DARYN CAISTER:  The federal government has announced a further $182 million in spending on Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., partially to cover cost overruns at Chalk River nuclear facility. The facility is famous for production of a large portion of the world’s medical isotopes and for a tragic series of problems in the last year. AECL is now responsible for eating up $824 million of the current year’s federal budget, 50% more than was allotted in last year’s budget. This comes as the government is planning to restructure and sell AECL’s commercial reactor division. Of the $182 million, $110 million has been designated for plant refurbishment work on the AECL’s commercial reactors, and $72 million will go to fix the National Research Universal reactor at Chalk River. The latest in a series of timeline revisions is that the NRU should be up and running producing medical isotopes again by April. Chalk River has been out of business since June. While the federal government still says it is supports AECL, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister called the AECL last summer, “one of the largest sinkholes of government money probably in the history of the government of Canada”. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS:  The Province of Alberta announced that it will roll back most of its year-old royalty hike on oil in order to attract oil and gas investment back to the province. It also announced that it was looking into ways to decrease the bureaucratic hassle for new investments.

Under the roll-back plan, top royalty rates will drop from 50 to 36% for natural gas, and from 50% to 40% on non-oil sands crude oil. This almost completely reverses the rate hike that Premier Ed Stelmach introduced last year in an effort to give the provincial government a bigger share of energy revenues.

Energy Minister Ron Liepert was quoted on Thursday, saying “We can’t pretend that oil and gas investment levels haven’t eroded or that we don’t have a responsibility to current and future generations of Albertans to address that.” The roll-back will become effective January 2011. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER:  Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty announced this week his office was considering a water conservation rating system for appliances similar to the Energy Star program for electric appliances. The Premier said that the people of Ontario have come to understand the importance and positive benefits of reduced electricity use and efficiency, but that the concept had not yet permeated water conservation issues in Ontario. The ratings would theoretically be constructed and regulated in the same fashion as the Energy Star program, which is a partnership between industry and Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency. Opposition critics were quick to jump on the announcement to criticize the premier about pursuing water conservation initiatives while many areas of Ontario still had long standing boil water advisories and quality concerns. The premier admitted that the province could be doing a better job cleaning up water resources, but denied that the sudden focus on water had anything to do with next year’s elections. Opposition critics accuse the premier of focusing on water as a segue to bringing up the Conservative failure in the Walkerton water tragedy 10 years ago where incompetent water quality management resulted in the deaths of at least 7 people. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS:  The three gleaming towers at 100, 200, and 300 Consilium Place in Scarborough have become such an unanticipated death trap for migrating birds that two local environmental groups have began a lawsuit against the buildings managers.

The environmental groups – Ontario Nature and Ecojustice (formerly the Sierra Legal Defence Fund) – initiated a private prosecution under the Environmental Protection Act and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act. The buildings, up to 17 stories high and made of mirrored glass, have been the site of more than 7,000 bird deaths over the last decade. Most daytime collisions have occurred between the ground and 4th floors.

The high incidence of bird deaths due to hitting buildings has been of concern for many years. The non-profit group Lights Out Toronto has led a campaign to encourage building managers to turn of lights in the evenings so that birds are not distracted. However, this is the first time that the law have been used in order to effect change. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER:  A new study shows that the vast amounts of road salt used in Canada is having a toxic affect on lakes and groundwater. The University of Toronto study was performed between 2002 and 2003 shows that during spring thaws, downstream water bodies and aquifers jump up to a level of salinity that is close to salt concentrations found in ocean water. The study monitored how salt spread on roads in the Pickering area of Toronto made its way from the roads into the surrounding environment and the effects it incurred on local habitat. Pickering was used as a sample area for the study due to the relatively small 27 kilometre watershed. The study, which was published in the Journal of Sedimentary Geology, was described by lead author and UofT Professor Nick Eyles as a “really bad news story” describing a “relentless chemical assault on a watershed”. The study area recorded approximately 7,600 tonnes of road salt being distributed in the area in one season, and detected at least half of this, 3,600 tonnes ending up in local watersheds. Canada uses approximately 5 million tonnes of road salt annually, which equals about 150 kilograms per person per year, mostly in Ontario and Quebec. Environment Canada has recognized this toxic problem, and implemented voluntary codes of practice to reduce usage in 2004. After the study was published, Environment Canada said that it was reviewing usage with current data and that it would consider further action if usage had not improved due to the voluntary measures. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: B.C. premier Gordon Campbell reassured the Vancouver Board of Trade on Monday that the $1.4 billion Evergreen Rapid Transit Line will be built on time and ready to run by 2014.

There has been concern that the rail line – connecting Vancouver to the North eastern parts of the Lower mainland, including Burnaby, Coquitlam, and Port Moody – does not have the money to cover all costs. “It’s going to be built in partnership. We’re going to get it done on behalf of all of you” Mr Campbell said, promising that details on funding will be released soon.

These vague comments sought to address concerns over how TransLink, the regional transit authority, might finance its $400 million share of the project. Given that TransLink spokesperson Ken Hardie said Monday “We agree with what everyone is saying about the need for the line, [but] we do not have the source of the funding to support that investment, that debt we would be taking on”, the future of the line is still cloudy. Construction of the project was supposed to start this year, but has since been put off until 2011. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER:  This week, Canadian supermarket giant Loblaws became one of the fist commercial participants in Ontario’s feed-in tariff program for renewable energy. The announcement was made this week by Ontario’s new Energy Minister, Brad Duguid as his first big announcement after taking over the office in January. The feed-in tariff program, which is the first of its kind in North America, pays a premium for companies and individual citizens who produce power using renewable energy (such as solar or wind generation) and feed this power back into the local grid. The rates for commercial and private interests are 13.5 cents per kilowatt hour for on-shore wind farms and up to 80.2 cents for solar power. These rates are guaranteed for 20 years, dramatically lowering the uncertainty around the payback timescales for renewable energy. While Loblaws and the office of the Minister of Energy declined to comment on the details at this time on the deal, industry experts told the media that Loblaws will be installing solar panels on the roofs of many of its stores across Ontario. The Ontario Power Authority, which oversees the feed-in tariff program for the provincial government, said that the response to the program has been far better than expected, and that it has been overwhelmed with both private and public requests for participation in the program. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE:  China and India have formally joined the Copenhagen Accord on climate change. Both countries have informed the United Nations that they can be included on the list of nations that agree to the non-binding Copenhagen Accord, which aims to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In joining the accord, China has agreed to try and reduce its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent of 2005 levels by 2020. Likewise, India will aim for a reduction of 20 to 25 percent by the same benchmarks. It remains to be seen how closely China and India will be able to achieve their targets, as the accord is non-binding and vague on details. The Copenhagen Accord was drafted at the UN Climate Change Conference last December, and is widely regarded as a failure for being unable to produce a binding successor agreement to the Kyoto Treaty, which will expire in 2012. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE:  The government of The Maldives has announced that it is turning its territorial waters into a shark sanctuary. The 90,000 square kilometres that comprise the waters owned by the tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean will be off-limits to shark fishing. In addition, the country will outlaw the import and export of shark fins; a lucrative business that has been devastating to shark species. The move follows a similar one by country of Palau, an island nation in the South Pacific. In a press release following the declaration, a spokesman for the Pew Environment group applauded the move stating: ”Countries are beginning to recognize just how important vibrant shark populations are to healthy ocean ecosystems, and to their ecotourism industries.” [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE:  In a related story, the United Kingdom is moving closer to creating a vast marine reserve of its own. The Chagos Archipelago, located in the Indian Ocean just south of The Maldives is a British foreign territory and is home to some of the most pristine coral reefs in the world. The UK has just completed its 3-month public consultation on the idea, and is now considering creating a ‘Chagos Protected Area’, which would turn the archipelago and its waters into a marine reserve completely off-limits to commercial fishing. The proposed reserve would be 544,000 square kilometres: larger than the UK itself. Though conservation groups around the world are pushing for the designation, the move is controversial due to the displacement of the islands’ former inhabitants, who have been pushing to return. The islands had been inhabited since the 18th century when French coconut plantations were set-up there. The local residents were removed from the islands in the 1960s, however, by the British government to make way for an American military base. Since then, the former inhabitants, most of whom have relocated to Mauritius, have been fighting to be allowed to return. They fear that the creation of a marine reserve would prevent them from ever being able to return, and that the creation of the reserve is being done without their consent. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE:  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has ordered an independent review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. The IPCC was created by the UN to collect and analyze global climate research and to produce reports on climate change for use by the UN and world governments. Lately, the IPCC has fallen under criticism following revelations that its 2007 report contained inaccuracies and errors. The report’s chapter on the retreat of Himalyan glaciers due to climate change was specifically singled out for being poorly cited and for drawing exaggerated conclusions. This has served to undermine the authority of the IPCC the veracity of its reports. The UN has called on the InterAcademy Council, an organization comprising science institutes around the world, to put together an independent review of the IPCC and make recommendations to restore credibility to the panel. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon sought to point out that although there were problems with portions of the report, the science behind climate change remains sound. In a statement, Secretary Moon stated: “Let me be clear: the threat posed by climate change is real. Nothing that has been alleged or revealed in the media recently alters the fundamental scientific consensus on climate change.” The independent review is expected to be completed by August of this year. [ index ]

