Globe and Mail- Landmark EU nature restoration plan gets green light despite months of protests by farmers
Under the new law, EU countries will be required to restore at least 30% of habitats such as forests, rivers, grasslands, wetlands, lakes and coral beds deemed in poor condition by 2030. This percentage is set to increase to 60% by 2040 and 90% by 2050. The law also introduces specific requirements for measures to reverse the decline of pollinators.
Reason- California Is Doubling Down on Banning Plastic Bags
“Last year, Californians threw away more plastic bags, by weight, than when the law first passed,” according to a recent New York Times article, which called it “an environmental rule that backfired and inadvertently made the matter worse.”
Two bills are now making their way through the Capitol. Senate Bill 1053 and Assembly Bill 2236 would also ban the thicker plastic bags that replaced the thinner previously-banned bags.
The Telegraph- Eco-friendly brake cables eaten by foxes after switch to soy insulation
Eddie Mitchell, who lives on Broadwater Green in Worthing, the latest target for hungry foxes, said: “Everyone around us has been affected. There’s been at least 20 attacks by foxes on the brakes system under cars.”
Recent photos show multiple cars covered in blue plastic for protection after a spate of attacks.
There’s more important things to deal with first.
Calgary Herald- ‘Just get rid of it’: Single-use items bylaw repeal public hearing to be held Tuesday
The new rules — still technically in effect — require grocery stores, restaurants and other food vendors to impose a minimum $0.15 surcharge on customers for a paper bag or $1 for a new reusable cloth bag at the point of sale. Those rates would have climbed to $0.25 and $2 respectively in 2025.
The bylaw also put the onus on customers to request single-use items and foodware accessories, such as napkins and plastic utensils.
Putting herself ahead of the planet.
Telegraph- My eco-warrior husband wants me to refuse gas and air during labour
While it had never been top of my agenda, I was happy to follow his example – swapping all our cleaning products for eco alternatives, using our bikes to get around and then more recently swapping out the diesel car for an electric one.
However, at a recent antenatal class when we learnt about baby delivery options my husband announced that there was no way I would have gas and air during labour because of the impact on the environment. I laughed out loud when he said it, assuming he was joking.
Sun- Cap on plastic production remains contentious as Ottawa set to host treaty talks
Negotiators from 176 countries will gather in downtown Ottawa this week for the fourth round of talks to create a global treaty to eliminate plastic waste in less than 20 years.
Two Bin, One Bin.
Guardian- Japan to launch world’s first wooden satellite to combat space pollution
The LignoSat probe has been built of magnolia wood, which, in experiments carried out on the International Space Station (ISS), was found to be particularly stable and resistant to cracking. Now plans are being finalised for it to be launched on a US rocket this summer.
JoNova- Mark Steyn ordered to pay $1 million to deter climate deniers from criticizing sacred scientists
John Hinderaker points out there’s no evidence there was any malice involved: In a sane world, this case never would have gone to the jury. The legal standard is actual malice, which means the defendants must have thought, subjectively, that what they said wasn’t likely true. In this case, there was no evidence whatever that Steyn and Simberg didn’t sincerely believe that what they said was true. Indeed, as Mark pointed out in closing argument, he has been saying the same things about Mann’s hockey stick for something like 21 years, and even wrote a book about it
NDP MP Charlie Angus wants to shut down all oil and gas advertising.
In a move that would effectively destroy media like Pipeline Online, EnergyNow.ca, BOE Report, Daily Oil Bulletin and more, Timmins-James Bay NDP MP Charlie Angus on Feb. 6 proposed eliminating all advertising from oil and gas firms. “It is prohibited for a person to promote a fossil fuel, a fossil fuel-related brand element or the production of a fossil fuel except as authorized by the provisions of this Act or of the regulations,” the private members bill, which was just introduced and is not law, says.
Note, this was clearly endorsed by the national party and leader. There’s even a donation collection at the bottom of the press release.
Fines in the million dollar range, jail up to two years. This is what the NDP want of Canada. And I would be going to jail.
To quote Andor, “Fight the Empire!”
