This week:

• We feature a lecture by Canadian academic Thomas Homer-Dixon, who presents what he describes as an update to Al Gore’s famous slideshow, An Inconvenient Truth, and brings together the scientific and geopolitical aspects of climate change. Thomas Homer-Dixon speaks at the Isabel Bader Theatre at the University of Toronto’s Victoria College.

The headlines in brief:

• The federal government has blocked a controversial toxic substance that is mined in Quebec related to asbestos from being added to a UN ban list.
• A new report by Toronto’s Auditor General has charged Toronto’s water department with giving price breaks to polluters dumping chemicals into city sewers.
• Canada’s new environment minister Jim Prentice announced that the environment will become “an economic issue” under his watch.
• New reports from British Colombia show fear that its Killer Whales may soon be extinct due to the overfishing of its feed stocks.
• Debate is growing over whether to build substantial new wind turbines in the Scarborough bluffs outside Toronto.
• The city of Toronto is preparing a waste strategy that will lead to a ban on takeout food containers and a tax on plastic bags.
• A new study shows that pesticides commonly used in Europe interfere with brain development in fetuses and young children.
• Atmospheric methane concentrations spiked in 2007 after eight years of near-zero growth.
• World population statistics show that humans are using 30% more natural resources than what is considered to be sustainable.

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This week:

• Green Life reporter Peter Stock speaks with Mairon Giovani Bastos Lima, whose home town is a mid-sized city in Brazil. On arriving in Canada to do graduate studies, Mairon was surprised by how different our food culture is. In Brazil, he says, street vendors are everywhere, selling both fresh fruit and vegetables and prepared snack food. Mairon discussed food differences between Brazil and Canada with Peter, noting that food in Brazil is so local, it’s transported in a wheelbarrow, and that differences exist in the scale of as well as big versus small-scale agriculture.
• Nicola Ross, the executive editor of Alternatives Journal, speaks with host Jordan Poppenk about the economy, a loss of public interest in environmental issues, and parallels between this trend and a similar loss of environmental public interest in the 1990’s.

The headlines in brief:

• Bisphenol A, a chemical used in baby formula and food containers, has been added to the federal government’s toxic substances list;
• Ontario environment commissioner Gord Miller released his annual report, citing air quality measurement problems and a crisis in biodiversity loss;
• Ontario’s legislature has agreed to a private members bill requiring potential home buyers to be provided with full energy ratings for properties;
• Upgraders at two of the most expensive energy projects ever proposed in Canada now face delays because of the financial crisis;
• Prime minister Stephen Harper pledged $100 million to help poor countries cope with climate change;
• Another bombing has struck and ruptured an EnCana sour gas pipeline in BC;
• American chemical company Dow AgroSciences is seeking compensation over Quebec’s ban on cosmetic pesticide use under NAFTA;
• Former BC premiers are calling for an end to the provinces moratorium on offshore drilling to prop up its economy;
  Wal-Mart has announces that it will require its supplying manufacturers to follow stricter ethical and environmental standards.
• A world shortage of pollinating insects was found not to be affecting agricultural productivity currently but is predicted to be of growing concern in years to come.

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This week:

• We deliver a post-mortem roundtable on the federal election and its implications for environmental policy in the coming years. Featured are all of the Green Majority political experts, including Kevin Farmer, Chris Berube and Danny Leskiw.
• First-time correspondent Naomi Jehlicka speaks with Kristopher Stevens, executive director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, about Ontario’s Green Energy Act and the future of sustainable energy in Ontario.
  

The headlines in brief:

• The United Kingdom has committed itself to reducing its carbon emissions by 80% by 2050;
• The Alaskan pollock fishery may collapse due to pressure put on it by the fast-food industry;
• Kangaroos will be seriously threatened by rising temperatures that come with global warming;
• China is likely to experience a food shortage by 2030 if the current climate trends continue.

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• In the wake of an editorial in the international science journal Nature describing current Canadian federal policy as “war on science”, 120 climate scientists signed an unprecedented political letter urging Canadians to vote strategically against the federal Conservative Party. A lead author on that letter, University of Victoria climatologist Dr. Andrew Weaver, speaks with host Jordan Poppenk about how the fight for message has damaged the field of environmental science – and indeed science more generally – culminating in the muzzling of scientists at Canada’s foremost environmental agency, Environment Canada, the disbanding of Canada’s science advisor to the Prime Minister and termination of climate research funding.
• Political correspondent Danny Leskiw speaks with Green Party spokesperson John Bennett about the Green Party’s environmental platform for the 2008 election.

The headlines in brief:

• A report from the University of Toronto warns that new projects to help the Albertan tar sands will have a serious detrimental effect on the Great Lakes;
• In a speech this week, one of Ontario’s experts on agriculture policy warned that new developments could eat up all of the sustainable farm land in the GTA within five years.
• Alberta’s auditor general has spoken out against the province’s climate change initiatives, claiming they are not based on available data;
• Scientists now estimate a global sea rise of one metre this century.
• An international study reports that one quarter of land mammals and one third of marine mammals face the threat of extinction immediately.
• A United Nations food agency has called for the immediate review of
  global biofuel subsidies and policies.

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This week, we probe the nuances of environmental thinking in Canadian politics by speaking to two experts about how faith and money are affecting the environmental vote:

• Simon Watson speaks with Dr. Stephen Bede Scharper, Professor of religion and ecology at the University of Toronto, about “political theology” and the interaction between faith and the environment in the current Canadian and American federal elections.
• Ecological Economics professor Dr. Peter Victor of York University speaks with host Jordan Poppenk about the environmental politics of growth and his book, Managing Without Growth: Slower By Design, Not Disaster.
• Jordan and Pundit Kevin Farmer speak about the strategic environmental vote and discuss the website, voteforenvironment.com.

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