Tyler Irving: On Tuesday, about 1000 demonstrators gathered outside Queen’s Park to protest the construction of new natural gas power plants in Oakville, just west of Toronto. The plants are scheduled to be built just off Royal Windsor Drive in the southeast part of the city. That would put them less than 400 metres from a residential neighbourhood that includes a school.

The protest was organized by a group called “Citizens for Clean Air” and was attended by many public figures, including Oakville’s mayor Rob Burton, Toronto Argonaut Michael “Pinball” Clemons, and Liberal MPP Kevin Flynn. Mr. Flynn said his boss, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, is willing to take a second look at the issue. Mr. Flynn also said he will introduce a private member’s bill next week that will create a 1.2 km buffer zone between any new power plant and residential buildings. However, the law would only apply to new projects, and would not stop the Oakville plant.

Premier McGuinty told reporters that while it’s always a challenge to find sites for power plants, the province needs the new generation and that the plant will go ahead as scheduled. He said his main focus is addressing the public’s concerns over safety and health effects. That may prove difficult; many protesters cited an explosion that occurred a few weeks ago at a natural gas power plant in Connecticut, killing 5 people. If the plant goes ahead, it is expected to be operational by 2014. [ index ]

Shak Haq: Wednesday’s speech from the throne referred to a “commitment to principled policy, backed by action …” regarding climate change. However, few measures were mentioned directly in the federal budget announcements related to reducing Canada or the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The “Next Generation Renewable Power Initiative” aims to set aside $100 million over four years for clean energy projects in the forestry sector. The government will put $18.4 million over two years into Canada’s annual reporting on environmental indicators and $8 million annually for an ongoing program to protect the Great Lakes.

However, other environmental programs are set to lose funding. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency will no longer conduct assessments on major energy projects, if they are already undergoing review by the National Energy Board and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The production incentive for producers of clean energy such as wind and hydroelectricity is not being renewed. Climate Action Network Canada had estimated Canada should be spending $320 million to $420 million a year over the next two years to comply with the promise it made at the Copenhagen climate talks to help the developing world cut emissions. That promise was reiterated in the throne speech, but no money was earmarked in the budget.

Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, did not mention climate change at any point in his budget speech despite him describing it in the past was one of the major challenges of the age. [ index ]

Tyler Irving: Almost two years after the death of 1600 ducks at a tailings pond operated by Syncrude Canada Ltd., the trial is underway.

On April 28, 2008, Todd Powell, a senior wildlife biologist working for the Alberta government, was called to Syncrude’s Aurora site, just outside Fort McMurray. He discovered hundreds of ducks covered in bitumen that floated on the top of the tailings pond, which itself was filled with toxic effluent. While workers at the site were able to rescue and clean three of the ducks, the rest either drowned, were killed by predators, or were euthanized by Mr. Powell. Pictures taken by Mr. Powell appeared in court this week.

Syncrude is charged being negligent and failing to protect migratory birds under both federal and provincial legislation. Robert White, a lawyer for the company, argues that the ducks were migrating earlier than usual that year, and that a freak snowstorm prevented the deployment of scarecrows and air cannons that are normally used to scare birds away from the site. Those measures are now employed year-round. Mr. White characterized the situation as mistake from which the company has learned, rather than a crime for which it should be punished. Syncrude pleaded not guilty to the charges last fall.

Two months of time are reserved for the trial, which is taking place in St. Albert, Alberta. If convicted, Syncrude could face fines of up to $800,000. [ index ]

Shak Haq: Every spring, a hunt on black bears and grizzly bears takes place near Vancouver Island. Kermode bears, also known as Spirit bears, are white-coated genetic variation of black bears. Their population is concentrated in an area known as the Great Bear Rainforest, on the central coast north of Vancouver Island. Approximately one in 10 black bears carry the recessive gene that would give their cubs white fur. Although hunting is allowed in only 2 per cent of the rainforest, hunters can legally shoot black bears, which could include those carrying the recessive gene.

Official estimates of the Spirit bear population are around 400, however according to Doug Neasloss, a bear viewing guide, he estimates the population to be around 200. Neasloss claims shooting the bears is fairly easy in the rainforest as bears are accustomed to a human presence due to the tourists that pass through.

Using media momentum from the Olympics, a collection of environmental groups from Canada, Sweden, Croatia, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and the U.S. bought full-page ads in local Vancouver newspapers decrying the bear hunt. The ads read: “There is one sport that British Columbia does not want the world to know about,” which is written over a picture of a grizzly bear with a bull’s-eye on its shoulder.

The bear hunt sparks controversy because of declining bear populations that were thought to be linked to poor salmon runs. A coastal grizzly and black bear study will resume this spring after the bears emerge from hibernation. [ index ]

Tyler Irving: On Monday, British Columbia’s Information & Privacy Commissioner ruled that records of sea lice infestations in salmon farms could no longer be kept private. The ruling was welcome news to environmental groups such as the T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation and Ecojustice, who have been trying to get access to the records since 2004.

The data on sea lice infestations was initially gathered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands from visits to open-net salmon farms along the province’s West Coast. Despite Freedom of Information requests from environmental groups, the Ministry chose not to release the data to the public. The Ministry said that the companies have supplied the information in confidence and disclosure could bring harm to them. This sentiment was echoed by the salmon farming company Mainstream, who said that environmental groups would distort the data and use it to destroy their reputation. Many environmental activists suspect that sea lice that breed on salmon farms contributed to the disappearance of about 10 million wild salmon that were due to return to their breeding grounds last summer. However, the Commissioner ruled that possible misuse or distortion is not a valid reason to withhold data from the public.

