P.G. Among Communities Signed on To Climate Action Charter

Friday, March 21, 2008 03:59 AM

Prince George is one of more than 100 local governments that have signed on to the B.C. Climate Action Charter with the Province and the Union of BC
Municipalities (UBCM), committing to become carbon neutral by 2012.

Local governments that sign the B.C. Climate Action Charter pledge to become carbon neutral, and measure and report on their community's greenhouse gas emissions profile, and work to create compact, more energy efficient communities.

Local governments can achieve carbon neutrality by reducing emissions, by purchasing carbon offsets to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions or by developing projects to offset emissions. Such projects may include improving the energy efficiency of local government-owned and operated buildings and vehicle fleets.

The B.C. Climate Action Charter was introduced in September at the 2007 UBCM Convention, where 62 local government representatives presented
Premier Gordon Campbell with signed charter agreements.

Local governments that signed the B.C. Climate Action Charter are working with UBCM and the provincial government on a Joint Provincial-UBCM Green Communities Committee and Green Communities Working Groups. The groups focus on urban and rural strategies that support local governments in taking actions to make their own operations carbon neutral by 2012 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Besides Prince George, here are the other communities which have signed on:

* 100 Mile House
* Abbotsford
* Bowen Island
* Cache Creek
* Campbell River
* Capital Regional District
* Cariboo Regional District
* Castlegar
* Central Kootenay Regional District
* Central Okanagan Regional District
* Central Saanich
* Chase
* Chetwynd
* Chilliwack
* Colwood
* Comox Strathcona Regional District
* Coquitlam
* Courtenay
* Cowichan Valley Regional District
* Creston
* Dawson Creek
* Delta
* Duncan
* Enderby
* Fernie
* Fort St. John
* Fort St. James
* Fraser Valley Regional District
* Fraser Fort George Regional District
* Fruitvale
* Gibsons
* Golden
* Grand Forks
* Harrison Hot Springs
* Highlands
* Islands Trust
* Kamloops
* Kaslo
* Kelowna
* Keremeos
* Kimberley
* Ladysmith
* Lake Country
* Lake Cowichan
* Langford
* Langley, Township
* Lantzville
* Lumby
* Logan Lake
* Mackenzie
* Maple Ridge
* Merritt
* Metro Vancouver
* Mission
* Nakusp
* Nanaimo City
* Nanaimo, RD
* Nelson
* New Denver
* North Cowichan
* North Saanich
* North Vancouver City
* North Vancouver District
* Oak Bay
* Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District
* Osoyoos
* Peace River Regional District
* Peachland
* Penticton
* Pitt Meadows
* Port Clements
* Port Moody
* Pouce Coupe
* Powell River City
* Powell River Regional District
* Prince Rupert
* Qualicum Beach
* Queen Charlotte
* Quesnel
* Saanich
* Salmon Arm
* Sayward
* Sidney
* Skeena Queen Charlotte Regional District
* Sooke, District
* Spallumcheen
* Sunshine Coast Regional District
* Surrey
* Tahsis
* Taylor
* Telkwa
* Terrace
* Thompson Nicola Regional District
* Trail
* Ucluelet
* Valemount
* Vancouver
* Vanderhoof
* Vernon
* Victoria
* View Royal
* Warfield
* Whistler
* White Rock
* Williams Lake

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Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 03:59 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Bridge on March 21 2008 10:22 AM

by purchasing carbon offsets to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions

Where do all the jerks come from that dream up these schemes? See the above.

Basserman, We will show the world how green we are. End of quote.

And then we want to build a bio-energy plant that will add more polution to our air shed and even more greenhouse gases to our enviornment. The cup is broken.

Cheers

Posted by: seamutt on March 21 2008 10:53 AM

This is so funny. Carbon offsets! Do you know Al Gore is involved in the biggest carbon trading company. Lets make him richer. Do you know that he is so worried about sea level rise that he bought a condo on the Miami waterfront. C02, this has know been turned into a lucritive scam. The science isn't there folks, and that is being proven more and more each day.

Posted by: diplomat on March 21 2008 11:25 AM

I do not see Kitimat on the list of towns.

This may be significant, as the smelting of aluminum requires the burning of one tonne of carbon (!) for every two tonnes of aluminum produced.

