CHRIS BERUBE: Raitt-gate, the scandal involving our Natural Resources Minister, expanded this week, with tapes of conversations accidentally recorded by a former aid to Minister Lisa Raitt being released by the press.
The tapes include Raitt questioning the ability of health minister Leonna Aguluk, and saying that the medical isotope crisis was “sexy” since it involved issues like cancer and radioactive leaks. In the tape, Raitt also notes that she plans to play the isotope issue to her political advantage, since a compotent handling of the issue would indicate a great strength of character in the public eye. Prime Minister Harper refused to dismiss minister Raitt in spite of the comments, saying he fully trusted her. Now, while Parliament was actively debating the conduct of the minister in charge of the nuclear energy file, few bothered to discuss a couple of new announcements made by the government this week about nuclear energy. Wednesday, the Natural Resources department sent out a press release announcing that even if Atomic Energy Limited Canada, the crown corporation that currently provides much of Canada’s nuclear power equipment, is privitized, Canadian taxpayers will still be made to be forced to pay for any regulatory delays to nuclear power projects. Harper announced that the government would promise to cover the costs of delays such as those currently taking place in getting the Chalk River reactor back online, as a way of attracting businesspeople to invest in the potentially risky project. Canada will also underwrite research and development costs to help develop safer nuclear power options if the organization is privatized. The plan is intended to bring in more stable funding for the project. Then, to top off an eventful week on the nuclear front, Prime Minister Harper announced this week that Canada would be getting out of the nucelar isotope business. While the PM said that Canada would continue producing medical isotopes once the Chalk River nuclear facility is back on line in three months, but that Canada would stop production likely by 2011, the expected closure date of Chalk River, if not sooner, as the project has become too expensive to continue. The flurry of activity guarentees that nuclear production will stay in the news in Canada for weeks to come, and of course, we here at the Green Majority will keep you up to date on all of the developments. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER:  Dr. David McKeown submitted a report to the city this week urging it review plans to build its new light rail system with diesel engines, instead suggesting electric or gas electric hybrids. Dr. McKeown, the city’s Medical Officer of Health said that the Eglinton-Peason Airport trains proposed diesel engines would quote “be particularly harmful” for local residents. The report, which goes before Toronto’s transportation agency, Metrolinx this week also says that if full electric engines cannot be found for the trains, that they should certainly investigate hybrid locomotives, ultra-low-sulphur diesel and reduced idling time protocols to minimize the health risks from diesel exhaust for local residents. The report cites research addressing the toxicity of diesel exhaust, and its relation to lung cancer, respiratory illness and other health problems. The report was also seen as encouragement to local activists who have been working to improve the environmental impacts of both current and proposed rail systems within the city, such as the Clean Train Coalition. Metrolinx committed at the end of last month to investigate electrification of all of its GO Transit lines and to set up an advisory committee to look into the issue, but said it would take millions of dollars and many years to do and gave no specific intentions. The money for the new light rail system across Toronto from Eglinton Avenue to Pearson Airport came from the province after Mayor David Miller and other elected official cried foul over being kicked off the Metrolinx board to be replaced with private consultants. The Metrolinx board member responsible for environmental policy and planning Jim O’Mara said this week that while the agency was indeed looking into alternatives to diesel engines that even its worst case projections on the pollution and environmental impacts from the trains fell within regulatory parameters, and would cause minimal health effects. A detailed report from Metrolinx on the technical assessments on air quality and health impacts will be published in about a week. [ index ]

