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Welcome to the WE-CAN Climate News Roundup
Your Primary Source for CLIMATE NEWS
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Stay Connected. Be Inspired. Get Involved.
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Top Story
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$40 Billion of Public Money for a Pipeline. Why Can’t the Oil Industry Pay for It?
From Guy Dauncey: If the oil industry wants a pipeline so badly, why can’t they pay for it? For the past 50 years, on average, the global oil industry has been making $2.8 billion in profits a day (source). In the first month of the US/Iran War they made $30 million an hour (source). In 2026, the industry is predicted to make excess profits of $234 billion (source). In 2026, Canadian oil and gas profits are estimated to be $90 billion (source). Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund has accumulated US$2.2 trillion from oil revenues. Alberta's Heritage Fund has accumulated C$30 billion. But Carney and the Liberal government want us to subsidize them?
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$40 Billion of Public Money for a Pipeline. What Could $40 Billion Achieve?
From Tzeporah Berman, Facebook, July 4th: $40 billion is an enormous amount of public capital that could be deployed in ways that create jobs, improve public services, reduce energy costs, and strengthen long-term economic resilience. $40 billion could fund 15–30 large modern hospitals; it could build multiple urban transit systems, regional rail connections, and bus rapid transit networks; it could retrofit over a million buildings; it could anchor multiple battery plants, EV supply chains, or clean technology hubs; it could build hundreds of schools; it could fund flood prevention, forest protection, climate adaptation and food resiliency, all things we desperately need given the growing impacts of climate change. Read more
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Action Now!
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📌 Tell Carney: NO MORE PIPELINES! (Please write)
From Stand.earth: You can’t make this up. As a fossil-fueled climate change heatwave scorches communities across the country, Premier Danielle Smith just submitted a proposal for a $35 billion Alberta-to-the-West Coast pipeline to Carney's Major Project Office. It’s crystal clear: Smith wants to fast-track this project and wants the public dollars to buy it. While the rest of the world is moving towards renewable energy, Smith wants to hitch our wagon to a dying fossil fuel industry. If we can generate enough public pressure and flood key decision-makers, we can stop this project before it starts. Write here
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📌 Send a Message for Old-Growth Forests (Please write)
From Sierra Club: B.C. is one of the most unique places on earth. But unsustainable logging practices and lack of protection have put these awe-inspiring ecosystems at risk. Despite repeated promises from the provincial government to protect these at-risk ecosystems, every day 100 soccer fields of irreplaceable old growth are cut down. And only a fraction of the most endangered stands are protected. You can help save what’s left. Write here
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📌 Please Wade in! The Tilbury LNG Phase 2 Expansion Project (By July 27)
From Stand.earth: The Tilbury LNG Phase 2 Expansion project has met resistance since the beginning. It would lock in a million tonnes of GHGs a year for decades. It threatens important salmon habitat, and adds polluting ship traffic. FortisBC is planning to add to customers’ energy bills to cover the cost of the project, while pushing communities toward more fossil fuel use. We need you to wade in! We have created a toolkit with suggested points. It may look complicated to engage, but not if you use our point-by-point guide. https://stnd.ly/TilburyToolkit. Here is the link to the comment period https://stnd.ly/HaveASay
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WE-CAN Friends and Allies
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BC Heat Collaborative Holds Highly Successful Events
On the 5th Anniversary of BC’s heat dome, groups in the BC Heat Collaborative met in Victoria, Vancouver, Penticton and other places to commemorate the 619 people that died in the heat and to advocate for greater heat safety, winning lots of positive media coverage. Photo: Seniors for Climate activists met in Gyro Park, Penticton and outlined the BC Heat Collaborative’s six demands. Read more
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Climate Solutions
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Feds Partner with Provinces to Help Low-Income Canadians Pay for Energy-Efficiency Retrofits
From National Observer: Low-income Canadians in five provinces can now access expanded programs to retrofit and make their homes more energy efficient with no up-front costs. Four new provinces — PEI, BC, Quebec and Nova Scotia — have signed onto Canada Green Homes Affordability Program - the first national energy efficiency program for low-income people that Canada has had in decades. Read more
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False Promises: Why Carbon Capture and Storage Won’t Fix Our Climate Crisis
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From ProPublica: For more than 40 years, oil companies have been funding research at prestigious universities into climate change “solutions” that would not require the public to stop using oil and gas. Among their favoured fixes is carbon capture and storage. But CCS boosters have ignored evidence of the technology’s limitations, or overstated its potential, and convinced the world it could be effective. Read more
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Join the Movement. Fuel the Change. The climate crisis won’t wait — and neither can we. At the West Coast Climate Action Network, we connect with and support nearly 300 climate organizations across BC. Together, we amplify impact, share resources, and drive urgent change.
