April Newsletter
As the snow melts and the earth is revealed again, it seems like a good time to ground in gratitude at the renewal of life. April is also a perfect time to celebrate accomplishments and take action as Earth Day approaches.
It can be all too easy to get caught up in despair and doomism when facing the climate crisis. Coming together with others to work toward positive change is a way to shift our views and allow for more creative thinking.
Read on for events, actions and news from our local climate hub and our partners.
Speakers Kiki Wood, Dr. Ulrike Meyer, Peter McCartney
Local Forum on LNG and Fracking: Big Climate Decisions Coming Up for BC
Thursday April 13, 7-9 pm
Nelson United Church, 602 Silica Street, with Zoom option
The local Council of Canadians chapter is organizing an engaging and interactive forum to help bring local awareness to the issues of LNG and fracking. The West Kootenay Climate Hub and Doctors and Nurses for Planetary Health Kootenay Boundary are co-sponsoring the event.
Learn about the crucial decisions on climate and the environment that are currently happening with the proposed development of new LNG export plants. Four or more LNG projects have been planned, and the sector will be fed by drilling as many as 50,000 more fracked gas wells in the northeast of the province.
Three speakers who are working on these issues will be presenting via Zoom: Kiki Wood, with Stand.earth, Dr. Ulrike Meyer, a rural physician in Dawson Creek, and Peter McCartney, with the Wilderness Committee. Attendees will have time to ask questions, engage with a local panel and with each other on why it matters and how to make their voices heard.
This is a hybrid event. You can attend in-person at the Nelson United Church or on Zoom.
Please RSVP here to get the Zoom link
RELATED ACTION: Say No to More Fracking and LNG in BC
We know that the BC government is heavily lobbied by the gas sector. Your voice is important to counter their false narratives and to promote a positive vision for a world with a stable climate. The recent IPCC report is clear -- we cannot be building new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Here’s a writing tool we created to help write your letter to Ministers and your local MLA.
Kootenay Carshare Cooperative AGM
Thursday April 20, 6:30 pm
On Zoom
Everyone is welcome to attend Kootenay Carshare Co-op’s Annual General Meeting to learn about their accomplishments in the last year and what is in store for the future. Reducing greenhouse gases through shared transportation strengthens communities and opens us up to more connections. Join online at this link.
Climate Hub Lunch Webinar Series:
Co-ops, Cars and Community
Friday, April 21 at noon PT
On Zoom (register below for link)
Speaking of the Kootenay Carshare Cooperative, we’re excited to feature them on our April noon-hour webinar! We know that we need creative and equitable solutions to transportation that do not just shift everyone from fossil fuel powered personal vehicles to EVs.
They are taking their mission to reduce greenhouse gases from privately owned vehicles to new levels, as they continually evolve and innovate to meet the needs of the communities they serve.
In this webinar we will learn about their experience introducing electric vehicles and more recently, low speed electric vehicles, into their fleet. They have also upgraded their sharing platform to allow others to share their vehicles through our platform, using our insurance and infrastructure to have certified drivers pay vehicle owners to rent their cars.
Looking into the future they have an opportunity to take on the Kootenay Rideshare website and potentially incorporate load sharing networks across our region.
Hope you can join us!
Register here
Songs for the Earth: An Earth Day Celebration
Saturday April 22, 2 pm
Nelson United Church, 602 Silica Street
Please join the Nelson Interfaith Collaborative in celebrating Earth Day on April 22nd with Songs for the Earth. There will be musical presentations as well as a sing-a-long. They are inviting everyone to bring an item from nature to collectively create "earth art".
For more information contact Vicki at vhuva53@gmail.com
Earth Day Market at Taghum Hall
Saturday April 22, 10am - 3pm
Taghum Hall, 5915 Taghum Hall Rd near Nelson
Taghum Hall’s annual Earth Day celebration is a family-friendly way of welcoming spring, honouring the planet, and bringing folks together. The event features eco-information booths (look for our climate hub booth) and fun eco-challenges, handmade, homegrown, and upcycled wares, live music, and a kidzone with green activities all day long. The Taghum Hall Youth Players present the play “Room in the Forest” at 1pm. Leftover seeds are requested for a seed exchange, and refundable bottles and cans may be donated to support the Hall’s activities. Admission is by donation.
More here
Future Proofing Nelson Buildings
Tuesday April 25, 7 pm
Nelson Council Chambers at City Hall, 310 Ward St, 2nd floor.
That is the title of Doctors and Nurses for Planetary Health’s presentation to the Nelson City Council Committee of the Whole on April 25. Planetary Health is the recognition that the services that the planet provides -- clean air, clean water, and a stable climate -- are actually the life support systems that are the basis of all of human health. Without these functioning systems, we cannot expect to live healthy lives.
