VANESSA PURDY: On Tuesday April 5th, The Alberta government released a new, draft proposal for environmental rules. The legislation would revoke many oil sands leases, including ones that are currently operational. The government I it doing so to protect wildlife and forest land in the province’s most industrialized area.

The proposal sets aside two million hectares of oil sands zone, which is about 20%. Companies in the affected areas include Nexen Inc., Suncor Energy Inc., and Imperial Oil Ltd. The announcement shocked the industry, and energy producers are concerned this expropriation of the land could scare off future investment in what is arguably Alberta’s most important economic resource.

There will not be new leases issued in the area, and compensation negotiation will have to take place between the affected companies and the government. The draft proposal is expected to be completed in two months, and the final draft will be before Cabinet in three.
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MELISSA SHAW: Elizabeth May announced the Green Party Election platform on April 7th at the centre for social innovation in Toronto. She promised to lower the deficit by 10.8 billion over three years and to implement a carbon tax that would generate 5 million to be used for income splitting for families including same sex marriages and single parents with adult children making an income.The Green Party also claims they will stop tax cuts for oil and gas companies. She said Canada should be present in Afghanistan but only for U.N peacekeeping purposes and to run poverty reduction programs. Other points she mentioned included creating more jobs, lowering emissions and electoral reform. In response to the recent decision not to include the Green Party in the broadcast debate she expressed concern over concentration of media ownership and the need for more independent voices. [ index ]

VANESSA PURDY: A panel from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans testified on Monday April 4th that the federal policy aimed at ensuring that Canadian fish habitats face “no net loss”, is failing. The policy, developed in 1986, created a habitat management plan that mandated an equal or greater amount of land be restored close to the location of any fish habitat damaged by development. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the population decline of salmon in the Fraser River, the erosion of fish habitats is steady. This is due in large part to the fact that the compensatory area is not comparable in productivity or size. It is difficult to know the exact overall loss, but one audit observed 103 compensation projects and saw that over a third did not reach no net loss.

The federal government has given the Cohen Commission of Inquiry until June 30th, 2012, to investigate the downward trend of salmon stocks in the Fraser River. [ index ]

MELISSA SHAW: The Canadian Index of Well being released a report on the environment that suggests Canadians need to do more to ensure a healthy green future. Greenhouse gas emissions are up 24% from 1990 levels. Canada has the second highest per capita level of emissions following behind the U.S. Ozone levels are also increasing which can cause respiratory problems for Canadians that live in urban areas. Non-renewable fossil fuels make up 90% of energy production in the country and the water supply in southern canada has declined by 8.5% over the past 30 years. Increased waste generation and fishing down the food chain are also issues raised in the report. Several recommedations for improvement are suggested including future oriented policy making that will be enforced by governments, better business practices by industries, and individual lifestyle change. CIW director Bryan Smale stressed that if we don’t have a healthy planet we won’t have a healthy society. [ index ]

VANESSA PURDY: Scott MacCallum, federal green candidate, has entered the race in Nunavut, which has started to get heated this week. The Green Party requested that MacCallum run, after he asked why there was a candidate in Nunavut after their initial runner declined to run just before campaigning began last month.

MacCallum is an airline employee based in Iqaluit, and has lived in Nunavut for two years, moving to Iqaluit just a few months ago. He is up against Conservative incumbent Leona Aglukkaq, former Nunavut Liberal premier Paul Okalik , as well as NDPJack Hicks, a northern researcher. MacCallum says he knows the riding will be a challenge. He plans to focus on the effects Nunavut’s environment is facing from mining, as well as the Nutrition North subsidy program recently installed by the federal government. [ index ]

MELISSA SHAW: More Canadian students are enrolling in environment related programs as experts predict an increase in green sector jobs. Between the year 2000 and 2007 enrollment went up 40% in university programs such as land use planning and conservation biology according to an ECO Canada poll conducted last year. Employment is growing faster in this field with 2 thirds of all green companies polled expect to hire full time employees in the next 5 years. Although college enrollment in these environment related programs increased by only 1% there were 35 green diploma and certificate programs introduced in the colleges over the past three years. Clean technology expert Tom Rand explained that most opportunities currently available in the field involve installing green technologies such as solar panels rather than inventing new ones. There is also the concern that businesses may switch their practices which wouldn’t create more jobs, just turn the existing positions into green jobs. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: The European Union has begun discussions with the U.S. state of California about linking their carbon markets. The EU commissioner for climate action, Connie Hedeergard, met with California Governor Jim Brown to discuss ways to ensure that both carbon markets are compatible with each other, and to allow for international carbon-trading between the two jursidictions.

A carbon market, or cap-and-trade system, sets a cap on how much carbon companies can emit without paying penalties. Companies that emit below their limit can sell their carbon credits to other companies. Proponents argue that the system creates economic incentives for industries to improve their energy efficiencies. The EU has the world’s largest carbon market, valued at almost $100 billion. California is one of seven U.S. states that have adopted or are trying to implement trading schemes. The EU sees an opportunity to promote carbon trading by creating international links between existing carbon markets. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Transocean Ltd., the Swiss company that owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last year, will be paying out bonuses to its executives as rewards for the company’s safety performance. Environmentalists and victims of the Gulf spill have been appalled to hear the news.

The Gulf spill wiped out jobs in the fishing and oil industries, polluted the Gulf Coast, and cost the lives of 11 workers on board the doomed oil rig. Though Transocean noted the “tragic loss of life”, the company claims that outside of the Deepwater disaster its safety record for 2010 was “exemplary”. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Many “geo-engineering” projects have been proposed to help fight climate change. These include launching space-based solar shades and dumping iron into the ocean to induce carbon-capturing algae blooms. Though these projects have potential, they also carry a great number of problems and draw-backs. Now, a group of Norwegian scientists have cautioned that one such strategy, called cloud-seeding, may in fact aid global warming if done incorrectly.

Cloud-seeding involves spraying a mist of salt water high into the atmosphere. The salt crystals would act as nuclei around which water would condense. This would create white clouds that would reflect solar radiation, thereby lowering the earth’s surface temperature. But the researchers from the University of Oslo claim that if the particles are not the exact correct size, they could interfere with existing clouds and actually reduce the Earth’s cloud cover. This in turn would actually warm the Earth’s surface. Though geo-engineering is touted by many as an important solution to climate change, this latest research highlights that geo-engineering research has a long way to go before becoming practical. [ index ]