minden Times, October 29, 2019: https://mindentimes.ca/news/county-declines-declaration-of-climate-emergency/ Previous Planet Haliburton Episodes on Climate Change Planning
-
“Climate Change Planning in the Highlands” with Charlsey White, County Planner and Craig Douglas, Director of Public Works, November 25, 2019: https://planet-haliburton.zencast.website/episodes/52
```
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
“On this PH episode we explore local climate change planning activism with two representatives of Climate Action Muskoka (CAM), Linda Mathers and Tamsen Tillson, who explain their efforts to build build wide-spread community support for a climate emergency declaration in the District of Muskoka.
In the face of the complete failure of national governments over the past 30 years to slowdown, let alone reverse ever-increasing GHG concentration in the atmosphere, many activists have redoubled their efforts to encourage municipal climate emergency declarations and the development of local climate action action plans.
Canada is home to a disproportionately large number of those local climate emergency declarations - some 500 or so already having been issued, including the City of Peterborough, with the District of Muskoka scheduled to debate taking that action in October.” This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
This week, Terry Moore, and Mayor of Algonquin Highlands Carol Moffatt cover short term rentals.
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
Climate Scientists have never been so insistent that immediate action is required to drive down greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid runaway climate disruption. Is the Green New Deal a means to achieve that end?
On the next episode of Planet Haliburton we have a conversation about the prospects and limitations of the Green New Deal with Plant Scientist Stan Cox, Author of “Beyond the Green New Deal: Ending the Climate Emergency While We Still Can”.
Show Notes
On our next episode we have a conversation about the need and prospects for a guaranteed basic income in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Crises have a way of highlighting the fault lines in existing systems and Canada’s income security programs are no exception.
Join me, Terry Moore, for a conversation with Elaine Power from Queen’s University and Jamie Swift, journalist, author and activist on why the time has come to get serious about a guaranteed basic income.
Show Notes
Ontario Green Party Leader, Mike Schreiner, calls the Ford government … “one of the most anti-environmental in generations”. For an environmental assessment of Ford’s impact halfway through his 4-year mandate, join us for an eye-opening conversation with Dianne Saxe, the 3rd and last Environmental Commissioner of Ontario.
Show Notes
From the “Public Power” of Ontario Hydro to the “Public Pharma” of Connaught Labs, public enterprise has achieved great outcomes for Canadians only to be privatized and sold off to those more interested in making profit than serving people.
Join us for a conversation about Canada’s fascinating public enterprise history and post-pandemic prospects with award winning author and activist, Linda McQuaig.
Show Notes
- 4800+ front-line healthcare workers in Ontario infected by the virus
- more than 1 in 6 of all those who’ve tested positive in Ontario
- 30% of those infected under age 60 are front-line health workers
- one of the worst national records in the world on a per capita basis
Join us for a conversation about PPE and Covid-19 with Michael Hurley, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Council of Ontario Hospital Unions (OCHU), and Rebecca Keetch, an auto worker at the GM Oshawa Plant and Organizer with Green Jobs Oshawa (GJO).
Many argue that a return to pre-pandemic personal and working life will have to await the development of an effective and safe vaccine – something that’s by no means guaranteed as we have seen with other recent coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS.
But, even if a safe, effective and affordable Covid-19 vaccine becomes widely available, will it be embraced by a sufficient percentage of the population to ensure widespread public immunity from Covid-19?
To help us understand why a growing number of people have become “vaccine resistant” if not “vaccine hostile”, join me, Terry Moore, for a conversation with Jennifer Reich, an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado at Denver and the author of the 2016 book entitled “Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines”.
Show Notes
It turns out that the presence of tiny creatures making their homes at the water’s edge can tell us a lot about water quality and the health of adjacent shorelines. And, as we know healthy shorelines are essential to the water quality of Haliburton’s incredible lakes, streams and wetlands.
Recently, The U-links Centre for Community Based Research, headquartered in Minden, partnered with six Lake Associations across Haliburton County to study shoreline aquatic invertebrate populations. Over time, a database of the results will provide another means of assessing and tracking changes to shoreline health and water quality.
