Climate Action Muskoka gives the District’s new Community Energy and Emissions Reduction Plan a mixed review
April 15, 2024
“This is an important, ambitious, evidence-based plan, developed with broad community input,” say Linda Mathers and Tamsen Tillson, who represented CAM on the Climate Change Mitigation Task Force.
“As a framework, this is a good start. But we need to go further, faster. We need to see this implemented right away. We are counting on our District and municipal leaders to set specific targets and timelines and to allocate staff and source the funding necessary to achieve the climate goals we have committed to here.” Press release here
Saturday, April 20, 2024 – Save the date
More information >Heat Eat Grow Go | Register here
Carbon pricing 101: How it works!
April 11, 2024 – By David Suzuki with contributions from Senior Editor and Writer Ian Hanington
Carbon pricing can be confusing. Simply put, it’s designed to increase costs of burning polluting fossil fuels and encourage cleaner alternatives. It creates a financial incentive for people and businesses to pollute less. Rebates help keep household costs down.
| Artists For Real Climate Action Presents Meet The Big Oil Alliance: Four Oil Execs and a Vampire Walk Into a Boardroom |
CO2 jumped by record amount last year
March 27, 2024 – Barry Saxifrage – National Observer
“The accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere is irreversible on human timescales and will affect climate for millennia.” — World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Despite decades of global efforts to prevent a full-blown climate crisis, the primary driver of it — CO2 — continues to pile up in our atmosphere at an accelerating rate. And last year’s CO2 rise was record-busting extreme.
…In sheer weight, last year’s surge added a record 26 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere — more than three tonnes per human. – More
No fuel? No worries! Remote Australian roadhouse runs out of gas but still charging EVs
January 23, 2024 – Australia
“Fun fact: it is now easier to charge your electric car on some sections of the Eyre Highway than it is to put petrol in your ICE car 
” posted Jeff Wilson along with images showing the empty fuel pump and EV charging nearby.
Mundrabilla Roadhouse is smack bang in the middle of the two most isolated cities in Australia, located 1,333 km west of Adelaide and 1,362 km east of Perth.
This gas utility will heat customers’ home without gas
February 9, 2024 – CBC What On Earth
To meet net-zero emissions goals, many jurisdictions are starting to ban fossil fuel heating.
That’s a big challenge for gas utilities, which is why some have responded by fighting the bans, both in Canada and the U.S.
But a few are trying to evolve and transition into a new business that takes advantage of some of their existing skills and expertise — namely, geothermal (also known as geoexchange) heating and cooling networks, a form of district heating.
This spring, Massachusetts-based Eversource is set to switch on decarbonized heating and cooling for 140 customers in 37 buildings in Framingham, Mass., including a low-to-moderate income apartment complex, single-family homes, a fire station and a school building.
Meanwhile in Ontario
Ontario sides with Enbridge Gas in fight to connect new homes to natural gas
January 25, 2024 – Fatima Syed – the Narwhal
Saying fossil fuel use will decline, the Ontario Energy Board told Enbridge Gas to charge developers, not homeowners, for new natural gas hookups. Energy Minister Todd Smith vowed to reverse the decision.
Climate Groups Decry Move to Override Climate Positive Ontario Energy Board Decision
January 25, 2024 – CAM
16 Climate groups, including Climate Action Muskoka, have responded to this threat to arbitrarily overturn a win-win-win situation for new homebuyers, for existing gas customers, and for reducing carbon pollution.
Enbridge Gas Caught Lying About its Home Heating Costs and Impacts
January 10, 2024 – Enviromental Defence –
In an attempt to expand its “natural” gas infrastructure across Ontario, Enbridge Gas is telling residents that gas is the cheapest way to heat their homes. It’s not.
As of January 10, 2024, the Competition Bureau has seen merit in our complaint and launched an investigation into Enbridge Gas’ marketing campaign
Community Carbon Challenge
Growing your own food
The many benefits of growing your own food include eating fresh produce, supporting local wildlife, exercise, and saving money. more
Don’t spring into garden clean up too soon though.
