TYLER IRVING: On Wednesday, Conservative MP Maxime Bernier publicly added his name to the list of the world’s remaining climate change sceptics. In an opinion piece published in the French-language Montreal newspaper La Presse, Bernier stated that it is possible to be “sceptical, or at least keep an open mind, on almost all the crucial aspects of the global warming thesis.” He also applauded what he calls the “moderate” position of the federal government with respect to taking action on carbon emissions.

Opposition MPs and activists were quick to try to connect Bernier’s position with that of his superiors. The Green Party’s Elizabeth May wrote a letter to La Presse in which she states that the federal conservative government “does not believe the climate crisis is real.” Comments from both the Bloc Quebecois’ Gilles Duceppe and Liberal environment and energy critic David McGuinty asserted that Bernier trying to justify his government’s inaction on climate change, possibly as a way of getting back into cabinet. Bernier resigned as Foreign Affairs minister last spring after a scandal involving secret documents left at his ex-girlfriend’s house.

Bernier himself says that nobody in the Prime Minster’s Office saw the letter before he sent it. PMO spokeperson Dmitri Soudas said that while backbench MPs have the right to their view, his government is committed to solving the global climate change problem. As yet, the federal government has still not released any concrete plan to meet its carbon emission target of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020.
 [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: A Toronto eco-club has sets its sights on urban maple trees and other underappreciated urban agriculture possibilities. Group “Not Far From the Tree” which started in 2007 wants to encourage Torontonians to take part in their project which among other things seeks to utilize Toronto maple trees to make syrup for fun and education about different ways about looking at urban agriculture opportunities. In addition to looking at urban maple trees, the group picked 1,362 kilograms of fruit from urban trees and plants in 2008, and made it up to 3,690 kilograms last year of sweet and sour cherries, serviceberries, mulberries, apricots, plums, crab-apples, pears, sumac, elderberries, apples black walnuts and ginkgo nuts. This year they are focusing on bringing maple tapping into their program with the “We’d Tap That” initiative based on similar projects in Halifax, Brooklyn, and Boston. Volunteers pick the fruits that would largely normally simply fall on the ground and go to waste and divide the spoils up among volunteers, tree owners, food banks and local restaurants. The city of Toronto’s urban forestry department normally turns down requests to tap maple trees because they are worried that in addition to the other stresses on the trees due to their difficult urban environment might be too much street to the trees and damage or kill them. However the groups is still hopeful they can win the regulatory body over by working with them during the process, and has been using careful maple tapping procedure developed by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: A University of Alberta scientist has charged that the city of Winnipeg is wasting millions of dollars by trying to remove nitrogen from its wastewater. Speaking at a meeting of city council last Tuesday, Prof. David Schindler says the city should instead focus on removing phosphorus, as it is the real cause of the algal blooms that threaten the ecology of Lake Winnipeg.

Algal blooms occur when cities or industries discharge nutrient-laden water into lakes, rivers, or streams. The sudden growth and subsequent decay of algae can lead to depleted oxygen levels, killing fish and other organisms. In 2003, the province of Manitoba ordered Winnipeg to reduce both its nitrogen and phosphorus output to the lake. The city is in the midst of a decade-long, multi-billion dollar process to upgrade its wastewater treatment facilities.

