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Canada defends climate record amidst U.S. Keystone XL protests
Posted by CBC: None Given on February 18th, 2013
CBC: Canada’s government is defending its environmental record as thousands attended a climate change rally in Washington, D.C., with hopes of pressuring U.S. President Barack Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
Environmentalists are staunchly opposed to the planned pipeline, which would carry Alberta oilsands bitumen to refineries along the Texas coast.
They call crude from Alberta's oilsands "dirty oil" and say it contributes to global warming.
Protesters in Washington carried a mock...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Canada defends climate record amidst U.S. Keystone XL protestsKalamazoo Spill Was ‘Most Disgusting Thing,’ Says Michigan Resident
Posted by CBC: None Given on February 1st, 2013
CBC: No one in the small community of Battle Creek, Michigan knew that pipelines ran so close to their homes. That changed whenan Enbridge pipeline burst, spilling more than 3,000 cubic metres of Canadian oil sands bitumen into the Kalamazoo River in 2010. In interviews with CBC Radio One's On the Coast and All Points West, former Battle Creek resident, Michelle Barlond-Smith, says she was tipped off by the foul smell of the spill. "You could smell something," she said, " — combine gasoline, tar, fingernail...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Kalamazoo Spill Was ‘Most Disgusting Thing,’ Says Michigan ResidentWhistleblower Paid Price for TransCanada Pipeline Complaints
Posted by CBC: None Given on October 17th, 2012
CBC: A former TransCanada engineer says he reported its substandard practices to the federal energy regulator because he believed the company’s management, right up to the chief executive officer, refused to act on his complaints.
In an exclusive television interview with CBC News, Evan Vokes said he raised concerns about the competency of some pipeline inspectors and the company’s lack of compliance with welding regulations set by the National Energy Board (NEB), the federal energy industry regulator....
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Whistleblower Paid Price for TransCanada Pipeline ComplaintsEU oilsands policy could spark trade complaint
Posted by CBC: None Given on February 21st, 2012
CBC: Canada has threatened the European Union with action at the World Trade Organization if the bloc's plan to classify oilsands crude as more harmful to the environment than other fuels goes ahead.
David Plunkett, the ambassador to the EU, wrote in a December letter to the bloc's commissioner for climate action that "Canada would not accept oilsands crude being singled out."
"Canada will explore every avenue at its disposal to defend its interests, including at the World Trade Organization," Plunkett...
Australia: Tropical cyclones to cause $109B in damages by 2100
Posted by CBC: None Given on February 2nd, 2012
CBC: Tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages worldwide by 2100 with the United States and China being hardest hit, says a new study.
The figure includes population and economic growth costs ($56 billion) as well as the effects of climate change ($53 billion). All figures are in U.S. dollars.
The estimates are based on a future global population of nine billion and an annual increase of approximately three per cent in gross world product until 2100, according to the study published on...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Tropical cyclones to cause $109B in damages by 2100Replacing crops with trees barely slows warming
Posted by CBC: None Given on June 21st, 2011
CBC: A key climate change reduction strategy recommended by the United Nations won't have much effect on global temperatures, according to a couple of Canadian scientists.
Afforestation involves planting trees over croplands that aren't very productive in order to absorb more carbon dioxide from the air. High emissions of carbon dioxide have been linked to climate change, especially rising average global temperatures.
But even if 100 per cent of the area planted with crops now was gradually replaced...
Climate change, wildfires in vicious cycle
Posted by CBC: None Given on December 11th, 2010
CBC: Northern wildfires and climate change are fuelling each other, a new study shows.
"Increasing temperatures [are] going to result in increasing fire in both Alaska and Canada," says Merritt Turetsky, lead author of the study published this week in Nature Geoscience.
"This results then, according to our data, in more greenhouse gas emissions, which then feeds back to climate warming through the greenhouse effect."
Turetsky, an ecology professor at the University of Guelph, and her collaborators...
Climate change is top fear in North: report
Posted by CBC: None Given on November 16th, 2010
CBC: Northern Canadians are more worried about the impacts of climate change on their communities than the risk of terrorist threats, according to a report on Arctic security by the Conference Board of Canada.
The national policy think-tank's Centre for the North surveyed people across the region for the report, Security in Canada's North: Looking Beyond Arctic Sovereignty.
The report, released Monday, said much of the national discussion about Arctic security deals with Arctic sovereignty, offshore...