Canadian Officials Should Be Ashamed For Attacking Scientists Publish Date: 26-APR-2013 10:41 AM Earlier this week, our Minister for Natural Resources, the Hon. Joe Oliver, went to Washington on what the Canadian media mistakenly insists on calling a "charm offensive."
Pipeline development was ‘top of mind’ in Stephen Harper’s budget bill, say “secret” records Publish Date: 26-SEP-2012 09:46 AM Pipeline development was a “top of mind” consideration factoring into the Harper government’s regulatory reforms adopted in a 400-page piece of legislation supporting the 2012 budget, reveals an internal briefing note prepared for Environment Minister Peter Kent. Nearly one third of the budget legislation was dedicated to changing Canada’s environmental laws, offering new tools for the government to authorize water pollution, investigate environmental groups, weaken protection of endangered species, and limit public participation in consultations and reviews of proposed industrial projects.
Ottawa propose des mesures moins contraignantes sur le charbon (French) Publish Date: 06-SEP-2012 10:12 AM Le document rendu public par le ministre fédéral de l'Environnement, Peter Kent, propose des mesures moins contraignantes que celles contenues dans la version précédente, présentée l'été dernier. De Saskatoon, M. Kent a expliqué que les nouvelles usines de charbon devaient désormais produire moins de 420 tonnes de dioxyde de carbone par gigawatt-heure d'électricité produite. Dans la première version de la réglementation, cette limite était située à 375 tonnes.
Peter Kent says "high end" emission targets for coal power necessary Publish Date: 05-SEP-2012 10:14 AM Coal-fired power plants got more regulatory breathing room than expected to release greenhouse gases Wednesday, something federal Environment Minister Peter Kent says is necessary to protect Canada's power supply.
Alberta : la mine de Jackpine de Shell inquiète des scientifiques fédéraux (French) Publish Date: 26-AUG-2012 10:33 AM Des scientifiques fédéraux ont toujours des inquiétudes à propos de l'agrandissement du projet d'exploitation des sables bitumineux Jackpine de la société pétrolière Shell, alors que le projet doit passer à l'étape des audiences publiques, indiquent des documents.
Green battles damaging economic prosperity, says former Harper strategist Publish Date: 24-AUG-2012 10:38 AM In a wide-ranging interview with Postmedia News, David McLaughlin, a former Harper government staffer who headed the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, suggested that it would be in Canada’s best interests for these groups to learn to work together as they debate major infrastructure projects such as Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline and the development of energy resources such as the oilsands.
Harper government cancels 3,000 environmental reviews on pipelines and other projects Publish Date: 23-AUG-2012 02:48 PM The Harper government’s budget legislation has forced the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to cancel nearly 3,000 screenings into potential environmental damage caused by proposed development projects across Canada, including hundreds involving a pipeline or fossil fuel energy, according to published records.
DFO promises science later, but budget "disembowelled": former officer Publish Date: 19-AUG-2012 02:44 PM While Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the fate of Enbridge's proposed pipeline from the Alberta oilsands to tankers on the British Columbia coast will be based on science and not politics, documents show some of that science isn't forthcoming.And critics say there is no time for the science to be completed before a federal deadline for the environmental assessment currently underway.
Editorial - Ottawa still has a role to play in environmental regulation Publish Date: 09-AUG-2012 02:36 PM In this year’s federal budget, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government outlined a plan to streamline federal and provincial environmental regulations, to reduce overlap and delays in resource development. It’s a sensible premise, but news this week that Ottawa plans to effectively defer to Alberta on greenhouse-gas rules - allowing it to place fewer limits on carbon emissions from oil-sands development than might otherwise be the case - raises concerns about what it will lead to.
Newly released federal documents state Canada needs energy diversity Publish Date: 04-AUG-2012 02:27 PM A dependence on fossil fuel resources is making the country vulnerable to a planetary “mega trend” toward low-carbon energy that “will affect the whole of Canada’s economy,” Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver was told in newly released internal briefing notes.
