Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May. The success rate of private member’s bills in the federal parliament is abysmal. In the 100-plus years since 1910, Ottawa has passed just 271 of them. For comparison, more than 1,600 PMB’s were tabled between 1997 and 2015, and the rate at which they’re being drawn
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reeves report: Climate change could boost visitation to US National Parks by 2060
In silver lining news: the latest report from the U.S. National Park Service has found that increases in global temperature could boost tourism traffic to national parks from Alaska to Guam. The report, released this week in the open access journal PLoS ONE, compared historical monthly mean air temperature information with
Continue readingreeves report: Unreleased government report shows no benefits to neonic use
A honey bee collecting pollin. Environmental group Friends of the Earth Canada are calling on the Ontario government to implement an outright ban on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides after a leaked government report shows no positive economic gains from the pesticide’s use. Draft findings from Canada’s Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency
Continue readingreeves report: Ontario Anti-Fracking Bill Passes Second Reading
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns speaking with reporters at Queen’s Park. (CBC News Image.) A PRIVATE MEMBER’S BILL from Toronto-area NDP MPP Peter Tabuns to ban fracking in the province passed second reading Thursday by a 29-18 vote with support from the governing Liberals. “Water or gas — that’s our choice,” Tabuns explained
Continue readingreeves report: What’s Worth More: Your Time or the Planet?
WAITING FOR THE BUS one morning on your way to work, you realize your reusable travel mug is at home. You’d rather not use another single-use plastic cup, but if you run back to grab it you’ll miss the next bus and be five minutes late for work. Do you go
Continue readingreeves report: Cost of Great Lakes Plastic Clean-Up Could Top $486 Million
SHOULD THE FINANCIAL BURDEN of removing all plastic debris from the Great Lakes fall on the shoulders of the 36 million people within the basin, researchers now have an estimate of the cleanup costs: $486-million (US). Findings from the Ecohydrology Research Group at the University of Waterloo published this month in the Journal of Great Lakes
Continue readingreeves report: Opposition Bill Wants Ontario to Ban Fracking
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns speaking with reporters at Queen’s Park. (CBC News Image.) New Democratic MPP Peter Tabuns introduced a private member’s bill Wednesday encouraging the Liberals to adopt a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the province. Tabuns, a former executive director of Greenpeace Canada and his party’s Environment and
Continue readingreeves report: Toronto Fish Health Improving – But You Can’t Eat Them Yet
Local man fishing in Toronto Harbour. THE LATEST STUDY from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and the University of Toronto analyzed government data on mercury, dioxin/furans and polychlorinated biphenyl(PCB) in local and migratory fish populations from 1975 to 2011. What they found was not surprising, per se, but it did
Continue readingreeves report: Work set to begin on $1.9M Asian carp berm at Eagle Marsh
Entrance to Eagle Marsh in Fort Wayne, Indiana, part of the Little River Wetlands Project. (Andrew Reeves) FORT WAYNE, INDIANA — Recently, I travelled to Eagle Marsh to see first hand what construction of a $1.9 million berm will look like at a vital passageway between the Mississippi River basin
Continue readingreeves report: Waste Mismanagement Leads to Plastic-Filled Oceans
Up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic waste enter the world’s oceans every year, partly due to litter and inadequate waste management. Plastic particles sit in sieves ready for sorting. Photo by Malin Jacob. ROUGHLY 9.1 MILLION tonnes of plastic waste will head from land to sea this year alone in
Continue readingreeves report: Environmental Groups Pin Slim Hopes for Rouge Park Changes to Senate
Rouge Park in autumn. Canada’s Rouge National Urban Park Act began second reading in the Senate earlier this week after sailing through the House of Commons is just six months. Tobias C. Enverga Jr., a Stephen Harper appointed Senator for Ontario, is acting as the bill’s sponsor in the Senate.
Continue readingreeves report: Ontario’s endangered species get their day in court
Endangered American Eel. LAWYERS ACTING ON BEHALF of the Ontario government told the courts last month that Ontario’s endangered species legislation is now only concerned with the most dire of species listed under the law. The Woodland Caribou; the American Eel; the Blanding’s Turtle — these and more than 150 other
Continue readingreeves report: Contentious Rouge Park Bill Passes Third Reading
Despite united opposition against the proposed National Urban Park, Conservative Bill C-40 passed third reading Monday. The legislation is now on its way to the Tory-dominated Senate for further review. Orchard Trail in Rouge Park. The passage of Bill C-40 in Ottawa earlier this week, creating the country’s first National
Continue readingreeves report: Melting Glaciers to Release Billions of Kilograms of CO₂ by 2050
A new study finds sea-level rise isn’t the only thing to fear about melting glaciers. Antarctic Ice Shelf Loss Comes From Underneath by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center \ CC BY 2.0 via Flickr WE KNOW SEA levels are rising as climate change causes glaciers to melt. But it turns out
Continue readingreeves report: Invasive Ash Borer makes leap to new tree
Wright State University biologist shows the invasive Emerald Ash borer, which has killed tens of millions of ash trees across North America in the past decade, has found a new host. Evidence of the damage caused to White Fringetree from Emerald Ash Borer. Image from Cipollini’s report. After decimating tens
Continue readingreeves report: 2014 — Canada’s Year of the Pipeline
Keystone XL wasn’t the only pipeline project to rankle Canadians in 2014. WIDESPREAD PUBLIC DEBATE on building vast networks of snaking energy pipelines throughout Canada dominated the country’s environmental newsreel in 2014, and will continue making headlines in the year ahead. A collection of Canada’s top environmental NGOs told Reeves Report the climate change
Continue readingreeves report: Historic dam latest line of defence against invasive Asian carp
Carp over Barge. (Photo: Dan O’Keefe, Michigan Sea Grant) THE NEXT LINE OF DEFENCE against keeping invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes will come at an 81-year-old lock and dam in Joliet, Illinois, 65 kilometres south of Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan. The Brandon Road dam, listed on the
Continue readingreeves report: Loopholes threaten Ontario Greenbelt
The Greenbelt Alliance wants better protection for the ecologically sensitive area, which remains at risk from sprawl, mega-highways and contaminated soil. Map of Greenbelt and other protected lands in Southern Ontario. SOUTHERN ONTARIO’S 7,200 square kilometre Greenbelt and the prime farmland and headwaters it contains remain at significant risk from expanding
Continue readingreeves report: New ‘Tipping Point’ Model Could Help Predict Species Extinction
Species may be more adaptive to environmental changes than we thought, but small shifts can still be enough to cause extinctions. Snowshoe hares are facing increasing challenges as snow patterns shift dramatically as a result of climate change. ENVIRONMENTAL “TIPPING POINTS” can provide researchers with valuable clues to detect when species
Continue readingreeves report: Hamburg, Illinois man charged selling live Asian carp
A HAMBURG, ILLINOIS man has been charged with possession and distribution of live bighead and silver carp, a felony under United States law. On October 7, 2014, Randall E. Watters was arrested and charged in Calhoun County in the state’s southwest for the unlawful possession and sale of more than
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