Severn Cullis-Suzuki slams Premier Gordon Campbell on environment

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      The daughter of pre-eminent environmentalist David Suzuki says Premier Gordon Campbell is “just another politician” when it comes to environmental issues.

      “That was supposed to be his signature legacy piece, you know, with the carbon tax and that he really ”˜found religion’ on climate,” Severn Cullis-Suzuki told the Straight by phone from her home in Haida Gwaii. “I’m very disappointed. He’s just another politician and he’s really good at it.”

      Three years ago, Campbell shared a stage at the Westin Bayshore Hotel with the elder Suzuki and former U.S. vice president Al Gore, who both complimented him on his plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in B.C. by 33 percent by 2020.

      This was in sharp contrast to how environmentalists routinely criticized Campbell’s government as one of the “brownest” in Canada during the B.C. Liberals’ first term in government.

      Cullis-Suzuki said, “I was just up in Fort St. John on Sunday, and talked to people who were farmers working on the land there, and driving by the oil rigs on the farmland and just discussing the issues and speaking to them about Site C [dam]. They were telling me, ”˜Anyone who lives here knows that Gordon Campbell doesn’t care at all about climate change.’”

      This Sunday (September 19), Suzuki will speak at a Paddle to the Premier event in Victoria. The protest kicked off today (September 17) in Fort St. John, where opponents of the proposed Site C dam filled busses to convoy south to Victoria.

      Representatives of 23 First Nations from B.C., Alberta, and the Northwest Territories plan on converging on Victoria’s Inner Harbour on Sunday morning to deliver the message to Campbell that they don’t want the megaproject, which would require the flooding of the Peace River Valley for the third time, below the W.A.C. Bennett and Peace Canyon dams.

      The Straight left a message with Campbell’s staff in Victoria, but the premier did not respond on the issue today.

      Comments

      16 Comments

      refreshed

      Sep 17, 2010 at 4:31pm

      good on you for speaking the truth.

      seth

      Sep 17, 2010 at 5:35pm

      Canwest/Gordo's plan, what he's paid to do, is keep BC powered far into the future on Big Oil and its odious products.

      He wants to waste $10B on a destructive ultra high cost Site C dam adding .5 Gw average to the miserable result of his lucrative giveaways to his stockbroker henchmen

      Better to build nuke plants down at Burrard thermal where the power load is and leave the "hinterlands" alone.

      The $65B Gordo has already signed us up for with his stockbroker cronies over at Pirate Power is completely wasted on buying 1 Gw average of worthless intermittent power.

      That same $65B + $10B for Site C would have purchased 22 Gw of todays enhanced Candu nuclear reactors or 45 Gw of almost ready to order mass produced nukes, enough to get BC completely of fossil fuels, and generating tens of billions in annual electrity export profits to the US. As we convert the freed up natural gas would be used for CNG auto fuel, and NG derived methanol and dimethyl ether (propane) would replace ethanol in current E85 flex fuel vehicles and in diesel in trucks and locomotives.

      None of thousands of sq miles of the forest and farm lands , river beds Canwest/Gordo currently plans on destroying would be needed - No oil drilling necessary.

      Here's Pirate Power chief Dr Bruce Ripley P.Eng on nuclear.

      "It is an absolute no-brainer, and we should be doing it," said Bruce Ripley, President and Chief Operating Officer of Plutonic Power Corporation.

      "For my government in British Columbia, I think that they are making a big mistake by precluding nuclear," added Ripley.

      Ripley was speaking at the San Francisco Money Show, a US investment fair in which Plutonic Power was participating and where exhibitors and presenters seek to enhance their profiles for potential investors.

      Unlike Dr.Ripley Phd, P.Eng Gordo has zero knowledge of anything outside of childrens books and fundraising. Why is that no knowlege smart asses like him get into government and all of a sudden think they know something?

      Unlike BC where Canwest/Gordo and the rest of the MSM has kept silent or negative on the nuclear power issue paid off by Gordo's pirate power gang, US media has had a more honest discussion on nuclear, resulting in support for nuclear power at 75%. If BC citizens knew the facts it would be even higher here.

      The technology to eliminate nuclear waste by using it for new reactor fuels was invented in the US, is well understood and shutdown by ignorant politicians the latest being Bill Clinton. Japan, France, India and China are well underway in use of that technology, in new reactors.

      Canwest/Gordo needs to call Bill Gates and/or Dr. Ripley and ask for his help.

      We don't have time to wait.

      Leave the Peace alone, We can't afford it.
      seth

      clarification

      Sep 17, 2010 at 6:12pm

      That is David Suzuki who is speaking on Sunday's event.

      Camero409

      Sep 17, 2010 at 6:35pm

      Finally a Suzuki that knows what they're talking about.

      living in the peace

      Sep 18, 2010 at 9:55am

      A big thank you,to the people involved in taking the message to the government and the people further south,that "Site C"is not green technology.Definitely not the way we should be building our energy for the future generations.Damming a river is old technology,there is much newer ,lower impact ways of generating power today.Geothemal is readily available in BC, much closer to the load sources than "Site C"

      Barry TSG

      Sep 18, 2010 at 11:48am

      So I wonder where David Suzuki stands regarding Gordon Campbell? ... or is he still on his knees? The fact is that David sold out; he was stupid, really far beyond stupid and I'd like him to at least have the courage to admit it. 'course this is the same man who refuses to speak the truth about the state of the environment because of concerns that it (the truth) will cause too much fear ...

      seth go away

      Sep 18, 2010 at 4:07pm

      Seth not you agian, moron !!!

      Nuclear power is not safe because you can't store the waste to the end of time. Got it?

      knowing nuclear

      Sep 18, 2010 at 6:13pm

      having lived close to nuclear facilities before, don't believe a word of how great and clean they are

      they are dirty and routinely emit radioactive waste by air and by water, they are not cost effective and also run cost overruns besides being dangerous and toxic

      wind and solar are viable and do work, we have one of the worlds biggest shorelines and could harness enough power to run Canada with additional help of hydro or any other source of energy

      its just not profitable if your in the oil of nuclear business

      its always the ones who are loosing their market share who scream the loudest

      seth

      Sep 18, 2010 at 8:25pm

      Like most deniers neither of these have any knowledge whatsover of nuke power.

      The worlds current supply of nuclear waste covering a football field 40 feet deep will power the world for hundreds of years either reprocessed into MOX fuel for current generation reactors, or burned in the new GenIV units like India's new 500 MW plant. Compare that sq miles destroyed by Site C for so little gain.

      They emit no radiation whatsoever unlike natural gas which spews radon as it burns.

      All Candu nukes started in the last twenty years have been built on time on shedule at less than $2B/Gw or 2 cents a kwh cheaper than coal or NG.

      http://www.cnnc.com.cn/tabid/168/Default.aspx

      The cost is getting much cheaper with current builds in China approaching $1B/Gw.

      Compare that to the 20 cents a Kwh Dolton in Ontario is paying for wind and the 80 cents he pays for solar.

      Wind and solar produce no net energy because of their need for load balancing.

      http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/big-wind-how-many-households-served-...

      US federal agency TVA is building two nukes right now and is using them to replace coal. They see nukes as the only possible future power source.

      With 57 nuclear reactors being built around the world, another 140 ordered and a further 150 proposed for 2020, the process of shutting down carbon is under way. Hardly losing market share now is it.

      Every year your kind can delay the conversion of fossil fuels to nuclear with your silly anti nuclear religion results in the deaths of three million souls from coal air pollution and the deaths of billions as you lead us inevitably to the as little as ten years away civilization ending climate and peak oil crisis.

      You are both enemies of Gaia.
      seth

      anti-seth

      Sep 19, 2010 at 12:16am

      Yeah, lets build a nuke plant.
      All that radioactive waste won't be a problem will it?
      It certainly won't harm the environment ... let's go for it!