Some random thoughts on Earth day 2017

• Earth Day was started 47 years ago. Gaylord Nelson, a Democratic Senator from Wisconsin, was moved to action after witnessing the ravages of an oil spill in Santa Barbara, California in 1969. He partnered with California Republican Senator Pete McCloskey working to promote events across America on April 22, 1970. 

• The twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline will increase oil tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet nearly seven-fold.

• Friday April 21, 2017 was Britain’s first ever working day without coal power since the Industrial Revolution, according to the National Grid.

• Germany, Denmark, & Scotland have had days when they ran their entire grids on solar and wind power. 

• In 2015, 97% of Scottish household electricity came from wind power. 

• Costa Rica ran their grid for 450 days in the past two years totally on renewables.

• Sweden is the first country to declare its intention to go 100% renewable.

• While 60% of Canada's electricity comes from hydro-electricity, only 3% comes from wind, solar, and bio-mass.

• While hydro-electricity is a renewable, the flooding of prime agricultural land to build reservoirs like at site 'C' is not sustainable.

•  British Columbia has a vast potential for wind power that is unused as the government's priority is fossil fuel extraction and transportation.

• For 47 years we have come together to celebrate this place we call home and to work for a better, more sustainable world. As you think about the coming election and who should be elected, look to the party policies and vote for a government that understands that economic growth today shouldn't be on the shoulders of the generations to come.