The newer smelting process may be more carbon friendly...let's hope the smelter rebuilding gets the go ahead soon.

Posted by: Harbinger on March 21 2008 11:35 AM

Hope no one signed my name. If they did it is called forgery. Representation without asking? This wasn't a political promise. It wasn't even voted on by the citizens. Referendum , folks. Petty bureaucrats imposing their green on me. I don't like it. Big scam. Boy, are we gonna feel silly when the majority wake up to find out what a scam this is. If I breathe into a paper bag and mail it to you, can I have a carbon credit? I'll take any amount.

Posted by: Harbinger on March 21 2008 11:48 AM

How much more taxes do I have to pay for carbon offsets? How does one measure a tonne of carbon? Independent lowest bidder contractors? Low paid bureaucrats? Measuring in metric or in the understandable scale? Feds measure the carbon? How is it done? Carbon meters? Is it measured in volume or weight? Every smokestack gonna be monitored? I didn't see any small towns in China on this list. I hope factories here in these towns don't say to themselves, " If I put my factory in China, I don't have to pay this carbon tax, and my shareholders will make more money". This Greenhouse gas scam is worse than the threat Commies were during the Cold War. At least the government didn't raise my taxes because Ivan might be coming to me over the North Pole. And one is expected to be politically correct about it. If you are not in favour of it you are not entitled to an opinion. Kinda like wearing a yellow star of David, once upon a time. I get labelled as a denier. So be it.

Posted by: Bridge on March 21 2008 12:26 PM

This Greenhouse gas scam is worse than the threat Commies were during the Cold War.

Are you telling us that we have commies in our midst? Makes one wonder dosent it? We certainly are nor practicing democracy by the way our goverments shove their wishes down our throat. When one looks at the do gooders that have signed on for this carbon crap it becomes evident that we in Prince George are not the only community that is getting hosed..

What did the guy say," dont get mad get even". Its up to us to make that change.

Cheers

Posted by: Harbinger on March 21 2008 1:29 PM

Get even? I know how to get even. I will exhale into that little brown paper bag and then let the CO2 out into our air and boy, they will wish they never made me angry.

Posted by: Harbinger on March 21 2008 1:32 PM

Climate Action Charter? How about everyone in the province sign a NO tax Increase Charter? That would be easy. Paying more taxes fer nicer air? Here's my wallet. I just can't see the correlation. Money makes nice air?

Posted by: Harbinger on March 21 2008 1:36 PM

You are all a bunch of sheep if you believe this global warming crap. I'm going out now to lay down a carbon footprint. Just try and stop me. I hope I don't get arrested by David Yamaha. Citizen's arrest?

Posted by: owl on March 21 2008 1:41 PM

Greenhouse effect or not, reducing CO2 emissions means we use less of the energy which has relative short term finite limits based on our technology capabilities of today.

In other words, there are many reasons why we should want to, and quite soon need to, move from using both fossil fuels and biomass to such energy sources as hydro, wind, solar, ocean movement, geothermal and even atomic.

Posted by: owl on March 21 2008 1:50 PM

BTW, the oil sands production generates about 10% of the total CO2 generated in Canada. We do not need that oil to meet our needs. Most of it is going to the USA. Thus, we are producing CO2 on behalf of the USA, which they do not recognize. They point the finger at us saying we do not meet the Kyoto protocol.

If we shut down the site and keep it for future years we would meet the protocol, our dollar would go down and the lumber manufacturing as well as other manufacturing plants getting hit in Canada would become more competitive again.

And, Alberta would loose its shine and BC would gain population, continue to build after the Olympics, etc. etc.

But hey, we got to appease the USA and Albertans .....

;-)

Posted by: seamutt on March 21 2008 2:45 PM

Mankind produces about .003 % of the CO2 in the atmosphere and Canada produces about .003% of that. Also any increase of CO2 does not have an linear effect but a logarithmic effect so if there is an increase of CO2, the more there is the less effect there is. Universities including UNBC are getting lots of money to research so called man caused global warming. They know which side their bread is buttered on. I have enviromental concerns, but what worries me is the amount of money being spent on this CO2 scam. Money better spent elswhere.