CHRIS BERUBE: In the environmental story that won’t go away for Canadians, Syncrude Canada is returning to court to try and challenge charges that they are criminally responsible for the drowning deaths of sixteen hundred ducks in an unguarded tailing pond near Fort McMurray Alberta.
Syncrude announced this week that it will be seeking a constitutional challenge to the charges they face under the federal migratory birds act. Syncrude did not specify the content of their challenge, but did say they would be actively pursuing the option. A federal court challenge of this sort would only apply to federal charges levelled against Syncrude that could see them fined up to $300,000 – they will still be forced to pay provincial charges laid against them that they violated provincial environmental regulations. Under provincial law, Syncrude faces a maximum of $500,000 in fines. Syncrude has not yet said how it will plead to provincial charges, as it is considering its
legal options. The Syncrude trial has actually been under critical review by many environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, who say the government has been handling the case badly, as they haven’t released very much information about the prosecution publicly. This week, Sierra Club sent out a press release accusing the government of trying to delay the trial to divert public attention from the case. The provincial prosecution is set to take place in St. Albert Alberta, outside of Edmonton, though specific dates are still pending. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: A new study shows that on average 25% of Ontario’s post-treatment drinking water is wasted through leaks. The study was done by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario. Auditors of the report also estimated that the leaks, which are largely due to ageing infrastructure is costing Ontario citizens $700 million dollars a year. Toronto is right in-line with the provincial average with 25% estimated leakage from 5,000 kilometres of water mains averaging 54 years old. University of Toronto engineering professor Tamer El-Diraby who gave Toronto’s waste estimates at a press conference this week suggested that the culprit was a culture of wilful ignorance on the part of city infrastructure officials. Toronto’s reported losses were strongly denied by Lou Di Gironimo, the head of the city’s water department who estimated that loss in Toronto was much closer to 9 to 10 percent and $30 million annually. According to the Greater Toronto Sewer and Water-main Construction Association, firm data on the subject is hard to come by due in part to the 72,000 Toronto customers who do not have water meters and instead are billed with a set rate. The city has admitted that the lack of good data is of concern, and has planned to raise over $220 million over six years to replace all of the meters in the city. The money will be raised by continuing with a series of 9% rate hikes for water, which have persisted for the last 4 years in Toronto, and will continue until 2012.
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DARYN CAISTER: In related news, the Ontario Drinking Water Advisory Council published recommendations for Ontario’s drinking water radioactivity standards that would make it the strictest in the world for Tritium levels. Tritium is a radioactive contaminant found in Ontario water supplies most of which comes from leaks at nuclear power plants such as the recently shut down Chalk River research facility and several glow-in-the-dark sign companies. The current standard, which is measured in becquerels (bek qur rells) per litre allows for 7,000 on average over the year, compared to a proposed standard of 20. The original limits were based on government calculated acceptable losses of up to 600 extra cancer deaths per year out of a million due to the toxin. The proposed standard allows for about one extra cancer death as acceptable collateral damage from the employment of nuclear technology and heavy industry in Ontario. Tritium releases are one of the primary concerns behind the shut down chalk river nuclear facility. Leaks containing heavy water and tritium were detected in the reactor, some of which was evaporating and getting into the reactors ventilation system. Canada is currently far behind compared to international standards on the substance compared to a standard of 100 (bek qur rells) per litre in Europe, and 740 (bek qur rells) pre litre as set by the US Environmental Protection Agency in the US. New standards for Ontario have been requested by independent government experts since 1994, however at that time the recommendations were shelved due to pressure from the nuclear industry in Ontario. Environmental Minister John Gerretsen has reviewed the report and has said he will make a decision after a public comment period. No date has so far been set for his decision.  [ index ]

CHRIS BERUBE: The Nova Scotia election took place this Tuesday, and resulted in the New Democratic Party winning the first NDP majority government ever east of Ontario. Darrell Dexter’s NDP won 31 of the province’s 52 seats and 45% of the popular vote, with the Liberals picking up 11 seats and 27%, and the ruling progressive Conservatives only managing 10 seats and 24% of the vote. The Green Party, whose federal leader lives and ran in the last national election in Nova Scotia, only picked up 2% of the overall vote. None of the parties promised much in the way of environmental policy during the election, as voters consistently ranked ecology low on their list of priorities. During is first policy speech after being elected, new Premier Darrell Dexter did not mention the environment once when discussing his priorities for the first provincial budget, which will be tabled in the fall. Most of his first speech focused on the deficit, which he is hoping to eliminate within two budgets. The Nova Scotia Environment Network, one of the most prominent environmental organizations in the province, said it was cautiously optimistic at the election of the NDP, given the alternatives. After sending out a questionnaire during the election asking each party about their positions on two dozens specific issues, the Network gave the NDP it’s second highest grade – a B. The provincial greens recieved a B+ in the same survey, while the Liberals were given a C+, and the incumbent Progressive Conservatives a C. Of course, we will keep you up to date on the environmental record of the new Dexter government in Nova Scotia through the next four years on the Green Majority. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Canada’s Tar Sands projects are increasingly feeling the pressure in the US as American and Canadian environmental groups lobby Congress to stop Tar Sands expansions. 21 American environmental groups and 9 Canadian ones spend two days in lobbying the American Congress this week demanding a moratorium on expansion of the tar sands, and a halt to all infrastructure expansions such as proposed massive pipelines and processing plants in the US. The target of the two days of lobbying was a new set of US climate change legislation which is working its way through Congress and the impact force changes in Canada in the form of tougher standards. The vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Tom Huffaker said this week that anti-tar sands groups had skewed understanding of the issue among US policy makers, but that he was confident that Obama’s administration remained committed to ensuring the US had a secure source of energy. Mr. Huffaker also said that tar sands companies had to deal with the reality that they would need to reduce emissions with technological innovations, and that emissions caps would eventually establish a price for carbon dioxide emissions. The coalition of Canadian and American groups have accused Ottawa however of preparing to follow Alberta in establishing emission targets that were set to high to put any serious pressure for oil companies to make and rapid changes to their businesses. With both sides of the debate claiming the upper hand and no sure sign of the form of the new climate change legislation until it is signed into law one thing that both anti and pro tar sands expansion groups agree on is the huge impact that any definitive American policy will make on the Canadian energy sector.
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TYLER IRVING: On Wednesday, as United Nations talks on climate change continued in Bonn, Germany, Japan announced a new carbon emissions target of 15% below 2005 levels by the year 2020. The target was widely criticized as inadequate by environmental groups all over the world.

