2008 Apr 22: Earth Day
Tuesday, 2008 April 22, 1:00 pm
METRO HALL SQUARE (King and John)
Send a WAKE-UP CALL on the CLIMATE CRISIS, Bring a bell to ring!
DEMAND: Kyoto at a minimum 30% greenhouse gas reductions by 2020, comprehensive, just, green energy and economic strategy.
Followed by a STREET FESTIVAL on JOHN STREET
plus free eco films at NFB all day! (Front and John) 3-6 pm
| — Charlie Halpern-Hamu on 2008 Apr 20 in Actions, Ecology & sustainability |
CIRCULATE FAR AND WIDE. THANK YOU!
AURORA COUCIL PUBLIC MEETING ON PROPOSED NATURAL GAS PLANT IN KING TOWNSHIP, NORTH OF TORONTO WILL BE HELD ON APRIL 30, 2008 AT 7PM
PUBLIC INPUT CAN BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE
https://www.aurora.ca/en/index.aspx
ONTARIO CHOKING ON FOSSIL FUEL GASS PLANTS (article)
Georgina/East Gwillimbury (North York Region) is another community seeking public input on a proposed gas plant in their backyard. Please scroll down for contact info. Feel free to paste any part of the sample letter below.
Local residents in Georgina resisting the plant have their website: http://www.megawhat.ca
Please forward this info far and wide
Switching Gears for Green Ontario
ONTARIO ENERGY:
“The irreparably hazardous nature of fossil and radioactive fuels gives us no choice but to go green.”
Ontario Energy
ontarioenergy@gmail.com
May 5, 2008
Fellow Ontarians:
We live in times of Global Warming whether we want to recognize this basic fact underpinning our existence or not. Global warming is a planetary trend of extreme, unpredictable and swiftly changing unfriendly weather patterns with potential to wipe off our way of life as we know it. Multiple environmental catastrophes testify to this. We may have not been hit to the extent others have, but Global Warming is all-encompassing.
We have to take into account the context of Global Warming when planning our Energy Development in Ontario. For now, Ontario government’s heavy public subsidies for development of radioactive and fossil fuel burning in Ontario is a sign that our government is operating out of sync with our current environmental situation.
Cognizant of dire consequences of Global Warming, which is caused by fossil fuel burning, many Ontarians want to see their province go green through government subsidies for locally suitable mix of renewable energy technologies for everyone.
Government is artificial structure organized by people. Government carries out decisions put forward by people. When government’s institutions become worn out and unable to protect citizens, it is time for people to change them. We are at such turning point in Ontario. We need to radically change the way Energy Development is planned and handled in Ontario. We must put to rest fossil and radioactive fuel burning. We must go green – completely!
In contrast to what must be done for ourselves in the present and our children in the future, Ontario government is pursuing at breakneck speed a slew of fossil fuel burning plants (natural/coking gas/methane) and new nuclear reactors.
As you know radioactive (uranium) and fossil fuels (coal/natural gas/methane) are obtained through practices which are irreversibly destructive to environment and peoples’ lives (mining), usually perpetrated through armed occupations of Aboriginal and foreign lands.
Just as they come from environmental destruction at one end, they produce billions of tons of waste causing irreversible environmental destruction on the other end. Waste is released freely in the air (greenhouse gases for example have choked the atmosphere to death causing Global Warming), water, and soil.
The question of Energy should not be the question of Water, Air or Land. It shouldn’t be either / or equation in which we either have energy or water.
Fossil and radioactive fuels mining and burning irreversibly contaminates water, air and soil, which means that pursuing nuclear or natural gas or coal-fired plants for energy turns our collective environment into a toxic dump. This is where Ontario government is heading with its Energy “plan.”
We can have clean environment and energy for our electricity, heating and cooling if we collectively and fully pursue locally determined mix of renewable energy technologies, which through full public subsidies would be mandatorily installed on all existing infrastructure in Ontario, and would be a prerequisite for any new economic growth and development.
Right now, Ontario is facing a series of natural/coking gas/methane/fossil fuel burning plants. They are already in operation or underway in following municipalities:
Markham, Thorold, Windsor 2x, Oshawa, London, Brampton, Trenton, Sudbury 2x, St. Clair Township, Sarnia, Toronto’s Waterfront, Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Halton Hills, Mississauga, Courtright, Kingsville, Sault Ste Marie, King Township, Georgina .. (add yourself to the list).
Where implementation of renewable energy would make sense, many of the fossil fuel burning plants are built to produce very few megawatts of energy. For example: 2.3MW in Oshawa; 5MW in Markham; 5MW in Sudbury; 6.8MW Sudbury Hospital; 7.2MW in Trenton 11.5MW in Kingsville; 12MW in London; 63 MW in Sault Ste Marie; 84 MW in East Windsor; 90 MW Toronto Pearson International Airport; 236MW in Thorold; 280MW in Mississauga (Greenfield South).
All this fossil fuel burning in Ontario is pursued without regard for communal decision making, many times rolling over communities who have said big NO to fossil fuel burning in their community.
As you see there are many communities targeted for fossil fuel burning. Ontario government is breaking them one by one, using many tactics such as pitting communities against each other in either/or scenarios, using bill 51 to extinguish community’s right to appeal the forced construction of a plant, lack of informed consent, ignoring communal decision making, foreclosing any opportunities for green energy development through artificial selection of fossil fuel burning developers etc.
It is important that targeted communities get connected and work in solidarity with each other for green energy only.
It is important that targeted communities work together with renewable energy (policy) developers to suit their local energy needs in environmentally friendly ways. It is important to ask why communities in Ontario don’t have right, right now, to choose green energy technologies over fossil fuel ones, or those technologies which are most environmentally and people friendly.
It is important that all communities in Ontario support the targeted communities toward our collective social transformation into GREEN ENERGY ECONOMY. We should not think that it is not our problem if a fossil or radioactive burning plant is built in someone else’s backyard in Ontario. Wherever they are, fossil fuel burning plants reduce our chances at collective survival on Planet Earth. It is important to completely phase out coal/gas/nuclear plants in Ontario and go GEEN ASAP.
The best gift anyone could give themselves and their loved ones is a chance at survival and comfortable life through complete phase-out of fossil and radioactive fuel mining and burning in Ontario.
We can do it. We must do it. The irreparably hazardous nature of fossil and radioactive fuels gives us no choice but to go green. We should be aware that burning fossil fuels in current Global Warming situation is a crime against humanity. Our communities must not host such crime. Our communities in Ontario must go GREEN.
There is a community which does not appear on Ontario Government’s list of proposed gas plants. Georgina/East Gwillimbury (North York Region) council is in the process of seeking public input. Please feel free to submit your comments however short or long they may be, advocating for GREEN ENERGY ECONOMY AND GREEN ONTARIO.
Please write to:
Ontario Minister of Energy Gerry Phillips gphillips.mpp@liberal.ola.org,
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org,
Ontario Energy Critic Peter Tabuns
tabunsp-qp@ndp.on.ca,
Georgina Council Emails: mjordan@georgina.ca, dwheeler@town.georgina.on.ca, rjamieson@town.georgina.on.ca, dszollosy@town.georgina.on.ca,
East Gwillimbury Council Emails: jyoung@eastgwillimbury.ca, cmorton@eastgwillimbury.ca, vhackson@eastgwillimbury.ca, mjohnston@eastgwillimbury.ca, jhauseman@eastgwillimbury.ca,
Please CC your comments to:
Green Energy Only (for tallying purposes) ontarioenergy@gmail.com
Dr. James E. Hansen, Director NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York James.E.Hansen@nasa.gov
Earth Energy Society of Canada info@EarthEnergy.ca
http://www.earthenergy.ca/conta.html
Canadian Wind Energy Association seanwhittaker@canwea.ca
https://canwea.ca/about-canwea/
Ontario Sustainable Energy Association kristopher@ontario-sea.org
https://ontario-sea.org/
Canadian Biogas Association contact@biogas.ca
http://web.archive.org/web/20160117132350/http://www.biogasassociation.ca/bioExp/
Canadian Solar Industries Association info@cansia.ca
http://www.cansia.ca/
Link: “Ontario Choking on Gas Plants”
According to one of the King Township councilors:
On Monday April 28th, a motion was presented to tell OPA that a 350mw generation facility in King Township is unwanted and that there are better alternatives than the option being presented by the OPA and the Ontario Government.
In a recorded 4-3 vote however, the motion was defeated.