Rules Are For The Poor… Suckers! (498)

The Panama Papers scandal is all over the news, but what are the implications for the environment, and possibly more importantly why does no one seem surprised and what does that say about our society?

• Iceland’s Prime Minister Steps Down Amid Panama Papers Scandal
• How offshore banking is costing Canada billions of dollars a year
• Canada Revenue offered amnesty to wealthy KPMG clients in offshore tax ‘sham’
• Huge Cost of Tax Evasion Revealed as Campaign to Tackle Tax Havens Launches
• Why the offshore tax haven crisis won’t get fixed, despite Panama Papers

We also discuss the first CEO jailed for actions taken as a CEO in the USA, Donald Blankenship former head of Massey Energy and the recent third-term election for Brad Wall’s government in Saskatchewan.

• Blankenship Gets Year in Prison Over Mine-Safety Conspiracy
• Brad Wall’s victory cements his place at centre of conservative movement

In the final section, we talk about renewable energy opportunities in Canada compared to the supposedly irresistible opportunities of continuing to invest in oil. Supposedly some pipeline might bring 130 or so jobs! Guess what… there’s 70,000 potential jobs in Alberta for solar jobs alone in the next 25 years.

• Netherlands Moves To Only Allow EV Sales By 2025 – End Of Gas, Petrol
• Solar industry says 70,000 jobs knocking on Alberta’s door
• This Tower Pulls Drinking Water Out of Thin Air
• How Big Oil Corrupted The World

The bonus show, hosted by Sabina Hyseni and Brenna Owen discuss Trudeau’s comments about how supposedly oil and climate change don’t conflict, and Catherine McKenna’s comments about how NOT investing in oil threatens national unity. We call bullshit, you should listen to why.

• Moving too fast on climate could damage national unity, Catherine McKenna says

Please join us on April 22nd from 6pm to 9pm at 720 Bathurst – Centre for Social Innovation – Annex for a beverage and a chat to meet and hang out with the Green Majority team, past and present and other listeners to celebrate our 500th episode!You can get your very modestly priced tickets here.

We pretty much never get to all the news we find each week, see what else we flagged as important eco-news and VOTE for things you think we should come back to with VOTE FOR THE NEWS – click here.

This Weeks Music:

April Wine “Rock’n Roll is a Vicious Game” & Bare Naked Ladies “Brian Wilson”

What do you think?

Let us know what you think of what we discussed in the bonus show! Click here to find us on social media, leave us a phone message to play on air or send us an email!

(488) 7 Reasons Rick Mercer Got EnergyEast Wrong

download episode here – or – subscribe on iTunes here

The news team discusses new Canadian pipeline/environmental review announcements by the federal government. The good, bad and ugly.

Pipeline projects to face new environmental regulations

In the middle of the show, we respond to Rick Mercer (Famous Canadian Pundit/Comedian) regarding his recent video promoting Energy East and deriding Montreal for saying no to it.

Rick Mercer’s video (removed from Facebook where it was originally exclusively posted… and was removed a few days later after 75,000+ comments and 20,000 shares, and then uploaded to Youtube where it can now be found… Wonder why?)

Energy East flap shows Quebec is still viewed with contempt by many in the rest of Canada

Brad Wall provokes anti-Quebec insults over pipeline opposition

Finally we talk about solutions. Now that we are starting to have the difficult conversations we need to have, what do activists that were focused on getting people to pay attention to the issue do now? Propose solutions 🙂 and we do just that.

Why the climate movement needs a reboot

Canada has ‘responsibility to lead by example,’ UN environment chief says

Flint Water Crisis: Who Is To Blame?

This weeks music:

Toronto “Your Daddy Don’t Know” & Blue Rodeo “It Could Happen To You”