Climat: une mesure d'Harper trop laxiste, croit Environnement Canada (French) Publish Date: 29-JUL-2012 02:24 PM Environnement Canada craint que les efforts du gouvernement Harper pour encourager ses fonctionnaires à examiner de plus près les risques et possibles répercussions des changements climatiques ne tombent dans l'oreille d'un sourd. C'est du moins ce que révèle une note d'Environnement Canada datée de juillet 2011, et dont La Presse Canadienne a obtenu copie en vertu de la Loi d'accès à l'information. La note d'Environnement Canada révèle toutefois les craintes de l'équipe chargée de l'application du cadre de travail, qui s'inquiète des possibilités que la mesure ne soit reléguée sur une tablette dans certains secteurs du gouvernement ne se préoccupant pas, de façon générale, des impacts environnementaux de leurs décisions.
Scientists warn it’s the ‘new norm’ after worst drought in 800 years Publish Date: 29-JUL-2012 02:20 PM The signs of drought were everywhere, from shrivelled rivers and lakes in the American West to brittle brown lawns and parched farm crops in the Canadian Prairies. Anyone who weathered the stubborn dry spell that enveloped western North America from 2000 to 2004 knows it was harsh, but now a group of researchers has concluded it was the most severe drought in 800 years – bone-dry conditions that the scientists believe could become the “new norm” in this vital agricultural region.
Climate change plan easy for bureaucrats to ignore Publish Date: 29-JUL-2012 02:15 PM Environment Canada is worried that the Harper government's own effort to encourage public servants to more carefully consider the risks and possible impacts of climate change is falling on deaf ears. Internal documents show that the team implementing the plan fears it may be dismissed in some corners of the bureaucracy, since officials won't have to keep track of how their decisions deal with climate-related risks.
Knowing truth tougher without research: is that the PM’s objective? Publish Date: 24-JUL-2012 05:18 AM Earlier this month research scientists in lab coats held a protest lab on Parliament Hill. Their demonstration included a symbolic funeral procession for ‘evidence’ amid Conservative cuts to research funding and federal in-house research capacity. The protest also came on the heels of a federal budget that put the axe to the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE), the First Nations Statistical Institute (FNSI) and the National Council on Welfare (NCW). Taken together, the chop to these three agencies takes just $7.5 million off the federal books – a paltry sum in relation to the value of the public goods they provided and now lost to Canada.
Climate change opens up Arctic fisheries – but should Canada cut bait? Publish Date: 21-JUL-2012 01:02 PM As one of the world’s largest fish and seafood exporters (a business worth $3.9-billion in 2010), Canada might be unique in that the potential fisheries along almost three-quarters of its coastline are largely untapped and unexplored. Until recently, those Arctic marine shores kept many of their undersea secrets well hidden beneath metres-thick ice and at harsh, impassable distances.
La revue Nature dénonce les politiques conservatrices (French) Publish Date: 20-JUL-2012 12:48 PM La très sérieuse revue scientifique Nature s’inquiète que le gouvernement conservateur de Stephen Harper procède à des coupes possiblement idéologiques dans des programmes scientifiques, surtout dans le domaine environnemental.
Harper deploys diplomats to counter U.S. climate change campaign Publish Date: 12-JUL-2012 08:49 AM The Harper government has deployed a network of Canadian diplomats to lobby Fortune 500 companies in the United States in order to counter a global warming campaign launched by an environmental advocacy group targeting the oilsands industry, says a newly-released internal memorandum from Natural Resources Canada.
Dr. Thomas McElroy, Senior Research Scientist, Environment Canada Publish Date: 12-NOV-2010 08:42 AM Dr. Tom McElroy is very active in Canada and internationally on issues related to ozone. He is a co-inventor of the Brewer Ozone Spectrophotometer in use in 41 countries world-wide and is the designer of the 'double Brewer', the most accurate ozone measuring instrument in the Global Ozone Observing System.
Andrew Weaver Publish Date: 20-JUL-2010 01:33 PM Andrew Weaver is one of the world's foremost climate scientists. He was a lead author in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the group that, with Al Gore, won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He is the author of Keeping Our Cool.
Dr. Phillip Reynolds Publish Date: 20-JUL-2010 12:58 PM Phil Reynolds works at the Canadian Forest Service Great Lakes Forestry Centre in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. He has been engaged in climate change research for the past seven years.
Death of Evidence: Birth of a Movement?
Publish Date: 20-JUL-2012 02:05 PM
On July 10th, well over one thousand scientists and their supporters, many wearing their lab coats, marched through the streets of Ottawa and on to Parliament Hill to send a strong message to the federal government.