Posted by: diplomat on March 21 2008 3:00 PM

Monitoring simply consists of keeping track of how many tonnes of carbon based fuel are combusted. Then the tonnage/amount of carbon dioxides that result from the burning is easily computed, plus of course all the other nasties that accompany combustion.

Coal burning power plants produce mercury emissions because the coal contains some mercury. Mercury is a killer once it gets into the human body, the air and the water.

Then, there are sulfur dioxide emissions, nitrous oxide...the list goes on. Acid rain (caused by the sulfur) kills lakes and fish.

The green house effect is just one aspect, the other pollutants are also a big problem.

Burning less fossil fuels is a very good idea, all around.

Of course, once a scientific issue gets into the clutches of agenda driven politicians and/or preachers ALL common sense is lost. It never fails.

Posted by: seamutt on March 21 2008 4:02 PM

Correction, Al Gore bought his condo in San Francisco, not Miami, right where his slideshow shows flooding from rising sea levels in a few years. Makes one wonder.

Posted by: owl on March 21 2008 6:49 PM

"Also any increase of CO2 does not have an linear effect but a logarithmic effect so if there is an increase of CO2, the more there is the less effect there is."

The total amount of CO2 is not the indicator which varies with temperature. It is the PPM of CO2 which does.

Past temperature variations correlate with the concentration of CO2. The higher the concentration, the higher the temperature. The attached shows that relationship.

From those graphs, it becomes apparent that the peak over the past 1/2 million years, on three cyclical occasions has related to concentrations as high as 280ppm

Present levels of CO2 appear to be around 370ppm. that is an increase of more than 30% over past highs.

We can sit around and discuss whether such an increase is going to have a meaningful impact on temperature or not. There may be other reasons for those correlations.

While we are all sitting around contemplating our navels, we must remember that if there is a relationship and increased concentration of CO2 do impact temperatures so that they rise, it takes a while to heat up the mass which will reult in a latent effect.

So, I am not convinced of the relationship either. As I said, and as diplomat said by introducing some of the other consequences of using fossil fuels, this reason for reducing the use of fossil fuels is really moot since there are other reasons which are even more important.

http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/historical-trends-in-carbon-dioxide-concentrations-and-temperature-on-a-geological-and-recent-time-scale

So, get with the program already.

;-)

Posted by: acrider54 on March 22 2008 7:16 AM

It's all BS and a money maker for some. Just like the old days when we were creating another ice age.

Posted by: Bridge on March 22 2008 10:04 AM

There is a lot of study today on how much C02 is produced by human activity and we are spending billions on climate change all based on this activity. And when one looks at the waste and the effect on our society I suppose there is some merit for these studies.

The fact however remains that climate change has been going on for millions of years simply put the earths orbit is not perfect and it also has a tendency to wobble which has dramatic effects on our climate and the production of C02 by our oceans as the temperatures warm. And this is not oil company science its a fact.

I will not give you a 1000 word thesis go to google drop in these magic words "Climate change" then you be the judge.

Posted by: red2b on March 22 2008 11:16 AM

go to http://icecap.us/index.php
some interesting stuff there about the scam.

Posted by: onemansthoughts on March 23 2008 11:49 AM

Hi everyone,my first opinion,
This thing of cleaning up the air might go like this. All the government people in all these towns and cities that sighned up will get new green cars. Get it???? It is an excuse to buy new vehicles. Darn, I should set up a green car lot.
Also I am very disappointed with this talk of a big fuel burner in P.G. It goes to show you a lack of leadership in P.G. We cant afford to have this thing go wrong, With the high cost of fuel (heating costs) people will burn even more firewood.
Oh, and Mr Basserman, Im not so sure the world is watching P.G. Im sure they have better things to do.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on March 23 2008 1:09 PM

Green is BIG, BIG business, and getting bigger everyday.
Have we noticed that people are getting rich on this??
I don't dispute the global warming theory in itself,but I do dispute that it is anything like they say it is.
I think somebody is telling it like they WANT it to be!
And somebody was just smart enough to figure out that it really doesn't take much to scare the hell out people, and that can be used to turn a profit!
Look at the unlimited opportunities!
Pssst...wanna by a nifty hemp bag to carry your carbon credits around in?
:-)

Posted by: Harbinger on March 23 2008 1:13 PM

What does a carbon credit look like? Non- sequentialed numbered tens and twenty's? Where do I line up?