TYLER IRVING: This week, two Fortune 500 companies announced that they will no longer be using fuel refined from Alberta’s tar sands in their shipping operations. The two companies are Whole Foods Markets, Ltd., an organic foods retailer, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which retails home furnishings. The move is part of a campaign organized by then environmental group ForestEthics. Letters were sent to over 100 companies urging them avoid the use of tar sands fuel, which produces 3-5 times more greenhouse gas emissions than an equivalent amount of traditional fuel. The new policy has its share of critics. Industry experts point out that fuel from the tar sands is routinely mixed with fuel from other sources, making it virtually impossible to tell where a given amount of fuel has come from. Indeed, in some areas, such as the west coast, there are no alternative suppliers of fuel. Others have criticized the companies for avoiding a particular type of fuel when the environmental footprint could be reduced by supplying the products closer to home, rather than shipping from overseas. The companies say they are working with their suppliers to try and make good on the new policies. ForestEthics says it expects more companies to join the boycott in the coming months. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Ontario’s nuclear power mix will remain its current mix for at least a decade due to upgrades and retrofits. The Toronto Star reported that the much older first generation CANDU Pickering reactor would be receiving a decade’s worth of tune-ups which would buy the province time to finalize its decision over building a new reactor at the Darlington site. The much newer Darlington nuclear plant is set to receive upgrades that will extend its lifespan until around 2050. Nuclear power currently provides roughly half of Ontario’s power mix, employees were relieved to hear the news of the retrofits and extensions as nuclear power generation provides around 12,000 high paying, specialized jobs in Ontario. Not everyone is celebrating however, nuclear power in Ontario has been under strong opposition by some segments of the population protesting among other things the highly toxic fuel waste it produces that cannot be properly disposed of. Plans for a new plant at Darlington were put on hold last year by then Ontario Energy Minister George Smitherman due to what was identified as “many billions” over expected costs. Anti-Nuclear groups would like to see the plants shut down, but the Ontario Premier has made it his priority to focus on trying to shut down the provinces much more immediately dirty coal fired power plants. Despite Ontario’s laudable green energy act, renewable energy in Ontario is a long way away from replacing nuclear level base load capacity, and may never be up to the job according to power analysts with the premier’s office. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: After years of pressuring the British Columbia government, environmentalists trying to protect the Flathead Valley from mining operations have got their wish. The provincial government made the promise as part of its throne speech, delivered on Tuesday by BC’s lieutenant governor Steven Point. The move to ban mining development came just weeks after a fact-finding report by two UN world heritage representatives recommended exactly that. The Flathead Valley borders Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park in Montana and Alberta. Created in 1932, Glacier-Waterton was the world’s first international peace park, and was designated a World Heritage Site by the UN in 1995. Environmentalists, such as John Bergenske of the group Wildsight, say that although it would be better to designate the Valley a national park, banning development is the next best thing. However, there is likely to be some backlash from mining companies, some of whom have already spent millions of dollars prospecting and staking claims. It is not yet clear whether these companies will be compensated by the provincial government. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Responding to a call for input, the Green Budget Coalition makes recommendation to the Prime Minister about greening the federal budget. The Green Budget Coalition is one of many umbrella groups that many of Canada’s most prominent environmental groups uses, in this case included groups such as the Canadian Environmental Las Association, the David Suzuki Foundation, Ecojustice Canada, the Sierra Club and the Pembina Institute among many others. The Coalition’s recommendations to the Prime Minister focus on the creation of green jobs of which the plan says they it can generate 8000 new jobs in renewable energy. The plan also seeks to ensure clean drinking water where there is none currently available for millions across Canada, as well as help Canada achieve compliance with its commitment to establish national and regional system of protected areas. The coalition also said that their representatives have been meeting with MPs from all parties and with senior government officials to discuss the recommendations, about which they said they received much support and feel confident that their recommendations will at least be seriously considered when making final budgetary decisions. Coalition representatives said that as they were holding meeting with government representatives that part of their message was to remind the officials of their experiences in Copenhagen for COP15, and apparently made their case that this budget was an excellent opportunity for Canada to reclaim some of its traditional respect on the international stage for the upcoming G-8 and G-20 meetings. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: In a related story, other Canadian Environmental groups have officially put the federal and provincial British Colombia government’s “on-notice” over the state of their endangered species management. The legal notice was issued by several groups, including the Wilderness Committee, which said that, they must immediately rewrite the recovery strategies for 43 endangered and threatened species in BC. The letter was issued in response to a recent Federal Court ruling and a damming document revealed in an Access to Information request that showed that science identified what “appeared to be obvious” about the state of critical habitat for the 43 species despite the government sitting on the information for 2 years and not acting despite its own laws concerning endangered and threatened species habitat protection. Included in the list is habitat that is critical to the Vancouver Island marmot, also known as the Muk Muk, which is the cyber-mascot for this year’s Olympic Winter Games. The groups claim the document proves that government agencies maliciously ignored documentation showing that critical habitat needed immediate protection as per the endangered species act, and refused to act upon it. Recent studies show that as much as 86% of BC species at risk require habitat protection in order to have any hope of surviving and recovering their populations. Groups involved in the ecological fight in BC such as Ecojustice have obtained copies of policy directive from the provincial government that tell recovery teams specifically not to identify critical habitat for species on the species at risk list, thereby conclusively and intentionally violating its own federal Species at Risk Act mandates according to Ecojustice. 88% of BC recovery strategies do not currently identify critical habitat protection. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: The largest climate study ever undertaken in Canada has revealed that Arctic sea ice is thinning faster than expected, and raised the possibility of an ice-free winter as early as 2013. The $156 million project was called the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study; a flaw lead is the scientific term for a gap between sea ice and ice that is fastened to the coast. Over 300 scientists from 27 countries spent the winter aboard the Canadian Coast Guard research vessel Amundsen as part of the International Polar Year. It is the first time that a research vessel has remained mobile in open water over the winter season. The lead investigator on the study was University of Manitoba professor David Barber. He says that part of the reason the ice is melting so quickly is a “domino effect” of interacting ocean and atmospheric systems. For example, more open water leads to more cyclones that drop heavy precipitation in Arctic regions. This snow acts as a blanket, insulating the ice beneath and causing even more melting. The effects of this melt are far-reaching. Marine biologists on the study observed predator species that normally stay further south, while toxicologists showed that as the ice melts, it releases organic pollutants that would have otherwise stayed frozen. According to Dr. Barber, previous models suggested that the Arctic could see an ice-free winter by 2100. However, the best guesses from the current research are that this could happen sometimes between 2013 and 2030.
 [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: On Tuesday, councillors in Halifax Regional Municipality were presented with a report that estimates sea levels in the harbour could rise by up to 73 cm over the next century. The report was put together by municipality staff with support from Natural Resources Canada, Dalhousie University, and the Applied Geomatics Research Group. It estimated the height of sea level rise using data from harbour monitoring over the last 100 years as well as projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It also took into account “subsidence,” a term for the sinking of the earth’s surface relative to sea level. In the Halifax region, this is happening at a rate of 1.6 mm per year. The 73 cm figure is based on the “worst-case scenario” model from the IPCC, known as A1F1. However, Halifax’s supervisor of regional and community planning, Roger Wells, said that current observations show that sea levels are currently even higher than predicted under this scenario. In addition to this, high-water events such as hurricanes and tropical storms could raise the water level more than 2.5 m for brief periods. The reports authors have produced digital elevation maps showing which areas of the city are at the greatest risk of flooding, and are currently conducting a vulnerability analysis of those properties. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Citizens band together to modernize the BC Water Act. 29 non-profit groups, mostly local British Colombia citizen groups endorsed a joint “Statement of Expectations on the Reform of the BC Water Act” on the anniversary of the federal government’s issuance of an inquiry into the Fraser River salmon collapse in 2009. The open recommendation to the BC government was compiled to compliment and encourage the BC governments promise to modernize its water laws, which according to Ecojustice ranks among the worst in North America. Proponents hope that the government will seriously consider their recommendations which would move the water laws from near the bottom of the list of to near the top as far as its environmental protections. Among the recommendations by the group of NGO’s are a suggestion to provide legal protection of in-stream or environmental flows and a cap on water withdrawals from the Fraser River, which would seek to protect the physical, biological and chemical benefits of an ecologically stable water system. One of the key objectives of the recommendation is to monitor and stabilize water temperature that can be highly affected by depth of the water body as temperature has an important effect for salmon habitat such that too warm water can pose a particularly dangerous threat to young salmon. Last year only 7% of the expected 8.7 million salmon returned to the Fraser River causing widespread hunger problems for communities that depend on the fish for sustenance and income as well as economic trouble for large important fisheries in BC.  [ index ]