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But we can’t do it without you!
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By becoming a monthly donor, you provide steady and reliable support that sustains the climate movement throughout the year. Your contributions fund vital coordination, advocacy, events, and tools — empowering people and organizations across BC to fight for a livable future. Monthly giving also makes it easier for you to stay connected to the cause, while helping us plan and grow with confidence
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Whether it’s $5 or $50 a month, your donation directly strengthens climate action in BC — and every dollar adds up.
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Be the spark. Join our growing community of monthly donors today.
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Thank you for standing with us in this decisive decade.
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Climate Image of the Week
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Climate Politics and Action
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Government-Owned Trans Mountain to Lead $35-44 Billion Oil Pipeline to BC Lower Mainland
The Trans Mountain Corporation will plan and construct the pipeline, which will cost "between $35.2 to $43.7 billion. The lower estimate "assumes that there will be savings from regulatory reform and other opportunities," the submission reads. Read more
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Tony Seba's Massive 2026 Warning: Get out of Fossil Fuels Immediately...
From Electric Viking, YouTube: Futurist Tony Seba warns that the global energy transition is accelerating faster than most people realize, arguing that fossil fuel industries face rapid disruption as electric vehicles, renewable energy, and battery storage continue to outperform traditional technologies. His 2026 outlook suggests the shift could reshape transportation, energy markets, and investment strategies far sooner than expected. Watch here
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Six Charts Show How Clean Power Was the World’s Largest Source of New Energy in 2025
From Carbon Brief: Clean power added more to global energy supplies than any other source in 2025, according to the latest Energy Institute statistical review of world energy. Outside the COVID pandemic, it was also the first year ever in which wind and solar, combined, contributed more new energy than any individual fossil fuel. Read more
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Avi Lewis Wants to Save the Planet. It’s Tearing His Party Apart
From The Walrus: Avi Lewis, the veteran left-wing journalist and activist, defeated four rivals to take the helm of the federal New Democratic Party. His honeymoon was brief. About an hour later, Carla Beck, the head of the Saskatchewan NDP, declined to meet with him unless he disowned pretty much every position on climate change he’d ever taken. Naheed Nenshi, the NDP’s leader in Alberta, reacted similarly. What accounts for such swift hostility? Read more
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We’re Up Against Forces that Have All the Money in the World’: Erin Brockovich on Her Battle Against AI Datacentres
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From The Guardian: “It’s happening in every US state, multiple counties, rural areas, ranches, farms and neighbourhoods.” She has heard from people saying: “I’m watching wildlife disappear,” “I’m seeing dead animals.” Some communities learn about a centre months after it has been approved; others don’t hear anything about them, and watch as a vast building emerges. People write to her and say: “We’re going insane 24/7,” “It’s got to stop,” “It’s humming, it’s hissing, it’s buzzing.” She says: “It’s generators. It’s increased electric bills. It’s power surges.” Read more
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Climate Science and Impacts
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Ocean Surface Temperatures Hit Record High as World Enters ‘Uncharted Territory’
From NBC: Oceans absorb around 90% of the excess energy on Earth, which is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels like oil, coal and gas, with rising temperatures painting a concerning picture of the impacts of climate change and the “emerging influence of El Niño” also a factor. Read more
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Forestry and Nature
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The ‘Land Grab’ That Gave One-Quarter of Vancouver Island to a Rail Baron
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From The Tyee: In the 1880s, the B.C. and Canadian governments gave the Dunsmuir-owned Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway Company 800,000 hectares on Vancouver Island as payment for building a 115-kilometre railway. The land was the territory of multiple First Nations, most of them Coast Salish and Nuu-Chah-Nulth. The land granted was nearly 2,500 times bigger than the 324 hectares of the Tl’uqtinus summer fishing village on the south arm of the Fraser River in Richmond that a Supreme Court of British Columbia judge last year controversially found the descendants of the Cowichan Nation have Aboriginal title to. Read more
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You Can Take Action! Events, Protests and Rallies
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*PLEASE NOTE* If your climate organization is a WE-CAN member, click “Post your Event” under ‘Calendar’, and it will be added following approval.
