Author Archive

Canada: B.C. needs think globally on climate change, group warns

Globe and Mail: In the grips of a record drought, with our forests burning and our salmon rivers running as warm as tap water, British Columbians are acutely aware that climate change is a big problem. It could be argued the province is doing more than most about it, having implemented a carbon tax as early as 2008, and with Premier Christy Clark last spring appointing a climate leadership team to provide advice on "how to maintain B.C.'s climate leadership." But a new paper by the Environmental Law Centre...

Canada: Tough days for salmon as Fraser River hotter, lower than expected

Globe and Mail: In the annals of climate change you can record another notable event. The Fraser River is running hotter and lower in the first week of July than it usually does in the dead of August. The water temperature is currently about 19 C, the level at which salmon start to show physiological stress, and the flow has dropped to extreme lows. “These flows are definitely lower than anything we’ve experienced and I’d say the temperatures right now are warmer than anything [on record for July],” said Mike...

Canada: New reports shed light Fording River pollution problems

Globe and Mail: The Fording River seems to run through paradise in the wild Canadian Rocky Mountains, but Environment Canada experts say it is so heavily polluted that fish are hatching with terrible deformities and dying by the thousands. Teck Coal Ltd. has long acknowledged their responsibility concerning a pollution problem in the Elk Valley, with the company spending $600-million over the next five years in an unprecedented effort to improve water quality. But two Environment Canada reports prepared as...

Nobel Winner Joins Keystone XL Pipeline Opposition

Globe and Mail: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams and a growing array of entertainers, including Michael Moore, Daryl Hannah and Mark Ruffalo, are adding their voices to a protest against a proposed pipeline across British Columbia. Ms. Williams, an American who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to ban anti-personnel landmines, said at a press conference in Vancouver on Tuesday that a tour along the pipeline route left her convinced that local communities will halt the proposed Enbridge...

Rising temperature in Fraser River affecting salmon population

Globe and Mail: The Fraser River is heating up because of climate change and an increasing number of salmon are dying in the warmer water from diseases or parasites or are simply dropping dead from cardiac collapse, a federal judicial inquiry has been told. Scott Hinch, an expert witness on aquatic ecology, told the Commission of Inquiry Into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River that sometimes 50 per cent of the salmon that return to the river die before they reach the spawning beds. Dr. Hinch...