Other companies, such as Marine Harvest, already post sea lice data on their website, and have no plans to challenge the ruling. The Ministry has 30 days to either make the data available to the public, or challenge the commissioner’s ruling in court. [ index ]

Shak Haq: The Durham Region’s plan for a $272 million energy-from-waste facility continues to move forward after the Ministry of the Environment released its environmental assessment study deeming the project as favourable. This facility marks the province’s first energy-from-waste facility in 20 years and would burn about 140,000 tonnes of trash a year. It is a joint project with York Region and would be built near Courtice Rd. and Highway 401.

Newcastle family physician Debra Jefferson is among the opponents to this plan. According to Jefferson, health and air quality will be affected ultimately leading to increased cancer rate, reproductive problems, learning disabilities, and premature death. Jefferson states that the Durham Region already suffers from the second highest incidence of asthma in Ontario.

The Ministry called the facility a “benefit” to communities and claimed, “any potential negative impacts will be minimized and managed.”

However, according to Newcastle resident and educator Wendy Bracken, only a handful of pollutants would be monitored, the most harmful of those being measured once a year. She noted that the Halton Region decided against an incinerator because of the potential negative effect on the community’s health.

Despite heated opposition to the facility, residents have found no support from their political representatives at all levels. After a period for public comments ending on April 2, the proposal goes back to the Ministry of the Environment for final approval. [ index ]

Tyler Irving: Last week, Montreal-based waste-to-fuel company Enerkem Inc. announced a partnership with Waste Managment Inc. to finance expansion of its operations.

Enerkem uses a proprietary thermo-chemical process to generate ethanol from waste products. Currently, its main feedstock is old telephone poles, but the technology could be adapted to use other forms of municipal waste, including some non-recyclable plastics. Currently, the company operates one plant in Westbury, Quebec, but it has plans to create a new facility in Edmonton in the coming year, and has also reached a deal with the United States to open a plant in Mississippi.

Although the latest $50 million investment was a joint venture between many firms, the involvement of Waste Management is significant. The Houston-based company is the North American leader in collection, transportation, and storage of waste. Currently Waste Management own and operates 273 landfills across the continent, and is increasingly investing in waste-to-fuel operations like Enerkem. It already harvests natural gas from 115 of its sites, and aims to add 55 more in the coming months. [ index ]

Shak Haq: Commercial honeybee colonies on southern Vancouver Island are dying off at alarming rates this past winter leaving beekeepers in the region scrambling to rebuild their devastated stocks in time for spring. According to Stan Reist, president of the B.C. Honey Producers Association, approximately 90-per-cent of the colonies have been lost. Many beekeepers are blaming the varroa mite, a parasite that began afflicting the Vancouver Island bee population around 1997, but this has yet to be confirmed as the cause for the recent declines. In 2007, the Island’s bee population was hit hard where about 65 per cent of hives died off. The number of commercial colonies has since dropped from 12,000 to 2,000. Part of the challenge for beekeepers is that the mites have developed a resistance to pesticides. Some beekeepers limited their losses to about 30 per cent last season by using organic acids to battle mite infestations.

These losses have left beekeepers looking to New Zealand and Chile for imported bees. However, Sol Nowitz, owner of Jinglepot Apiaries in Nanaimo, said bees imported from the southern hemisphere lack the genetic resistance to cold and disease they need for long-term survival in Canada. Mr. Nowitz, who has lost close to 260 of his 275 hives since 2007, called on the province to allow island apiaries to import “breeder queens” from elsewhere in Canada.

The bee colonies on the Island have suffered in recent years due to less than ideal climate conditions. The cold, wet winters weaken the bees’ resistance to disease and the hot, dry summers limit the amount of nectar blossoms can produce. When the quantity of nectar returning to the hive is low, the queens cut back on laying eggs as they would not be able to feed a larger colony. [ index ]

Bryant Boulianne: ##ibodyp1## [ index ]

Bryant Boulianne: You may have already heard of the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’: the giant swath of ocean in the North Pacific where floating plastic garbage has been accumulating for decades. But now, it’s becoming apparent that the Atlantic Ocean has a garbage patch of its own. The Pacific garbage patch is located within the North Pacific gyre; a circular ocean current which has acted to funnel floating debris into its centre. First predicted in the late 1980s, research over the last decade has shown that the patch has accumulated plastics and other floating garbage to high levels. Now, Karen Law, an oceanographer at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole in the United States has looked over 22 years’ worth of data from plankton nets trawled in the North Atlantic to get an idea of garbage accumulation. Her results have found that in certain areas there are as many as 200,000 bits of garbage per square kilometre. Though some of the garbage is in the form of large pieces of debris, the majority is in the form of tiny particles of plastic that have broken down over time. This is worrisome to environmentalists, as tiny plastic particles are consumed by marine animals, allowing toxic chemicals to enter the food chain. This new research highlights the growing problem of ocean pollution. [ index ]

Bryant Boulianne: While the rest of the world is working hard to increase energy production from renewable sources, the Czech Republic may have to slow down, for the time being. The amount of electricity generated from solar power has increased in leaps in bounds in the Czech Republic, increasing by nearly 1700% from 2007 to 2008. This huge expansion of solar energy is in part due to the country’s innovative incentive program. While many countries offer tax incentives to get people to install solar panels to help power their own homes, the Czech government actually pays for any excess electricity exported to the power grid. This essentially means that homes and businesses can become mini-power generators if they can generate more electricity than they need. The bumper crop of solar energy that has ensued has engineers worried that the country’s current energy grid will be overloaded beyond capacity. This has led the state energy body to call for a suspension of new wind and solar connections to the grid until infrastructure upgrades can be made. [ index ]

Bryant Boulianne: A commonly used herbicide can change the gender of frogs, this according to a new study published in the journal PNAS. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that frogs housed in water contaminated with the herbicide atrazine began behaving abnormally. Some of the frogs, all of which were male, began behaving like females; even going so far as attempting to mate with other males. Further investigations found that some of these ‘feminized’ frogs generate viable eggs and were able to reproduce with other males. Of note is that the concentration of atrazine used by the researchers is comparable to what can be found in run-off from agricultural areas, and the effects on frogs occurred at concentrations less than the recommended limit for drinking water imposed by Health Canada. The herbicide was banned in Europe in 2004 due to evidence that it was contaminating and persisting in groundwater. It is legal for use in the US and Canada and remains one of the most commonly used herbicides worldwide. The study raises the question of what potential health effects atrazine may be having on human populations. [ index ]

Bryant Boulianne: The United States has declared that it will support a trade ban on the Atlantic bluefin tuna. This comes two weeks after France added its support to the growing number of nations in support for such a ban. Proponents argue the ban is needed in order to save the Atlantic bluefin tuna population from collapse. Such a ban on the fishery would take effect by listing the bluefin tuna as an appendix 1 species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES. An appendix 1 listing would essentially prevent signatories from commercially selling the bluefin tuna. The 175 member nations of the CITES treaty will be meeting in Qatar later this month, and a two-thirds majority would be needed to approve the listing. A growing number of scientific and environmental groups have voiced concern that imminent action is needed to prevent the complete collapse of the Atlantic bluefin tuna, which has seen its numbers dwindle to critically low numbers over the last forty years. The new statement of support by the US has provided a huge boost to the bloc of nations hoping to get the listing approved. A notable opponent of such a move is Japan, which constitutes about 80% of the bluefin market. Japan has stated its intention to ignore such a ban if it is implemented. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: On Wednesday, Conservative MP Maxime Bernier publicly added his name to the list of the world’s remaining climate change sceptics. In an opinion piece published in the French-language Montreal newspaper La Presse, Bernier stated that it is possible to be “sceptical, or at least keep an open mind, on almost all the crucial aspects of the global warming thesis.” He also applauded what he calls the “moderate” position of the federal government with respect to taking action on carbon emissions.