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The calendar is a great networking tool, helping you connect and share events with the broader climate movement. Check it out and start posting your events today!
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Wednesday, July 8, 12 Noon Naomi Klein and Friends: A Celebration of High-Impact Climate Journalism
From DeSmogBlog: Join us with Naomi Klein, Michael E. Mann and Jim Hoggan as we look back on two decades of climate accountability wins and reflect on what we need to do to ensure that the next 20 years usher in the end of climate denial and obstruction. Register here
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Wednesday, July 8, 5:30 pm The Last Class, with Robert Reich
The Last Class, the documentary about the noted Trump critic, Berkeley professor and former Secretary of Labour Robert Reich, has become a major hit. A select group has enjoyed special access to his cogent observations — the thousands of students he has taught at UC Berkeley over the years, where his course titled Wealth and Poverty became a must-take on campus. Register here
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Tuesday, July 14, 3:45 pm Climate Adaptation: Preparing Vancouver’s Workforce for Coastal Reality
From Iron & Earth et al: The Pacific Northwest faces immediate climate risks: sea-level rise, extreme weather, infrastructure vulnerability. Our panel explores how we are responding to physical climate risks, what new roles and capabilities are emerging, and what workforce skills are needed to execute resilience strategies at scale. In person, Vancouver Central Library. Register here
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Saturday, July 18, 1-2:30 pm Policy & Penmanship: Write to Your Government Officials for Environmental Justice
From Shake Up The Establishment: The government released their draft strategy for addressing environmental racism and advancing environmental justice. Public consultation is open until August 10. We are hosting a fun letter-writing event at the Beaumont Studios in Vancouver to help get more public engagement. Register here
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Wednesday, July 22, 1-3 pm Building Momentum for Environmental Justice Virtual Event
From Shake Up The Establishment, Black Environmental Initiative, Pacific Association of First Nations Women, Sacred Earth Solar, and Women’s Healthy Environments Network: We are co-hosting this event to build momentum around Canada’s first-ever National Strategy to Advance Environmental Justice and Address Environmental Racism. We will bring together government officials and community groups working on environmental, labour, housing, social justice, and Indigenous sovereignty issues. Register here
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Thursday, July 23, 6 pm WE-CAN Climate Book Club
From WE-CAN: We will be discussing Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change, by David Camfield. To join the Book Club, click here
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Grants, Job Vacancies and More!
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Yes, Applications ARE Still Open! Are You Hosting a Climate Event Through a PICS-Network University? We Can Provide Support.
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From PICS: Our University Climate Knowledge Mobilization Events program supports climate change-related research dissemination, knowledge mobilization, and events hosted by PICS university (UBC, SFU, UNBC, UVic) groups, organizations, departments, or institutes. The program offers up to $2,500 for eligible events. We aim to support up to 35 events a year and will close when funding is fully subscribed. Read more
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Environment Funders
Their list of members is here - a useful source of thinking when it comes to fundraising
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WE-CAN’s Fundraising Toolkit for Climate Action Groups is here
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Stay Connected. Be Inspired. Get Involved.
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From all of us in the West Coast Climate Action Network
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We honour the title and rights of the Indigenous peoples on whose ancestral lands we live and work.
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