Butterflies, bees, pollinators, and other beneficial insects overwinter in the dead leaves and hollowed out stems of last year’s plants, and it is important not to disturb them until temperatures are consistently above 10°C. more
Greenwashing Big Oil and Gas: Report
Dec 7, 2023 – A new report by Greenpeace Canada and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment exposes widespread greenwashing practices fossil fuel companies use to maintain social license and avoid accountability for the harms they cause.
“Greenwashing big oil & gas: the fossil fuel deception playbook” breaks down the sophisticated greenwashing tactics that fossil fuel companies use to mislead the public into believing they are acting responsibly. The report also highlights global efforts to combat greenwashing, offering insights into what other jurisdictions are doing to stem misinformation.
Read story | Full Report (PDF)
New Report: Clean Energy Cuts Costs — A lot!
Sept 27, 2023 – “A family living in a house in a Toronto suburb that adopts a few common clean energy solutions—including EVs and heat pumps—could knock $800 off their monthly energy bills compared to one that is largely reliant on fossil fuels, according to a new report, A Clean Bill. A condo owner who is able to make similar changes could save $450 a month.” Clean Energy Review. Learn more.
“Natural” gas or methane: which would you choose?
Actor Rick Roberts of Artists for Real Climate Action asked some passers by what type of stove they prefer to cook with: natural gas or methane? It’s a trick question – but the reason why may surprise you. – watch the video
FYI – Fossil gas, aka natural gas is primarily methane. In addition, various amounts of higher alkanes and low levels of trace gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and helium are present.
Warning: This is not the good news department
Good news can be found – here
‘Alarming’ Global Warming Smashes Records for 9th Straight Month
March 7, 2024 – the Energy mix | Full Story: The Associated Press | Primary Author: Seth Borenstein
For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records—with February, the winter as a whole, and the world’s oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus.
The latest record-breaking in this climate change-fueled global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that weren’t just the hottest for February, but eclipsed any month on record, soaring past August 2023’s mark and still rising at the end of the month. More
Ford’s Christmas gift to Enbridge Gas
January 18, 2024
The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) has seen the future and that future does not include subsidizing the expansion of fossil gas service to new residential developments. The OEB ended that subsidy, finding that this would lower energy bills for new homebuyers and for existing gas customers.
But for a provincial government that still has its head buried in the sand when it comes to climate change, the OEB’s decision to end generous subsidies that generate big profits for Enbridge Gas was not acceptable. The Ford government quickly moved – just days before Christmas – to protect its fossil fuel industry friends by stating that it will pass legislation to reverse the board’s decision – an extraordinary step without precedent in Ontario.
Ontario town offered $4.8M to accept new gas plant
November 16th 2023 – Napanee is already home to Ontario’s largest gas-fired electricity plant and the province wants it expanded. A series of other municipalities have rejected new gas generation recently. Now the Crown corporation, Ontario Power Generation, is dangling a $4.8-million “community benefit agreement” to persuade Napanee’s council to break the trend.
“It is totally inappropriate for OPG to be offering this payment. Offering payment in exchange for a licence to pollute is unacceptable,” said Keith Brooks, programs director at Environmental Defence.
Gas Carries the Same Climate Clout as Coal, Study Shows, as Ontario Plans New Gas Plants – July 18, 2023 – Energy Mix – Even if a natural gas system leaks as little as 0.2% of the product into the atmosphere, “it’s as bad as coal,” Deborah Brown, lead author of the new study
For the third time this week, Earth sets an unofficial heat record. – July 7, 2023 – AP.
– July 3: 17.01 Celsius Earth’s highest ever average global temperature.
– July 4: 17.18 Celsius,
– July 5: 17.18 Celsius, .
