TYLER IRVING: On Tuesday, environmentalists and forestry products companies gathered in Toronto to announce the signing of an historic truce. A new agreement, two years in the making, will see an end to both unsustainable logging practices and economically damaging protests.

The agreement was negotiated between the Forestry Products Association of Canada, which represents such forestry giants as AbitibiBowater and Tembec Inc., and nine environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, and the U.S.-based Pew Charitable Trusts. The deal covers 72 million hectares of public forests, an area nearly twice the size of Germany.

Under the deal, logging will cease in 29 million hectares of boreal forest in order to develop a plan to protect the woodland caribou. The rest of the land will be subject to strict sustainability standards set by the international Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). In return, the environmental groups agree to stop their “Do Not Buy” campaigns and, if all the standards are met, help to publicly brand the Canadian forest products industry as green. In a press release, Avrim Lazar, President and CEO of FPAC, said that the importance of this Agreement cannot be overstated. [ index ]

NAOMI JEHLICKA: A report by the Sierra Club of Canada argues that both the federal and Northwest Territory governments are disregarding most of the findings of the Mackenzie Valley joint review panel process, which was organized in 2005 to assess the impact of a natural gas pipeline construction project in this region.

The panel investigation spanned five years and included intensive research, public hearings, and community consultations. It produced 155 recommendations for both the Federal and Northwest Territory governments to consider, yet only 10 suggestions were fully accepted, while 77 were altered to the point of non-recognition.

The Sierra Club is worried that by not taking the time and spending the money to develop this project in a way that guarantees minimal environmental damage, the chances of the pipeline having both short and long term environmental consequences are increased. The Sierra Club has denounced the direction taken by the governments and is contemplating launching a large scale public awareness campaign to bring to light the problems with not following the environmental guidelines produced. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: The agency that regulates offshore drilling in Newfoundland and Labrador is stepping up inspections for Canada’s deepest offshore oil project. The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board said it is tightening restrictions in light of heightened public concern, following last month’s blowout of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Premier Danny Williams has been under public pressure for allowing the exploratory drilling project to go ahead. The project, known as Lona O-55 is operated by Chevron, Inc. At 2600 metres, it is the deepest offshore oil well in Canada, and 1000 metres deeper than Deepwater Horizon.

The new restrictions include daily reports to an oversight board composed of petroleum board members. Chevron must also meet with the board every two weeks to discuss matters of concern. Inspections of the operations will be increased from every 3 to 4 months to every 3 to 4 weeks. And before penetrating any targets, Chevron must hold a “timeout” to ensure that emergency teams are ready to respond in case of a spill. Chevron has agreed to abide by the new restrictions. [ index ]

NAOMI JEHLICKA: Despite the pleadings of environmentalists, Alberta seems to be picking up momentum when it comes to exploiting their oil sands. This past Tuesday, representatives from the Albertan government announced that Canadian Natural and North West – two multibillion-dollar oil companies – have been granted permission to build a new soil upgrader with financial support from the Albertan government.

The proposed soil upgrader will take oil sands bitumen and refine it into more malleable crude that can flow through a pipeline before being further refined into useful products like gasoline. This particular project would allow North West to directly produce refined fuels such as diesel and naphtha.

The deal is not yet finalized, but the Albertan government is adamant in seeking innovative ways to increase the profits from the oil and gas sector and will do what it can to ensure that this – or a similar deal – gets passed. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: According to a report released this week by the National Round-Table on the Environment and the Economy, Canada is 6th in the G8 in terms of carbon efficiency. The ranking has upset environment minister Jim Prentice, who has asked for a meeting with the report’s authors to explain their methodology.

The NRTEE is a government-appointed advisory panel created in 1988. In its report, it assessed countries in five categories it believes are important in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. Although Canada ranked first in skills and third in innovation, its poor performance in emissions and energy, policy and institutions, and investment led to its overall 6th place ranking. Top marks went to France, Germany, and UK.