NAOMI JEHLICKA: Hundreds of sick and starving pelicans continue to wash up along the shores of Southern California. These ailing birds have been appearing in large numbers since mid January and scientists and conservationists alike are grappling with understanding the triggers for this environmental catastrophe. some scientists think that the annual El Nino effect caused a change in water currents and pushed the pelicans’ prey fish out of the pelicans’ feeding area, ridding them of food sources and resulting in starvation. Others blame the larger and ultimately more aggressive Humbolt squid for competing with the pelicans for food. Regardless of the triggers, the sad reality is that conservationists are overwhelmed with the magnitude of pelicans desperately in need of medical attention. “We’re going through about 200 pounds of fish a day,” said Terri Oba, a technician at the Huntington Beach Center, which is a wildlife rehabilitation centre located in Orange County, California. Currently, over 200 pelicans are recovering in this facility with more than 50 new birds arriving daily.
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NAOMI JEHLICKA: Zipping across the Pacific ocean, the Indian government formally announced a moratorium on the launching of its first genetically modified (or “GM”) vegetable to ensure that it will have a minimum impact on the environment. Last year, the government supported research and development into the genetically modified eggplant that would, with the help of Bt corn, be able to withstand India’s adverse weather conditions. Supporters argue that the GM eggplant could not only increase food supply for billions of starving Indian families, but will also increase production and withstand pest invasion. Dissenters are fearful about the possibility of GM eggplants contaminating their organic crops and are also worried that local farmers would become overly dependent on the Multinational Corporations that provide the seeds. During a press conference on Tuesday, Jairam Ramesh, the Indian environment minister, explained to reporters the reasoning behind the moratorium: “It is my duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary, principle-based approach,” he said, “until the tests are done, the country should build a broad consensus to use GM technology in agriculture in a safe and sustainable manner.”
The green majority will continue to closely follow this story with interest and keep you updated with the developments. [ index ]