Opposition MPs and activists were quick to try to connect Bernier’s position with that of his superiors. The Green Party’s Elizabeth May wrote a letter to La Presse in which she states that the federal conservative government “does not believe the climate crisis is real.” Comments from both the Bloc Quebecois’ Gilles Duceppe and Liberal environment and energy critic David McGuinty asserted that Bernier trying to justify his government’s inaction on climate change, possibly as a way of getting back into cabinet. Bernier resigned as Foreign Affairs minister last spring after a scandal involving secret documents left at his ex-girlfriend’s house.

Bernier himself says that nobody in the Prime Minster’s Office saw the letter before he sent it. PMO spokeperson Dmitri Soudas said that while backbench MPs have the right to their view, his government is committed to solving the global climate change problem. As yet, the federal government has still not released any concrete plan to meet its carbon emission target of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020.
 [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: A Toronto eco-club has sets its sights on urban maple trees and other underappreciated urban agriculture possibilities. Group “Not Far From the Tree” which started in 2007 wants to encourage Torontonians to take part in their project which among other things seeks to utilize Toronto maple trees to make syrup for fun and education about different ways about looking at urban agriculture opportunities. In addition to looking at urban maple trees, the group picked 1,362 kilograms of fruit from urban trees and plants in 2008, and made it up to 3,690 kilograms last year of sweet and sour cherries, serviceberries, mulberries, apricots, plums, crab-apples, pears, sumac, elderberries, apples black walnuts and ginkgo nuts. This year they are focusing on bringing maple tapping into their program with the “We’d Tap That” initiative based on similar projects in Halifax, Brooklyn, and Boston. Volunteers pick the fruits that would largely normally simply fall on the ground and go to waste and divide the spoils up among volunteers, tree owners, food banks and local restaurants. The city of Toronto’s urban forestry department normally turns down requests to tap maple trees because they are worried that in addition to the other stresses on the trees due to their difficult urban environment might be too much street to the trees and damage or kill them. However the groups is still hopeful they can win the regulatory body over by working with them during the process, and has been using careful maple tapping procedure developed by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: A University of Alberta scientist has charged that the city of Winnipeg is wasting millions of dollars by trying to remove nitrogen from its wastewater. Speaking at a meeting of city council last Tuesday, Prof. David Schindler says the city should instead focus on removing phosphorus, as it is the real cause of the algal blooms that threaten the ecology of Lake Winnipeg.

Algal blooms occur when cities or industries discharge nutrient-laden water into lakes, rivers, or streams. The sudden growth and subsequent decay of algae can lead to depleted oxygen levels, killing fish and other organisms. In 2003, the province of Manitoba ordered Winnipeg to reduce both its nitrogen and phosphorus output to the lake. The city is in the midst of a decade-long, multi-billion dollar process to upgrade its wastewater treatment facilities.

However, Prof. Schindler, who studies the ecology of lakes, says that the main problem in Lake Winnipeg is a particular kind of blue-green algae, which are also known as cyanobacteria. These organisms can get their own nitrogen from the atmosphere, and so nitrogen removal will have little effect on them. Terry Sargent, head of Manitoba’s Clean Environment Commission, said that while that may be true, high nitrogen levels are still toxic to other organisms in the lake. Regardless of the outcome, Prof. Schindler says it will take decades before nutrient levels in the lake return to natural levels. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: The controversial Porter Airlines expansion is ready for business this week, with its new $50 million dollar expansion. The first phase of the new terminal will be ready to go this week, which will expand service at the city centre airport to an expected 1.3 million passengers this year alone from the Toronto Islands. By the end of this year the airport hopes to handle up to 120 flights a day from the island. At the announcement this week Porter CEO Robert Deluce proudly proclaimed “We’ve invested significantly here, we’re here for the long run”. Many city groups however are less than thrilled about the massive expansions at the airport. Waterfront residents have been complaining about the increasing noise and pollution from the airline, as well as CommunityAIR a grassroots group organized around opposing the expansions. CommunityAIR put out its own press release seeming to show that Porter’s average passenger load was only about 50% for its New York run and less than 20% on its Chicago flights since they started. In addition to CommunityAIR’s concerns that noise and air pollution will continue to unfairly affect waterfront residents, the group put out the passenger averages to put forward concern that the airline may eventually need to move its service to Pearson if it continues to maintain low passenger to flight ratio’s, leaving a derelict, expensive and partially taxpayer funded monstrosity on the Toronto waterfront skyline in the future. Porter responded by insisting that its other runs held much better seat ratio’s but declined to provide any data to the fact. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson is hoping that record ridership of public transit during that city’s Olympic Winter Games will translate into more funding from the province. In a statement released on Wednesday, Robertson said that many of the people now using public transit are doing so for the first time, adding “We’ve shown that if you build it, they will come.”

During the two-week sporting event, ridership of the SkyTrain’s Canada Line, which opened last August, peaked at nearly 290,000 trips per day, more than three times its normal level. Bicycle traffic on the city’s major bridges has approached summertime levels, while the two-stop Olympic Line streetcar is logging over 20,000 trips per day.

Depite the record success, TransLink, the regional transit service provider, is wondering how it will proceed after the games are over. The provincial budget is set to be delivered two days after the closing ceremonies. British Columbia is dealing with a projected deficit of $2.8 billion. Meanwhile, TransLink itself is set to lose $17 million in funding contributed by Olympic organizers, and is already trying to deal with a budget shortfall of over $100 million. TransLink has already said that service will not be maintained at the levels seen during the Winter Games, but it is anticipating that the positive experience many riders have had will translate to more ridership in the months to come. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Students and industry are teaming up with the help of NGO’s to advance energy efficiency in the GTHA. The new Co-Op program is called Partners in Project Green and is led by the Toronto Airport Authority and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. The project will put professors and students from several Toronto area colleges and universities along with efficiency experts and industry representatives to tackle energy efficiency opportunities in Toronto. The program will especially focus on engineering technology co-op programs at schools such as Seneca College, Humber College and University of Waterloo. The program will focus on teams of students with energy efficiency professionals supervising exploring innovative energy efficiency solutions on a variety of industry sites across the GTA to develop and implement solutions to a variety of problems. Energy efficiency and energy recapture strategies are widely cited by energy experts as one of the largest if not the largest untapped energy cleaning opportunities in developed nations, with far greater potential to reduce energy consumption overall with current technology than other options to reduce emissions in North America. While numbers vary wildly depending on the source, estimates range from 20% to 75% energy consumption reduction is possible due to energy efficiency strategies alone in many instances. Many well known environmental advocacy groups such as Greenpeace international, the Pembina institute, the David Suzuki Foundation and WWF have all made energy efficiency major parts of nearly all of their energy policy platforms. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: Natural Resources minister Christian Paradis has confirmed that plans to restructure Atomic Energy of Canada Limited are well underway. The minister spoke at the annual meeting of Canadian Nuclear Association on Wednesday. Although he did not say when a decision on whether or not to privatize the Crown corporation’s reactor division will be taken, he did say said there was pressure from stakeholders to move quickly.