To hear more about “benthos biomonitoring” and its use in protecting and improving lake water quality, join me, Terry Moore, on the next Planet Haliburton episode for a conversation with Brendan Martin, the Aquatic and Biomonitoring Project Co-ordinator with U-Links and Jim Prince, the Vice-President of the Kennisis Lake Cottage Owners’ Association.
Show Notes
This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm
Three of the four townships in Haliburton County have established septic reinspection programs and the 4th, Minden Hills, is about to launch its variation in the near future.
Programs vary tremendously from one township to the next and some inspectors and waste treatment experts question the capacity of the majority of the county’s programs to actually identify key structural failures that can undermine lake health.
The most comprehensive program in the County, in Dysart et al, is under pressure to reduce its scope, raising fears that political support for protecting lake water quality is waning.
To discuss how septic systems work and fail as well as the problems with the programs we rely on to identify and fix malfunctioning systems, we’re joined on the next episode of Planet Haliburton by Mike Rahme and Rob Davis, two people with many years of waste water trouble-shooting and septic inspection experience.
Show Notes: Background Resources For The Politics Of Municipal Reinspection, April 30, 2020
As of April 6th, 26 residents of the 65-bed Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon have died from covid-19. The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care says that 50+ nursing home residents have died across the province with 44 homes reporting active covid-19 outbreaks. Clearly, Long Term Care facilities, which are home to significant numbers of elderly residents with underlying health conditions and compromised immune systems, are pandemic hotspots. But does the way work is structured and organized within nursing homes create special or increased risks to residents, workers and the larger community?
To help us answer this and related questions we interview Pat Armstrong, Research Professor of Sociology at York University and the author of two recent books on Long Term Care sector work: entitled “Wash, Wear, Care: Clothing and Laundry in Long Term Residential Care” and “The Privatization of Care: The Case of Nursing Homes”.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Background-Resource-List-for-%E2%80%9CConvid-19-and-Ontario%E2%80%99s-Long-Term-Care-Homes.pdf
;
Today we take a look at the water level situation within the so-called RaFT or reservoir and flow through lakes portion of the Trent Severn Waterway (TSW).
The spring melt is now well underway in the northern-most reaches of the TSW, and a lot of people are wondering about the prospects for high water, ice damage and flooding throughout the system.
To discuss how the ice-out season is setting up so far this year, we’re joined by retired hydrologist and chairperson of the Coalition for Equitable Water Flow (CEWF), Ted Spence.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Background-Resource-for-Managing-Spring-Water-Levels-Under-A-Changing-Climate-April-2020.pdf</p><p><br></p>
Can we protect those natural shorelines from ongoing decline without undermining shoreline landowner property rights or the shoreline landscape industry?
To shed some light on this and other questions related to the draft County Shoreline Preservation By-law, we speak with shoreline naturalization expert, Julia Sutton.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Resource-list-for-Healthy-Shorelines-Healthy-Lakes-and-the-County-Shoreline-Preservation-Bylaw.pdf</p>
On the next episode of Planet Haliburton we examine the science and regulatory issues related to natural shoreline protection. Natural shorelines perform a range of important ecological functions essential to the environmental and economic health of Haliburton County. But they’re are under increasing pressure due to shoreline development and redevelopment.
Can we protect those natural shorelines from ongoing decline without undermining shoreline landowner property rights or the shoreline landscape industry?
To shed some light on this and other questions related to the draft County Shoreline Preservation By-law, we speak with shoreline naturalization expert, Julia Sutton, and environmental planning consultant, Stephen Fahner.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-March-30-2020.pdf</p>
Ever wonder about how taxpayers, like me and you, end up subsidizing large carbon-intensive and climate disrupting projects, like the Trans-Mountain and GasLink pipelines, across this country?
And just how much demand really exists for more pipeline capacity to get Alberta’s tar sand bitumen to tidewater?
To lift the rug on these and other fossil-fuelled follies, join us for an ear-popping conversation with independent energy economist, Robyn Allan.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-March-9-2020-1.pdf</p>
In this episode of Planet Haliburton Short Takes, we focus on the debate surrounding the recent tabling of a draft County-wide Shoreline Preservation Bylaw. A massive 60 lake, 12,000 property “Love Your Lake” shoreline heath assessment was carried out across Haliburton County by the Coalition for Haliburton Property Owner’s Associations (CHA) between 2014 and 2018. That study found that only 47% of Haliburton’s shorelines are in a “natural” state when 75% is the recognized minimum required to maintain healthy lake water quality.
