DARYN CAISTER: Another year of abnormal thawing in northern Manitoba has left the provinces 2,200 kilometre system of winter roads nearly impassable and dangerous. The normally frozen solid winter road system has been experiencing warmer and warmer winter weather leaving them patched with dangerous slush and mud. At least 20 travellers have been stranded due to the unstable northern road conditions between remote indigenous communities and the rest of the province. RCMP has set up patrols to try to help find the stranded commuters, but they say they don’t have any idea where many of the missing people are at this time. This past weekend the RCMP chartered a plane to rescue 12 people who’d blown out their tires, but when the ski-equipped plane landed near a remote fishing lodge where the travelers were thought to be staying, the place was found empty. RCMP officials said they are still looking for them, but that they didn’t have any more detailed information at this time about the status of the missing people, or where they had gone due largely to bad weather and bad communication availability in the north. Several other travellers have been rescued in the past few weeks from similar situations. There are more than 2,500 shipments to and from the north during this time of the year, few of which have made it this year due to the warm muddy conditions. First Nations Chief Jerry Knott told reporters that while it was bad enough that vital supplies would have to be transported at much greater expense by air, but that his community, the Wasagamack First Nation had to also deal with several kilometres of half frozen lake to the nearest airport. The state of the partial thaw means that the ice it too thin to drive across, and to thick for a boat, severely limiting their options. Chief Jerry Knott is urging political leaders to provide permanent roads in the north as according to him, the thaw seems to come earlier and earlier every year. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  Canada’s Environment Minister, Jim Prentice, announced this week that the government will make a large investment in water research. The announcement came on World Water Day this past Saturday where Canada echoed the water priority heard round the world, – to improve quality. Canada’s $3.75 million dollar investment was awarded to the universities of Lethbridge and Saskatchewan. The money will be used to fund research in quality of water and to design web tools for both public and private use. The plan is to design an interactive web-based platform that will be a resource for individuals, communities, business, and government to access water data, mapping and imagery, and environmental science data. The budget also covers the making of a software program that energy developers can buy as a decision-support tool. The software will help identify environmentally low-impact locations for power plant developments based on water quantity and quality in the area.
The funding punctuates Prentice’s other water quality initiative. Over the past month he has been in the midst of public consultations for a nation-wide upgrade of water runoff, or, effluence, from wastewater facilities. The upgraded standards would apply to businesses and industry as well as communities including the 115 First Nations communities in Canada currently under Drinking Water Advisories. Prentice says the quality of effluence varies from province to province. If the new proposed upgrades make it into law, the new standards would be phased-in by as late as 2040. No word yet whether the government will provide the funding necessary for communities to apply the new standards. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Dalton McGuinty’s opposition is up in arms about a $4 annual increase in energy costs in Ontario for consumers to pay for the success of the green energy act’s feed in tariff program. Critics say that the $53 million dollar price tag for conservation and green energy programs, which works out to about $4 annually per consumer is too much of a burden for consumers during these economic times. The heart of the issue seems however in reality to be the 13 per cent harmonized sales tax on consumer goods that will bring electricity taxes up 8% from 5% to 13%. Progressive Conservative energy critic John Yakabuski led the attack this week by saying “It’s not only a tax, it’s a hidden tax. It’s really low”. Energy and Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid responded to his critics saying that while he acknowledged that there would be additional cost to consumers, but that it was a “deal” for the consumers compared to the vast amount of spending that would have to be increased for the province to pursue other options to meet future energy needs as well as keep its promise to reduce and eventually eliminate dirty coal fired power plants. Mr. Duguid also said that the government was trying to transform the energy system in Ontario for the future, and that a $4 cost was hardly comparable to the pollution in the lungs of Ontario children from the continued use of coal in this province. While not necessarily coming out definitively against or for the plan, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath commented that consumers need and affordable option that would actually help consumers conserve energy as an important direction for energy policy. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meetings ended badly for the Bluefin Tuna with no help from Canada. Canadian representatives in Doha were vocal in opposing the proposed ban on Bluefin trade. Since Canada exports nearly 100% of bluefin caught in the Canadian Atlantic, delegates were not willing to let the bluefin fisheries take the economic hit. The Canadian Fisheries Minister was pleased with the outcome saying that a trade ban would not affect countries that have domestic bluefin markets. She argued that the ban would prove ineffective in saving bluefin populations. The fact remains that the vast majority of tuna, over 80%, is imported to countries that would otherwise have no access to the fish. Nevertheless Canada asserts it is concerned with the dwindling numbers, – the bluefin population has dropped more than 60% in the last 13 years. The government says it will support figures given by ICCAT, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. ICCAT has a track record of bypassing recommendations from scientific research. However this year the organization has implemented stricter quotas than ever before, reducing the allowable global catch from 22,000 tons to 13,500 tons. The scientific community has been advising ICCAT to institute a ban for the past several years. In the U.S. where the government indorsed the ban, officials are disappointed in Canada’s stance. Prior to the talks Canada said it would go with the science. In the end, it gave in to economic payoff. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: The Pembina Institute released a new report comparing environmental reports of in-situ tar sands projects. The name of the report is “Drilling Deeper. The In-Situ Oil Sands Report Card”. The report is the first comparative environmental assessment of the projects done in Canada, and rates the performance of 9 Canadian tar sands projects. In Situ extraction techniques are used in the tar sands when the deposits are of too great a depth to surface mine. The area this affects is roughly 80,000 square kilometres that leased so far for development, about the size of Scotland. The report scored the projects according to currently available best practices according to environmental safety and minimal damage to the environment during development. The highest scorer was the Suncor Firebag project which scored 60%. The weakest project according to the Pembina Institute was the Canadian Natural Resources Primrose/Wolf Lake project which scored 25%. Pembina also compared the practices in use by all 9 projects and found that if the best of all in use practices was used the best possible score would have been an 85% meaning that 15% of the possible practices are not in use by any of the projects even across the sector as a whole. The report also highlights the lack of overall uniformity in environmental concern, pointing out that the environmental standard has been set so low for these companies that there is a huge amount of needless environmental destruction was taking place across the board. The projects were analyzed across 17 indicators, within 5 categories of environmental management, land impacts, air pollution, water use and management of greenhouse gasses. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  B.C. Forest Minister, Pat Bell, introduced legislation this week that will see a zero net loss of trees. The Zero Net Deforestation Act requires that “an equal area of trees be planted as is cleared from forest land for other uses”. This means that for every tree removed to make way for development a sapling will be planted elsewhere. The province expects to reach its goal of tree equilibrium by 2015. The Act is part of the province’s plan to reduce greenhouse gasses by 33% by 2020. Ironically, the legislation will not impact logging. Under the Act, deforestation is defined as the permanent loss of trees from a given area. The government says that the provincial logging industry is sustainably managed, and not considered to be deforestation. Local environmental groups have mixed feelings on the issue. One group, Tree Canada, says the government should be praised for introducing the act. Other groups feel that the term deforestation implies the loss of an ecosystem, not just the trees. The so-called sustainable management practiced by logging companies involves planting monocultures in place of functioning ecosystems. Many feel that monoculture planting is an issue that should have been addressed by the Deforestation Act. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: A court victory by a British Columbia indigenous band has signalled a new vigour in the First Nations community to fight for their land and the environment in the province. The court decided in favour of one of the bands successfully blocking a proposed coal mine in their territory. Gerald Amos, director of the Coastal First Nations, said that it was time for his group to take a harder stand against the large number of big resource projects that were being planned in BC. Mr. Amos said after the court victory, in reference to his organization that “Perhaps we haven’t been strong enough … from here on out … we are going to be firm”. Mr. Amos promised to apply as much pressure as possible both politically and legally to stop the proposed pipeline from crossing his territory, and said that if that failed they were prepared to run boats from one end of the lake to the other if necessary to stop the oil and gas ships from crossing their land to access the pipeline. A coalition of nine coastal bans issued a declaration stating that oil tankers carrying crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands would not be allowed to transverse their waters. In response to the declaration, another 28 bands, as many environmental groups, 45 businesses and 35 prominent citizens signed a full page ad ran in the globe and mail opposing the Enbridge pipeline project. The group has also been promised support if necessary from international environmental groups. Premier Gordon Campbell, now in an extremely difficult political situation said that the project would not go ahead if it was harmful to the environment, but urged consideration of the jobs and benefits it would bring to the people of the north. The proposed pipeline would carry 525,000 barrels of tar sands bitumen to the coast from Alberta. Coastal First Nations said that they had received an unprecedented show of support for their position and had full confidence that they would bring the project to a halt one way of the other. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  Expect to see city lights in your area dim as Canada celebrates the fourth annual Earth Hour to raise awareness about climate change. Communities and landmarks around the world will turn off their electricity in honour of event. According to organizers, Canada has the highest number of registered participants. 250 Canadian communities and centres have registered to take part, – more than in any of the other 115 countries involved. Last year’s earth hour saw 10 million Canadians participate. In Ontario, the numbers of Megawatts used has been dropping every year during Earth Hour. In 2008, power use was down 5 percent during the hour. Last year the province-wide drop was 8 per cent with Toronto reporting a 15 percent drop in grid load. Organizers in Canada are expecting a boon in participation this year in light of Canada’s disappointing performance at the Copenhagen climate change talks late last year. Surveys show that individual support for the event has risen this year by almost 25 percent with 73 percent of people saying they will participate. Earth Hour is March 27 between 8:30 and 9:30 pm local time. [ index ]

