Author: CREDNB

CRED-NB is a member of Climate Action Network Canada (CAN-Rac) and we signed and shared a statement about how we should respond to tariffs. Now CAN-Rac has organized a webinar, Beyond the Shock Doctrine: Conversation on Tariffs, Climate and Solidarity, Wed. Feb. 12 @ 8 PM Atlantic.

Hosted by Climate Action Network Canada and the UBC Centre for Climate Justice, this conversation will feature Naomi Klein, Co-Director of the Centre for Climate Justice, Syed Hussan, Executive Director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, and Lubicon Cree advocate Melina Laboucan-Massimo, founder and Executive Director of Sacred Earth Solar.

Join this important conversation by registering here. Spots are limited!

CRED-NB is a member of Climate Action Network Canada. Today we joined with groups across the country to issue a statement: Ahead of Trump’s tariffs, civil society groups call for a response that puts people first and builds resilience.

Trump’s first weeks in office have been marked by appalling decisions across numerous fronts—from exiting the Paris Agreement, to mass Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and arrests, to attacking trans rights—as well as by the looming spectre of punitive tariffs.

Protecting Canadians during a second Trump administration and its wake will require bold measures from our federal and provincial leaders. But the response from some Canadian politicians so far has been alarming: we have seen increased militarism at the border and scapegoating migrants, backpedalling on climate commitments, and cynical ploys to entrench fossil fuel dependence. Read the full statement HERE.

William ‘Eric’ Altvater’s article was published by The Hill Times and the NB Media Co-op which is open access, HERE

If you missed it, Eric took the beautiful photos of the Bay of Fundy included in the recent report co-published by the Passamaquoddy Recognition Group and the CEDAR project at St. Thomas University, “Indigenous Views on Nuclear Energy and Radioactive Waste.”
https://cedar-project.org/indigenous/

CRED-NB is co-hosting a webinar and book launch, The Scientists Who Alerted us to the Dangers of Radiation, with the authors Dr. Ian Fairlie and Cindy Folkers.

Thur. Jan. 16, noon – 2 p.m. Atlantic
Register: HERE. 

This book reveals that the harmful effects of radiation exposure – especially from the nuclear sector and especially to children – are more pervasive and worse than thought. These have been known for decades but suppressed by politically-motivated censorship and overt disparagement/persecution.

Anyone who ever wondered about radiation or its close relative, radioactivity, should read the book and attend this webinar. It’s timely because several governments are pushing hard for more public exposures to radiation via nuclear power. It explains radiation in easy-to-grasp language which clarifies its dangers and risks.

Webinar co-hosted by: Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA), Nuclear Waste Watch, Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick (CRED-NB), and the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR).

NB Power seems determined to build at least two experimental reactors at the Point Lepreau nuclear site, but their chosen designs are running into big problems.

One possible alternative is the reactor design Ontario Power Generation (OPG) hopes to build at the Darlington nuclear site on Lake Ontario. OPG is promoting it as a “small, modular” nuclear reactor.

Consider a building that soars 35 metres upwards and extends 38 metres below ground. That’s 10 stories up, 11 stories down. At 73 metres, that’s almost as tall as Brunswick Square in Saint John, or Assumption Place in Moncton, the tallest buildings in New Brunswick. Would you call such a structure small? Read the article by Dr. Gordon Edwards, published in the NB Media Co-op, HERE.

A new study released in New Brunswick this week analyzed statements about nuclear energy and radioactive waste by Indigenous communities in New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, the only provinces with nuclear power reactors. The 18 power reactors in Ontario and the one in New Brunswick, as well as the one in Quebec shut down in 2012, have all produced hundreds of tons of radioactive waste.

The study found that overall, Indigenous nations and communities do not support the production of more nuclear waste or the transport and storage of nuclear waste on their homelands. They have made their opposition known through dozens of public statements and more than 100 submissions to the regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Read the story HERE in the NB Media Co-op.

CRED-NB is a member of Climate Action Network Canada, an organization representing more than 100 groups across the country advocating for climate action. Several Climate Action Network Canada staffers participate every year in the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings to find global solutions to the climate crisis. Today Climate Action Network Canada issued a media release calling COP 20 “a band-aid on a bullet wound.” The media release HERE, includes a bullet-point summary of the highlights as well as quotes from other members of the network who attended COP 29.

To help environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs) make radical change within their organizations, practices and actions, a coalition of Indigenous and settler activists created “Decolonizing Climate Action: A Tool Kit for ENGOs in So-called Canada.” The Tool Kit resource begins from the unsettling standpoint of challenging the system of capitalism, a root cause and driver of the climate crisis. A core message is that redistributing land, power and wealth should be at the heart of collective climate action. Read the short article with links to the toolkit, HERE.

Successive New Brunswick governments have been bewitched by two nuclear fantasies: first, its beleaguered public utility NB Power can connect two experimental reactors to the electricity grid, and second, the small province can successfully run a nuclear power reactor.

Holt plans to re-convene the New Brunswick Legislature before the end of November. At that point the two SMR start-ups will be on life support. The Point Lepreau reactor will still be mothballed with no confirmed start-up date. Each day the reactor is down costs NB Power $1-million or more, threatening the new government’s finances.

Keeping the Point Lepreau and SMR fantasies alive will require considerable effort from the new government. Susan Holt’s handling of the nuclear file will be an early test – both of her leadership and her commitment to wishful thinking.

Read the full commentary by CRED-NB core member Susan O’Donnell in the NB Media Co-op, HERE.

CRED-NB is a signatory with 35 other groups, led by Ecojustice, to a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau asking for a ban on thermal coal exports. Thermal coal is one of the dirtiest fossil fuel contributors to climate change. Coal power generation is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions and one of the first fossil fuels whose use must be phased out.

Ending coal power will also improve the health of millions around the world. Air pollution generated by coal kills more than 800,000 people each year. The extractive origins of thermal coal can also have devastating impacts on lands, waters and local communities, including impacts on Indigenous nations and their inherent rights, including fishing, hunting and gathering.

Read or download the letter HERE.