Edmonton city council declares climate emergency

From Global News

The City of Edmonton has declared a climate emergency. Vinesh Pratap takes a look at what that means.

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Mark Broderick
August 31, 2019 10:24 pm

Quick…..hide your wallet lol

Reply to  Mark Broderick
September 1, 2019 11:43 pm

Move to electricity!

Wow Alberta has that much hydro?

Maybe he should have declared a move to coal!

Cheers

Roger

Randy Wester
Reply to  Roger Surf
September 2, 2019 10:08 am

I think he’s hoping the Site C dam goes ahead, and now they have a way to force through new spending on infrastructure, no matter how dubious or pitifully small the energy savings might be.

And now there’s a blanket excuse ‘climate change’ for past undersizing of storm sewers, rotting power poles, inadequate building codes and inspections, allowing development on flood plains, etc., other than government incompetence.

Jeff Alberts
August 31, 2019 10:51 pm

WHACK-A-DOODLE!

August 31, 2019 10:51 pm

A casual cost-benefit analysis would have revealed that anything Edmonton could do, including immediate cessation of all CO2 generation and mass suicide, would accomplish nothing. So, the only reasonable conclusion is: virtue signaling at their constituents’ expense.

Loydo
Reply to  Shoki Kaneda
September 1, 2019 1:36 am

Same goes for every city, individually. Therefore no need for anyone to act. Vice signalling?

Derg
Reply to  Loydo
September 1, 2019 4:07 am

Loydo…CO2 is life.

TonyL
Reply to  Loydo
September 1, 2019 4:50 am

Got any hot ideas on how to get China and India in line so their emissions increases do not swamp out everything everybody else does? Without that, the whole thing seems like useless and expensive virtue signaling.
From the video:

The city will now be able to sell itself better to outside investors because of it’s green credentials.

Virtue signaling writ large.

Loydo
Reply to  TonyL
September 2, 2019 1:13 am

“Got any hot ideas on how to get China and India in line…”

No, when for a long time we in the west have developed by using so much fossil fuel per capita for deades and continue to do so. How weak is our argument when we, emitting 16t pa each say to Indians emitting 1.5t – no you have to cut back.

Talk about the horns of a dilemma.
comment image

Roger Knights
Reply to  Loydo
September 2, 2019 2:44 pm

“Got any hot ideas on how to get China and India in line…”
“No, when for a long time we in the west have developed by using so much fossil fuel per capita for deades and continue to do so.”

1. Up until 1980 there wasn’t a consensus that the West’s emissions might be harmful—indeed they were thought to be beneficial. (So far they have been, when global greening is included.) Those emissions weren’t our fault, because they were innocently emitted.
2. Those emissions were an unavoidable part of the industrial revolution and its continuation. Waterwheels and windmills weren’t going to do it. The industrial revolution (along with global greening) and its sequels (digital revolution) is what is leading the non-West out of poverty and misery: China is an example. The Rest Of the World owes us; we don’t owe them.

“How weak is our argument when we, emitting 16t pa each say to Indians emitting 1.5t – no you have to cut back.”

We aren’t asking them to “cut back” (reduce their current emissions), just to avoid big increases in coal consumption, and to use nuclear (probably not fundable though by the World Bank) or renewables instead. After all, the latter are the cheapest form of power, according to green propaganda. For some reason the ROW isn’t convinced, even though they’ve surely been incessantly lectured about it by numerous international organizations and visiting speakers from A to Z. Why don’t you give them a piece of your mind too? Tell it to Xi.

There is no benefit to the West or to the ROW for it to unilaterally go green alone. If CO2 reduction is a common effort, it’s futile and worse, like bailing out a boat while others are drilling holes in it.

Kerry Eubanks
Reply to  Loydo
September 3, 2019 7:21 am

“… when we in the west have developed by using so much fossil fuel per capita for decades…”

DEVELOPED. Fossil fuel.

By George, I think you’ve finally got it!