A draft bylaw designed to protect the remaining natural shoreline was presented at the February 12th County Council meeting but immediately met with considerable push back from the Haliburton County Home Builders’ Association and others employed doing shoreline work.
To help us understand the need for, and resistance to, strong legal protection for natural shorelines, the CHA’s Paul MacInness and Dysart Ward 4 Councillor and Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee, John Smith, join us on the first episode of “Planet Haliburton Short Takes”.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Resource-list-for-Healthy-Shorelines-Healthy-Lakes-and-the-County-Shoreline-Preservation-Bylaw.pdf
;
On the February 24th episode of Planet Haliburton we examine what Doug Ford has been up to since he eliminated the independent Office of the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, almost one year ago. Why did Doug Ford go to the extraordinary length of passing legislation to fire Ontario’s public environmental watchdog 2 years before her 5 year term of office was set to expire?
Join us for a candid conversation about Doug Ford’s ever-expanding environmental footprint with Ontario’s 3rd and last Environmental Commissioner, Dianne Saxe.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Background-Resource-for-Planet-Haliburton-February-24-2020.pdf</p>
Ever wonder about the environmental footprint associated with what happens to your body after you die? How does the carbon intensity of a conventional burial in a finished casket surrounded by a concrete vault, for example, compare to the carbon emissions caused by cremation?
The Green Burial Movement has been at the forefront of raising inconvenient questions about everything from the use of embalming
chemicals to the mountains of carbon-intensive materials embodied in the caskets, cement, fibreglass or metal vaults buried along with humans remains in the typical grave in a conventional cemetery.
On this episode of Planet Haliburton we interview Suzanne Kelly, author of the 2015 book entitled “Greening Death: Reclaiming Death Practices and Restoring Our Tie to the Earth”.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-February-10-2020.pdf</p>
On the next episode of PH we take a close look at the role Haliburton’s wetlands play in limiting future climate change as well as adapting to the warming already in the pipeline. Ontario is home to an astounding 25% of Canada’s and 6% of the world’s wetlands.
Haliburton’s almost 20,000 acres of wetlands, sequester a huge amount of carbon, filter our lake and drinking water, and limit the impact of flooding by slowing surface runoff and channeling it into the water table.
Covering 25% of Haliburton’s land area, wetlands have nominal protection under all five Municipal Official plans across the County, but are still being eroded by increasing site alteration and development pressure.
The Haliburton County Land Trust has recently obtained two wetland mapping and evaluation grants which it hopes will greatly enhance the capacity of municipal governments to stop further encroachment and lay the groundwork for improved future wetland protection and restoration actions.
On the next episode of Planet Haliburton we take a hard look at the climate crisis and the health of Ontario’s Boreal Forest. Discussion about slowing down, stopping, or even reversing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere place a lot of faith in the world’s forests as virtually inexhaustible carbon storehouses. But are Canada’s and Ontario’s forests really the carbon sinks we think they are?
To begin answering that question join me, Terry Moore, for a conversation with Dave Pearce, Forest Conservation Manager for the
Wildlands League, about the League’s recent bombshell report entitled “Logging Scars”.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-January-13-2020.pdf</p>
On Friday December 20, 2019 the last vehicle rolled off the assembly line at the GM Oshawa Plant throwing 5,000 direct employees out of work as well as eliminating an additional 10,000 indirect supplier jobs across Ontario.
On September 13, 2019, in the middle of the federal election campaign, Green Jobs Oshawa and the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation released a feasibility study supporting the conversion of GM Oshawa into a publicly-owned centre for green vehicle production.
On the next episode of Planet Haliburton we interview the principal author of that study, Russ Christianson, about what the proposal contains, how it’s been received and its future prospects.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-December-30-2019.pdf</p>
Ever get frustrated when told that you need to get rid of something because it’s cheaper to trash it than repair it? Repairs Cafes, active in 1500 locations across 33 countries, bring people together with a communities of local “fixers” to provide an alternative to just junking stuff that breaks down.