However, Prof. Schindler, who studies the ecology of lakes, says that the main problem in Lake Winnipeg is a particular kind of blue-green algae, which are also known as cyanobacteria. These organisms can get their own nitrogen from the atmosphere, and so nitrogen removal will have little effect on them. Terry Sargent, head of Manitoba’s Clean Environment Commission, said that while that may be true, high nitrogen levels are still toxic to other organisms in the lake. Regardless of the outcome, Prof. Schindler says it will take decades before nutrient levels in the lake return to natural levels. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: The controversial Porter Airlines expansion is ready for business this week, with its new $50 million dollar expansion. The first phase of the new terminal will be ready to go this week, which will expand service at the city centre airport to an expected 1.3 million passengers this year alone from the Toronto Islands. By the end of this year the airport hopes to handle up to 120 flights a day from the island. At the announcement this week Porter CEO Robert Deluce proudly proclaimed “We’ve invested significantly here, we’re here for the long run”. Many city groups however are less than thrilled about the massive expansions at the airport. Waterfront residents have been complaining about the increasing noise and pollution from the airline, as well as CommunityAIR a grassroots group organized around opposing the expansions. CommunityAIR put out its own press release seeming to show that Porter’s average passenger load was only about 50% for its New York run and less than 20% on its Chicago flights since they started. In addition to CommunityAIR’s concerns that noise and air pollution will continue to unfairly affect waterfront residents, the group put out the passenger averages to put forward concern that the airline may eventually need to move its service to Pearson if it continues to maintain low passenger to flight ratio’s, leaving a derelict, expensive and partially taxpayer funded monstrosity on the Toronto waterfront skyline in the future. Porter responded by insisting that its other runs held much better seat ratio’s but declined to provide any data to the fact. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson is hoping that record ridership of public transit during that city’s Olympic Winter Games will translate into more funding from the province. In a statement released on Wednesday, Robertson said that many of the people now using public transit are doing so for the first time, adding “We’ve shown that if you build it, they will come.”

During the two-week sporting event, ridership of the SkyTrain’s Canada Line, which opened last August, peaked at nearly 290,000 trips per day, more than three times its normal level. Bicycle traffic on the city’s major bridges has approached summertime levels, while the two-stop Olympic Line streetcar is logging over 20,000 trips per day.

Depite the record success, TransLink, the regional transit service provider, is wondering how it will proceed after the games are over. The provincial budget is set to be delivered two days after the closing ceremonies. British Columbia is dealing with a projected deficit of $2.8 billion. Meanwhile, TransLink itself is set to lose $17 million in funding contributed by Olympic organizers, and is already trying to deal with a budget shortfall of over $100 million. TransLink has already said that service will not be maintained at the levels seen during the Winter Games, but it is anticipating that the positive experience many riders have had will translate to more ridership in the months to come. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Students and industry are teaming up with the help of NGO’s to advance energy efficiency in the GTHA. The new Co-Op program is called Partners in Project Green and is led by the Toronto Airport Authority and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. The project will put professors and students from several Toronto area colleges and universities along with efficiency experts and industry representatives to tackle energy efficiency opportunities in Toronto. The program will especially focus on engineering technology co-op programs at schools such as Seneca College, Humber College and University of Waterloo. The program will focus on teams of students with energy efficiency professionals supervising exploring innovative energy efficiency solutions on a variety of industry sites across the GTA to develop and implement solutions to a variety of problems. Energy efficiency and energy recapture strategies are widely cited by energy experts as one of the largest if not the largest untapped energy cleaning opportunities in developed nations, with far greater potential to reduce energy consumption overall with current technology than other options to reduce emissions in North America. While numbers vary wildly depending on the source, estimates range from 20% to 75% energy consumption reduction is possible due to energy efficiency strategies alone in many instances. Many well known environmental advocacy groups such as Greenpeace international, the Pembina institute, the David Suzuki Foundation and WWF have all made energy efficiency major parts of nearly all of their energy policy platforms. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: Natural Resources minister Christian Paradis has confirmed that plans to restructure Atomic Energy of Canada Limited are well underway. The minister spoke at the annual meeting of Canadian Nuclear Association on Wednesday. Although he did not say when a decision on whether or not to privatize the Crown corporation’s reactor division will be taken, he did say said there was pressure from stakeholders to move quickly.