AECL has fallen on troubled times in the last few years. In addition to multiple shutdowns of its Chalk River nuclear facility for repairs, it also recently lost a bidding process to build two new nuclear reactors in Ontario. The province said that the $26 billion price tag was too high, and instead decided to spend $300 million to keep its Pickering reactor operational until 2020, at which point it will close. Ontario Energy minister Brad Duguid says that his government remains committed to building new reactors in the province, but negotiations toward a cheaper deal with AECL have been bogged down by uncertainty over the corporation’s future. Last December, the federal government invited private companies to express their interest in buying out the reactor division. The move was criticized by opposition parties who argue that the federal government should maintain some control over the pioneering nuclear corporation. Meanwhile, environmental groups argue that renewables such as solar, wind or biomass energy can provide the power than Ontario will need, without having to resort to new reactors. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Provincial energy regulators notified the media that a natural gas fire ignited this week at a Alberta oil field. Experts from the provincial energy agency told the media that the fire would probably burn for several days before fire officials figure out how to put out the blaze. Preliminary official reports state that the fire is likely being sustained by a natural leak of natural gas from the oil extraction projects. Bob Curran from the Energy and Resources Conservation Board told reporters that air monitors at the site had not detected any “sour gas” from the location of the fire. Sour gas refers to any natural gas that contains life threatening levels of hydrogen sulphide, a toxic gas that can have dangerous health effects for humans and many other animals. Mr. Curran reported that the gas leak was very similar to the same gas that is used for residential heat and power generation, and is nothing that should be of concern to residents, and cautioned against alarmism, warning that claiming that there was any danger from the leak was irresponsible. Some residents in the area, including a man who lives at the same farm as convicted oil-patch bomber Weibo Ludwig, told reporters that the officials were downplaying the health consequences of the blowout and fire, but no evidence has come forward to counter the official report at this time on which to base such an accusation. Canadian Natural Resources is investigating the blaze, but they and the local RCMP said that there were no suspicious circumstances, and that there investigation was limited to natural causes at this time. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: A top Japanese U.N. delegate has stated that his country plans to ignore a trade ban on Bluefin tuna should the tuna be granted most-endangered species status.

Masanori Miyahara, Japan’s top delegate toe the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, was interviewed by the New York times and quoted as saying that Japan “would have no choice but to take a reservation” – that is, to ignore the ban and leave its markets open to bluefin tuna imports.

Mr. Miyahara contends that the U.N. convention is the wrong forum to discuss such a ban, that it instead should be debated within a different organization – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. A formal proposal for the ban is scheduled for next month in Doha, Qatar and requires the approval of 2/3 of the 175 member countries.

Japan currently consumes 80% of the bluefin tuna caught in the Mediterranean. However, whereas France – home to the largest Mediterranean bluefin fleet – has said it was willing to support the proposed ban, Japan is worried that once the tuna put on the endangered species list, it will likely never be removed. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: The Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 on Wednesday to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant after 2012. The Senate cited radioactive leaks, misstatements in testimony by plant officials and other problems in its decision.

The decision, the first by a state government in more than 20 years, came just a week after President Barack Obama announced a federal loan guarantee of $8.3 billion for the construction of a new plant in Georgia.

Vermont’s Republican governor Jim Douglas commented, somewhat passive aggressively, “It’s ironic that at the same time the presdient is advancing a strong commitment to nuclear energy, that we’re taking a step in another direction here.”

In 2007, the 38 year-old Yankee reactor reported leaks of tritium – a radioactive isotope of hydrogen – as well as the collapse of a cooling tower. In addition, Plant officials had testified under oath to two state panels that there were no buried pipes in the reactor that could leak tritium, at the same time underground leaks were discovered. The reactor is owned and operated by Lousiana based nuclear operator Entergy.

Under Vermont state law, both the state senate and house must grant an extension to the reactor’s license in order for it to continue operating. Therefore, even though Entergy released a statement saying “We remain determined to prove our case to the legislature”, meaning the house, in fact the senate would have to reverse it’s decision to change the outcome as it stands now. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: The Hummer, long the canonical example of the inefficient gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle, has just been declared fuel efficent by the Japanese government. As a result, any consumer who buys a Hummer H3 model is now eligible for a $3,000 canadian subsidy under the new fuel-efficiency standard.

The change is likely correlated with Detroit automaker’s complaints that no american cars were eligible under the previous efficiency standard, while 9 in 10 Japanese-made vehicles were. Japanese officials responded that this was because American cars simply did not make the grade, which was in turn rebutted by American arguments that standards were tilted in favour of Japanese-made vehicles, focusing more on pollution at low speeds and in stop-in-go traffic.

Furthermore, Americans were rankled by the fact that whereas Japanese brands accounted for over half of sales under the United State’s cash for clunkers program, the Japanese market is essentially closed to foreign vehicles, accounting for less than 4% of all domestic sales.

The Hummer H3 has made the efficiency grade because of it’s enormous weight, averaging 6.5 km/liter in city traffic at a hefty 2 tonnes. Less than 800 were sold last year in Japan. [ index ]

DYLAN JERVIS: The United Nations released a report this week outlining the problems, and opportunities, arising from the recycling of electronic scrap metal, or e-waste as it is termed.

According to the report, released Monday at a meeting of environmental officials from 140 countries in Bali, Indonesia, more than 40 million tonnes worth of electronics are trashed each year. However, because a mining company is required to move roughly 1 tonne of ore for every 1 gram of gold found – the same amount present in just 41 cell phones – a huge opportunity exists for “urban mining”, suggests Rudiger Kuhr. Mr. Kuhr, executive secretary of the Solving the E-waste Problem Initiative – a group of non-governmental organizations, private companies, and governments contends that recycling these materials would not only assist in preserving the earth’s stock of raw materials, but would offer a much higher yield as well.

In 2008, it cost 2.7billion euros to buy the gold, silver, copper, palladium and cobalt used to manufacture computers across Europe. However, the dollar value of gold, silver and palladium lost due to e-waste during the same period was upwards of 5 billion Euros. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: A recently completed internal audit of the New Substances Assessment of Control Bureau shows that there are loopholes in Canada’s process for regulating and monitoring potentially harmful products. The bureau, a section within Health Canada, has a timeline by which it must respond to requests for approval for products to be sold in Canada. However the recent audit shows that if the bureau cannot respond to a submission of a chemical within 75 days, (120 days for organisms) that chemical is automatically authorized to be sold and used within Canada. It has also been shown that it is bureau policy to also add the item to a Domestic Substances List of about 23,000 chemicals that can be legally used in Canada, despite potentially never being tested due simply to a statute of limitations scenario. Earlier internal audits of Health Canada’s programs had identified some of these shortcomings, and some issues have been dealt with to varying success. One policy to deal with the shortfalls was a “triage” system where items that were suspected of being higher likelihood dangers were processed with priority status, but the recent audit found that there was no official documentation of policies about how it was to be carried out, the selection process for this policy was undocumented, and there was no conformity between testing groups. Due to the loopholes the audit found that it was certainly possible that dangerous products have been given a Health Canada label of approval, and no mechanism exists to determine how often this has occurred. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  PEI has been collecting proposals for renewable energy. The province’s main electricity provider, Maritime Electric, will take the next month to review the six proposals and decide which company will develop $200 million dollars worth of renewable energy infrastructure. Maritime Electric opened the market for alternative energy proposals in an effort to create renewable energy that is cost effective with the overall goal of making P.E.I energy independent. The company announced months ago that it would be accepting ideas for expanding the electricity capacity of the island by 130 megawatts, all from renewable sources. An estimated 30 MW will be used on PEI itself while the other 100 will be exported to other provinces for expected revenue of $1.5 million.