Prime Minister Taro Aso made the announcement at a press conference in Tokyo. He called the targets “ambitious,” stating that “we must ask the Japanese people to make sacrifices.” Critics point out that the target uses 2005 as a baseline; if compared to 1990 levels, the cut amounts to a mere 8%, only 2% lower than Japan was supposed to achieve by 2012 as part of its Kyoto protocol commitments. Japan’s emissions have increased significantly since the protocol was signed, and Japan takes fifth place among the world’s largest carbon emitters.

The EU has offered to cut emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, with an extra 10% added in if other industrialized countries sign on. The Waxman-Markey bill currently moving through the US legislature would result in a 6% cut below 1990 levels over the same period. Yet according to Yvo de Boer, the UN’s lead representative at the talks in Germany, all of these fall far short of what the IPCC recommended. When asked for comment about the Japanese offer, he responded “for the first time in 2½ years in this job, I don’t know what to say.” [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: The U.S. and China held bilateral climate talks this week, outside of the UNFCCC conference in Bonn. An American delegation, led Todd Stern, the US special envoy for climate change, met with high-level officials in Beijing to discuss the ways in which both nations can benefit from curbing carbon emissions.

The two countries are the world’s biggest polluters, each accounting for approximately 20% of global carbon emissions. Of the two, China’s total emissions are slightly higher, but it is easily outpaced by the US in terms of emission rates per capita. In the past, each has blamed the other for the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide. For example, the US has insisted that due to its rapidly expanding economy, China must accept ambitious targets if any global agreement to reduce emissions is to be effective. For its part, China insists that the US should pay a higher price to reduce carbon emissions as it has been reaping the benefits of industrialization for a longer period of time. It also points to the fact that many of its own emissions come from the manufacture of goods destined to be exported to rich countries like the United States.

Officials from both countries began discussions on climate change during the final days of the Bush administration, and they have continued periodically ever since. So far, no concrete agreements have been put in place, and this week’s talks (which took place behind closed doors) were no exception. However, the mood of the talks was positive and special envoy Stern described them as “a step in the right direction on the road to Copenhagen.” [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: Last week we brought you a story on the Californian senate’s recent motion to ban bisphenol A in food containers and products for children. This week, new science was presented at the annual Endocrine Society meeting in Washington, D.C. that shows more evidence of this chemical’s harmful effects.

One paper, by researchers at Yale University, showed that exposing mice to extremely high levels of BPA in the womb caused alterations in a gene that is important in uterine development. Another study used heart cells to show that BPA can cause irregular heartbeats, even at low concentrations. This effect was also observed with estrogen, a hormone naturally produced by the body.

BPA is part of a class of chemicals known as “environmental estrogens”, which mimic the body’s natural hormones by binding to receptor cells. The effects of environmental estrogens are additive, so while exposure to any individual chemical may be low, the combined effect is much higher. Although the US Food and Drug Administration estimates that the average exposure to BPA is 50 times lower than the amount considered to be safe, studies like those released this week will likely cause some to question that number. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: A new study by Canadian and British researchers shows that coral reefs in the Caribbean have flattened dramatically over the last 40 years.

The study was conducted by researchers at Simon Fraser University and the University of East Anglia, and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It involved a meta-analysis of over 500 coral reef surveys, stretching back to 1968. Scientists have known for a long time that coral polyps are being killed off by disease, dredging, hurricanes, and climate change. However, it was believed that the hard skeletons of the coral remained behind, providing habitat for other reef dwellers and protecting islands from erosion, as well as acting as anchor points for new corals. The new study shows that that isn’t the case; the skeletons are collapsing as fast as the corals are dying.

One of the most stark findings from the study was that 75% of Caribbean coral reefs have been completely flattened, compared with 20% in the 1970s. The rate of destruction is far faster than that at which the Amazon rain forest is being cut down. Because the causes of this destruction are global phenomena, researches suspect that similar processes may be at work in other reefs around the world. [ index ]