AECL has fallen on troubled times in the last few years. In addition to multiple shutdowns of its Chalk River nuclear facility for repairs, it also recently lost a bidding process to build two new nuclear reactors in Ontario. The province said that the $26 billion price tag was too high, and instead decided to spend $300 million to keep its Pickering reactor operational until 2020, at which point it will close. Ontario Energy minister Brad Duguid says that his government remains committed to building new reactors in the province, but negotiations toward a cheaper deal with AECL have been bogged down by uncertainty over the corporation’s future. Last December, the federal government invited private companies to express their interest in buying out the reactor division. The move was criticized by opposition parties who argue that the federal government should maintain some control over the pioneering nuclear corporation. Meanwhile, environmental groups argue that renewables such as solar, wind or biomass energy can provide the power than Ontario will need, without having to resort to new reactors. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Provincial energy regulators notified the media that a natural gas fire ignited this week at a Alberta oil field. Experts from the provincial energy agency told the media that the fire would probably burn for several days before fire officials figure out how to put out the blaze. Preliminary official reports state that the fire is likely being sustained by a natural leak of natural gas from the oil extraction projects. Bob Curran from the Energy and Resources Conservation Board told reporters that air monitors at the site had not detected any “sour gas” from the location of the fire. Sour gas refers to any natural gas that contains life threatening levels of hydrogen sulphide, a toxic gas that can have dangerous health effects for humans and many other animals. Mr. Curran reported that the gas leak was very similar to the same gas that is used for residential heat and power generation, and is nothing that should be of concern to residents, and cautioned against alarmism, warning that claiming that there was any danger from the leak was irresponsible. Some residents in the area, including a man who lives at the same farm as convicted oil-patch bomber Weibo Ludwig, told reporters that the officials were downplaying the health consequences of the blowout and fire, but no evidence has come forward to counter the official report at this time on which to base such an accusation. Canadian Natural Resources is investigating the blaze, but they and the local RCMP said that there were no suspicious circumstances, and that there investigation was limited to natural causes at this time. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: A top Japanese U.N. delegate has stated that his country plans to ignore a trade ban on Bluefin tuna should the tuna be granted most-endangered species status.

Masanori Miyahara, Japan’s top delegate toe the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, was interviewed by the New York times and quoted as saying that Japan “would have no choice but to take a reservation” – that is, to ignore the ban and leave its markets open to bluefin tuna imports.

Mr. Miyahara contends that the U.N. convention is the wrong forum to discuss such a ban, that it instead should be debated within a different organization – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. A formal proposal for the ban is scheduled for next month in Doha, Qatar and requires the approval of 2/3 of the 175 member countries.

Japan currently consumes 80% of the bluefin tuna caught in the Mediterranean. However, whereas France – home to the largest Mediterranean bluefin fleet – has said it was willing to support the proposed ban, Japan is worried that once the tuna put on the endangered species list, it will likely never be removed. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: The Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 on Wednesday to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant after 2012. The Senate cited radioactive leaks, misstatements in testimony by plant officials and other problems in its decision.

The decision, the first by a state government in more than 20 years, came just a week after President Barack Obama announced a federal loan guarantee of $8.3 billion for the construction of a new plant in Georgia.

Vermont’s Republican governor Jim Douglas commented, somewhat passive aggressively, “It’s ironic that at the same time the presdient is advancing a strong commitment to nuclear energy, that we’re taking a step in another direction here.”

In 2007, the 38 year-old Yankee reactor reported leaks of tritium – a radioactive isotope of hydrogen – as well as the collapse of a cooling tower. In addition, Plant officials had testified under oath to two state panels that there were no buried pipes in the reactor that could leak tritium, at the same time underground leaks were discovered. The reactor is owned and operated by Lousiana based nuclear operator Entergy.

Under Vermont state law, both the state senate and house must grant an extension to the reactor’s license in order for it to continue operating. Therefore, even though Entergy released a statement saying “We remain determined to prove our case to the legislature”, meaning the house, in fact the senate would have to reverse it’s decision to change the outcome as it stands now. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: The Hummer, long the canonical example of the inefficient gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle, has just been declared fuel efficent by the Japanese government. As a result, any consumer who buys a Hummer H3 model is now eligible for a $3,000 canadian subsidy under the new fuel-efficiency standard.

The change is likely correlated with Detroit automaker’s complaints that no american cars were eligible under the previous efficiency standard, while 9 in 10 Japanese-made vehicles were. Japanese officials responded that this was because American cars simply did not make the grade, which was in turn rebutted by American arguments that standards were tilted in favour of Japanese-made vehicles, focusing more on pollution at low speeds and in stop-in-go traffic.

Furthermore, Americans were rankled by the fact that whereas Japanese brands accounted for over half of sales under the United State’s cash for clunkers program, the Japanese market is essentially closed to foreign vehicles, accounting for less than 4% of all domestic sales.

