LIA MAZZOLINI (read by Ariel Rabinovitch): Police cars in Ottawa are getting a green makeover. 30 cruisers will be fit with an additional battery that will save dollars and energy. These newly modified vehicles will be able to be turned off, while still having the option to use their lights, heat and devices including their radio.

Ottawa’s Chief Vern White announced the new feature in the Nation’s Capital on Wednesday, May 24. Chief White says that currently, cruisers are retired once they reach 160,000 km because of the excessive idling. A 2009 Ottawa police study shows that cruisers idle almost 70% of the time, which is equivalent of driving 53km.

The new battery’s system is said to alleviate the cost of fuel and substantially reduce greenhouse gases that are emitted while idling. The National Research Council developed the modified cruisers, dubbed the ‘Green Fleet.’ National Research Council’s spokesman, Paul Treboutat says the system can efficiently detect where the energy is needed. When the system is low in battery power, it automatically turns the car on to re-charge the battery. The Green Fleet will be on the road by some time next year. [ index ]

CHRIS GUSEN (read by Daryn Caister): The Canadian government is engaged in a secret campaign to combat the dirty environmental image cast in Europe by the Alberta tar sands. According to documents released to The Dominion newspaper, Canada’s Department of Foreign affairs assembled a European “Oil Sands Team” in 2009 to monitor protest groups, respond to negative media coverage, lobby officials, and promote European investment in Alberta’s oil industry. The federal government is particularly concerned about a new EU energy law that will label tar sands oil as dirty in order to promote the use of cleaner fuel in Europe. Although Europe does not import Alberta oil, Canadian officials are worried that investment will decline if China and the U.S. mimic the E.U.’s anti oil sands policy. In response, the “Oil Sands Team” has been aggressively lobbying members of the European parliament to alter the legislation. The documents also acknowledge Canada’s dwindling environmental reputation on the world stage and warn that the nation has been branded as an irresponsible energy producer unconcerned with environmental issues and climate change. [ index ]

ARIEL RABINOVITCH:  The new head of the World Meteorologist Organization is a Canadian. On May twenty fifth, representatives of one-hundred-eighty-nine states of the United Nations elected David Grimes to a four-year term..beginning June sixth.

Grimes, a career meteorologist, studied mathematics and nuclear and quantum physics at Brock University, in Ontario. Prior to his election on Wednesday, he was assistant deputy minister, and head of Environment Canada’s Meteorological Service since July 2006.

Environment Minister, Peter Kent, says “Canada’s meteorological service is world class, and we appreciate the show of confidence from the international community for Canada’s expertise in weather, water and climate science.”

The World Meteorological Organization designates and coordinates research and services related to issues in weather, climate and water. Grimes’ role will largely be to coordinate formal agreements amongst countries, and to bring together national assets to improve the study of the world’s climate. [ index ]

CHRIS GUSEN (read by Daryn Caister): Speaking shortly after being sworn in on May 24th, Green Party MP Elizabeth May vowed to put all her efforts into holding the Conservative majority government accountable on climate change. May critiqued the government’s goal of reducing emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels be 2020. She pointed out that the Conservatives have no concrete plan to achieve this target and went on to call the target itself “too reckless and too high”. Even if Canada achieves this objective, it will be the only industrialized country with emissions above 1990 levels by the year 2020. With Conservative majorities in Parliament and the Senate, May admitted, it will be nearly impossible to get meaningful climate change legislation passed during the next four years. Instead, May hopes to hold the government to account through public education, statements in the House, and points of order. She also hopes to make an impact by working with Green politicians from other countries at global events like the climate-change negotiations scheduled to take place in South Africa this November. According to May, Canada’s worldwide credibility has been seriously tarnished by its inaction on climate change. [ index ]

LIA MAZZOLINI (read by Ariel Rabinovitch): A Canadian eco-friendly design firm takes gold at the international design competition, Passive House, in New Orleans. Out of the 65 entries, Toronto-based Company, Sustainable.TO Architecture + Building takes first place in their design for their “low cost, low energy house.” Sustainable.TO architect, Paul Dowsett created the house for the competition on May 12.

The competition was opened for professionals and students. They had to abide by the 2030 Challenge, which is to design a structure that doesn’t use fossil fuel energy. Passive House is also an institute that creates the world’s most sustainable buildings, which use 80-90% less energy then conventional buildings.

The winning structure was an airtight house that provides shading in the summer and solar heat in the winter. It also has a balanced energy ventilation system and high-efficiency heating and cooling units with a water heater and floor heating. The inexpensive materials are resilient and long lasting, which keeps the maintenance low and economical. Dowsett has designed many energy efficient homes in the Greater Toronto Area and is continuing with more projects. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE (read by Danielle Bonnet): The United States is at a high risk of a Fukushima-type nuclear emergency, according to a report from a Washington policy institute. One of the factors in the Fukushima disaster was that spent nuclear fuel accumulated in cooling pools at the plant because permanent storage facilities could not be found. When the plant was hit by a tsunami, the water levels in the cooling pools dropped enough to allow the stockpiles of used nuclear fuel to overheat. While the amount of used fuel over-accumulated at the Fukushima plant, the amount of waste piling-up in American cooling pools is even worse according to the Institute for Policy Studies. It estimates that 75% of all spent nuclear fuel in the U.S. is stored in cooling pools rather than permanent dry storage. The report argues that this poses a greater risk of nuclear accidents. The Federal government had been hoping to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Arizona, but that plan has been cancelled, leaving the U.S. with a dilemma of where to store its growing stockpiles of nuclear waste. Until then, the report argues, the U.S. increases its risk of a Fukushima-style emergency. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE (read by Danielle Bonnet): The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies passed a law this week that would ease regulations on de-forestation for agriculture. Under current law, farms in the Amazon region must remain 80% forested. This is to protect the rainforest from runaway destruction. In practice however, the law has not been completely enforced and many small farms have removed large areas of rainforest. The new law reduces the restrictions on how much forest farmers can clear. It also provides an amnesty for farmers that have broken the law in the past. Though the law has been passed by the legislature, it still must be signed by the Brazilian President, who has vowed to veto any bill that would include amnesty for de-foresters. Brazil is currently in a tug-of-war battle between conservationists who seek to protect the world’s largest rainforest, and the growing agriculture industry which seeks to increase its output. [ index ]

ARIEL RABINOVITCH (read by Danielle Bonnet): Google has gone a little greener, as the internet giant announced on may-twenty-fifth, 2011..that they will be investing Fifty-Five-Million dollars in a wind farm in southern California. The investment is a combined venture between Google and Citibank, to help build up the Alta Wind Energy Centre…a windmill farm as part of the Te-hach-a-pee mountain pass.

The energy center is growing in five phases, with its first currently generating seven-hundred-twenty megawatts of energy, and another three-hundred megawatts by the end of the year. Google’s investment represents the fourth phase of the project, and is the company’s most recent contribution to green and sustainable power. Their budget has thus increased to four-hundred-million dollars. Google claims the expansion will help the Alta Wind Energy Centre in their efforts to reach a total power output of one-point-five gigawatts, enough to power 450,000 homes… making it the largest wind farm in the world. [ index ]