The vast majority of the proposals were for wind farms. One Dutch based company estimates it will be able to generate all 130 MW with 52 windmills. Currently, renewables account for 15 per cent of the Island’s energy supply. With the new projects expected by 2012, roughly a quarter of P.E.I.’s energy will be from wind. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Canadian environmental law group Environmental Defence issued an open letter to Ontario’s premier Dalton McGuinty this week calling for protection for Ontario citizens from SLAPP lawsuits. SLAPP stands for “strategic lawsuits against public participation”. SLAPP lawsuits are characterized their asymmetrical and intimidating nature. They are designed to frighten citizens and NGOs away from protesting particular issues or companies. Environmental Defence said in its statement that SLAPP lawsuits threaten Ontario’s democracy by limiting public protest to those who can afford to fight expensive legal battles. Environmental Defence gathered a list of 60 Ontario groups willing to sign on to its petition, many of whom have been victims of SLAPP lawsuits themselves. One such group is the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment as well as many other groups who opposed development at Big Bay Point on Lake Simcoe and have been taken to court as a result of their opposition. Environmental Defence hopes to push the McGuinty government into accordance with Quebec where similar anti-SLAPP legislation was passed last year. The group’s position was bolstered when the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s Annual Report was released in October, which labelled SLAPPs a threat to public participation and voiced support for the creation of effective laws to prevent them. Currently, half of American states have anti-SLAPP laws on their books. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR: Earlier this week, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that the provincial government will not be providing any funds to help with the operation of Toronto’s public transportation. McGuinty has cited the province’s $25 million dollar deficit as the reason for denying funding for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), and says he will instead be funnelling additional spending into job creation and the economy.

When the city of Toronto released its 2010 budget at the beginning of this week it was seen that the TTC would yet again be the city’s biggest expenditure. Public transportation in Toronto operates for the price of $1.4 billion dollars annually, a price that will absorb 100% of the city’s $119 million dollar surplus from last year’s budget. While transportation fares were hiked in January from $2.75 to $3.00 per ride, the city is still struggling to make ends meet.

In the years leading up to the mid 1990’s the provincial and municipal governments used to split the cost of public transit subsidies evenly. In 1996 under the regime of Premier Mike Harris, the province cut its funding for the TTC, transferring the full cost to the municipality. Since then Toronto has had to apply for provincial bailouts every year to help with the cost and every year until now, the province has always come through with the financial help.

While the province agreed to fund the four public transportation expansion projects underway this year, the province will own the new lines and lease them to the city. There is no sense yet as to what the new lease agreement will look like. Toronto Mayor David Miller has called for a return to the 50-50 split between province and city. Others have called for improving the efficiency within the TTC and/or bringing about a congestion toll for drivers entering the city with the revenue going toward funding public transportation. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: 217 Bruce nuclear power employees may have been exposed to radiation during refurbishment of a disused reactor in late November, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Bruce nuclear power station is on the shores of Lake Huron and now may be home to Canada’s largest human radiation exposure incident. Preliminary reports by the Bruce Power station operator say that it does not look like any of the employees have sustained excessive doses of radiation, but that the company was taking the incident “very seriously”. John Peevers, a Bruce power spokesman, stresses that there did not appear to by any leaks approaching the regulatory limit that would mandate government intervention into the issue. Independent nuclear power watchdog Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission indicated however that the workers were likely exposed to alpha contamination, a very dangerous form of radiation and that they would be discussing the incident with its commissioners it a meeting this week. The CNSC also contradicted Bruce power spokespeople, saying that its calculations indicated that the exposure might indeed have crossed regulatory boundaries. The reactor where the accident occurred has been inoperative since 1997; at the time the plant would have been under the control of Ontario Hydro a provincial utility. Work has been stopped at the plant until the CNSC can complete its review and until the exact exposure to the employees can be determined. CNSC however stresses that there is no danger to the public from this accident, regardless of the outcome of their review. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER:  This week, members of a First Nations coalition on Vancouver Island took part in a hunger strike to bring attention to the issue of Norwegian salmon farming off the B.C. coast. The Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council represents four First Nations groups whose traditional land is on the Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Islands.
Dozens of First Nations and environmental activists participated in the hunger strike for 29 hours to symbolize the 29 salmon farm tenures granted to Norwegian companies, which now make up 92 per cent of the fish farms on the Pacific coast.
Open-cage fish farms have proven to be one of the biggest threats facing wild salmon – because they spread infestations of sea lice. While sea lice occur naturally in the salmon population, the stocking of hundreds of thousands of salmon in small cages in the open ocean provides the ideal breeding conditions for lice. Additionally, 91 per cent of the farmed salmon in the Pacific is actually species of Atlantic salmon, which are much more susceptible to sea lice.

Scientists say that fish farms are particularly detrimental to native salmon because they are typically located in sheltered inlets along migratory routes for young, vulnerable salmon offspring. The feeding activity of sea lice can cause serious fin damage, skin erosion, constant bleeding, and deep open wounds creating a pathway for other pathogens. Often just one or two sea lice on a juvenile salmon can cause death.

The Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council is asking the B.C. government for a moratorium on fish farms and are calling for a public boycott on farmed salmon. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Quebec’s government website is promoting the opportunities of the Alberta tar sands to Quebec businesses, even as Quebec premier Jean Charest calls Alberta an environmental villain over the project. Quebec’s government website has been promoting a trade mission to Edmonton next month for businesses with ads found on the Department of Economic Development, Innovation and Exports. Environmental activists have decried the ad, citing the contradiction of its message with the Premiers public statements at the COP15 meetings in Copenhagen. At the meeting, Charest sought to brand himself a champion of sustainability by fighting Alberta’s dirty energy aspirations. The ad says “The launch of oil sands development projects [offers] business opportunities to seize”, as well as “This is a unique opportunity for businesses to position themselves to establish ties to the big decision-makers of Alberta’s energy sector”. The discovery of the ad was first reported by Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper and has started a wave of internal Quebec political fighting over the alleged double-speak. Opposition Parti Quebecois called the ad the latest example of Quebec’s incoherent approach to climate change as well as accusing Charest of promoting car friendly policies in Quebec while trying to identify himself as an environmental hero in Canada. The Alberta/Quebec political spat over the tar sands has been heating up in recent months. Quebec argues that Alberta should pay a larger portion of the cost of climate change due to the tar sands, while Alberta responds that Quebec should remember how much of its $8 billion dollar a year federal equalization cheque comes from tar sands development. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Progress was made this week for one of B.C.’s top natural environment priorities. A deal was signed between Premier Gordon Campbell and Montana Governor Brian Schweizter that will aim to protect the valley known as the Flathead River Basin in the far southeastern corner of B.C. and northern part of Montana. The basin is considered precious because it is the only low elevation valley in southern Canada not settled by humans and it also holds Canada’s greatest diversity of plant life, according to Sierra Club B.C.