The Hummer H3 has made the efficiency grade because of it’s enormous weight, averaging 6.5 km/liter in city traffic at a hefty 2 tonnes. Less than 800 were sold last year in Japan. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: The United Nations released a report this week outlining the problems, and opportunities, arising from the recycling of electronic scrap metal, or e-waste as it is termed.

According to the report, released Monday at a meeting of environmental officials from 140 countries in Bali, Indonesia, more than 40 million tonnes worth of electronics are trashed each year. However, because a mining company is required to move roughly 1 tonne of ore for every 1 gram of gold found – the same amount present in just 41 cell phones – a huge opportunity exists for “urban mining”, suggests Rudiger Kuhr. Mr. Kuhr, executive secretary of the Solving the E-waste Problem Initiative – a group of non-governmental organizations, private companies, and governments contends that recycling these materials would not only assist in preserving the earth’s stock of raw materials, but would offer a much higher yield as well.

In 2008, it cost 2.7billion euros to buy the gold, silver, copper, palladium and cobalt used to manufacture computers across Europe. However, the dollar value of gold, silver and palladium lost due to e-waste during the same period was upwards of 5 billion Euros. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: A recently completed internal audit of the New Substances Assessment of Control Bureau shows that there are loopholes in Canada’s process for regulating and monitoring potentially harmful products. The bureau, a section within Health Canada, has a timeline by which it must respond to requests for approval for products to be sold in Canada. However the recent audit shows that if the bureau cannot respond to a submission of a chemical within 75 days, (120 days for organisms) that chemical is automatically authorized to be sold and used within Canada. It has also been shown that it is bureau policy to also add the item to a Domestic Substances List of about 23,000 chemicals that can be legally used in Canada, despite potentially never being tested due simply to a statute of limitations scenario. Earlier internal audits of Health Canada’s programs had identified some of these shortcomings, and some issues have been dealt with to varying success. One policy to deal with the shortfalls was a “triage” system where items that were suspected of being higher likelihood dangers were processed with priority status, but the recent audit found that there was no official documentation of policies about how it was to be carried out, the selection process for this policy was undocumented, and there was no conformity between testing groups. Due to the loopholes the audit found that it was certainly possible that dangerous products have been given a Health Canada label of approval, and no mechanism exists to determine how often this has occurred. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  PEI has been collecting proposals for renewable energy. The province’s main electricity provider, Maritime Electric, will take the next month to review the six proposals and decide which company will develop $200 million dollars worth of renewable energy infrastructure. Maritime Electric opened the market for alternative energy proposals in an effort to create renewable energy that is cost effective with the overall goal of making P.E.I energy independent. The company announced months ago that it would be accepting ideas for expanding the electricity capacity of the island by 130 megawatts, all from renewable sources. An estimated 30 MW will be used on PEI itself while the other 100 will be exported to other provinces for expected revenue of $1.5 million.

The vast majority of the proposals were for wind farms. One Dutch based company estimates it will be able to generate all 130 MW with 52 windmills. Currently, renewables account for 15 per cent of the Island’s energy supply. With the new projects expected by 2012, roughly a quarter of P.E.I.’s energy will be from wind. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Canadian environmental law group Environmental Defence issued an open letter to Ontario’s premier Dalton McGuinty this week calling for protection for Ontario citizens from SLAPP lawsuits. SLAPP stands for “strategic lawsuits against public participation”. SLAPP lawsuits are characterized their asymmetrical and intimidating nature. They are designed to frighten citizens and NGOs away from protesting particular issues or companies. Environmental Defence said in its statement that SLAPP lawsuits threaten Ontario’s democracy by limiting public protest to those who can afford to fight expensive legal battles. Environmental Defence gathered a list of 60 Ontario groups willing to sign on to its petition, many of whom have been victims of SLAPP lawsuits themselves. One such group is the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment as well as many other groups who opposed development at Big Bay Point on Lake Simcoe and have been taken to court as a result of their opposition. Environmental Defence hopes to push the McGuinty government into accordance with Quebec where similar anti-SLAPP legislation was passed last year. The group’s position was bolstered when the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s Annual Report was released in October, which labelled SLAPPs a threat to public participation and voiced support for the creation of effective laws to prevent them. Currently, half of American states have anti-SLAPP laws on their books. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR: Earlier this week, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that the provincial government will not be providing any funds to help with the operation of Toronto’s public transportation. McGuinty has cited the province’s $25 million dollar deficit as the reason for denying funding for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), and says he will instead be funnelling additional spending into job creation and the economy.

