Climate Breakdown Has Begun with Hottest Summer on Record, Secretary-General Warns, Calling on Leaders to ‘Turn Up the Heat Now’ for Climate Solutions

The following statement by UN Secretary-General António Guterres was issued today:

The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting.

Our planet has just endured a season of simmering — the hottest summer on record. Climate breakdown has begun.

Scientists have long warned what our fossil fuel addiction will unleash. Our climate is imploding faster than we can cope with extreme weather events hitting every corner of the planet.

Surging temperatures demand a surge in action. Leaders must turn up the heat now for climate solutions. We can still avoid the worst of climate chaos — and we don’t have a moment to lose. |Source https://press.un.org/en/2023/sgsm21926.doc.htm|

#UnitedNations #UN #world #ClimateEmergency #environment #warning

Alberta’s ‘war room’ is back with massive ad spend revealed in annual report

New documents outline a massive increase in public funding for the Canadian Energy Centre’s campaign to change attitudes toward Alberta’s oil and gas.

An agency founded by Alberta’s United Conservative government to fight what it calls misinformation about the province’s industry and otherwise known as the “war room”, the centre’s most recent annual report shows it signed a $22-million contract last fiscal year for a media campaign. That’s about three times its entire government grant from the previous year.

“There’s a lot of things the government could do with that money,” said Opposition New Democrat energy critic Kathleen Ganley.

The spending is mentioned only in the line item “RFP – Agency of Record” in the centre’s annual report, filed late last month.

The ad campaign was to take place in the U.S., Europe and the United Kingdom and Canada. Little information is available on how the money was spent or what results it generated. It’s not clear which campaigns are still in progress. |Read more https://www.jwnenergy.com/article/2023/9/6/albertas-war-room-is-back-with-massive-ad-spend-re/|

#abpoli #ucp #WarRoom #IncreasedFunding #campaigns #politics

Big Real Estate Executives Among Top Donors to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives

Executives at big real estate companies profiting off and even driving up high real estate prices across Canada are listed as donors to the federal Conservative Party, Elections Canada records show.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has been railing against high real estate prices and presenting himself as the solution to Canada’s housing affordability crisis, yet Poilievre’s party also appears to have received financial support from top executives at some of Canada’s biggest real estate investment trusts.

A Forum Asset Management property was recently criticized for a Vancouver viral video that showed a housing unit in a former single room occupancy hotel in the Downtown Eastside – that historically housed people at around shelter rates – was now a “micro suite” available for $2,000 a month.

According to CBC News, “Toronto-based company Forum Asset Management purchased the building less than two years ago, and has offered tenants in unrenovated units $15,000 to leave.”

Poilievre even tweeted about the viral video, blaming the situation on “8 years of Trudeau and the NDP,” despite the name of the company’s CEO being listed as a top Conservative donor.

See tweet: twitter.com/j_mcelroy/status/1…

“Developers are looking at areas where it’s ripe for redevelopment, and the Downtown Eastside is one of those,” Gurstein added. “We’re losing our affordable housing at a significant rate and we’re beyond the crisis point.” |Read more https://pressprogress.ca/big-real-estate-executives-among-top-donors-to-pierre-poilievres-conservatives/|

#PierrePoilievre #housing #REIT #developers #unaffordable #cdnpoli