Roger Knights
Reply to  Loydo
September 3, 2019 9:36 am

Argh—Is NOT a common effort

Kevin kilty
Reply to  Loydo
September 1, 2019 7:01 am

Your logic is correct, of course, but I will remind you that the left engage in the very same flawed logic every time they use this argument against development: “We shouldn’t develop this oil field or build this pipeline because it can only supply the world for a few days.”

What Shoki Kaneda says is also true. Which of your two truths is of more benefit in the short or long term? Since I suspect you will get the answer wrong the first time I will tell you it is not yours.

Robert W. Turner
Reply to  Loydo
September 1, 2019 8:45 am

Just look at all the climate change – oh the humanity!

http://edmontonweathernerdery.blogspot.com/2016/06/136ish-years-of-precipitation.html

Michael Jankowski
Reply to  Loydo
September 1, 2019 9:04 am

Come on Loydo. At least since Kyoto, it was clear that nothing was going to be accomplished without developed-nation restrictions on developing nations. Forget about individual cities.

These “climate emergency” declarations are little more than lowest common denominator politicians succumbing to lobbyists. They aren’t addressing emergencies like drug addiction, homelessness, poverty, aging infrastructure, education, etc., but are going to try to act to address an “emergency” that isn’t. It’s shameful.

BC
Reply to  Michael Jankowski
September 1, 2019 3:37 pm

As Sir Humphrey says in the new Yes Prime Minister:
‘It’s much easier to solve an imaginary problem than a real one.’
For the best bit, watch the start of the second video clip in this article on Paul Homewood’s blog:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2017/06/23/yes-minister-does-global-warming/

Chaswarnertoo
Reply to  Shoki Kaneda
September 1, 2019 1:44 am

But the mighty Machynlleth, here in Wales, has already declared a climate emergency. Without the idiot politicos having any idea of cost benefit analysis.
We must do something,
This is something.
Therefore we must do it!
Politico logic……

Big T
Reply to  Shoki Kaneda
September 1, 2019 3:53 am

Mass suicide would create a terrible smell; so that would one thing.

Reply to  Shoki Kaneda
September 1, 2019 6:59 pm

Just turn off the natural gas pipelines to Edmonton, say in November, and the definition of “crisis” will be more apparent to city council.

August 31, 2019 10:58 pm

Climate emergency?
Full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

Robert of Ottawa
Reply to  Leo Smith
August 31, 2019 11:41 pm

They are following the national capital, Ottawa. Of course it signifies greater expense. Initial costs are $250,000 and I;m sure they will rise.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-declares-a-climate-emergency

Action plans doubtless cost money directly and in wasted time writing them and the additioonal bureaucracy to implement them. But I can breather easire, literally I am sure, now I know the City of Ottawa is going to save the planet.

https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/planning-and-development/official-plan-and-master-plans/air-quality-and-climate-change-management-plan-aqccmp

Reply to  Robert of Ottawa
September 1, 2019 2:58 am

What “climate emergency” means – is that a highly paid “climate emergency officer” or the like will be appointed whose job is to be a stazi like informant snooping around what everyone else is doing and demand they “Green” their work (whilst demonstrating EHS).

You’ve got to accept that the climate cult is like a virus – it’s working from inside government so utterly destroying its effectiveness that we are fast approaching the point where the ordinary population will be so utterly p*ssed off with the present politicians they they will be replaced en masse.

As the song says …. there will be trouble ahead.

Trying to Play Nice
Reply to  Mike Haseler (Scottish Sceptic)
September 1, 2019 6:06 am

In the 1700s the colonists in North America didn’t put up with these kinds of people. They would tar and feather them and run them out of town. I think that’s a tradition we need to bring back.

Gamecock
Reply to  Trying to Play Nice
September 1, 2019 2:46 pm

Amen. As recently as 1920, a federal agent approaching a South Carolina farmer and telling him what he must do . . . would never be seen again.

Sommer
Reply to  Robert of Ottawa
September 1, 2019 7:13 am

Has anyone ever looked into the costs associated with insurance policies related to this alarmist agenda?
https://www.ey.com/ca/en/services/specialty-services/climate-change-and-sustainability-services/climate-change-and-sustainability-services
It would be interesting to know if both Ottawa and Edmonton are involved with this company?

