An Environmental Scientist looking for the sweet spot - positive environmental policies that can be implemented in the real world, not simply flights of fancy.
Sep 6, 2023 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
I am a parent of 3 school-aged kids, the husband of a teacher and was the PAC President in a school that piloted the new grading and report card system in the Langley School District and have some thoughts about the new approach #bced @richardzussman @RobShaw_BC @keithbaldrey 🧵
To summarize my opinion: the new grading/report card system is a hot mess that will not last long into the next BCU gov and will be an easy target for @KevinFalcon come election time. In my experience parents and teachers hated the change for differing, and legitimate, reasons.
Feb 3, 2023 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
I was directed to a recent story in the @TorontoStar that claims that Ontario’s new gas plants will cost more than wind and solar by @MarcoOved. Needless to say, a careful look at the report shows that the claim really doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
thestar.com/news/canada/20…
For those seeking the report the link is below. You can almost always tell when a story is going to disappoint you and one of the big tells is when they don't link to the report in the article...don't want people to casually find the link...
Gotta say @JasJohalBC is wrong opposing the new program to allow civil servants to work in regional offices (and virtually) rather than in their current urban echo chambers of Victoria, Vancouver and Surrey. This is a great reversal of bad gov't policy #bcpoli@MikeSmythNews
This centralization of our civil service (and more importantly regulators) has resulted in a generation of regulators who have little feeling for the communities and industries they are regulating. Going back to regional offices will help reverse that @keithbaldrey
Sep 29, 2022 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
A short 🧵 on some of the repercussions of @Dave_Eby housing plans. While I strongly approve the idea of increasing housing there is a reason municipalities have had the ultimate control over these types of zoning and enforcement decisions #bcpoli@Adam_Stirling
this can be summarized in two words: municipal services. To explain: municipal gov'ts, through their zoning, create plans to ensure that their municipalities are adequately serviced with water, sewers, schools etc... Certainly some of these are controlled by Regional Districts...
Oct 23, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I have had a hilarious exchange today with this young scientist who imagines one can work as a professional scientist and get certified by 2 professional organizations and three provincial regulatory bodies without ever writing a peer-reviewed report….such painful ignorance
Sadly this level of ignorance is common in young academics, who have never experienced the world outside academia and imagine that the academic literature is the sole means of transferring information or knowledge and that academic peer review is the only form of peer review.
Oct 22, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
I'm seeing a lot of chatter today about the Tides Canada/US Tides foundation link (The Exchange Fund) that @FairQuestions identified and was in the Allan enquiry report. Here is a quick thread to address the tax scheme I describe as a "maple filter". #abpoli
A detailed description is presented below but to summarize. Tides Canada and the US Tides Foundation are legally separate organizations (we won't go into any shared directorships etc.) but they operated a funding program called The Exchange Fund. canadiancharitylaw.ca/blog/tides_can…
Oct 22, 2021 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
A quick thread on my recent online experience discussing the Masnadi et al. report in Science for which I was unknowingly quoted in the Allan enquiry report. I have wrongly been accused of dismissing the Science article or that it was my opinion versus the Science article #abpoli
Nothing could be further from the truth. I embrace the Masnadi et al., article as the best available science…but recognize that the best available science is just that. The “best available” data is some cases can be pretty poor.
Oct 21, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Really disappointed by this smear and subtweet. @andrew_leach knows full well that the Science paper presents data with large uncertainty bands because they were unable to obtain the raw information from the majority of oil fields. #abpoli
Here is the figure from the Supplementary Information of the Science paper. See those error bars and see how they overlap - in Science that means they cannot be shown to be significantly different. See the colour coding, the only semi-reliable info is in green
Oct 21, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Reading this highly re-tweeted thread from Kai and would note some obvious errors: The wood turned into lumber represents stored carbon and a modern mill minimizes the amount of waste resulting in most of the milled wood being preserved as long-term carbon sinks #bcpoli@sjmuir
When Kai talks about carbon emissions: the recent net emissions from our working forests have been due almost entirely to beetle-kill and the resultant fires from beetle-killed trees not due to a lack of replacement trees, replanting or the re-planted trees not storing carbon
Oct 14, 2020 • 16 tweets • 9 min read
A quick thread on common misperceptions/misinformation about the cost of energy when discussing the #SiteC project.