On the next episode of Planet Haliburton we’re joined by Chris Varga, the Repair Café Co-ordinator for SIRCH Community Services in Haliburton, to discuss plans to bring Repair Cafe to Haliburton County, beginning in January 2020.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-December-9-2019.pdf</p>
With senior levels of government repeatedly failing to meet their own voluntary targets under international climate change agreements, the call has gone out for political and economic leaders at the municipal and community level to step into the breach.In Haliburton County, the Four Townships have each opted into a County-wide Climate Change Planning process that’s gathering steam with the recent hiring of a climate change co-ordinator to guide the County and Townships through the planning process.
The County’s climate change planning framework and timeline was developed by Charlsey White, the Director of Planning/Deputy CAO for the County of Haliburton and Greg Douglas, the County’s Director of Public Works.
Both Charlsey White and Craig Douglas join us in the next episode of Planet Haliburton to discuss the planning process that will produce both greenhouse gas emission reduction and climate change adaptation plans for the County and all four Townships.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Background-Report-for-Planet-Haliburton-November-25-2019.pdf</p>
The January 29, 2018 episode of Planet Haliburton will feature an interview with Geoff Coulson, Weather Preparedness Meteorologist with Environment Canada, focusing on extreme weather notifications and other information available to individuals and communities trying to adapt to the increased incidence of extreme weather associated with climate change.
Residential, commercial, and industrial buildings are the third largest source of carbon emissions in Ontario accounting for about 37% of energy use and 20% of C02 emissions. Emissions have been going up within the sector at a time when we need to be making serious reductions.
Is there an economic model that can provide good living standards for everyone without destroying the planet? Join us for a discussion of these and related questions with Richard Swift, author of the 2014 book “SOS: Alternatives to Capitalism”.
With multiple environmental crises, from extreme weather to biodiversity loss, coming home to roost, interest in building ecologically sustainable communities is on the rise. But what do truly sustainable communities look like and how we can go about building them, especially in rural Ontario?
Sometimes the whole idea of enacting positive environmental change on an individual level can seem overwhelming. Please join us as we talk with Jessica Correa, founder and owner of Random Acts of Green – RAOG . Jessica will tell us how to work toward positive change as individuals and how to use social media as a tool to make this happen. You won’t want to miss this positive, energetic conversation.
As land-based animals, we often don’t appreciate just how important healthy oceans are to all life on the planet. Yet, one third of the oxygen we breath comes from zooplankton, whose coral nurseries are dying from warming and acidifying seas – caused by human greenhouse gas emissions.
Lake Associations across Haliburton County have been focused on water quality, healthy shorelines and healthy septic systems for years. Some lake associations have consistently taken a leadership role and built proactive programs in an attempt to head off problems before they get out of hand.
Thousands of seasonal and permanent residents of Haliburton County rely on private septic systems to handle their “human waste” or “humanure”. But malfunctioning or poorly maintained systems can have serious negative impacts on both the ground and surface water quality for which Haliburton is famous.
Never-ending economic growth on a finite planet is unsustainable and sooner or later will put humankind on a collision course with environmental realities. However, despite clear evidence that we are undermining crucial ecological systems that support all life on earth, virtually all our economic and political leaders keep promoting policies and practices that demand more and more from a biosphere already in crisis.
There’s a growing scientific consensus that earth has exited from the “Holocene” geological epoch ushered in by the end of the last ice age 11,700 years ago and entered into a brave new world called “The Anthropocene” – or “time of humans”.
Donald Trump as a candidate for President of the United States took aim at international trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as being bad deals for America that facilitated the contracting out of millions of American manufacturing jobs.
Now as President, Trump has given the notice required to reopen the agreement and the clock is counting down on formal renegotiation discussions.
The Council of Canadians has consistently argued that NAFTA and other so-called free trade agreements are more about the expansion of corporate rights at the expense of worker rights and protecting the environment. Maude Barlow, as chair of the Council of Canadians, has been calling on the Trudeau government to go after some major changes to the agreement and not to just play defence.
Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PH-Resource-List-for-July-10-2017-Show-with-Maude-Barlow.pdf</p>
Canadians are the largest per capita producers of garbage in the industrialized world and recycling rates in Ontario haven’t increased beyond 25 percent diversion levels for over 10 years. As a visit to any landfill or transfer station will confirm, we’re being buried in our own waste.
Dianne Saxe, had a distinguished, award-winning 40-year career practising public, private and non-profit environmental law before becoming Ontario’s third Environmental Commissioner since the office was created in 1993. Commissioner Saxe will be visiting Haliburton County at the invitation of Environment Haliburton! (EH!) on July 6th to give a public presentation on “Facing The Climate Crisis” at the Minden Community Centre, beginning at 7pm.
Join co-hosts Greg Roe and Terry Moore for a discussion on how the increasing awareness of the relationship between septic systems and algae-causing phosphorus pollution of Haliburton Lakes has got Township Councils across Haliburton County moving toward some form of mandatory septic system inspection.
Join co-hosts Greg Roe and Terry Moore for conversation with Brad Cundiff of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance about the key drivers behind the huge increases in electrical costs across Ontario. Contrary to mainstream commentary, which often erronously points the finger at renewable energy contracts, past nuclear debt and the future retrofitting of aging nuclear reactors are the key reasons costs keep rising. Shutting down nuclear reactors would not only be great for the environment, says Cundiff, it’s the most sensible economic choice given the huge amount of very cheap surplus hydro-electric power available from Quebec.
Ever wonder about the ecological impact of industrial agriculture? How about the energy and other inputs going into the industrial livestock industry as well as the massive and growing levels of organic waste and greenhouse gas emissions generated in the process?
Join hosts Terry Moore and Greg Roe for a conversation with Paul MacInnes, chair of the Coalition of Haliburton Property Owners Associations (CHA) about the CHA’s 4-year “Love Your Lake” Healthy Shorelines Project. With 47 lakes and over 800km of shoreline assessed to date, the interim results show that natural shorelines have been taking a beating all across the County. The good news is that denaturalized shorelines can be restored to play their role in protecting the lake waters.
Join hosts Terry Moore and Greg Roe for a conversation with University of Alberta Political Economy Professor, Gord Laxer, about his 2015 best-selling book “After the Sands: Energy and Ecological Security for Canadians.
Join hosts Terry Moore and Greg Roe for a conversation with Ted Spence. Ted is a retired professor and former dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, an expert on environmental planning and hydrology, and cottages on Catchacoma Lake, the largest reservoir in the TSW.
Join hosts Terry Moore and Greg Roe for a conversation with Peter Sale, marine ecologist, coral expert and author of “Planning for Climate Change In Muskoka.”
The dust has barely settled from the October 21st federal election and the battle over what the results actually mean is just cranking up.
Ever wonder about the ecological footprint of traditional burials with all those heavy-duty embalming chemicals, cement, steel or fiberglass vaults and finished caskets? Or the amount of carbon emitted if you choose to be cremated?
Despite on-going legal challenges, lingering questions regarding its economic viability, as well as damaging environmental impacts, construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) has started.
The privately-owned Haliburton Forest covers some 100,000 acres within Halliburton County, an area just under half the size of the City of Toronto with 100 lakes within its boundaries.
In today’s world we have come to expect that when we go to our local grocery store we will be able to get almost any fruit or vegetable that the world has to offer, even though they are not in season where we live. We also expect fruits and vegetables that would never be grown here in Canada.
On this episode of Planet Haliburton we feature a full length interview with Paul MacInnes, Chair of the Coalition of Haliburton Property Owners’ Associations (CHA), the driving force behind the Love Your Lake Healthy Shorelines Project and the newly issued Lake Health Report.
Dysart Township’s Environment and Climate Change Committee, chaired by Ward 4 Councillor, John Smith, has been taking on some hot local environmental challenges recently, ranging from a new Fireworks Control Bylaw to Ontario Hydro’s herbicide spraying program along electrical transmission corridors.
Confused by all the conflicting claims about the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) Project?
While most environmental legislation passed by the former Liberal government has been unceremoniously trashed, the Waste Free Ontario Act has survived … so far.