Reply to  Leo Smith
September 1, 2019 11:26 am

It is a tale told by an idiot…

Bob
August 31, 2019 11:05 pm

As a couple folks have already pointed out, what about the city’s hockey team, the Edmonton Oilers?!
Now to be renamed: Edmonton Boilers, Edmonton Broilers?
This is a city council so hopelessly out of touch with the economics of Alberta and the city/area itself: refining, petrochemicals, oil and related pipelines and storage, energy services, etc. Moral posturing at its finest.

commieBob
Reply to  Bob
September 1, 2019 12:44 am

I must say, this blows my mind. This will improve the turnout at the next civic election. I also predict that the city’s environmental consultant will become unemployed shortly thereafter.

Keen Observer
Reply to  commieBob
September 1, 2019 4:13 am

Never underestimate the stupidity of a government town…

TRM
Reply to  commieBob
September 1, 2019 8:54 am

Deadmonton regularly votes NDP so don’t hold your breath mon ami. It is a “gov town” like others have pointed out. That means they don’t care about a place called “reality” because they think they can make their own.

In the end the good ship “Wishful Thinking” hits the rude rocks of reality.

commieBob
Reply to  TRM
September 1, 2019 10:10 am

There are lots of civil servants in Edmonton but that isn’t the main part of the local economy. link Edmonton’s labor force is around 800,000. Alberta’s public service employees number around 180,000. Even if they all worked in Edmonton, they would still be way outnumbered by everyone else. link link

What happens in an election is often determined by who manages to get out their supporters to vote. I would say that city council just gave a whole bunch of people a reason to get out and vote.

TRM
Reply to  commieBob
September 1, 2019 12:31 pm

I hope so but we’ll have to see what length of memory people have. I’m not holding my breath.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Bob
September 1, 2019 8:33 am

“Now to be renamed: Edmonton Boilers, Edmonton Broilers?”

Come on. Isn’t it obvious? They’ll be the Edmonton Unicorn Farts.

Scissor
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
September 1, 2019 9:11 am

Unicorn farts has a nice sound to it. Maybe just sound.

Michael H Anderson
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
September 1, 2019 3:28 pm

This. Note to E-town city council: I have several good reasons to visit, but…maybe I’ll just spend my money elsewhere. Yeah, that sounds right.

Robert of Ottawa
Reply to  Bob
September 1, 2019 11:13 am

It’s calleed Redmonton because it is the provincial seat of government and there full of socialist government sinecure holders.

Gamecock
Reply to  Bob
September 1, 2019 2:48 pm

The Edmonton Organics.

sam
August 31, 2019 11:05 pm

the ‘climate emergency’ is that it’s so fking cold in canada, they lost their entire wheat & corn crop this year because its so cold & wet the past 2 years..

Greg
Reply to  sam
September 1, 2019 1:58 am

Thanks for the reality check.

icisil
Reply to  sam
September 1, 2019 4:09 am

There also appears to be a mental health emergency in Canada.

Gerald Machnee
Reply to  icisil
September 1, 2019 9:47 am

It showed up in Edmonton.

J Mac
August 31, 2019 11:06 pm

The Edmonton Oilers not making it to the Stanley Cup is an emergency! Conversely, a 2C warmer climate in Edmonton would be a small improvement!

Sara
Reply to  J Mac
September 1, 2019 5:24 am

The Chicago Blackhawks have to get there, too! Maybe if they had outdoor hockey practice instead of using an indoor rink…..?

J Mac
Reply to  Sara
September 1, 2019 8:40 am

Sara,
Hockey is always better played outdoors, with a bracing 20F breeze in your face! Three decades ago, I lived in St. Louis for 10 years. Was an engineer at McDonnell Douglas Astronautics and a fan of the St. Louis Blues. I was tickled pink to see the St. Louis Blues make their improbable but successful run to the Stanley Cup championship this spring. “Let’s Go Blues!”

Gamecock
Reply to  J Mac
September 1, 2019 2:51 pm

Clemson lost their hockey team in spring training.

Karabar
August 31, 2019 11:08 pm

The Edmonton climate has been classified as Koppen-Geiger Dfb since the late nineteenth century.
Yet the idiots on the council insist that it is “changing”!
What metric are they using to imagine that it is changing?

