Vol 18:13
April 21, 1995
It seems that our optimism about finding a greener path has faded
since the first Earth Day 25 years ago. Today, our collective
attention turns to a fixation with economic ills, to concerns
about crime, to the mysteries of the information highway.
Yet after 25 years it's apparent that we face enormous environmental problems - problems that offer no quick fix - and that our response to those challenges is still inadequate to reverse the trends:
But the explosion of environmental awareness during the past quarter century has not been a waste of time. One important achievement has been to create laws and regulations to protect the environment - tools that did not exist 25 years ago. But just as the ecosystem is threatened, so these valuable legal tools appear threatened today.
Earth Day is a good time to remind ourselves about what can be done. One practical thing we need to do is resist regressive moves to weaken the laws created in the last 25 years to protect the Earth from ecologically destructive human activities. And we need to work for new legal tools to tackle the more troubling issues - curbing climate change, protecting biodiversity and endangered species, containing urban sprawl.
So why when we know the problems are so serious are there moves to dismantle some of the laws that are meant to save us from environmental catastrophe? Why are world leaders dodging the climate crisis by putting off until 1997 setting targets - and creating laws to meet those targets - for cutting greenhouse gas emissions?
At a time when deregulation is fashionable among even those who have voiced their commitment to protecting the environment, we need to remember that the rules of nature alone were not enough to prevent the ecological harm already done.
Now is not the time to dump laws to protect the environment - or shy away from much-needed new ones - in the name of efficiency or some vague notions about other possible short-term benefits. Let's remember that the rules are a response to our failure as a species to be able to predict and prevent the catastrophic impacts of human excesses. And even the existing rules don't deal with all the issues we must face.
We need to rekindle our hope and strengthen our commitment to a sustainable future. Earth Day reminds us to focus that hope and awareness on the tangible things that we need to do - like protecting and strengthening our environmental laws so that they can do the job of protecting the Earth - for us and for generations to come.
This is Ann Hillyer's text, prepared for
CBC Radio's Commentary to celebrate Earth Day 1995.
The B.C. government should be congratulated for including Zero Emission Vehicles - ZEVs - in its air quality plan despite vehement opposition from the auto industry. The plan, called Clean Vehicles and Fuels for British Columbia, was released last week. It incorporates "California emission standards," including a requirement that ZEVs comprise 2% of new light duty vehicles sold in 1998, rising to 10% in 2003. As the name implies, Zero Emission Vehicles have no tailpipe emissions. With current technology, only electric vehicles can meet this standard.
Vehicles contribute 49% of the province's emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief culprit in global warming. ZEVs are crucial, because gasoline fueled cars, no matter how efficient, will continue to emit large amounts of carbon dioxide.
California emission
standards B.C.'s plan is based on 1990 California Air Resources Board regulations , which set stringent emission standards for four classes of light and medium duty vehicles:
Beginning in 1994, California required manufacturers to ensure that the average of the emissions of all vehicles meets increasingly stringent standards (fleet average emission standards), with the manufacturers allowed to choose any combination of types of low emission vehicles.
In 1998, however, 2% of a manufacturer's total sales must be ZEVs, rising to 10% by 2003. Other jurisdictions, notably the Northeastern States, have followed California's lead.
B.C. plans that by 2001 at the latest all of the light duty vehicles sold in B.C. will be some type of low emission vehicle. Meeting this requirement should not be a problem, since the auto industry itself proposed to supply nothing but LEV vehicles starting in 2001 across all of the United States and presumably Canada as well.
What the auto industry objects to, however, is B.C.'s proposal to adopt the ZEV sales requirement. To give some leeway to industry, the government is currently considering the concept of "equivalencies," in which manufacturers would be allowed to meet the ZEV requirement by some yet to be defined program, such as receiving ten ZEV credits for each purchase of a bus fueled by a Ballard hydrogen fuel cell.
The net impact of ZEVs on reducing carbon dioxide emissions depends on the source of the electricity used to power these new vehicles. In B.C., 90% to 95% of power is supplied by hydroelectricity, a renewable resource creating no carbon dioxide. However, some power is obtained by B.C. Hydro's natural gas fired Burrard Thermal Plant. Some critics have said that an electric vehicle requirement will draw more power from Burrard Thermal, with no carbon dioxide reduction. However, the Ministry of Environment counters that the carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas power plants used for electric vehicles are are much lower than those of gasoline powered cars.
Zero emission vehicles will not likely be as prohibitively expensive as the car makers now suggest. The May 1995 issue of Road and Track contains an article titled "Emission Standards are Good for Car Design." It reports that Honda's ULEV will be on sale in 1997, at least one year ahead of the proposed California regulations, for a cost of only $200 more than a similar conventional car.
Some comparisons are instructive. Manufacturers had estimated that air bags in cars would cost $500-$600, but expected 1995 costs are $250. Power steering, fuel injection, and catalytic converters have all experienced rapid decreases in price in successive years their after introduction.
B.C.'s move to Zero Emission Vehicles is a step in the right direction. New, nonpolluting technology is one component of a sustainable future. Achieving our clean air goals also requires a host of other actions, including substitution of mass transit, bicycles or walking for car use; urban planning with an emphasis on sustainability; growth management legislation; and transportation demand management programs. The projected growth in population in the Lower Mainland, coupled with increased vehicle traffic in the area, are ominous signs for the region's future air quality unless radical steps are taken.
The requirement of a very small percentage of sales of Zero Emission Vehicles is not a magical solution, but it is one crucial step forward.
- Linda Nowlan, WCELA staff lawyer.
Forest Practices regulations and guidelines were announced April 12 by the B.C. Ministries of Forests, Environment, Lands and Parks, and Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. Ministers Andrew Petter, Moe Sihota and Anne Edwards released 18 regulations and 16 guidebooks at a Vancouver media conference following a briefing session with representatives of B.C. environmental organizations. The regulations under the Forest Practices Code Act take effect on June 15. The regulations will be enforced by a new multi-ministry enforcement unit.
Forests Minister Andrew Petter emphasized that the new regulations
and guidebooks are part of what he called a "framework for
sustainability," including the ongoing timber supply analyses,
the protected area strategy, the land use planning initiated by
the Commission on Resources and Environment, the establishment
of the forest land reserve, the creation of the forest renewal
program, the adoption of the Forest Practices Act, and
the appointment of the Forest Practices Board, with Keith Moore
as Chair.
He anticipated upcoming amendments to the Act, to address logging on private land, to provide for "performance based logging" (in which the right to log is contingent upon satisfactory performance of previous logging), and to reduce the overly severe maximum penalties for illegal trail building.
The Forest Practices regulations mark a major change from the previous "multiple use" approach in which more or less the same logging standards applied to all forest land. The new approach maximizes fiber production within certain areas and maximizes biodiversity or other environmental values in other zones. There is also an intermediate category, often called special management areas, in which both timber production and environmental values will be accommodated.
To obtain copies of the regulations and guidebooks, call 1-800-565-4838 or, if you don't want an 8 inch pile of paper, the Ministry of Forests says that "Code publications will be accessible on the Internet within a month."
More than 30 environmental groups have signed on to a brief expressing concerns about the CCME Harmonization Initiative. A full copy is available on ELIB or from the WCELA office.
A national stakeholder workshop is now scheduled for June 25-26 in Winnipeg.
First Nations representation on the National Advisory Group on Harmonization has been bolstered, with the addition of Keith Conn, Environment Coordinator, Assembly of First Nations, Gerald Morin, President, Métis National Council, Peter Usher, Director of Research, Inuit Taparisat of Canada, and Stephen Mills, of the Council for Yukon Indians.
The results of the Deputy Minister's Committee March 23-24 meeting will be disclosed to a joint conference call of the National Advisory Group and the Lead Representative's Committee on April 27. The DM's decisions will set the stage for the CCME Minister's meeting in May.
The Vancouver Foundation's Environment Committee made over $82,000 in grants at its January meeting:
For more information, contact John Binsted of the Vancouver Foundation (688-2204) or Environment Committee member Bill Andrews (689-3235).
Author of over 80 scientific papers, 40 books and 400 television programmes on ecology and the environment, David Bellamy is best known for his efforts to save the Irish and United Kindom peatlands.
He will be speaking on May 27, 1995, at the Delta Town & Country, 6005 Hwy 17, Delta. There will be a no-host bar at 7:30 pm, followed by dinner at 8:00 pm. Tickets cost $26.75 ($25 + $1.75 GST) and can be purchased from the Burns Bog Conservation Society.
For more information contact: The Burns Bog Conservation Society, 202 11961 - 88 Ave., Delta, B.C., phone (604) 572-0373 fax (604) 572-0374.
WCELRF, 1001 - 207 West Hastings, Vancouver, B.C., V6B 1H7, Canada. Phone (604) 684-7378; fax (604) 684-1312; email wcelrf@unixg.ubc.ca. Printed on 100% recycled paper (not secondarily bleached or de-inked).
WCELRF Newsletter
(ISSN #0715-4275), copyright 1995, is published by the West
Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation. This issue was produced
by Bill Andrews, Morgan Ashbridge, Chris Heald, Ann Hillyer, Patricia
Houlihan, Catherine Ludgate, Alexandra Melnyk and Linda Nowlan.
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