Vancouver Sun: "Scientists conclude B.C.'s count of old-growth forest greatly overestimated" (It's not 13.2m hectares; it's 35,000 hectares!)
We're lucky to have this fully independent report from forest scientists that contradicts govt figures. #bcpolivancouversun.com/news/local-new…
..To put these BC old growth forest figures into perspective:
* BC = 95 million hectares or the size of WA, Oregon & California combined
* BC govt says ~13m hectares of old growth remains
* Independent report says only 35,000 hectares remains: size of 86 Stanley Parks. #bcpoli
..This is a massive discrepancy between what the BC govt claims is left of old growth forests and what this independent report by renowned forest scientists says is really left of old growth forests. You MUST respond to this, @DonaldsonDoug@jjhorgan@GeorgeHeyman. #bcpoli
@DonaldsonDoug@jjhorgan@GeorgeHeyman ..Here's an example of what BC forest scientists and economists are saying on a forestry thread I am on. Compare these extensive costs to the public vs. the piddling profits BC is making on the trees we are giving away to logging companies for peanuts: #bcpoli
@DonaldsonDoug@jjhorgan@GeorgeHeyman ..Furthermore, the increasingly opaque Ministry of Forests (FLNRORD: Forests Lands, Natural Resource Operations & Rural Dev't) isn't responding to media enquiries, & appears to have taken the Timber Supply Review offline so public can't access. UNACCEPTABLE. #bcpoli#oldgrowth
@DonaldsonDoug@jjhorgan@GeorgeHeyman ..BC forestry info used to be publicly available. The Liberal gov't did stop some reporting, & cut staff (which is a classic way to obscure activity) but it at least always responded to inquiries from the press. Why this increased level of censorship by an NDP gov't? #bcpoli
@DonaldsonDoug@jjhorgan@GeorgeHeyman ..A professional forester tells us that forest inventory inquiries to BC govt used to have a 3-day turn around. None of that exists anymore. Can you tell us why, Minister @DonaldsonDoug & Premier @jjhorgan? What are you hiding? The end of most remaining old growth forest? #bcpoli
More reading: "Scientists say BC Ministry of Forests' account of remaining old growth is "very misleading".. new indep. report on BC old-growth forest says only 415,000 hectares remain (only 35,000 ha of which is big tree/high biodiversity forest) focusonvictoria.ca/issue-analysis…#bcpoli
..Here are some recent stories in @thenarwhal (the single best source for news on BC's famous forests & their destruction) detailing the BC govt's failures to protect what little old growth forest BC has left. Links to follow. #bcpoli
@thenarwhal ..1. "B.C. opens Sunshine Coast forest — home to some of Canada’s oldest trees — to logging: Local conservation group asks province to cancel cutblocks containing ancient yellow cedars and unofficial bear sanctuary" #bcpolithenarwhal.ca/bc-opens-sunsh…
@thenarwhal ..2. "B.C. approves 312 new logging clearcuts in habitat of endangered spotted owls..failing to produce the habitat plan for spotted owls it promised 14 years ago" #bcpolithenarwhal.ca/b-c-approves-3…
@thenarwhal ..4. And again, for those who missed it: "B.C. govt old-growth data is ‘misleading’ public on remaining ancient forest: independent report" thenarwhal.ca/b-c-old-growth…#bcpoli
..And recall, Premier @jjhorgan picked Blair Lekstrom (!) to liaise with local communities on First Nations asking for preservation of old forest in NE BC to ensure survival of dwindling, forest-dependent southern mountain caribou.. Cynical. #bcpoli
Important WSJ article on Canada's rivers drying up while we keep building dams anyway, including #SiteC. It's paywalled so I'll include the whole article in this 🧵
Diversify into renewables now! BC can't until it ditches the deceptively named Clean Energy Act.#bcpoli #cdnpoli
Had Bing Thom not died prematurely, he would have gone after @AIBCconnected for its gentleman's agreement rule that architects can't criticize other projects. Reportedly a certain major arch'l firm in Vancouver reported Bing to AIBC for his letter opposing #105Keefer. #vanpoli
@AIBCconnected Bing Thom intended to go after AIBC's muzzling rule & publicly ask them:
"What is the point of architecture if there's no discourse? What is the role of the architect in society? Do we have a public responsibility or are we just hired guns?"
@AIBCconnected Bing's death was a terrible loss for public discourse in Vancouver. BTW he also helped us with a fight I co-founded against the proposed downtown casino expansion (we beat the expansion partly thx to him). You could count on him to do the right thing. AIBC tries to block this.
My elderly family member, whom I kept free of Covid for 3+ years but who finally caught in in an unmasked BC hospital last week, is very sick on Day 9. Rapid test still shows a bright red line. For health issues she can't take Paxlovid. She's in a rage at you, @adriandix. #bcpoli
@adriandix "I'm furious at the hospital and at all the unmasked healthcare workers, but I'm more outraged by @adriandix and Bonnie Henry. The govt is ultimately to blame."
@adriandix She asks: "Why aren't they following science?"
"They kept taking my mask off for tests and procedures - and they weren't even wearing masks when they did it."
I’m a rural BC hospital taking an elderly relative to ER. No masks on staff & visitors but aggressive efforts to make everyone sanitize their hands, despite the fact that the diseases helping to crash the health system are airborne. We are truly living in an age of disinformation
*I’m IN a rural BC hospital. I am not a hospital. But you got that
Look at the handwashing fixation of @IPACCanada & the blindness to airborne transmission & masking stretching back many years. Every year they suggest infection control is largely a handwashing issue. It's as if all the airborne diseases do not exist. Why?
@BCGreens@SoniaFurstenau Here's the timeline of John Horgan's involvement with Teck Resources before he left office. Judge for yourself:
In Dec 2021 the feds indicated they were considering referring Teck's selenium pollution in the Elk Valley to the internat'l joint commission (IJC) #bcpoli
@BCGreens@SoniaFurstenau Feds became involved because Teck's selenium pollution was a longstanding issue. (Recall the fines)
March 2022 Teck lobbied the feds asking that the Elk Valley pollution not be referred to the IJC.
April 12 Teck lobbied Horgan's Chief of Staff & deputy mins of Env & Energy+Mines
The BC govt can fudge the death stats from Covid all it wants ("that death wasn't FROM Covid, it was WITH Covid" etc).
The real truth is the "excess deaths" number - that is, how many of us are dying now vs. before pandemic, minus other factors like poisoned drugs & heat dome.
This is why data modellers like @MoriartyLab focus on excess deaths as the real statistical truth of Covid impacts over time. The problem tho is that over time, elevated deaths from Covid will start to be the "normal" death rate, against which we're comparing new Covid deaths...
This problem is being discussed in several chats I'm in that include Covid science & medical types and public health advocates. What happens when we can't use excess deaths as reliably to get around the govt's obfuscation around Covid's serious health impacts on the public?