H.R.
Reply to  Karabar
September 1, 2019 6:09 am

Karabar: “What metric are they using to imagine that it is changing?”

None whatsoever.

The only thing that has changed is the political wind and which way the politicians are blowing in it.

You hit on something I bang on about from time to time. I suppose a few locales have had their climate classification change, but I’m not aware of any regional changes. I wouldn’t mind if someone could point out if there is a region whose classification has changed.

Reply to  Karabar
September 1, 2019 6:20 am

If you start your argument with a blatantly false premise, especially one that goes unchallenged, you can justify anything to your constituents.

Whether they do this out of ignorance or they are disingenuous, someone needs to stand up and refute the gross misinformation.

A copy of Dr Spencer’s recent article to the local newspaper and to the 3 dissenting council members would be a start.

Dennis Sandberg
August 31, 2019 11:11 pm

“….amplify the message that rising greenhouse gas emissions severely impact cities”.
I think I understand what the Mayor is saying, it’s getting too warm in Edmonton. If it gets 1 degree (C or F, take your pick) warmer in the next 100 years, instead of 1/2 degree, it will be way too warm…not as warm as Calgary by any means, but too warm.” Brings to mind what Einstein said out the universe and human stupidity.

JohnM
Reply to  Dennis Sandberg
September 1, 2019 1:53 am

Silly. Edmonton and the rest of Canada should embrace global warming. Instead, they cast their lot, and money, on a fool
s errand.

Rick
Reply to  JohnM
September 2, 2019 7:28 am

There are Albertans and then there are Edmontonians. They don’t seem to value that all their wealth is originally derived from being an access and supply point to northern resources. From the fur trade to oil and gas they happily take their share of the plunder while pretending a moral superiority to those that do the actual work.

joe
Reply to  Dennis Sandberg
September 1, 2019 6:05 am

4C warming means Edmonton will still be cooler than Denver.

Are there people in Denver? Edmonton city council needs to know.

August 31, 2019 11:16 pm

”what that means”

It means that the climate emergency brain-rotting virus is at epidemic levels and more of these poor miserable pathetic souls need to visit the WUWT clinic for their vaccine.

Alasdair Fairbairn
Reply to  Mike
September 1, 2019 12:54 am

Mike:
Absolutely. It is the lack of a vaccine that is the emergency.

Robert W. Turner
Reply to  Mike
September 1, 2019 8:48 am

They’ve already been innoculated against reality.

John V. Wright
August 31, 2019 11:19 pm

What really impressed me about the coverage was the way in which the news team asked the council for the data that shows that severe weather is happening much more often than in the past. …oh…er….hang on…..

August 31, 2019 11:22 pm

I went Montessori school there in the mid 60’s. Mother was in a Masters program at UAlberta, and my dad was working for a company putting 4 wire telephone service to all far north Alberta towns under contract with Alberta Telecom.

Sad that the University “educated” libtards have apparently taken over the local government there. Local working folks just don’t understand the organized liberal conspiracy that is working to infiltrate political positions and royally screw them up the wazoo for political power.

WR2
August 31, 2019 11:22 pm

It’s one thing for small pacific atoll nations to be duped/bribed to believe in this nonsense, but when cities in the tundra start making stupid pronouncements like this, we can say without doubt that western civilization has lost their collective minds, and our future does not look good. China and Russia I’m sure are loving that our people are more concerned about the boogie man than their transgressions, I’m sure.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  WR2
September 1, 2019 6:02 am

“It’s one thing for small pacific atoll nations to be duped/bribed to believe in this nonsense, but when cities in the tundra start making stupid pronouncements like this, we can say without doubt that western civilization has lost their collective minds”

Well said! These people have obviously been fooled into believing something that is not true, or at the least, has not been proven to be true, otherwise, they wouldn’t be doing such stupid things.

We certainly don’t want that tundra overheating! 🙂

n.n
August 31, 2019 11:25 pm

Political climate.