One child is great, two is great, three is selfish? Apparently, those damn kids and everyone else has killed off a staggering seventy percent of nature. If you find that hard to believe, you only need to gaze at McCarthy’s squiggly pie chart for proof!
If I was debating this apocalyptic greenie for whom every societal issue boils down to a calculation of carbon dioxide output, the first question I would ask is if he ever heard of the famous bet between Paul Erlich and Julian Simon.
Residents in the Shelltown neighborhood along Beta Street were quick to blame the city for failing to keep the channel clean before an atmospheric river hit. Many count the clogged channel as another example of neglect these residents feel by their city government.
But the city can’t just dredge or deep clean a channel when it wants to, at least, that’s what Kris McFadden, San Diego’s deputy chief operating officer, explained during a press conference last week in response to angry residents whose homes were swallowed by the Chollas Creek topping its banks.
That’s because the city’s channels and creeks, even if lined with concrete, are considered wetlands and protected and regulated by several state and federal agencies, McFadden said.
Here at Davos …the global elites don’t just talk about money — they flaunt it! They drive luxury cars, wear expensive furs and buy watches worth more than the average person’s annual salary.
And keep your mouth shut, if you know what’s good for you.
Let’s start with the laughable irony of the Liberal government’s latest bureaucratic endeavor – a registry on plastics. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, in a tweet as tone-deaf as it is revealing, boasted about this registry saving Canadians money and creating a “more circular economy.” But when has expanding bureaucracy ever led to cost savings for the common man? This move reeks of hypocrisy and misplaced priorities. While Guilbeault and his colleagues pat themselves on the back for such trivial pursuits, they blatantly ignore the elephant in the room – foreign interference in Canada’s democracy.
Meanwhile, as this farce unfolds, genuine threats to our democracy are being swept under the rug. Blacklock’s Reporter reveals a startling truth: Attorney General Arif Virani has dismissed all-party demands to unmask agents of foreign influence. The Commons committee’s call for a registry of these agents is buried until after the next election. Why the delay? Could it be that the Liberals, embroiled in their own scandalous dance, find it convenient to postpone addressing these threats?
Despite Guilbeault’s insistence that his X account is personal, the government’s payment of the settlement contradicts this claim.
As a Canadian, I have to wonder what it’s like to live in a country where the courts actually enforce the constitution instead of making endless exceptions for obvious violations of it.
The previous German government declared an emergency in 2020 and created a coronavirus relief fund that was outside the envelope imposed by the debt brake.
It decided to put 60-billion euros (about C$90 billion) of the COVID fiscal room into encouraging electrified home heating and transport. But opposition politicians naturally saw this as an unconstitutional swindle and an abuse of emergency powers. The constitutional status of the debt brake allowed them to sue in federal court — and last week they won. Pretty resoundingly, as it happens.
This punched a huge hole in German finances, and on Tuesday a humiliated Lindner announced an immediate freeze on federal spending.
Global- The Federal Court just overturned Ottawa’s single-use plastic ban
The Federal Court has quashed a cabinet order that listed plastic manufactured items as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
The court says in a decision released today that it was not reasonable to say all plastic manufactured items are harmful because the category is too broad.
The decision has implications for the government’s ban of six single-use plastic items, including straws, grocery bags and takeout containers.
They’re not going to stop.
Montreal will ban gas-powered systems in new construction starting next fall, with some notable exceptions.
The new regulation, adopted by the city’s executive committee this morning, will apply to new, small buildings — up to three storeys and 600 square metres in area — as of Oct. 1, 2024, and larger buildings starting six months later.
Examples of soon-to-be prohibited systems include residential gas-powered stoves, indoor gas fireplaces, hot water heaters and furnaces that emit greenhouse gases and barbecues and pool or spa heaters that draw from gas lines.
The city says exceptions include emergency generators, commercial stoves in restaurants, gas-powered barbecues with removable tanks and temporary heating devices used during construction work.
Industrial buildings are also exempt, as are combustion heaters in larger buildings that draw only from renewable sources of gas.