We now know that burning gas in the home has direct and indirect health impacts. Installing methane (“natural” gas) infrastructure in new buildings is unhealthy and expensive. Available electric technology is safe, clean and efficient.
Please come and support their presentation. Decreasing climate pollution in new builds is a step towards meeting our Nelson Next Climate Action plan. Please also send a quick email in support to nelsoncouncil@nelson.ca Numbers count — more of us need to write in support of important climate initiatives.
Youth Climate Corps is hiring for the 2023 season!
Wildsight's West Kootenay Youth Climate Corps is seeking passionate, motivated, and empathetic youth (ages 18-30), driven to take meaningful climate action in their local communities, to join them for the spring/summer season. Engaging with local professionals, Wildsight staff, local governments, other organizations, and local residents, you will gain the knowledge, skills and training necessary to advance climate-resilient communities. This season will be focusing on community engagement, in partnership with the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK), the City of Nelson and potentially other local municipalities to amplify community awareness of government climate programs.
To learn more about the program and to apply, visit their website. For further inquiries, please contact wkycc@wildsight.ca
Lend Your Support for RDCK’s Climate Actions
The West Kootenay Climate Hub supports the RDCK Board adopting the RDCK Climate Actions at their April 20 Board meeting. We encourage you to provide positive feedback to get the plan approved.
Read the draft RDCK Climate Actions public booklet here and delve into more details in their Climate Action Workbook.
Ways to provide feedback:
Provide Input to BC’s Clean Transportation Plan
The province is looking for public input into a new Clean Transportation Action Plan for BC. The deadline for submissions is very soon, April 5!
You can find out how you can share your ideas here. Or simply email your input to CleanTransport@gov.bc.ca
The Nelson Better Public Transportation Action Group has prepared a submission you can easily sign on their website.
You can also find inspiration from Solita Work’s submission for the West Kootenay Cycling Coalition.
Meeting with our Elected Representatives
We recently met with MLA Brittny Anderson to express our concerns around LNG expansion and transportation issues. We appreciate her listening to our concerns and articulating them in places of power.
Members have also recently met with the Mayor of Nelson and several Nelson councillors to advocate for local climate action, and will be meeting with MLA Katrine Conroy later this month.
Community Climate Transitions Cohort:
Centering Equity and Justice in Climate Action
We’re excited to be part of this year’s Community Climate Transitions Cohort, an initiative of the Tamarack Institute. The West Kootenay team is one of 30 communities from across the country who are going through a 10-month program with access to experts, coaches, resources and more, around the themes of collective impact, climate justice and community engagement.
The local team is spearheaded by RDCK’s Shari Imada and Paris Marshall Smith, with representation from the West Kootenay Climate Hub, Neighbours United and the City of Creston.
“The Climate Transitions Cohort is a unique opportunity for communities across Canada to learn from some of the most promising emerging solutions and collaborative governance innovations to build and/or advance a climate action plan that is unique to their local needs.”
We’ll keep you updated as we learn together and then take what we learn to the greater community.
Read more here
“This is your future; we can’t write it without u”
The Columbia Basin Trust, a big funder for our community, is writing a new Columbia Basin Management Plan. They are asking for input from the community through their community engagement process, called Our Trust, Our Future.
They want to about the kind of place you want to live in, work in and grow old in.
Why participate? Because climate change needs to be centred in all their decision making, and funding needs to be available to help with the transformative changes needed in our area to address climate change. We have even heard that they plan to stop funding environmental education at a time when that is more important than ever.
A survey will be live on April 4, and community events will be hosted in communities around the Basin in April and May. These will consist of afternoon open houses (3 - 6 pm) and evening guided conversations (6:30 - 8:30 pm). Check out here for more info and a complete schedule.
Here are a few key West Kootenay dates:
- Kaslo April 13
- Creston April 25
- Nelson May 4
- Castlegar May 9
- Rossland May 10
In case you missed it…
We enjoyed last month’s webinar featuring Valerie Huff with the Kootenay Native Plant Society about their Pollination Pathway Climate Adaptation Initiative, and Elizabeth Cunningham, who who is hoping that Nelson will become a certified Bird Friendly City to ensure our community is a safe haven for birds rather than a source of threats.
Watch the recording here
Please see our website for upcoming webinars and to watch recordings of past ones (scroll down for those). We’re honoured to be able to dive deeply into so many important issues and highlight the great work of our partner organizations.
Thanks for reading this newsletter and working together toward a positive future.
Feel free to share with others. If you have an event for a newsletter, or would like to become actively involved, please reach out: wkclimatehub@gmail.com.
Happy spring!
Laura and Judy
West Kootenay Climate Hub
We gratefully acknowledge that we live, work, and play on the traditional and unceded territories of the Sinixt, the Ktunaxa, the Syilx peoples.
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