The area has been under repeated threat by coal mine projects and oil and gas development. The new deal puts a ban on any mining in the Flathead River Basin and marks an opportunity for transnational cooperation to preserve the rare ecozone.

Environmental groups say ideally they would like to see the creation of a national park for at least part of the area. They are sceptical that anything less will leave the door ajar for future industry development. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, has announced that he will resign from his post effective July 1st. De Boer will be leaving the post for a job at the global consulting firm KPMG. De Boer had served as Executive Secretary since 2006, and oversaw the Convention during the climate change conference in Copenhagen last December. In his press release, De Boer lamented that the Copenhagen conference “did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms” but expressed hope saying that “the political commitment and sense of direction toward a low-emissions world are overwhelming.” De Boer cited he wanted to step aside to allow UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon to find a successor ahead of a climate change conference taking place in Mexico in November. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: US President Barrack Obama announced yesterday $8.3 billion in Federal loans toward the construction of new nuclear power plants. The loan would fund the construction of two new reactors in Georgia by the Southern Company. If the new projects are approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the new reactors would be the first built in the US in over thirty years. President Obama said these funds are “only the beginning” and it is expected that the US government may allocate a further $36 billion in loans for nuclear projects later in the year. The Obama administration’s investment in nuclear power is part of its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve domestic energy security. Construction of the new facilities is not likely to occur before 2011. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Reduced fog and moisture may threaten redwood forests, according to a new study released by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. The moist, fog-covered forests of the American Pacific Coast are home to the famed redwood trees, among the oldest and tallest on Earth. These trees are adapted to moist, wet summers and do not tolerate prolonged droughts very well. The study investigated historical cloud cover and temperatures to determine the fogginess of the region’s summers. They calculated that fog was 33% more common a century ago than it is today. Though the researchers stated that the impact on redwood forests into the future is unclear, they speculated that their lack of tolerance to warmer, drying climates may put them at risk. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: The amount of electricity generated world-wide by wind-powered sources grew by 31% in 2009 according to the Global Wind Energy Council, the industry’s trade association. The total power output increased by 37.5 gigawatts, bringing the estimated global output to 157.9 gigawatts. That accounts for about 1.5% of global power production. A significant portion of this growth came from China, which is estimated to have doubled its wind capacity in the last year. Steve Sawyer, the Secretary General of the council, was encouraged by the numbers, stating: “The continued rapid growth of wind power despite the financial crisis and economic downturn is testament to the inherent attractiveness of the technology, which is clean, reliable and quick to install.” [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: This week, two Fortune 500 companies announced that they will no longer be using fuel refined from Alberta’s tar sands in their shipping operations. The two companies are Whole Foods Markets, Ltd., an organic foods retailer, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which retails home furnishings. The move is part of a campaign organized by then environmental group ForestEthics. Letters were sent to over 100 companies urging them avoid the use of tar sands fuel, which produces 3-5 times more greenhouse gas emissions than an equivalent amount of traditional fuel. The new policy has its share of critics. Industry experts point out that fuel from the tar sands is routinely mixed with fuel from other sources, making it virtually impossible to tell where a given amount of fuel has come from. Indeed, in some areas, such as the west coast, there are no alternative suppliers of fuel. Others have criticized the companies for avoiding a particular type of fuel when the environmental footprint could be reduced by supplying the products closer to home, rather than shipping from overseas. The companies say they are working with their suppliers to try and make good on the new policies. ForestEthics says it expects more companies to join the boycott in the coming months. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Ontario’s nuclear power mix will remain its current mix for at least a decade due to upgrades and retrofits. The Toronto Star reported that the much older first generation CANDU Pickering reactor would be receiving a decade’s worth of tune-ups which would buy the province time to finalize its decision over building a new reactor at the Darlington site. The much newer Darlington nuclear plant is set to receive upgrades that will extend its lifespan until around 2050. Nuclear power currently provides roughly half of Ontario’s power mix, employees were relieved to hear the news of the retrofits and extensions as nuclear power generation provides around 12,000 high paying, specialized jobs in Ontario. Not everyone is celebrating however, nuclear power in Ontario has been under strong opposition by some segments of the population protesting among other things the highly toxic fuel waste it produces that cannot be properly disposed of. Plans for a new plant at Darlington were put on hold last year by then Ontario Energy Minister George Smitherman due to what was identified as “many billions” over expected costs. Anti-Nuclear groups would like to see the plants shut down, but the Ontario Premier has made it his priority to focus on trying to shut down the provinces much more immediately dirty coal fired power plants. Despite Ontario’s laudable green energy act, renewable energy in Ontario is a long way away from replacing nuclear level base load capacity, and may never be up to the job according to power analysts with the premier’s office. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: After years of pressuring the British Columbia government, environmentalists trying to protect the Flathead Valley from mining operations have got their wish. The provincial government made the promise as part of its throne speech, delivered on Tuesday by BC’s lieutenant governor Steven Point. The move to ban mining development came just weeks after a fact-finding report by two UN world heritage representatives recommended exactly that. The Flathead Valley borders Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park in Montana and Alberta. Created in 1932, Glacier-Waterton was the world’s first international peace park, and was designated a World Heritage Site by the UN in 1995. Environmentalists, such as John Bergenske of the group Wildsight, say that although it would be better to designate the Valley a national park, banning development is the next best thing. However, there is likely to be some backlash from mining companies, some of whom have already spent millions of dollars prospecting and staking claims. It is not yet clear whether these companies will be compensated by the provincial government. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Responding to a call for input, the Green Budget Coalition makes recommendation to the Prime Minister about greening the federal budget. The Green Budget Coalition is one of many umbrella groups that many of Canada’s most prominent environmental groups uses, in this case included groups such as the Canadian Environmental Las Association, the David Suzuki Foundation, Ecojustice Canada, the Sierra Club and the Pembina Institute among many others. The Coalition’s recommendations to the Prime Minister focus on the creation of green jobs of which the plan says they it can generate 8000 new jobs in renewable energy. The plan also seeks to ensure clean drinking water where there is none currently available for millions across Canada, as well as help Canada achieve compliance with its commitment to establish national and regional system of protected areas. The coalition also said that their representatives have been meeting with MPs from all parties and with senior government officials to discuss the recommendations, about which they said they received much support and feel confident that their recommendations will at least be seriously considered when making final budgetary decisions. Coalition representatives said that as they were holding meeting with government representatives that part of their message was to remind the officials of their experiences in Copenhagen for COP15, and apparently made their case that this budget was an excellent opportunity for Canada to reclaim some of its traditional respect on the international stage for the upcoming G-8 and G-20 meetings. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: In a related story, other Canadian Environmental groups have officially put the federal and provincial British Colombia government’s “on-notice” over the state of their endangered species management. The legal notice was issued by several groups, including the Wilderness Committee, which said that, they must immediately rewrite the recovery strategies for 43 endangered and threatened species in BC. The letter was issued in response to a recent Federal Court ruling and a damming document revealed in an Access to Information request that showed that science identified what “appeared to be obvious” about the state of critical habitat for the 43 species despite the government sitting on the information for 2 years and not acting despite its own laws concerning endangered and threatened species habitat protection. Included in the list is habitat that is critical to the Vancouver Island marmot, also known as the Muk Muk, which is the cyber-mascot for this year’s Olympic Winter Games. The groups claim the document proves that government agencies maliciously ignored documentation showing that critical habitat needed immediate protection as per the endangered species act, and refused to act upon it. Recent studies show that as much as 86% of BC species at risk require habitat protection in order to have any hope of surviving and recovering their populations. Groups involved in the ecological fight in BC such as Ecojustice have obtained copies of policy directive from the provincial government that tell recovery teams specifically not to identify critical habitat for species on the species at risk list, thereby conclusively and intentionally violating its own federal Species at Risk Act mandates according to Ecojustice. 88% of BC recovery strategies do not currently identify critical habitat protection. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: The largest climate study ever undertaken in Canada has revealed that Arctic sea ice is thinning faster than expected, and raised the possibility of an ice-free winter as early as 2013. The $156 million project was called the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study; a flaw lead is the scientific term for a gap between sea ice and ice that is fastened to the coast. Over 300 scientists from 27 countries spent the winter aboard the Canadian Coast Guard research vessel Amundsen as part of the International Polar Year. It is the first time that a research vessel has remained mobile in open water over the winter season. The lead investigator on the study was University of Manitoba professor David Barber. He says that part of the reason the ice is melting so quickly is a “domino effect” of interacting ocean and atmospheric systems. For example, more open water leads to more cyclones that drop heavy precipitation in Arctic regions. This snow acts as a blanket, insulating the ice beneath and causing even more melting. The effects of this melt are far-reaching. Marine biologists on the study observed predator species that normally stay further south, while toxicologists showed that as the ice melts, it releases organic pollutants that would have otherwise stayed frozen. According to Dr. Barber, previous models suggested that the Arctic could see an ice-free winter by 2100. However, the best guesses from the current research are that this could happen sometimes between 2013 and 2030.
 [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: On Tuesday, councillors in Halifax Regional Municipality were presented with a report that estimates sea levels in the harbour could rise by up to 73 cm over the next century. The report was put together by municipality staff with support from Natural Resources Canada, Dalhousie University, and the Applied Geomatics Research Group. It estimated the height of sea level rise using data from harbour monitoring over the last 100 years as well as projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It also took into account “subsidence,” a term for the sinking of the earth’s surface relative to sea level. In the Halifax region, this is happening at a rate of 1.6 mm per year. The 73 cm figure is based on the “worst-case scenario” model from the IPCC, known as A1F1. However, Halifax’s supervisor of regional and community planning, Roger Wells, said that current observations show that sea levels are currently even higher than predicted under this scenario. In addition to this, high-water events such as hurricanes and tropical storms could raise the water level more than 2.5 m for brief periods. The reports authors have produced digital elevation maps showing which areas of the city are at the greatest risk of flooding, and are currently conducting a vulnerability analysis of those properties. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Citizens band together to modernize the BC Water Act. 29 non-profit groups, mostly local British Colombia citizen groups endorsed a joint “Statement of Expectations on the Reform of the BC Water Act” on the anniversary of the federal government’s issuance of an inquiry into the Fraser River salmon collapse in 2009. The open recommendation to the BC government was compiled to compliment and encourage the BC governments promise to modernize its water laws, which according to Ecojustice ranks among the worst in North America. Proponents hope that the government will seriously consider their recommendations which would move the water laws from near the bottom of the list of to near the top as far as its environmental protections. Among the recommendations by the group of NGO’s are a suggestion to provide legal protection of in-stream or environmental flows and a cap on water withdrawals from the Fraser River, which would seek to protect the physical, biological and chemical benefits of an ecologically stable water system. One of the key objectives of the recommendation is to monitor and stabilize water temperature that can be highly affected by depth of the water body as temperature has an important effect for salmon habitat such that too warm water can pose a particularly dangerous threat to young salmon. Last year only 7% of the expected 8.7 million salmon returned to the Fraser River causing widespread hunger problems for communities that depend on the fish for sustenance and income as well as economic trouble for large important fisheries in BC.  [ index ]

NAOMI JEHLICKA: Hundreds of sick and starving pelicans continue to wash up along the shores of Southern California. These ailing birds have been appearing in large numbers since mid January and scientists and conservationists alike are grappling with understanding the triggers for this environmental catastrophe. some scientists think that the annual El Nino effect caused a change in water currents and pushed the pelicans’ prey fish out of the pelicans’ feeding area, ridding them of food sources and resulting in starvation. Others blame the larger and ultimately more aggressive Humbolt squid for competing with the pelicans for food. Regardless of the triggers, the sad reality is that conservationists are overwhelmed with the magnitude of pelicans desperately in need of medical attention. “We’re going through about 200 pounds of fish a day,” said Terri Oba, a technician at the Huntington Beach Center, which is a wildlife rehabilitation centre located in Orange County, California. Currently, over 200 pelicans are recovering in this facility with more than 50 new birds arriving daily.
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NAOMI JEHLICKA: Zipping across the Pacific ocean, the Indian government formally announced a moratorium on the launching of its first genetically modified (or “GM”) vegetable to ensure that it will have a minimum impact on the environment. Last year, the government supported research and development into the genetically modified eggplant that would, with the help of Bt corn, be able to withstand India’s adverse weather conditions. Supporters argue that the GM eggplant could not only increase food supply for billions of starving Indian families, but will also increase production and withstand pest invasion. Dissenters are fearful about the possibility of GM eggplants contaminating their organic crops and are also worried that local farmers would become overly dependent on the Multinational Corporations that provide the seeds. During a press conference on Tuesday, Jairam Ramesh, the Indian environment minister, explained to reporters the reasoning behind the moratorium: “It is my duty to adopt a cautious, precautionary, principle-based approach,” he said, “until the tests are done, the country should build a broad consensus to use GM technology in agriculture in a safe and sustainable manner.”
The green majority will continue to closely follow this story with interest and keep you updated with the developments. [ index ]

NAOMI JEHLICKA: And in some truly international news, this past week, 55 countries from all over the world have been busy submitting their national pledges to cut and limit greenhouse gasses by 2020 to The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The national pledges were required as part of the Copenhagen Accord that was negotiated this past December and so far, the pledges received collectively account for over 78 percent of global green house gas emissions. Of the pledges submitted to the Climate Change Convention, Norway’s was the most ambitious. This progressive Scandinavian country volunteered to reduce their GHG emissions 30-40 percent below their 1990 levels, provided that the other major parties pledge commitments that will meet the 2°Celsius target. Following Norway was Japan, which offered a cut of 25 percent below their 1990 levels. The European Union also put forth a significant commitment, offering to reduce their overall emissions by 20 percent of their 1990 levels, and even pledged to increase it to 30 percent provided that other major emitters are willing to show a similar high calibre dedication to curbing climate change. Unfortunately, not all countries put forth significant commitments. Canada is to this date the only developed country that actually reduced its emissions pledge since the 2009 climate change talks, from 20 to 17 percent below 2005 levels, which amounts to a 2.5 percent emissions increase above the 1990 levels. It is now up to eco conscious citizens to encourage their respective government representatives to increase their GHG reduction targets, especially here in Canada. [ index ]