This week:

• Barbara Freese, co-author of a recent Union of Concerned Scientists report on coal energy and carbon capture, speaks with host Jordan Poppenk about carbon sequestration, the sweetheart technology of dirty energy projects, and presents a nuanced perspective on whether it is a viable solution for mitigating carbon dioxide emissions in the long run.
• Green Life reporter Peter Stock speaks with writer David Kendall about the cautionary environmental tale Nauru, a South Pacific island and the subject of his book Doomed Island. Kendall explains how it came to be that in 150 years, Nauru transitioned from a tropical paradise to a geological, cultural and financial wasteland.

Headlines in brief:

• New federal environmental regulations create much larger maximum fines for corporate polluters at the federal level.
• Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller released a statement this week warning of the dangers to biodiversity in Ontario from the current state of the endangered species act.
• A new Health Canada report released this week has shown that the estrogen-mimicking chemical known as Bisphenol A, has been shown to be present in almost all Canadian energy and soft-drink cans.
• A drought in 2005 has been found that have caused the Amazon rainforest to release more greenhouse gas than the annual emissions of Europe and Japan.
• A French firm has released a zero-emissions, air-powered car.
• China will increase spending on agricultural production by 20% this year to prepare for a future food crisis.

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- Image credit: Alberta Geological Survey -