With the one-year anniversary of Doug Ford’s election as Premier coming up on June 8, 2019, the next episode of Planet Haliburton takes a hard look at Ford’s environmental agenda and growing legacy, with Dianne Saxe, the former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario.
Ever wonder about the ecological footprint of traditional burials with all those heavy-duty embalming chemicals, cement, steel or fiberglass vaults and finished caskets? Or the amount of carbon emitted if you choose to be cremated?
A lot has happened, since we last spoke with Dianne Saxe: internationally, nationally and right here in Ontario.
The more variable weather that comes with a warming climate increases that likelihood of winter freeze/thaw events and the risk that melting snow and rain on roads will turn into ice.
Dianne Saxe, The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, issued her 2018 Greenhouse Gas Progress Report, entitled “Climate Action in Ontario: What’s Next?” in late September.
While greenhouse gas concentrations rise to unprecedented levels, climate scientists are becoming more and more vocal about the urgent need for action to avoid triggering runaway climate disruption.
The June 7th Ontario Provincial election not only put Doug Ford in the Premier’s Office, it also put the first Green Party MPP in Ontario’s history in the Legislative Assembly.
On the September 24th episode of Planet Haliburton we examine the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly aspects of the septic inspection programs being rolled out across the county.
With 40 percent of Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions coming from the construction, heating and cooling of the buildings we live and work in, decreasing the energy budgets of our built infrastructure seems like a no-brainer.
40 percent of GHG emissions in Ontario are generated by the construction, operation, and maintenance of our buildings.
Lyme Disease has been diagnosed in Haliburton County and the risk it poses to human health will only increase as the climate warms and tick populations grow.
With Doug Ford’s election as Ontario’s new Premier on June 7th, public policy on climate change has been thrown into disarray. While Ford claims to be a carbon tax denier and not a climate change denier, the first official act of his new cabinet was to kill the previous government’s entire cap and trade system for putting both limits and a price on carbon pollution.
While the dust is just beginning to settle from Doug Ford’s election as Ontario Premier on June 7th, it’s clear that the new Conservative government is moving quickly to dismantle the previous government’s “cap and trade” system for putting a price on carbon pollution.
The proposed purchase of the Kinder Morgan pipeline (AKA Trans Mountain) by the Federal Government, turns Canadians into potential shareholders in a project that compromises Canada’s international greenhouse gas emissions reduction commitments. But what about the economics of extracting and shipping tar sands bitumen to tidewater and foreign markets?
With the Trudeau government’s recent nationalization of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Project, the confrontation between pro and anti pipeline forces in B.C. and across the country has been taken to a whole new level.
With the County of Haliburton taking the first tentative steps toward the creation of a Local Climate Change Action Plan for the Haliburton Highlands, the experience of other small rural municipalities can provide some helpful suggestions for making the effort as successful as possible.
In an era of climate change, ever-escalating levels of consumption, increasing single-use products and packaging and the proliferation of plastic waste, there’s a group in Muskoka, our neighbour immediately to the west, calling for a “Reusable Revolution”.
British Columbia and Alberta fighting over pipelines, coastlines and the future of our climate; Ontario Progressive Conservatives throwing out carbon taxes along with their former leader, Patrick Brown; Doug Ford, Jason Kenney, and Andrew Scheer promising an all out war on Justin Trudeau’s Federal Carbon Tax after the next Ontario, Alberta, and Federal Elections.
Haliburton County Council is taking the first tentative steps toward producing a plan to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions in Haliburton as well as building our capacity to deal with consequences of global warming and climate change, such as increased incidence of extreme weather, flood damage and insect-borne disease like Lyme’s Disease.
On the next episode of Planet Haliburton we are joined by recently elected County Warden Suzanne Partridge to get her take on the key environmental issues facing the County. We cover a lot of territory from climate change mitigation and adaptation to healthy shorelines and septic systems to the field spreading of septage.
The most recent audit of Ontario’s climate change policies and progress, entitled “Ontario’s Climate Act: From Plans to Progress”, was issued by on January 30, 2018. To discuss the good, the bad and the just plain ugly findings contained in her 284-page report, we’re joined for a feature interview by Dianne Saxe, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner.