Media advisory: With oil and gas exploration approved off the coast of Nova Scotia for this spring, the Council of Canadians is organizing a hard-hitting coastal speaking tour providing evidence of the serious risks offshore drilling presents to sustainable fisheries, tourism, clean water and our climate.

Thursday is Shades of Green day, but Shades of Green has a case of laryngitis and needs to rest her voice this week. There will be no new podcast episode until next week. Fortunately, CBC’s The Current has just released a special edition from a town hall exploring anti-black racism in Nova Scotia, including environmental racism,  gentrification, and violence against women.

There are solid signs the proposed Goldboro Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant in Guysborough County is getting ever closer to ramping up. This is bad news for people who worry about climate change as it raises doubts about Nova Scotia’s ability to meet its greenhouse gas (GHC) reduction targets.  Independent researcher Ken Summers did a deep dive, and this is what he discovered.

Episode 3 of Sadie Beaton’s wonderful Shades of Green podcast focuses on the work of the Alton Gas water protectors. “Join us at the Treaty Camp to get a taste of what it’s like on the front lines of a movement that is so much bigger than stopping a single project. Let’s listen and reflect on what what stopping a natural gas storage project has to do with Indigenous self-determination, how the Peace and Friendship treaties might help us understand how to build just relationships with the land and each other, and what it means to be a treaty person.”

News release by Alton Gas water protectors: “Sipekne’katik/Fort Ellis — Alton Gas has posted signs outside the Treaty Camp at the Shubenacadie River naming water protectors on site as trespassers and criminals. Grassroots Mi’kmaq water protectors have been holding down a protection camp at the Shubenacadie River for nine months to prevent Alton Gas from dumping thousands of tons of salt brine into the sacred river every day. They are outraged by Alton Gas’ bully tactics and intent to resume work on the project without allowing Sipekne’katik to complete its community consultation process.”

News release issued by the Offshore Alliance: “While there are some improvements in overall environmental assessment processes in Liberal legislation tabled today in Ottawa, the draft Bill is a  step backwards with respect to offshore oil and gas in Atlantic Canada, appears to give oil and gas boards more authority, and points to federal concessions in response to lobbying from the provinces and oil industry.”

Episode 2 of the Shades of Green podcast looks at the 500-year old roots of environmental racism in Nova Scotia, and features Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard, James Desmond, Jaden Dixon, El Jones, Lynn Jones, Roger Lewis, Barbara Low, Catherine Martin, and Dr. Ingrid Waldron. Join us as we pull back and take a bit of a long view, exploring some of the histories of colonization on these lands and how these severed relationships with the land connect to the environmental racism we see today.

Recently the Municipality of the District of Guysborough asked the province to lift the moratorium on fracking. Alexander Bridge has been on a mission to tell the world that the municipal council doesn’t speak on behalf of all its residents, and in fact never bothered to find out what people think about this plan.This is Alexander’s letter to Lloyd Hines, his local MLA and minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal.