VANESSA PURDY: Earlier this week, the Canadian Boreal Initiative, CBI, released a report with some postivie news for Canada’s signature forests for a change. CBI is an scientists, industry, First Nations and governments to increase sustainable development and promote protecting ecosystems. Their most recent report highlights the Top 10 major gains of 2011 for the boreal forests, largely thanks to landmark conservations agreements made this year.

The United Nations declared 2011 to be the International Year of the Forest, and, to some extent, Canada listened. First among the top ten was the Quebec government’s decision to enact the largest land conservation plan in history, Plan Nord. CBI feels Plan Nord represents a new model for sustainable development that could inspire other countries to implement similar plans internationally.

Other multi-stakeholder commitments to conserve and protect Canada’s boreal habitats such as those in B.C. and Manitoba made CBI’s list as well. Also of note is the planned “trial park” between BC and Alberta, the Environment Canada-sponsored report on Sustainable Prosperity, and the Royal Canadian Mint’s special edition boreal forest-themed tooney. [ index ]

LIA MAZZOLINI: P.E.I. musical talents geared up to raise money for ecological causes in a musical marathon. The Jammin’ for the Planet was a 12-hour concert, curated by the Eco-Change Co-operative. This is a group that works with green organizations on a mission to conserve the environment.

Their movement connects partnerships with both private and not-for-profit companies to increase the financial resources for the PEI Environment Fund.

One of the event’s organizers, David MacKay says that 50 percent of the funding goes to the environmental coalition’s Macphail Woods Ecological Forestry Project. The other half is reserved to other environmental groups that have projects that reflect their causes.

The lengthy concert was held in Charlottetown from 2 pm to 2 am featuring eight artists and bands, including Al Tuck, Teresa Doyle and Bonnie LeClair on Monday, December 26.

The admission was by donation only. [ index ]

VANESSA PURDY: Parks Canada is commissioning a new “revenue generation study” aimed at discovering more sources of revenue from Canada’s national parks, specifically in areas like retail, royalties, rentals, public programs and internet access. Parks Canada–responsible for our 42 national parks, three marine conservation zones, and 167 national historic sites–will also be exploring the potential of increased revenue from corporate donations, fundraising and annual giving.

This move comes after Peter Kent’s November report that showed the parks to already be bringing in billions to Canada, with 80% of profits coming from the visitors themselves.

Since his announcement that most public user fees for these locations will remain stable until April 2013, Parks Canada itself is looking for new ways to increase revenue and tourists; since numbers have dropped about seven percent in the past five years. Currently, Parks Canada must cover about 30% of the overall costs of the parks.

The study is expected to cost $50, 000 and will be delivered to the federal government in late March 2012. In the meantime, Parks Canada will continue to address several commercial developments proposed on some of it’s property; while also preparing to launch it’s own clothing and accessory line prominently featuring Canada’s symbolic creature, the beaver, in 2013. [ index ]

LIA MAZZOLINI: Researchers from the University of British Columbia are trying to improve an already successful green idea. Green roofs which are roof tops made from vegetation, are abundant in Europe have been catching on, in this side of the pond. However, Engineering Professor Kasun Hewage and master’s student Fabricio Bianchini, are examining the carbon footprint of green roofs and if they can be improved.

They are known to absorb greenhouse gases, lowering temperatures directly above the gardens and reducing run-off. The green roofs also help filter dust and potentially harmful chemicals, and reduce the heating and cooling loads on buildings.

Yet, the researchers found the benefits of the roofs are lowered by the pollution created during the manufacture process of the plastics and rubber mats that provide drainage for the plants.

Hewage and Bianchini are testing green roofs made from Sedums, a flowering plant that can exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with little sunlight, allowing the conservation of water under drought conditions.

The downfall is that it may not work in very arid climates but the researchers are finding alternatives for these types of climates. [ index ]

VANESSA PURDY: Last Friday, St. John’s Newfoundland urged Ottawa to push back against the supposed new seal-belt ban in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The potential loss of the Russian market is of particular concern, since they are said to purchase the majority of the pelts produced by the polarizing east coast harvest every year.

This ban could have significant impact on Canada and other sealing nations, and St John’s is pressuring the federal government to fight it, through the World Trade Organization if it comes to that.

In a statement also released on Friday, the Minister of International Trade, Ed Fast, said that Ottawa is committed to protect Canada’s sealing industry, and that officials have been instructed to engage with their counterparts in the three countries in question and express Canada’s concerns.

Animal rights groups are happy to take this ban as a sign of progression against Canada’s controversial and questionably human seal hunt practice. The actuality of the ban itself, however remains in question. According to executive director of the Fur Council of Canada, Rob Cahill, this year’s traders have been exchanging furs with Russia as usual and have not heard word of the ban from them. [ index ]

LIA MAZZOLINI: Quebec has had its fair share of weather catastrophes this year and it’s worrying experts about the future. Major floods, melting permafrost, shoreline depletion and high winds have been a concern for both scientists and residents alike.

Director of climate change impacts and adaptation, Alain Bourque says that it puzzles him that Quebec hasn’t had a colder than normal season in the last 10 to 15 years. Bourque who works at Quebec’s climate change research institute Ouranos, warns that Canadian coastlines and northern communities are at risk for not being able to adapt fast enough to the warming climate.

Quebec is shown to be quickly inching closer to the 2C mark that is said to be the tipping point of climate change and the point of no return. Models indicate mean temperatures in the southern half of Quebec will be 2C to 3C higher than normal by 2020. In northern Quebec, the warming will be even higher. And at the present rate of warming as tracked since 1948, we are on track to be well over 4C by 2050 and as high as 7C to 9C by 2080. [ index ]

CHRIS GUSEN (read by Vanessa Purdy): The United States continues to reject the European Union’s planned tax on carbon emissions produced by flights to and from EU countries. The legislation, which comes into force on January 1st, will subject airlines to the Emissions Trading System or ETS. The ETS is already being used for industries such as oil refining, power generation, and steel production as part of the EU’s effort to reduce emissions.

US, Canadian, and Chinese airlines oppose the tax and the extra costs it will bring. They argue that it contravenes an existing law called the Open Skies Agreement and that emissions taxes should be handled by an international aviation body. However, last Wednesday the European Court of Justice ruled that the new airline emissions tax is legal. The EU has made it clear that it will not bow to US pressure following last week’s decision. The Emissions Trading System will begin, as planned, on January 1st. [ index ]

CHRIS GUSEN (read by Vanessa Purdy): On Thursday, a group of New Hampshire scientists publically urged Republican presidential candidates to accept the overwhelming scientific evidence for climate change and its causes. The joint statement by scientists from seven New Hampshire institutions and universities comes just weeks before the New Hampshire primary. The primary will be a key test for Republican White House hopefuls.

All of the major Republican candidates have expressed doubts about climate change, ranging from skepticism to total denial. Mitt Romney said he believes that climate change is taking place and that human beings contribute to it. But he has said he doesn’t know how much global warming can be attributed to human activity. Other candidates put it more bluntly. Rick Perry, for example, called global warming “one contrived phony mess”.

The group of New Hampshire scientists wants all candidates for public office to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence, arguing that “Ignoring the issue of climate change places our health, our quality of life, our economic vitality, and our children’s future at risk.” [ index ]

VANESSA PURDY: The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, along with England-based company Oxitec, is developing a plan to release genetically-modified mosquitoes in Florida sometime in 2012. Officials in Florida wish to reduce the numbers of Aedes aegypti mosquitos–a common urban bug–as they are known carries of dengue fever. Dengue, also known as break-bone fever, is so called because of the extreme joint pain it causes in some cases.

Dengue had previously dissappeared from the States, but cases have been popping up in Florida since 2009. Between five and ten thousand of the male, lab-bred, GM mosquitoes, would be released over two weeks, within an undisclosed 36- square acre block. Their offspring would die early, hypothetically reducing the population as a whole. Similar trials in the Cayman Islands succeeded in scratching out 80% of the mosquitoes in their test area; and Florida is hoping for similar results.

Of course, an environmental group, Friends of the Earth, has publicly questioned the potential long-term environmental impact of removing the admittedly non-native species; as well as the costs of up to $400,000 annually to implement the program. [ index ]