Robber
August 31, 2019 11:29 pm

So if it’s an emergency, let them lead by example with urgent actions. No cars in the city, no flights, no heating or cooling. There, feel better?

Richard of NZ
Reply to  Robber
September 1, 2019 4:51 am

No food delivery by fossil fueled vehicles or production that used fossil fueled vehicles either.

Reply to  Richard of NZ
September 1, 2019 12:57 pm

And their windmills to be made from wood, with lubrication by tax-payer-rendered grease [no other use for tax-payers. . . ].
Although that might not be a major win at the next election, I suggest.

Auto – waiting for the curtain to come down on the UK – unless Brexit is delivered in the teeth of the Euro-trots. And then I am not sure about Scotland – it may look for a bigger teat to suck dry.

fatherup
August 31, 2019 11:32 pm

When is someone going to educate the politicians, sorry forget that they only send and do not receive.

michael hart
August 31, 2019 11:34 pm

Back in the 1980’s many UK cities declared themselves “nuclear free zones” when they had zero power to make any decisions about anything nuclear at all. This seems similar. The main thing is what does Edmonton city legally have the power to do beyond local taxes and spending decisions? Not much, I would guess.

fatherup
Reply to  michael hart
August 31, 2019 11:36 pm

Typical ignorant politicians, they are like whales surface and blow off now and again.f

Robert
August 31, 2019 11:40 pm

I live in Edmonton. I agree that there is a climate emergency here. It’s simply too fecking cold in Edmonton. Winter in 2018 in Edmonton began in September and spring arrived in May 2019. The summer of 2019 has been one of the wettest and coldest in recent memory. The Edmonton city council is dominated by socialists so I’m not surprised to read this declaration, but I am ashamed to be associated with such blatant climate pandering and stupidity. For a city that endures in excess of 6 months of winter with temperatures dipping as low as -40c, I can only think that this is nothing but more climate propaganda. I’m embarrassed to admit that I live here.

William Astley
Reply to  Robert
September 1, 2019 7:08 pm

We may have the Edmonton city council effect, same as the Al Gore effect, except bigger.

I would bet on cooling in the Northern hemisphere which of course includes Edmonton. We will see ….

It is fun to look at the other things (big physical things) that changed during the warming period.

Most of the post 1997 warming was in the Northern hemisphere, particularly north of 60 which does not support the AGW theory.

The AGW theory warms the entire planet, with most of the warming occurring in the tropics, as the tropics is the region with the most amount of long wave radiation emitted to space.

The fact that the observed warming is not global, it has been high latitude (almost no tropical warming and no tropical ocean warming), is one of a dozen observations that shows there is no CAGW and AGW is almost not measurable.

Based on the sudden change in mid-ocean earthquake frequency and the past correlation of mid-ocean earthquake frequency and planetary temperature, and the sudden drop in mid-ocean earthquake frequency, we should experience noticeable cooling towards the end of 2019.

Comment:
There is a very interesting correlation of planetary temperature and mid ocean ridge earthquake frequency (mag 4 to 6) and it is interesting that mid-ocean ridge earthquake frequency (no change in magnitude, just more frequent earthquakes as the ridge is pushed and moved more) increased 20 years ago by 300% correlating with the 1997 temperature rise.

Anyway, the mid-ocean frequency dropped in 2017 back to 1995 levels and as in the data there is a two year lag, from when the earthquake frequency changes and there is observed change in temperature, all else being equal in the Edmonton region, if the correlation is due to physical cause there should be Northern hemisphere cooling.

https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/have-global-temperatures-reached-a-tipping-point-2573-458X-1000149.pdf

It is reasonable to conclude that this recent “gapping down” may be a tipping point towards cooler global temperatures. Using HGFA seismic frequencies as the sole predictor of global temperatures going forward, there is a 95% probability that global temperatures in 2019 will decline by 0.47° C ± 0.21° C from their 2016 peak. In other words, there is a 95% probability that 2019 temperatures will drop to levels not seen since the mid-1990s.