– July 6: 17.23 Celsius, Global temperatures reached a new high. Scientists say the daily drumbeat of records — official or not — is a symptom of a larger problem where the precise digits aren’t as important as what’s causing them.
This is the good news department
In Bogotá, Women Are Driving a Better Bus System
March 29, 2024
“This is a very beautiful place to work,” says Perez, as she steers the bus through the pleasingly symmetrical universe of white lines, smooth gray asphalt and angular metal platforms that house nearly 200 electric charging stations. “It’s new, it’s clean and it all works.”
City of Regina buying up to 53 Nova Bus electric buses
Jan 31, 2024 – Electric Autonomy
“These will be the first battery-electric buses in Regina Transit’s fleet,” said Brad Bells, director of Transit and Fleet with the City of Regina, in a press statement. “The addition of these electric buses will support the City of Regina’s goal of becoming a 100 per cent renewable city by 2050.”
A gift from the sun: Métis Nation of Alberta solar farm could power 1,200 homes
Nov 27, 2023 – Stephanie Cram · CBC News
The project will offset about 4,700 tonnes of CO2 from the environment
The Métis Nation of Alberta is setting the stage to become net zero with the launch of a solar farm north of Métis Crossing in Smoky Lake County.
It is one of a handful of solar projects on Indigenous lands in Alberta, including energy-harvesting developments at Lubicon Cree Nation, Fort McKay First Nation, Beaver Lake Cree Nation, and Louis Bull Tribe at Maskwacis.
Electrification is efficiency: The world will need less energy after the transition
Oct 23, 2023 – Hannah Ritchie
When we electrify our energy systems, a magical thing happens: large inefficiencies vanish. As the International Energy Agency puts it: “Electrification is efficiency”.
Lion Electric buses to power P.E.I. relief centres in emergencies
May 9, 2023
School buses in Prince Edward Island have an additional use beyond transporting students.
The government of P.E.I. is collaborating with Lion Electric on a pilot project to use the province’s 82 LionC electric school buses to provide electricity to emergency community disaster relief centres in the event of a power outage. – more
CATL announces electric vehicle battery with 1.5 million kilometre warranty April 3, 2024 – The world’s largest battery maker CATL has announced a new electric vehicle battery pack with a 1.5 million kilometre, 15 year warranty.
Halton Hills says no to a big new gas plant – Dec 12, 2023 – In a 9-2 decision, the Council acted in the best interests of residents and the planet rather than taking the $3.5 million in public money OPG had offered the Council to buy into its polluting plan.
More local councils move to ban new gas connections – Dec 11, 2023 – Sydney, Australia – Inner West and Lane Cove councils are the latest local governments to use planning powers to stop new buildings connecting to the gas network on health and economic grounds.
Portugal just ran on 100% renewables for six days in a row – Nov 16, 2023 – …As it turned out, those rainy, blustery days were just a warmup. Portugal produced more than enough renewable power to serve all its customers for six straight days, from October 31 to November 6.
It takes a village to build a nation’s energy efficiency and electrification program – Nov 15, 2023 – Switchedon -Ireland is developing one of the most sophisticated residential energy efficiency ecosystems in the world built on a foundation of pilots, trials, grants, mandatory efficiency standards, financing and one-stop-shops.
Powerful Example’: California Now Largest Economy to Back Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty – Sept 1, 2023 – Common Dreams – “We hope this move locks in real action on ending the era of fossil fuels in California, and spurs other regions, states, and countries to join forces in tackling the root cause of the climate crisis”
Hamilton Plant to Supply Recycled Steel for GM Cars – Aug 27, 2023 – the Energy Mix Through the agreement, steel produced for GM will include a minimum 70% recycled material
Amazon Deforestation Drops 34% in Lula’s First Six Months – July 18, 2023 – the Energy Mix
Full Story: The Associated Press – After four years of rising destruction in Brazil’s Amazon, deforestation dropped by 33.6% during the first six months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, according to government satellite data released earlier this month.