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A coal-fired plant and the lie of the land

Stephen Harper can’t allow new coal-fired electricity plants to be built, such as the one Maxim Power is proposing in Alberta, and achieve his promise to reduce Canadian greenhouse-gas emissions 17 per cent by 2020. As a researcher of energy-economy systems, I say this with virtual certainty. I also know that any scholar in my field would agree with me, and that the Prime Minister’s expert advisers would tell him the same thing. The reasons are simple.
700 Environment Canada jobs on the chopping block

Meteorologists, scientists, chemists and engineers are among more than 700 Environment Canada employees on the chopping block as the department launches sweeping cuts to cope with federal belt-tightening.

The shakeup could be a taste of further cuts in other departments to come as the Conservative government reins in spending to eliminate a $32 billion deficit.

The cuts represent 11 per cent of the workforce at Environment Canada, calling into question the department’s ability to carry on its mandate, said Bill Pynn, national president of the Union of Environment Workers, which represents 476 of the affected workers.

“It’s massive,” Pynn said, saying he can’t recall cuts of a similar scale in Ottawa in the last two decades.
Canada says oil, gas industry organized PR strategy for oilsands

OTTAWA — Natural Resources Canada says a powerful oil and gas industry lobby group was responsible for organizing a key meeting and some controversial messaging, in partnership with government, to polish the image of Alberta's oilsands industry.

In newly released emails and internal records, department officials said the strategy to "turn up the volume" and get "the right attitude" on oilsands advocacy was actually proposed by high-ranking officials from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers during a March 2010 meeting involving senior federal and Alberta government officials, as well CEOs from oil and gas companies.
Who's behind the EthicalOil campaign?

At the recent Toronto Enviro Alliance comedy fundraiser, the annual EcoBunk Awards, I uncomfortably chuckled at the ludicrous Ethical Oil advertisements. Maybe you've seen them. It is an exceptionally well-funded ad campaign about why Canada NEEDS to keep producing Tar Sands oil for the world. In one they pose the elegantly flying maple leaf flag next to a woman in the process of being stoned.
Tell the Harper gov't to fix its limp, ineffective coal regulations!

Dear Friend,

On August 27th the Harper government introduced regulations for coal-fired electricity stations that add up to a shell game, a loose set of "rules" that will not protect your family or the environment from coal pollution.

But it's not too late! Today, we are taking action en masse to overwhelm Environment Canada with our letters during its formal public comment period (which ends October 26, 2011).
Human nature key ingredient when it comes to ethics

I watched the CBC news program Power and Politics last week when they had representatives from the Sierra Club and the group Ethical Oil discussing the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project. Host Evan Solomon repeatedly asked Kathryn Marshall, from Ethical Oil, if her group receives funding from Enbridge or any other oil companies with a stake in the pipeline project.

Marshall kept insisting Ethical Oil “is a small grassroots, public advocacy organization. We don’t take any foreign money. We are 100 per cent Canadian.”

She repeated the same statement each time Solomon pressed her to answer with a simple yes or no. When he asked why she wouldn’t answer the question she said she doesn’t respond to questions about conspiracy theories.
Sierra Club questions ill effects of turbines

The head of the Sierra Club of Canada says there's plenty of research worldwide to show that a link between well placed wind turbines and health concerns is unfounded.

"Concerns about the health effects of wind turbines have been grossly exaggerated by those who have other agendas involved," said John Bennett , the e x e cut i v e director of Sierra Club Canada, during a presentation to Bruce County council on Thursday.

"I've talked to hundreds of people who oppose wind turbines and it comes down to that they just don't want them and then they go looking for reasons. . . I think what happens is that people have aesthetic responses to this and then they go looking for arguments."

Bennett described a study using people who claimed that low frequency sound caused them to be sick.
World Streets - Guadalajara: Sustainable transport, Sustainable cities 2011

World Streets

What happened in Guadalajara on the topic of sustainable transport, sustainable cities from 3 to 10 September 2011?

Draft in haste:
Canada’s Resources Minister calls enviros ‘radical groups’

Ottawa - Joe Oliver, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, has called opponents of the country’s energy markets “radical groups” who threaten its energy market with their “radical ideological agenda.” In an open letter on Monday, Oliver started a firestorm when he said Canada must diversify its energy markets away from U.S.
Gaping hole opened in Arctic ozone layer

A huge Arctic ozone hole opened up over the Northern Hemisphere for the first time this year, an international research team reported Sunday.

The hole covered 2 million square kilometres - about twice the size of Ontario - and allowed high levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation to hit large swaths of northern Canada, Europe and Russia this spring, the 29 scientists say.

The discovery of the "unprecedented" hole comes as the Canadian government is moving to reduce staff in what Environment Minister Peter Kent calls the "streamlining" of its ozone monitoring network.

Environment Canada scientist David Tarasick, whose team played a key role in the report published Sunday in the journal Nature, is not allowed to discuss the discovery with the media.

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