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CMAJ on PMRA, November 2023 |
EV as empty vessel in car sewers, Eric Reguly, Globe & Mail, May 20, 2023 |
Comic Piccini opera, Redux, Ontario auditor general Env Report, Globe & Mail, May 18, 2023 |
Venal or Venial? letter to Globe, May 16, 2023 |
"Cry me a river over a few bats", Redux, Globe & Mail, May 12,2023 |
Greenbelt "Scam": Barbarian Ford invasions, Globe & Mail, May 12, 2023 |
Barbarian Ford invasions case: City of Belleville Bell Creek dvlpt, Intelligencer, April 25, 2023 |
Road building projects in Wales, UK, cancelled as climate clangers, the Guardian, Feb 14, 2023 |
Unpublshed letter to Globe, 1996 opioids revisited, February 6, 2023 |
Cathal Kelly on climate charade, Globe & Mail, January 27, 2023 |
Ontario Bill 23, letter to the Premier, and Todd Smith MPP, Nov 24, 2022 |
Canola conundrum, letter to Globe & Mail, October 2022 |
3rd (Canadian) arm of U.S. Air Pollution Health Effects Study, the Guardian, Aug 12, 2022 |
Atomic awe and Boris blight, letter to Globe, July 11, 2022 |
Your !!*^%! car, Part II, Globe and Mail editorial, July 16, 2022 |
Your !!*^%! car, Part I, Globe and Mail, June 20, 2022 |
CAPE report on fossil fuels, Globe and Mail, June 9, 2022 |
Traffic Air Pollution Health Effects report, CAPE, April 2022 |
EU Bans Toxics, the Guardian, April 2022 |
Comic Piccini opera: Ontario Auditor General Environment Report, November 2021 |
......RIP Trillium...... November 16, 2021 |
Covid-19 Parlour Sessions 2020/2021, April 1, 2021 |
Mitch Podoluk, Obituary, Globe and Mail, September 2019 |
Notice to (Big Bay) Mariners, August 2019 |
Air Head, Globe and Mail, August 2019 |
Leon Redbone, RIP, June 2019 |
Ontario Endangered Species Act at risk, letter to Rod Phillips, April 2019 |
Slide to Extinction, Chris Humphrey, letter to Globe, October 31, 2018 |
Peter Galbraith, FRCP, obituary, October 2017 |
White Pines on Death Bed, Bruce Bell, Intelligencer, July 17,2018 |
Thucydides Trap, letter to Globe, May 2018 |
Great Lakes toxics down, SUNY Oswego/Clarkson U, April 2018 |
Machine subversion of democracy, letter to Globe, April 2018 |
Air Pollution overrides Ancestral Genes, Globe, March 2018 |
Olympian Cathal Kelly, letter to Globe, March 2018 |
Environmentalists seeking unemployment, letter to Globe, February 2018 |
Less is more on Bike Lanes, National Post, January 2018 |
Tramadol, 10 years on, Globe and Mail, November 2017 |
White Stripes: Belleville bicycle lanes, letters, November 2017 |
Occupational Cancers, CCO research results, Globe and Mail, October 2017 |
Big Pharmoney and Canadian Drug Use Guidelines, Globe and Mail, June 21, 2017, Kelly Grant |
Oxycontin, 20 years on, letter to Globe, May 2017 |
Lake Ontario wind turbines to remain on hold? Feb 2017 |
Obituary, Raold Serebrin, September 2016 |
Sartorial slip or signal? letter to Globe editor, October 2016 |
Weapons of mass distraction, letter to Globe editor, Oct 2016 |
Point O turbines 99% Down the Drain, CCSAGE, July 7, 2016 |
Point O turbines Dead and Damned, PECFN, July 6, 2016 |
Rabid diplomat, letter to Globe, May, 2016 |
More on bats: rabid rocker? letter to Globe, January 2016 |
Lighthouses of eastern Lake Ontario, new book by Marc Seguin, March 2016 |
Continuing corporate windpower malfeasance: Windstream and Trillium Corp, Feb 2016 |
Amherst Island: the next fine mess, Feb 2016 |
Valerie Langer: Thirty years of effort pays off on the B.C. coast, Feb 1,2016 |
Trillium log, 6th annual ELO expedtion, September 2015 |
Trillium Wind Corp intent on Spoliation of eastern Lake Ontario and Main Duck Isle, June 2015 |
Turtles rule? Ontario Court of Appeal Decision: Turtlegate, April 2015 |
Obituaries, Mary Terrance (Luke) Hill, January 2015; Valerie Ingrid (Hill) Kaldes, July 2015 |
Ontario Court of Appeal turtle hearing, December 2014 |
Trillium Log, 5th annual ELO expedition, September 2014 |
Planetary public health manifesto, The Lancet, March 2014 |
Ostrander Bioblitz, butterfly inventory walk, August 10, 2014 |
Victory at Cape Vincent: British Petroleum withdraws turbine proposal, February 2014 |
Stay of execution granted by Ontario Court of Appeal, March 2014 |
Never say die: Will the Court of Appeal let the Ostrander Phoenix fly free again? March 2014 |
Divisional Court ruling in Ostrander: turtles belly up, Trojan horses win, February 2014 |
Lafarge 2020, pushing the air envelope again, Hazardous waste as cement kiln fuel proposal, Jan2014 |
Another fine mess in Port Hope: municipal waste incinerator proposal, January 2014 |
Ostrander: fiasco, or snafu? you decide, December 2013 |
Ostrander rises again, Noli illegitimi carborundum, December 2013 |
British Petroleum backing off Cape Vincent after a decade of aggression? December 2013 |
Turbines best Bald Eagles in U.S law, December 2013 |
SARStock 10 years after, letter to Globe, August 2003 |
Trillium log September 2013: Surfin' USA: Hanging Ten in a Hughes 29 |
ERT Post mortem: Garth Manning lets it all hang out, August 2013 |
ERT post mortem: Cheryl Anderson lets it all hang out, August 2013 |
ERT Post Mortem: Ian Dubin lets it all hang out, August 2013 |
Great Lakes United turns thirty, goes down, RIP GLU, July 29, 2013 |
ERT decision, Ostrander turns turtle, goes down, July 3, 2013 |
PECFN Thankyou, and Appeal for funds, July 6, 2013 |
Minister of Env on Lake Ontario Off shore wind turbine status, June 2013 |
Lake Ontario water level control plan, June 2013 |
Play by Play, Part II, APPEC Ostrander ERT Appeal, June 2013 |
Ostrander ERT June 2013, Appendix VI, an indirect cause of human morbidity and mortality ? |
ELOERG Presentation to Ostrander ERT, Part II, Human Health, May 2013 |
The Dirty E-Word, Terry Sprague, Picton Gazette, April 2013 |
Toxics in Great Lakes Plastic Pollution, April 2013 |
Bill Evans on Birds and Wind farms, April 2013 |
Mayday, Naval Marine Archive, April 2013 |
Experimental Lakes Area, Kenora, Closing by Federal Gov't, March 2013 |
Fishing Lease Phase out on Prince Edward Point, March 2013 |
Windstream makes $1/2 Billion NAFTA claim, March 2013 |
Play by Play, PECFN Ostrander ERT Appeal, March 2013 |
Offshore Wind turbine moratorium 2 years later, The Star, Feb 2013 |
ELOERG ERT submission on Ostrander: Appendix V: Pushing the Envelope of the MoE SEV, Feb 2013 |
Wente on Wind and Bald Eagle mugging, Globe and Mail, February 2, 2013 |
Sprague on Wind and Bald Eagle mugging, Picton Gazette, Jan 25, 2013 |
Cry Me a River over a Few Bats: Submission to Env Review Tribunal, ELOERG, January 2013 |
Lake Ontario's Troubled Waters: U of Michigan GLEAM, January 2013 |
Letter to Minister of Environment re: Ostrander, January 2013 |
No Balm in Gilead: Ostrander IWT's as Trojan Horses, January 2013 |
Ostrander Turbines: another Christmas gift by the MoE, Dec 2012 |
Occupational carcinogens: Ontario Blue Collar breast cancer study, November 2012 |
Fresh water fish Extinctions, Scientific American,November 2012 |
Great Lakes Toxics revisited, November 2012 |
Frack the What ? November 2012 |
$ 2 1/4 Billion Trillium Power lawsuit knockback Appeal, November 2012 |
Canada Centre for Inland Waters decimated, October 2012 |
Birds, Bats, Turbines, and the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, October 2012 |
Ecological public health, the 21st centurys big idea? British MedicalJournal Sept1,2012 |
Trillium log, Sept 2012 |
George Prevost, Saviour of the Canadas, 1812 - 1814. June 2012 |
The Victory at Picton: Bicentennial Conference on War of 1812-1814, Differing Perspectives, May 2012 |
Carleton Island and the 1812, letter to the Globe, October 2011 |
Queen's Fine Arts Department Succumbs, letter to Principal, December 2011 |
Mr. Kumar and the Super 30, November 2011 |
Letters, Articles and Projects from the Nineties |
Alban Goddard Hill, web site manager |
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Canada's rush to make electric vehicles is proof car culture will be our collective downfall
The Globe and Mail (Ontario Edition)20 May 2023
ERIC REGULY OPINION
Pumping billions into battery production intensifies car culture when we should be focusing on public-transportation solutions
Canada's government is enchanted, obsessed even, with the idea of building batteries for electric vehicles on home soil.