SHAK HAQ: The past Wednesday in Doha, delegates from 175 countries wrapped up a two-week conference on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, otherwise known as CITES. The results did not look promising for various endangered species including sharks, Atlantic blue-fin tuna, coral, and polar bears. CITES’ proposals to protect the various marine wildlife was met with strong opposition from Japan, China and their allies as these species are part of lucrative industries. The proposed species included several shark species including hammerhead, white-tip, porbeagle, and spiny dogfish sharks. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, approximately 100 million sharks are caught every year and some shark species may have declined by as much as 80 percent in the past decade.

Some species, however, did render better protection. There was agreement to protect rhinos, tigers, and the humphead wrasse (a species of fish). CITES also granted protection from international exotic pet trade to various species including iguanas and frogs from Central America, a species of salamander from Iran, and a rhinoceros beetle from Bolivia. Two proposals for the selling of elephant ivory from stockpiles were rejected and delegates voted to protect two South American trees used in the perfume and cosmetic industries.

The United States’ proposals for protection of the polar bear, Atlantic bluefin tuna, corals, and sharks failed to win approval. U.S. delegate, Tom Strickland, was not troubled by the rejection. He explained it could take years and several CITES meetings to develop the consensus required to impose restrictions on international trade including species in danger of extinction. He is content that the U.S. proposals have brought these issues to an international scale. Despite the rejection, the polar bear proposal led to the formation of the first CITES working group to study climate change.

Although there were some positive outcomes from the conference, many conservation groups and scientists are outraged at the lack of protection for the marine species. The next CITES meeting will be held in Thailand in 2013. [ index ]

SHAK HAQ: China is working its way to becoming a global leader in renewable energy technologies recently overtaking the US. China invested $36.4 billion in clean energy last year doubling what the US invested. The UK, Spain and Brazil round out the top five leaders in clean energy investors. South Korea, however, had the most growth of 250% over five years.

China initially had a target of having 30 gigawatts of installed renewable energy by 2020, however that goal will soon be exceeded through wind power alone and new targets are being set. According to Steve Sawyer, secretary-general of the Global Wind Energy Council, “the government [of China] has taken a strategic decision that diversifying its energy supply should be a national priority…It is now the world’s leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic cells, and more wind turbines are made in China than anywhere else.”

Despite China’s clean energy efforts, their usage of fossil fuels is also expanding. Currently, renewable energy accounts for only a small portion of the energy supply with the hope to reach 15% of the total energy by 2020. [ index ]

SHAK HAQ: The French government is dropping a plan for a tax on domestic carbon dioxide emissions. They feel that for a carbon tax to be implemented, it would have to be Europe-wide. The Constitutional Council, who reviewed the plan, stated there were too many exemptions for polluters and that the small number of consumers would bear the load of the tax. Prime Minister Francois Fillon added that the government should focus on policies that increase the country’s economic edge. He claimed that sustainable development efforts would have to be carefully considered so as not to widen the economic gap with European competitors such as Germany. Before the plan was dropped, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government intended to release a revised version later this year. The plan would have made France the largest country to impose a carbon tax. The European Commission stated earlier this month as part of its green energy agenda it was planning for an EU-wide minimum tax on carbon. However, this proposal was met with strong opposition from the UK. [ index ]

SHAK HAQ: To control the weather sounds impossible, however the Russian government has been preventing rain for special occasions since Soviet times. Through a method called cloud seeding, they are able to control when a cloud will rain. Using military planes to get above the clouds, they will dispense silver iodide, dry ice or cement into the cloud. This seeding of the clouds can be done manually by person and shovel or using machines that eject the various chemicals. Once the chemicals touch the cloud a hole appears and continues to grow. Depending on the density of the cloud, this will either cause the cloud to rain at that moment or disperse without precipitation. These techniques have also been used in other countries for irrigation purposes. Many ecologists say that these techniques do not pose a threat to the environment or people’s health, as the process of cloud seeding is very short.

Cloud seeding recently sparked controversy when Moscow’s mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, suggested cloud seeding to eliminate winter snow from the capital city. He stated that it would save more than $10 million in snow-clearing costs. Environmentalists are quick to point out that if millions of tones of snow are diverted from Moscow, it will have to fall somewhere else, which may ultimately lead to the collapse of bridges and roofs and various other infrastructure problems. Alexei Yablokov, one of Russia’s leading environmentalists, explains that snow on the ground helps the roots of trees survive during severe frosts by insulating them. He also points out that snow cleans the atmosphere effectively, without which there may be tens or hundreds of additional deaths.

Valery Stasenko of the Federal Service of Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring dismisses these concerns clarifying that the goal would not be to eliminate snow completely, but rather control its levels. Cloud seeding would only occur occasionally to prevent major snowfalls, according to Stasenko, approximately three to four times a month. Scientists working in Stasenko’s department are developing new techniques for winter cloud-seeding, but are keeping their techniques secret, raising the concerns of environmentalists.

Traditionally, the Russian government has used rain prevention methods for their three main celebrations: Victory Day, City Day and Russia Day. However, rain prevention has extended into the private sector and for $6,000 per hour, private companies can guarantee sunshine on your wedding day, for example. [ index ]