NAOMI JEHLICKA: And in some truly international news, this past week, 55 countries from all over the world have been busy submitting their national pledges to cut and limit greenhouse gasses by 2020 to The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The national pledges were required as part of the Copenhagen Accord that was negotiated this past December and so far, the pledges received collectively account for over 78 percent of global green house gas emissions. Of the pledges submitted to the Climate Change Convention, Norway’s was the most ambitious. This progressive Scandinavian country volunteered to reduce their GHG emissions 30-40 percent below their 1990 levels, provided that the other major parties pledge commitments that will meet the 2°Celsius target. Following Norway was Japan, which offered a cut of 25 percent below their 1990 levels. The European Union also put forth a significant commitment, offering to reduce their overall emissions by 20 percent of their 1990 levels, and even pledged to increase it to 30 percent provided that other major emitters are willing to show a similar high calibre dedication to curbing climate change. Unfortunately, not all countries put forth significant commitments. Canada is to this date the only developed country that actually reduced its emissions pledge since the 2009 climate change talks, from 20 to 17 percent below 2005 levels, which amounts to a 2.5 percent emissions increase above the 1990 levels. It is now up to eco conscious citizens to encourage their respective government representatives to increase their GHG reduction targets, especially here in Canada. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING:  Last weekend, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced a new carbon target of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. This is a change from the figure of 20% below 2006 levels by 2020, which has been the Conservative government’s official target for the last three years. The announcement came as part of Canada’s commitments under the Copenhagen accord, which states that signatory countries must announce their revised carbon targets by January 31.

