Due to the G20 here in Toronto, The Green Majority was locked out of its studio. Never fear, nothing will shut us down as we bring you a special feature G20 and the environment show from an TGM volunteers apartment! This week we bring you a series of short interviews finding out whether or not it is important that the environment has more or less been shut out of the G20/G8 meetings. Guests such as Zoe Caron from WWF and George Sawision a local environmentalist and politician give us their perspectives.

Daryn Caister asks Toronto municipal candidate George Sawision and Mayoral Candidate Himy Syed (Twitter)
about the Toronto Community Green Linx project, how street level action can effectively happen in Canadian cities and the challenges active environmental citizens face.

Peter Stock finds out about Environmental Book trends from independent book sellers across the country.

A recently published report shows that the Federal government’s measures to combat greenhouse gas emissions are largely futile and overall ineffective. Fortunately, the same cannot be said for sub-national players, who are implementing innovative climate change reduction strategies in absence of a unified national strategy.

To learn how provinces, states, and cities are combating climate change without a cohesive national plan, environmental law and policy correspondent Naomi Jehlicka speaks with David Gordon, a second year PhD student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto whose research examines cross-border city climate governance networks.

Trent University professor Stephen Hill’s research area is the siting considerations related to renewable energy projects, such as small hydro and wind.

But big infrastructure projects like the planned and approved but still controversial Durham Region garbage incinerator and the Oakville natural gas power plant are a whole different animal.

Peter Stock called Stephen Hill to discuss the differences in the approval process.

Many Canadian regions and municipalities want green jobs for their residents. Legislation like the Green Energy and Economy Act can help, but sometimes grassroots action is also necessary. Tyler Irving will speak to community organizer Nigel Bariffe about the Green Jobs for All at Hydro campaign and the way in which social, labour, and environmental organizations are working to make these jobs a reality.

Today we update you on three stories we’ve reported on in the past six months:

• An update on the proposed changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act under Bill C-9
• Jennifer Nalbone of Great Lakes United tells us about the threat of Asian Carp and the ongoing work to prevent their spread to the Great Lakes.
• We speak with Peggy Breckinridge, the mayor of Tiny, about the fate of proposed dump site 41 in Simcoe County, Ontario.