This week:

• After digging for background on the drive-thru ban that’s been proposed in major Canadian cities such as Toronto and Vancouver, green life correspondent Peter Stock delivers a comprehensive exposé on the drive-thru, speaking to a number of experts on both environmental considerations and their surprising effects on health. Experts interviewed include Toronto Ward 21 Councillor Joe Mihavc, biophysicist Dennis Corr, and Rob Evans, president and CEO of The Ontario Restaurant, Hotel & Motel Association (ORHMA).
  
• First-time engineering correspondent Nicholas Wood speaks with Gideon Forman, CEO of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, a group that represents physicians in Canada who are concerned about the environment. They discuss the effect of pesticides and other compounds on human health.
  

The headlines in brief:

• British Columbia Liberals have made big headlines in the past week by introducing North America’s first carbon tax to be introduced in June;
• Toxic chemicals have again been detected in “Chemical Valley”, home to an aboriginal community of 900 in Sarnia, Ontario.
• A new Environmental Defense report has described the Alberta tarsands as “the most destructive project on earth”;
• An AltaGas sour gas plant north-west of the town of Worsley erupted into flames for unknown reasons;
• Alberta party leaders squared off on a televised debate that revealed fundamental differences on party responses to the environment;
• The federal government pledges another $18 million toward cleaning up Lake Simcoe, bringing the total to $30 million.
• The federal government has announced new limits on phosphates in household detergents to reduce blue-green algae growth in Canadian lakes;
• Pelmorex Communications Inc. has been given a category 2 license for Canada’s first environment channel;
• Uganda, Rwanda and Congo have joined together in an unprecedented effort to save the endangered mountain gorillas that range across the three countries.
• Four countries and several cities and corporations have announced a new web-based information hub to assist with efforts to become carbon-neutral.

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