This week:

• As CIBC reports that global trade networks are shifting on account of the surging cost of oil, we turn our microphone to a feast of initiatives running on people power. Host Jordan Poppenk speaks with Albert Koehl of the local advocacy group Bells on Bloor, as well as a joint discussion with Rick Conroy, Co-ordinator of the newly minted Toronto Cycling Union, and Adrian Heaps, the City of Toronto Councillor chairing the city’s cycling committee.

The headlines in brief:

• A CIBC report indicates that the rising cost of transportation due to oil prices is undercutting global trade;
• The Canadian uranium company Cameco has warned that its Port Hope plant may have leaked uranium into Lake Ontario;
• A probe has revealed dishonesty in revelations about 2006 Ottawa River sewage spill;
• PM Harper has been promoting Canadian wildlife conservation in France, while reports denounce his lack of action;
• BC has made uncertain emission capture technologies a centrepiece of future green planning;
• The National Energy Board has forecast average gasoline prices of $1.30 to $1.40 per litre this summer;
• American bald eagles have come back from the brink of extinction on Vancouver Island;
• Five Arctic countries have met to agree on distribution and protection of Arctic resources;
• After 20 years, Italy is re-considering nuclear energy as a viable source of power.

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This week:

• Dr. Lawrence Packer, a Professor of Biology at York University and an expert on Canadian bees, speaks with host Jordan Poppenk about bee myths, the good things bees do for an ecosystem and the collapse in bee populations that was widely reported last year.
• Jordan Poppenk interviews Senior Environment Canada Climatologist David Phillips about the function of weather trivia, his perspectives on global warming and the financial hardships endured at Environment Canada (originally broadcast on November 2, 2007).

The headlines in brief:

• Newly released figures from Environment Canada show that Canada’s greenhouse-gas emissions dropped marginally in 2006;
• Alberta has released a draft land-use policy, although the draft is non-committal on tarsands management;
• The Western Climate Initiative is set to restrict Albertan oil exports;
• PEI has canceled an alternative energy program;
• New federal guidelines will require products labelled “made in canada” to contain Canadian ingredients unless otherwise specified;
• A report suggests that nanomaterials in food and clothing are more dangerous than suspected;
• Canadian and U.S. governments have reached agreement over a new Pacific Salmon treaty intended to protect dwindling salmon stocks;
• NDP and Bloq Quebeqois party leaders have attacked the notion of a carbon tax;
• Prime Minister Stephen Harper says that he won’t be cutting back federal taxes on gasoline to compensate for high gas prices;
• Los Angeles plans to cleanse sewage water to increase drinking supplies;
• Iceland has announced it will resume commercial whaling;
• The WWF reports that world biodiversity has decreased by nearly a third over the last 35 years.

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TGM is hitting the airwaves in Atlantic Canada thanks to Fredericton’s campus and community station, CHSR 97.9FM, and St. John’s campus campus and community station, CFMH 107.3FM.

CHSR is a community station in Fredericton, New Brunswick, with a radiated power of 250 watts. CHSR boasts the largest music library of a Canadian radio station east of Montreal and is one of the oldest stations in Atlantic Canada, dating back to 1950. Its volunteers are drawn from the University of New Brunswick, St. Thomas University and the Fredricton community at large. It is broadcasting TGM on Mondays at 3pm.

CFMH is a relatively young station that has been broadcasting out of broadcasts out of Saint John, New Brunswick since 2001. Its volunteers are primarily drawn from the University of New Brunswick’s St John campus. It has recently moved to its new frequency of 107.3 MHz. CHSR and CFMH are the seventh and eighth stations to join the TGM project and we’re very pleased to be working with them.

This week:

• We feature a talk by Dr. Doug McDonald, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Environment and author of Business and Environmental Politics in Canada, a new book about how business reacts to environmental regulatory pressure.
• Engineering correspondent Nicholas Wood discusses biodiesel production with Tim Haig, the CEO of BIOX corporation, which is widely considered the major biodiesel producer in Canada.

The headlines in brief:

• Quebec’s provincial government has announced that it will protect over 18,000 square kilometers of forest and wetlands in 23 new conservation areas;
• A private member’s bill that would require mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods has been defeated in federal parliament;
• A major civil lawsuit has been launched by the Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Northern Alberta seeking to block oil and gas development in their territory;
• 53 ducks were killed in a second tar sands incident involving a Newalta Corporation tailings pond in west-central Saskatchewan;
• EnCana Corporation, Canada’s biggest energy company, will split into separate natural gas and tar sands companies;
• NDP and Bloq Québeqois parties now reject federal ethanol plans;
• Environment Minister John Baird has agreed to support heritage status for the Ottawa river;
• Scientists in Australia have published the genome of the duck-billed platypus;
• US courts have ruled polar bears are an endangered species, although Canada has not followed suit;
• Spain is importing water to the drought-stricken region of Catalonia.

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This week:

• Pat Roy Mooney, Director of the food issues think-tank ETC Group, speaks with host Jordan Poppenk about the dynamics between world food production, food technology, and fuel.
• Correspondent Danny Leskiw talks to Rod DeBoice, the Provincial Bark Beetle Coordinator for British Columbia, about the current state of Western Canada’s mountain pine beetle epidemic.

The headlines in brief:

• A new poll suggests a majority of Canadians – even in Alberta – support the idea of a carbon tax;
• Liberal leader Stéphane Dion has announced his party’s support for the carbon tax;
• Canada is under investigation for Kyoto violations, and could be barred from future carbon trading;
• Hydro-Québec has accepted bids to build 2,000 megawatts of wind generators;
• Critics of fish farming in BC will ask the provincial courts to prevent the provincial government from renewing fish farm leases;
• Alberta premier Ed Stelmach refused to launch an independent investigation into Alberta duck deaths;
• The federal government is fighting a US ban on oil from the Albertan tar sands;
• The federal government has extended a regulatory exemption that will allow the use of leaded gasoline in race cars;
• Canada’s interim environment commissioner Ron Thompson has completed his term and has been replaced by Scott Vaughan;

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