The new target brings Canada in line with the United States, which announced the exact same target one day earlier. However, environmentalists such as Greenpeace’s Dave Martin, say that the new target is weaker than the one it replaced. When benchmarked against the 1990 baseline used by most of the developed world, the old target would have resulted in a net decrease of 3%. Against the same baseline the new target actually results in a net increase in emissions of 2.5%.

Prentice defended the target, repeating his government’s commitment to align its efforts with those of the Obama administration. However, he offered no concrete details of his government’s plan to reduce carbon emissions. [ index ]

PETER STOCK:  This week, Environment Minister Jim Prentice warned energy companies and the Alberta government that he expected a cleaner approach to tar sands oil extraction.

In a speech in Calgary Prentice said “We have a lot of work to do. It is no secret, and should be no surprise, that the general perception of the oil sands is profoundly negative. That is true both within Canada and internationally,”

Prentice suggested that technology and government investment could help mitigate any harmful impacts of oilsands operations.

But he continued: “Absent this kind of Canadian leadership, we will be cast as a global poster child for environmentally unsound resource development. Canadians expect and deserve more than that.”

The minister’s apparently heightened sensitivity to Canada’s environmental image in the eyes of the world might have come about as a result of his ministry being the target of an international prank at last December’s Copenhagen climate conference. There a group associated with the nefarious guerilla pranksters the YesMen issued fake press releases on Ministery of the Environment letterhead falsely declaring Canada’s commitment to a 40% carbon emissions cut.

According to the Financial Post, the Mr Prentice said: “How we manage environmental issues post-Copenhagen will define Canada’s future and our reputation on the international stage.” [ index ]

TYLER IRVING:  Tensions between Quebec and the federal government on climate change continued to simmer this week. On Monday, Environment Minister Jim Prentice used his speck to a Calgary business audience to criticize the Quebec government’s decision last month to impose fines on automakers whose vehicles don’t meet emissions standards. According to Prentice, Quebec’s decision will raise the price of cars in that province and hurt consumers, while having little impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

Quebec’s premier Jean Charest responded to the comments from his trade mission in India. He said that he didn’t think simply aligning policies with the United States was good for Canada, and that it was ridiculous to criticize Quebec action when no carbon reduction plan whatsoever is yet apparent from the federal government. He defended his province’s plan, which would see automakers fined up to $5000 for each vehicle that does not meet provincial emissions standards. The fines would only affect cars starting in the model year 2010 and would not begin to be imposed until 2016.

During the Copenhagen conference last December, Charest and other sub-national leaders conspicuously took a much stronger stance on carbon emissions than the federal government. Stephen Harper has publicly criticized Charest for airing a domestic dispute on the international stage. [ index ]

PETER STOCK: In a breakthrough for eco-conscious snackers, FritoLay this week announced the Canadian introduction of the first 100% compostable potoato chip bag.

According to a company press release, Frito-Lays SunChips brand will be packaged in three layers of renewable plant based material polylactic acid, or PLA.

“In order to continue to reduce our environmental impact as a company, finding sustainable packaging solutions was a must,” said Marc Guay, the President of Frito Lay Canada. “We know that environmentally-friendly packaging is a priority for Canadians. Using plant-based renewable materials to make packaging that will interact differently with the environment, represents the next small step in Frito Lay Canada’s environmental sustainability journey.”