It follows that the seismic frequencies for these high geothermal flux areas (HGFA) serve as the independent variable in the analysis. Specifically, this includes the 4 to 6 moment-magnitude events from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the ridge complexes of the Indian and Southern Oceans, the East Pacific Rise, the submarine triple junction areas, the Carlsberg Ridge, the Reykjanes Ridge, and the West Chile Rise (Figure 2) [11].

A striking development for this experiment is that 2017 marks the first three-year decline in HGFA seismic activity since 1979 (Figure 2). Furthermore, the 2017 HGFA seismic count is 49% lower than the study period’s peak frequency in 2014, the year of the last “Super El Niño”. When viewed within the context of the entire time series, the 2017 dropoff mirrors the jump in HGFA seismic activity experienced in 1995, albeit in the opposite direction. The 1995 “tipping point” was significant as global temperatures spiked in lockstep two years later, followed by a 21-year “plateau” in both global temperatures and HGFA seismicity, a.k.a. “The Pause”.

Patrick MJD
August 31, 2019 11:48 pm

Climate emergency crisis is spreading. These sorts of crises don’t end well, history shows. This one will be a big one.

Johann Wundersamer
August 31, 2019 11:51 pm

ctm, ever discussed with Vinesh Pratap Singh:

https://www.speakingtree.in/vinesh-pratap-singh/discussion

Sunny
September 1, 2019 12:00 am

If I was to buy a electric vehicle, and buy solar panels (all would be bought using loans) plus I am already a vegetarian from birth (bonus points) what sort of impact would I be having on saving the planet from CO2? Would the massive loan interest rates that I would be paying help save anything? I agree that plastic needs to be stopped as it is everywhere, it is nasty, also diesel fumes around schools and largely populated areas would need to be cut, as I live on a busy road and we have to keep our front windows shut, as it Stinks of fumes during late afternoon and evenings…

Chaswarnertoo
Reply to  Sunny
September 1, 2019 1:55 am

Veggie from birth? Brain never developed properly then. 😇

DonS
Reply to  Chaswarnertoo
September 2, 2019 8:15 am

Is milk a vegetable?

4 Eyes
September 1, 2019 12:04 am

The mass hysteria is spreading. Scary. Much scarier than any warming.

Reply to  4 Eyes
September 1, 2019 3:09 am

There are a group of people who are very good at predicting the latest social fad …. usually because they’re actively creating them (like Al gore and the climate cult). They do very well for themselves, both financially and evolutionary.

So why are there sceptics? Because every so often one of the former group decide to take everyone off the evolutionary cliff leaving only the sceptics behind.

The climate cult is filled with people who say one thing and do another, like Obama sea level rise and his coast resort. All they do is regurgitate what others say without ever processing the meaning of what they’re saying and working out what it actually means in practical terms.

You would do better geting on a bus where driver is high on crack cocaine, than following the climate cult, because the driver will sober up, but the delusional politicians won’t.

Robert W. Turner
Reply to  4 Eyes
September 1, 2019 8:55 am

Actually, that should be the main talking point against this lunacy. We have countless books and examples throughout history where this type of ideological driven lunacy has lead to very bad things. What does the cult have, docudramas and prophetic doomsday predictions – no wonder the cult has run from every public debate in the last decade.

BoyfromTottenham
September 1, 2019 12:05 am

If I were a voter in the Edmonton City Council area I would be asking for a copy of the council minutes when this was discussed and agreed, and which councillors voted for and against it. It would be interesting reading…maybe. Any references to the UN’s 2030 ‘sustainable development agenda’ in there? Ask whether the council has its first allegiance to Canada or the UN?

September 1, 2019 12:35 am

All these “climate emergencies” indicate rampant dingbatitus.

Dingbatitus is usually associated with drug addled thinking.

My suggestion to correct the malady is to undertake wastewater drug analysis to assess the level of drug taking in the offices of bodies declaring such emergencies. If the analysis proves positive then undertake mandatory drug testing on all office staff on a daily basis. Any level of drug taking gives cause for immediate dismissal. Imagine the impact on rates and taxes if all these dingbats were removed from payrolls.

Editor
September 1, 2019 12:46 am

Edmonton? Home of the Edmonton Oilers and the Stanley A. Milner Public Library?

I worked for Stan Milner from 1997-2001.

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