A lot of people rely on analyses based on Lazard's levelized cost of energy (“LCOE”) for wind and solar or for wind and solar with storage #bcpoli@MikeSmythNews
This is what the good folks at the @CDHoweInstitute
Cited "Energy Economist" starts work with a faulty assumption that BC will not need more electricity and will have access to infinite supplies of cheap imported electricity which runs exactly contrary to every major analysis of electricity demand under climate change #bcpoli
His early line: "In the most likely case, Site C’s output will be surplus to needs in British Columbia." Gives the game away. Every major scenario involving transition to EVs/moving off natural gas for heating/hot water calls for a massive increase in electricity demand #bcpoli
Time for a thread on the new "The New Gas Boom" report I have seen on virtually every media platfrom from @GlobalBC to @CBCNews
The interviews I see about this report all repeat a "factoid" about #bclng that needs to be addressed #bcpoli#cdnpoli@lngcanada@nbennett_biv
The authors of the report (an NGO that opposes LNG by the way) claim that #BCLNG is "worse than coal" becasue of fugitive emissions. This claim is simply not true and is an example of depending on one narrative-friendly study to make your argument #bcpoli#cdnpoli 2/
Apr 27, 2019 • 17 tweets • 12 min read
To address the spate of let's call it "interesting" analysis about gas prices in BC from @MarcLeeCCPA a quick thread about the refined fuel situation on the coast and #transmountain's effects on gas prices @keithbaldrey@robynallan#bcpoli#vanpoli@sjmuir@nbennett_biv 1/
As we all know BC uses about 192,000 barrels per day of refined fuel with Prkland providing about 33% of our gas and 30% of the jet fuel. The #Transmountain supplies most of the remaining refined fuel but it cannot supply everything we need #bcpoli#vanpoli
Mar 15, 2019 • 18 tweets • 11 min read
On #ClimateStrike day some thoughts from a pragmatic environmentalist.
One of my big concerns with the climate strike is that it is being driven by people who ignore the complexity of the energy debate and instead talk about simple answers to complex problems. #bcpoli#abpoli 1/
I keep listening to the demands of the Climate Strikers and it is all about stopping all fossil fuel use now and blaming the previous generations for the conditions of the present. Well that approach ignores the realities of our era #bcpoli#abpol 2/
heavy crude is a fungible commodity and blocking #TMX will do nothing to affect oil demand all it will do is move demand to suppliers with lower environmental standards and higher per barrel GHG emissions #bcpoli#cdnpoli 1/
When activists say it is about protecting the Southern Resident Killer Whales, remember the #NEB was not allowed to consider how the #TMX reduces threats to the SRKWs from the American side of the border achemistinlangley.net/2018/09/01/on-…#bcpoli#transmountain 2/
Feb 14, 2019 • 6 tweets • 7 min read
On the not so shocking revelations in the @bchydro IPP review.
Honestly folks we all told you the fight against #ClimateChange was not going to be cheap
If journalists want to understand what frustrates environmental scientists nothing better demonstrates what is troubling than the news story I have seen re-tweeted numerous times today. It typifies what is wrong with environmental journalism. #bcpoli#abpoli#cdnpol@sjmuir
Here is the story it addresses a complaint about river crossing work conducted on the #transmountain pipeline. It starts with an overwrought headline: "Trans Mountain pipeline work destroyed salmon habitat, scientist says" theprovince.com/news/local-new…#bcpoli#abpoli#cdnpol 2/
Jan 25, 2019 • 9 tweets • 7 min read
Honestly, I have no time for the people who keep attacking @FairQuestions for her work uncovering the financing behind the campaigns against Alberta oil. She did the work on her own dime and more importantly has the paper trail to support her claims. #bcpoli#abpoli#cdnpoli 1/
The funniest ones are the ones who argue that she has not made a case that the money really made anything happen. This argument assumes that the American donors to these programs are idiots. To understand follow my logic #bcpoli#abpoli#cdnpoli 2/
Jan 10, 2019 • 11 tweets • 12 min read
I think in light of repeated Twitter conversations about #BCLNG, #bitumen in BC. I think it is time for a thread explaining some basic information that may not be understood in the general about the use of coal in China #bcpoli#cdnpoli@nbennett_biv@TerryGlavin@keithbaldrey 1/
China has a massive need for fossil fuels for energy use as well as in their chemical and production chains. Because China does not have large reserves of nat. gas or oil they end up using coal as a generic replacement #bcpoli#cdnpoli@nbennett_biv@TerryGlavin@keithbaldrey 2/
Why are you not suggesting Climate Accountability letters to every car maker out there.
They have a more direct responsibility for our burning fossil fuels and have aggressively advertised its use for decades? #bcpoli#abpoli
Your Climate Accountability project seems a bit off-target. It ignores the companies that have done the most to encourage use of fossil fuels and removes agency from consumers, the people who actually generated the emissions. @nbennett_biv@singingwithin@wcel#bcpoli#abpoli 2/