When the city of Toronto released its 2010 budget at the beginning of this week it was seen that the TTC would yet again be the city’s biggest expenditure. Public transportation in Toronto operates for the price of $1.4 billion dollars annually, a price that will absorb 100% of the city’s $119 million dollar surplus from last year’s budget. While transportation fares were hiked in January from $2.75 to $3.00 per ride, the city is still struggling to make ends meet.

In the years leading up to the mid 1990’s the provincial and municipal governments used to split the cost of public transit subsidies evenly. In 1996 under the regime of Premier Mike Harris, the province cut its funding for the TTC, transferring the full cost to the municipality. Since then Toronto has had to apply for provincial bailouts every year to help with the cost and every year until now, the province has always come through with the financial help.

While the province agreed to fund the four public transportation expansion projects underway this year, the province will own the new lines and lease them to the city. There is no sense yet as to what the new lease agreement will look like. Toronto Mayor David Miller has called for a return to the 50-50 split between province and city. Others have called for improving the efficiency within the TTC and/or bringing about a congestion toll for drivers entering the city with the revenue going toward funding public transportation. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: 217 Bruce nuclear power employees may have been exposed to radiation during refurbishment of a disused reactor in late November, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Bruce nuclear power station is on the shores of Lake Huron and now may be home to Canada’s largest human radiation exposure incident. Preliminary reports by the Bruce Power station operator say that it does not look like any of the employees have sustained excessive doses of radiation, but that the company was taking the incident “very seriously”. John Peevers, a Bruce power spokesman, stresses that there did not appear to by any leaks approaching the regulatory limit that would mandate government intervention into the issue. Independent nuclear power watchdog Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission indicated however that the workers were likely exposed to alpha contamination, a very dangerous form of radiation and that they would be discussing the incident with its commissioners it a meeting this week. The CNSC also contradicted Bruce power spokespeople, saying that its calculations indicated that the exposure might indeed have crossed regulatory boundaries. The reactor where the accident occurred has been inoperative since 1997; at the time the plant would have been under the control of Ontario Hydro a provincial utility. Work has been stopped at the plant until the CNSC can complete its review and until the exact exposure to the employees can be determined. CNSC however stresses that there is no danger to the public from this accident, regardless of the outcome of their review. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER:  This week, members of a First Nations coalition on Vancouver Island took part in a hunger strike to bring attention to the issue of Norwegian salmon farming off the B.C. coast. The Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council represents four First Nations groups whose traditional land is on the Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Islands.
Dozens of First Nations and environmental activists participated in the hunger strike for 29 hours to symbolize the 29 salmon farm tenures granted to Norwegian companies, which now make up 92 per cent of the fish farms on the Pacific coast.
Open-cage fish farms have proven to be one of the biggest threats facing wild salmon – because they spread infestations of sea lice. While sea lice occur naturally in the salmon population, the stocking of hundreds of thousands of salmon in small cages in the open ocean provides the ideal breeding conditions for lice. Additionally, 91 per cent of the farmed salmon in the Pacific is actually species of Atlantic salmon, which are much more susceptible to sea lice.

Scientists say that fish farms are particularly detrimental to native salmon because they are typically located in sheltered inlets along migratory routes for young, vulnerable salmon offspring. The feeding activity of sea lice can cause serious fin damage, skin erosion, constant bleeding, and deep open wounds creating a pathway for other pathogens. Often just one or two sea lice on a juvenile salmon can cause death.

The Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council is asking the B.C. government for a moratorium on fish farms and are calling for a public boycott on farmed salmon. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Quebec’s government website is promoting the opportunities of the Alberta tar sands to Quebec businesses, even as Quebec premier Jean Charest calls Alberta an environmental villain over the project. Quebec’s government website has been promoting a trade mission to Edmonton next month for businesses with ads found on the Department of Economic Development, Innovation and Exports. Environmental activists have decried the ad, citing the contradiction of its message with the Premiers public statements at the COP15 meetings in Copenhagen. At the meeting, Charest sought to brand himself a champion of sustainability by fighting Alberta’s dirty energy aspirations. The ad says “The launch of oil sands development projects [offers] business opportunities to seize”, as well as “This is a unique opportunity for businesses to position themselves to establish ties to the big decision-makers of Alberta’s energy sector”. The discovery of the ad was first reported by Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper and has started a wave of internal Quebec political fighting over the alleged double-speak. Opposition Parti Quebecois called the ad the latest example of Quebec’s incoherent approach to climate change as well as accusing Charest of promoting car friendly policies in Quebec while trying to identify himself as an environmental hero in Canada. The Alberta/Quebec political spat over the tar sands has been heating up in recent months. Quebec argues that Alberta should pay a larger portion of the cost of climate change due to the tar sands, while Alberta responds that Quebec should remember how much of its $8 billion dollar a year federal equalization cheque comes from tar sands development. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Progress was made this week for one of B.C.’s top natural environment priorities. A deal was signed between Premier Gordon Campbell and Montana Governor Brian Schweizter that will aim to protect the valley known as the Flathead River Basin in the far southeastern corner of B.C. and northern part of Montana. The basin is considered precious because it is the only low elevation valley in southern Canada not settled by humans and it also holds Canada’s greatest diversity of plant life, according to Sierra Club B.C.

The area has been under repeated threat by coal mine projects and oil and gas development. The new deal puts a ban on any mining in the Flathead River Basin and marks an opportunity for transnational cooperation to preserve the rare ecozone.

Environmental groups say ideally they would like to see the creation of a national park for at least part of the area. They are sceptical that anything less will leave the door ajar for future industry development. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, has announced that he will resign from his post effective July 1st. De Boer will be leaving the post for a job at the global consulting firm KPMG. De Boer had served as Executive Secretary since 2006, and oversaw the Convention during the climate change conference in Copenhagen last December. In his press release, De Boer lamented that the Copenhagen conference “did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms” but expressed hope saying that “the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming.” De Boer cited he wanted to step aside to allow UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon to find a successor ahead of a climate change conference taking place in Mexico in November. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: US President Barrack Obama announced yesterday $8.3 billion in Federal loans toward the construction of new nuclear power plants. The loan would fund the construction of two new reactors in Georgia by the Southern Company. If the new projects are approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the new reactors would be the first built in the US in over thirty years. President Obama said these funds are “only the beginning” and it is expected that the US government may allocate a further $36 billion in loans for nuclear projects later in the year. The Obama administration’s investment in nuclear power is part of its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve domestic energy security. Construction of the new facilities is not likely to occur before 2011. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Reduced fog and moisture may threaten redwood forests, according to a new study released by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. The moist, fog-covered forests of the American Pacific Coast are home to the famed redwood trees, among the oldest and tallest on Earth. These trees are adapted to moist, wet summers and do not tolerate prolonged droughts very well. The study investigated historical cloud cover and temperatures to determine the fogginess of the region’s summers. They calculated that fog was 33% more common a century ago than it is today. Though the researchers stated that the impact on redwood forests into the future is unclear, they speculated that their lack of tolerance to warmer, drying climates may put them at risk. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: The amount of electricity generated world-wide by wind-powered sources grew by 31% in 2009 according to the Global Wind Energy Council, the industry’s trade association. The total power output increased by 37.5 gigawatts, bringing the estimated global output to 157.9 gigawatts. That accounts for about 1.5% of global power production. A significant portion of this growth came from China, which is estimated to have doubled its wind capacity in the last year. Steve Sawyer, the Secretary General of the council, was encouraged by the numbers, stating: “The continued rapid growth of wind power despite the financial crisis and economic downturn is testament to the inherent attractiveness of the technology, which is clean, reliable and quick to install.” [ index ]