In a hot active compost pile or bin, the bags apparently decompose completely in approximately 14 weeks. The PLA bags are seen as an improvement over other so-called biodegradable plastics. The problem with these earlier efforts was that instead of decomposing, they simply broke down into smaller pieces of plastic that never actually became organic matter. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING:  On Wednesday, the David Suzuki Foundation released a climate scorecard for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. The foundation gave the Games an overall rating of bronze for its efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the massive sporting event.

While the report concluded that the Vancouver Games will “likely be remembered as among the greenest and most climate-friendly Olympics held so far,” it did point out some areas for improvement. It criticized the decision to invest $600 million in upgrades to the Sea to Sky highway rather than trying to improve the existing rail link between Vancouver and Whistler. The report also stated that the Games could do a better job engaging the public over climate change, and that the International Olympic Committee lacks a real commitment to address sustainability.

Nonetheless, the report had praise for the organizing committee’s use of clean energy sources, and innovative, energy-efficient buildings. The foundation estimates that emissions from the Games will be 15 percent lower than they would have been under a business-as-usual approach. The committee’s Vice-President of Sustainability, Linda Coady, accepted the award with thanks, adding that since the games haven’t started yet, there may still be time to change the colour of the medal. [ index ]

PETER STOCK: According to Reuters Canada, an environmental assessment report by the Joint Review Panel may have thrown a wrench into the plans for the proposed $16.2billion dollar Mackenzie gas pipeline in the North West Territories.

The Joint Review Panel is a group of seven impartial citizens selected on the basis of their knowledge and expertise.

Among the 176 recommendations in their otherwise positive assessment of the project, the review panel cited conerns about the impact of noise on the Kendall Island Bird sanctuary through which the pipeline will partially run. The report recommended limiting noise levels to 50 decibels 300 meters from the pipeline.

Imperial Oil, one of the project’s lead investors, says that this standard has proven impossible to achieve. They are urging regulators to reject the recommendation, adding that many of the Panels recommendations are “far-reaching and apply to activities that are not associated with the Mackenzie Gas Project.”

Before the National Energy Board approves the project, the panel also recommended an analysis of the impact of climate change on facilities buried in permafrost, monitoring grizzly bear dens and assessing if alcohol and drug abuse programs in the sparsely populated region are adequate. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING:  This week, Quebec premier Jean Charest’s trade mission to India had to contend with heavy criticism over the exporting of asbestos to developing nations.

The trouble started last Friday, when a letter signed by 100 scientists from 28 countries arrived in the premier’s office. It accuses Quebec of having a double standard by promoting the use of asbestos abroad and yet using virtually none of it domestically. The letter urged the province to stop mining and exporting the material. In Mumbai, the trade mission was dogged by protests organized by Indian trade unions and activists, many of whom are workers who suffer from asbestos-related diseases.

Asbestos, also known as chrysotile, is a form of fibrous silicate mineral known for its use as a flame retardant and insulating agent in building materials. Inhalation of asbestos fibres has been linked to a number of lung ailments, and the substance is considered a carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Although it has been banned in many countries, it continues to see wide use in developing nations where health and safety standards are less stringent.

The head of the Chrysotile Institute, an industry lobby group, insists that the product can be used effectively if the fibres are properly contained in cement. Nevertheless, the fact remains that almost all of the approximately 175,000 tonnes of asbestos mined each in Quebec is exported to developing countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Figures from Quebec’s own Workers Health and Safety Board show that in 2009, 60% of workplace-related deaths were linked to asbestos. [ index ]

PETER STOCK:  Responsibility for mulitple failures to contain a ruptured BC pipeline lies squarely with its operator, EnCana. That, according to the Globe and Mail, was the finding of an investigation released this week by by the province’s Oil and Gas Commission.

The rupture occurred on November 22nd of 2009 near Pouce Coupe in Northern BC. The leak was not brought under control until 8 hours after it occurred and 2 hours after EnCana detected it. By that time 30,000 cubic meters of gas containing 62 hundred parts per million of hyrdrogen sulphide had drifted across local farmland, flushing local families from their beds

The report says that not only did EnCana’s pipeline fail structurally, but the emergency shutoff valve didn’t stop the leak and the company then failed to follow its own safety-response plan by neglecting to promptly notify the Provincial Emergency Program.