Mr. Prentice says the report ignores progress Canada has made in the past year, including the non-binding commitment signed in Copenhagen, regulations on increasing the ethanol content of fuel, and North America-wide standards on auto emissions. He also complained that the U.S. got points for consuming Canadian-produced energy, while Canada lost points for selling energy to the U.S. [ index ]

NAOMI JEHLICKA: New data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center predicts that this year might set another record low for arctic sea ice. According to Data Centre Scientist Dr. Serreze, the latest satellite information shows that ice cover in the arctic is melting even faster this year than it did in 2007, which set the previous record for ice loss.

Other renowned sea-ice experts are worried that ice might be melting even faster than what is depicted in these satellite images. Dr. David Barber from the University of Manitoba worries that satellite data doesn’t say much about the state or thickness of the ice – a concern that has been corroborated by recent expeditions to the arctic.

To put this in perspective, true multi-year ice currently comprises about 18 percent of the Arctic ice pack. Twenty nine years ago, that figure was around 90 percent. The wide gap between these two statistics has climate scientists concerned. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: Local food advocates in Vancouver are crowing this week as the city officially approved guidelines for backyard chicken coops. Vancouverites can provide themselves with fresh eggs from up to four chickens, provided they keep a buffer zone of one metre from the property line, and three metres from the nearest window.

Fanciers of roosters, ducks, turkeys or pheasants are out of luck, as the guidelines expressly forbid the keeping of those birds. Coops must also be kept only in back yards, not front yards or apartment balconies.

The new guidelines are welcomed by groups such as the FarmFolk/CityFolk Society which cultivates a local, sustainable food system. The group promotes responsible care of urban chickens through a website called chickensinvancouver.com. Although the new bylaw must still be voted on by city council on June 8th, given the positive reception to the new guidelines, there is little doubt that it will pass. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: US Congressman Edward Markey has convinced British Petroleum to release the live feed of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has a submersible on the sea floor filming the oil gushing out of a broken pipe, and had previously released a brief clip of this footage. Now, at the requests of Rep. Markey, BP has agreed to publish the live, streaming feed of the oil leak. The feed is to be published on the website of the committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which can be found at globalwarming.house.gov. Rep. Markey has been critical of BP for preventing independent scientists from analyzing the leak. After hearing that BP had agreed to his request, he stated: “This may be BP’s footage, but it’s America’s ocean. Now anyone will be able to see the real-time effects the BP spill is having…” [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: British Petroleum has estimated the rate of its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is 5,000 barrels per day. Now, independent scientists are revealing that this may be a considerable underestimate. Steve Wereley, an engineer from Purdue University, used footage of the leak released this month to perform his own calculation. Using a technique called particle image velocitometry, Wereley produced an estimate of 70,000 barrels per day, which is 14 times the BP estimate. This estimate of 70,000 barrels per day is only for one of the holes in the pipe, however. Another analysis of a smaller leak elsewhere in the pipe produced an estimate of 25,000 barrels per day. Wereley testified before a congressional subcommittee this week that the technique he used has been around for 25 years and can have up to 99% accuracy when used on high quality video. He testified that his overall estimate for the leak is 95,000 barrels per day. This is in the same range as other independent scientists, who have variously estimated rates of between 25,000 and 100,000 barrels per day. BP has so far not revised its figure of 5,000 barrels per day. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: The new British government will be pushing the European Union for higher greenhouse gas cuts. Currently, the EU has set as its goal a 20% reduction of 1990 levels by the year 2020. The UK now says it will push to increase the targeted reduction to 30%. The EU agreed to a 20% reduction target last year, which it said could increase to 30% if the Copenhagen conference produced a global agreement on climate change. Although no such agreement was made, the UK will push to adopt the higher target anyway. This goal has received the endorsement of the German environment minister, indicating that there is support for this measure outside of the UK. The UK hopes to achieve these reductions in part by investing in renewable energy. It will hopefully use environmental taxes to raise revenue to subsidise and invest in clean energy.  [ index ]