Already, Volkswagen is soaking up about $14-billion in public subsidies to build a battery factory in Southwestern Ontario,
and Stellantis, owner of Jeep and Fiat, and LG Energy Solution are demanding equal treatment for their joint venture.
The mission to make Canada (well, Ontario) part of the global EV supply chain was inevitable and, from a purely industrial
point of view, makes some sense, even though the per-employee job creation bill may emerge as the most expensive in Canadian
history.
But on so many other levels, the decision to lunge into the EV supply chain lies somewhere between irresponsible and crazed;
it locks us into an ever-expanding car culture for generations when we should be downgrading the car as a transportation tool,
as some European cities are doing.
EVs, and hybrid cars to a lesser extent, enjoy a global image that is entirely unjustified. The pitch, "buy an EV
and save the planet" is just nonsense.
Never mind that EVs are still cars that need to be parked. Their presence will still disfigure cities, pushing politicians
and developers to build new parking lots, roads and highways to gratify the endless swarms of drivers (see Ontario's proposed
Highway 413, an assault on the wetlands, waterways and farmland in Southern Ontario's Greenbelt).
And never mind that EVs are hardly "clean" even if they have no tailpipe emissions. The EV supply chain is notoriously
ugly and carbon-intensive. Yes, EVs can make urban air more breathable, but at what cost to the greater environment?
Cleaner air in cities does not mean climate change will slow down. The EV revolution could even accelerate global warming
as forests in sub-Saharan Africa, Indonesia and elsewhere are razed to make way for the mines and smelters that produce the
nickel, copper, cobalt and lithium required to build EV batteries. The Washington Post recently reported that the high-pressure,
acid-based nickel-leaching process used in Indonesia, the world's largest producer of the metal, generates 20 tonnes of carbon
dioxide per tonne of nickel.
After a slow burn, there is no doubt that EVs will sound the death knell for diesel- and gasoline-powered cars. European
Union law requires all new cars to have zero carbon emissions from 2035. In the United States, President Joe Biden wants the
Environmental Protection Agency to tighten car-emission standards to the point that two-thirds of new cars and light trucks
will have to be electric by 2032. Canada is considering an even more aggressive zero-emissions mandate, backed by the lavish
investments in battery production.
The debate virtually worldwide is the speed at which governments should banish internal-combustion engines; it is rarely
about the need to banish cars regardless of what power source they use. EV production could actually increase the number of
cars on the road, since families will probably buy them initially as second car urban runabouts, while they keep their longer-range
fossil-fuel cars for as many years as possible.
As EV use soars, so will the demands on regional and national power systems. Already, there are fears that plugging in
millions of cars at night could blow grids in areas where there is barely enough electricity to meet peak demand. Last September,
California asked residents to avoid charging EVs during a brutal heat wave, when all the juice was needed to keep the lights
and air conditioning on. As the planet heats up, so will the battle to find enough power to keep EVs charged up and homes
running.
More power plants will have to be built and, in many countries, perhaps most, that means building coal and natural-gas
plants. The International Energy Agency says that about two-thirds of global energy comes from fossil fuels and that ratio
is unlikely to change much any time soon, since nuclear plants are costly and renewable energy is unreliable and rolling out
slowly, if steadily.
It may make sense to plug in an EV in Ontario or Quebec, where zero-emissions energy is the dominant power; it makes little
sense to plug in an EV in Alberta, where almost 90 per cent of the electricity is generated by fossil fuels. EV owners in
Alberta are merely transferring emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack.
In some enlightened cities, the debate is not whether EVs are a net benefit but whether cars of any size, shape or power
source are. In Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo does not want her streets cluttered with fossil-fuel or battery-powered cars. The
city has banned heavily polluting diesel cars, added bike lanes to most of the streets in the centre, eliminated most cars
from a few main roads like the Rue de Rivoli and is expanding the metro network. The result is that car trips in Paris have
fallen by almost half since 1990, according to a study by Les Cahiers Scientifiques du Transport.
Which brings us to Canada. If there is one project that would create thousands of jobs, improve business productivity,
clean up the air, reduce the output of greenhouse gases and cut the demand for endless highway construction, it would be high-speed
electric rail between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, where population densities are high enough to make the project sensible.
Cost estimates are all over the map. The University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
put the price tag at about $12-billion, which is $2-billion less than the bucks being thrown at the Volkswagen battery plant
alone. But forget it; the Canadian government wants more cars, not fewer. Canadian cities will remain car sewers forever.
In some enlightened cities, the debate is not whether EVs are a net benefit but whether cars of any size, shape or power
source are. In Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo does not want her streets cluttered with fossil-fuel or battery-powered cars. The
city has banned heavily polluting diesel cars, added bike lanes to most of the streets in the centre, eliminated most cars
from a few main roads like the Rue de Rivoli and is expanding the metro network.
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Enter supporting content here
Eastern Lake Ontario Environmental Research Group
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