The PEP is responsible for coordinating emergency evacuations. But, by they time they were on the scene in the late morning, the 15 local farm families affected, some having noticed the gas smell as early as 2:30 AM, had already cleared out.

Steve Simons, spokesperson for the BC Oil and Gas Commission said he could not understand why EnCana had not alerted the PEP until after the well had been shut down. The incident happened in an area near several recent pipeline bombings.

At a news conference in Calgary, Encana vice president Mike Mcallister sad they were very sorry this happened. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Dr. Michael Mann has been cleared by an academic board of inquiry at Pennsylvania State University on charges of scientific misconduct. Dr. Mann came under scrutiny as one of the researchers whose e-mails were stolen from servers at the University of East Anglia last year. Those e-mails contained correspondence between climate scientists which climate change sceptics point to as evidence that scientists were fabricating evidence of global warming. In Dr. Mann’s case, he was scrutinized for an e-mail in which he refers to using a “trick” to amalgamate climate data from different sources. Sceptics highlighted this as an improper manipulation of data. In its conclusions on whether Dr. Mann did in fact improperly manipulate data, the board of inquiry stated “The so-called trick was nothing more than a statistical method used to bring two or more different kinds of data sets together in a legitimate fashion by a technique that has been reviewed by a broad array of peers in the field”. While the board did clear Dr. Mann of scientific misconduct, it has yet to rule whether his behaviour undermined public confidence in the field and the University. Of note is the fact that the hacked e-mails also implicated Dr. Mann in purposely interfering with information requests for climate data. The Privacy Commissioner of the UK found last month that researchers there broke laws pertaining to the Freedom of Information Act. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: France has recently joined other European countries in support for a ban on the fishing of Atlantic bluefin tuna. According to environmental groups, the bluefin tuna have been extensively overfished, and a scientific report from last year estimated that the current number of bluefin tuna is down to 15% of its historical levels. All of this has raised fears that the bluefin tuna may soon be fished to extinction if no action is taken. Last year, the government of Monaco proposed that the bluefin tuna be protected by classifying it as an Appendix I endangered species under the CITES treaty, which governs trade in threatened species. France now joins Monaco and other European nations including Sweden and Italy in supporting a ban to save the species and, hopefully, the fishery. This news comes ahead of a general meeting of the 175 signatories to the CITES treaty next month in Qatar, and raises the possibility of a unified support for the ban from the 27 delegates of the European Union. Such a ban is likely to be opposed by the United States, as well as Japan which supplies the majority of the demand for bluefin tuna. France’s support for the ban does have conditions, however. It proposes implementing an 18-month delay on the ban, which would allow for two more fishing seasons, and would only ban the sale of bluefin tuna caught by purse seine fishing, the most common method. Though environmental groups have applauded the move as a step in a positive direction, they object to the 18-month delay, saying the poor state of the fishery demands an immediate ban. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, proposed the establishment of a global ‘Green Fund’ to help nations cope with the effects of climate change. The IMF already grants loans to poor and developing countries to aid with development. As climate change raises sea levels and affects rainfall patterns, nations will have to cope. At a panel discussion, Strauss-Kahn highlighted that poor and developing nations would be hard-pressed to find the money to adapt to these changes. A prospective green fund could provide financial assistance to mitigate negative changes and promote environmentally-responsible development. Strauss-Kahn proposed that the fund could reach 100-billion dollars per year. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: A study published this week has found that the growth of trees in the Eastern United States has accelerated. The study, published in the journal PNAS by scientists at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York, analyzed the growth of trees from temperate forests in Maryland over the last 22 years. They found that the trees were growing faster than in previous years, and that an acre of forest grew an additional two tonnes of biomass per year than normal. The study correlated the increase in tree growth with higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, as well as longer growing seasons due to higher temperatures. These correlations strongly suggest that climate change is behind their findings. [ index ]