EcoNews: Sweet Summertime reading edition!

We’ve had an unusually busy August. You’ll see in your sweet summertime edition of EcoNews a bit of extra reading — perhaps best enjoyed at your cottage, on your porch or at the beach!

In this super-sized EcoNews, you are invited to mark your calendars for the 5 Days for the Forests, and attend a Select Committee on Climate Change public hearing near you. We pass on what people had to say at the five days of National Energy Board sessions on the proposed Trans Canada oil pipeline. We take you through the latest research on increased oil traffic and what it means to the Bay of Fundy, the Gulf of Maine and down along the Atlantic seaboard.

To round out your summer EcoNews reading, watching and listening, we also compiled some recent media coverage of the Conservation Council and the issues dear to your hearts.

Five Days for the Forest

We’re excited to announce the Conservation Council’s first ever 5 Days for the Forest!

The festival will occur during National Forest Week (Sept. 19-24) and will celebrate our beautiful forest during its fall glory. We can’t protect that which we don’t know and love and we think the Acadian forest needs more love.

Join us for a walk in the forest, tasty treats, TREEvia, jazz, rockabilly and a movie!

Check out a full list of events here.

Have something to say? Speak up and speak out on climate change action!

Sometimes in the din of a 24-hour news cycle, it’s hard to hear distinct voices, even your own. But we know you’ll want to speak up later this month and in September when the Select Committee on Climate Change, an all-party committee of the NB Legislative Assembly, holds a public hearing close to where you live.

We are attending as many of the hearings as we can, and we look forward to hearing the great ideas you have about what more we can do to reduce carbon pollution, protect our families and communities from the impact of the changing climate, and create new, sustainable jobs in the growing clean economy.

You may find some of the material available in our new report, A Climate Action Plan for New Brunswick, helpful.

Find a full list of the Committee’s Public hearing dates, and locations, here.

Conservation Council address’ NEB panel session on the Energy East Pipeline in Saint John

The Conservation Council’s executive director, Lois Corbett, and Fundy Baykeeper Matt Abbott presented questions to the National Energy Board regarding the proposed Energy East pipeline in Saint John on August 8th.

CCNB argued that the potential environmental impacts from spills, both to rivers, lakes and streams, and to the Bay of Fundy, outweighed any perceived economic benefits from the proposed pipeline, and further, puts thousands of sustainable, long term jobs at risk.

To read about the concerns we raised and get a day by day summary of the NEB panel sessions here.

In his own words: Why a Bay of Fundy fisherman cannot support the Energy East pipeline

David Thompson is a local fisherman who’s fished the waters around Mispec Bay outside of Saint John for years. His family fished those same waters for generations before him. It’s for this reason, he says, that he cannot and will not support the proposed Energy East pipeline set to end at the Canaport LNG facilities just kilometers away from Mispec Bay.

Read an excerpt from Thompson’s August 9th presentation to the NEB panel here.

New report shows Energy East pipeline a massive threat to the Bay of Fundy and U.S. marine resources

A new report by the US – based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), in partnership with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and other numerous Canadian and U.S. groups, shows the proposed Energy East pipeline would drive a 300 to 500 per cent increase in crude tanker traffic down the Atlantic coast from Saint John, New Brunswick to the U.S. Gulf Coast— industry’s preferred refinery market for processing tar sands bitumen.

The report, “Tar Sands in the Atlantic: TransCanada’s Proposed Energy East Pipeline,” shows the addition of almost 300 supertankers would pose a massive threat—in the form of deafening ocean noise, heightened risks of major oil spills, and the introduction of invasive species—to marine mammals like the endangered North Atlantic right whale, the Bay of Fundy’s lucrative lobster fishery, and other iconic regions like the Florida Keys.

Read the full story as well as the full report here.

Statement by CCNB’s Lois Corbett on major oil pipeline break in Saskatchewan

CCNB’s executive director Lois Corbett weighed in early this month on the stark realities of an oil spill in the North Saskatchewan River

With the proposed Energy East pipeline’s plans to cross New Brunswick and its many rivers and streams as it makes its way south to the Bay of Fundy, and export ports beyond, the Husky Oil spill hits a cautionary note.

Read Corbett’s complete statement here.

The latest from CCNB in the news
Hot Enough for You? Media in New Brunswick turned to the Conservation Council for comments on everything from the number of heat alerts we’ve had in this record-breaking summer, to the serious risks to the Bay of Fundy from increased oil tanker traffic and potential oil spills to the report form the Medical Officer of Health on herbicide spraying in our forests. Here is our selected media clips for your reading, listening and viewing pleasure.

CCNB on Energy East Pipeline
August 13: