by Brian Voth I appreciate the good work Mayor Dave Formosa does for City of Powell River, but I don’t agree with his support for shipping four million tons of thermal coal annually via Texada Island.
This coal will be burned for energy in Asia, producing 10 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year. To put this in perspective, this would be the same amount of CO2 produced by putting over two million more passenger vehicles on our roads.
Well over 90 per cent of climate scientists are telling us that if we don’t seriously reduce our CO2 emissions, we will soon reach irreversible climate “tipping points” that will result in storms, floods, droughts and rising sea levels that will far surpass anything we have seen to date. Increasing our CO2 output will also increase ocean acidification, seriously damaging fish and most other ocean life.
I am not anti-development. By discouraging the burning of fossil fuels and encouraging the development of low carbon energy sources, we can avoid the worst effects of climate change and still have good jobs. I also support BC’s mining of metallurgical coal. This product (the majority of BC’s coal output) is used to make steel, which we still need, including for building low carbon energy projects such as wind farms.
Formosa states that “The coal is going to be moved anyway, so Texada can be the beneficiary.” I ask Formosa to bear in mind the following principles from the Sustainability Charter for the Powell River Region:
• Consider local and global sustainability.
• Recognize ecological limits.
• Take the long view.
Also, the coal may not move anyway, at least not from the west coast of North America. This proposal came about because the US is shifting its coal-fired power plants to natural gas, to reduce CO2 emissions. Now US thermal coal producers are scrambling to find Asian markets for coal no longer needed in the US. These companies have proposed some new coal shipping terminals for the US west coast, but they have been met with heavy opposition, including an eight million-ton-per-year project that has just been rejected by the Oregon State government. This is why American coal miners want to ship their coal through BC, via Fraser Surrey Docks and Texada.
It’s understandable that people can be lured by short-term profits into undertaking massive projects that will do long-term harm to our planet. But saying that “everyone else is doing it, so we may as well get in on it” does not make it right. I call on Formosa to follow the sustainability charter, forego the 15 new Texada jobs, and make us proud by rejecting the shipping of four million tons of thermal coal through our region every year.
There is no Planet B; we only have one chance, and only a very few years, to do the right thing and lower CO2 emissions.
Brian Voth is a retired forester and resident of Lund.
