If Stephen Harper is anything, he is a shrewd politician—always strategizing. He illustrated this yesterday starting off the new session of Parliament by accusing the NDP of supporting a carbon tax. Thomas Mulcair fell into the trap by immediately denying the NDP was considering any such thing. This accomplishes two
Continue readingTag: environment (the)
Call for international solidarity with Canadian scientists
As the federal government’s assault on science encounters increased resistance from Canadian scientists, the international community increasingly takes notice. In a recent column in The Guardian, science writer Alice Bell suggests that our scientists deserve international support, saying “We can’t pretend Canadian science is simply a Canadian matter any more
Continue readingScientists warn, politicians ignore
The Global Network of Science Academies, representing 105 science academies around the world, issued a press release last week highlighting what they referred to as “two of the most profound challenges to humanity—population and consumption,” and went on to call for “urgent and coordinated international action to address them.” They
Continue readingIf it ain’t one damn thing …
That China’s waterways are badly polluted, is common knowledge. Less well recognized is the increasing pollution of its land. Zhou Jianmin, director of the China Soil Association, reports that, “More areas are being affected, the degree of contamination is intensifying and the range of toxins is increasing.” The main culprit
Continue readingNorthern Gateway and ghosts of the Exxon Valdez
I have been reading Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll, and was captivated by the prologue, which reviewed the Exxon Valdez tragedy. As I read the story, I began to get an uneasy feeling that we may be witnessing history about to repeat itself. Precisely what sent
Continue readingWildlife flourishes in human dead zones
We all know what the big problem with planet Earth is—people. Homo sapiens. The most destructive of species. Ever since we walked out of Africa 70,000 years ago, we have been an enemy of nature. Long before we invented agriculture, we were annihilating other species. The only big land animals
Continue readingSlowing Harper’s rush to environmental ruin
The federal government, it appears, is in a hurry. We cannot exploit the tar sands fast enough and bad guys are getting in the way. In an open letter to Canadians, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver declared, “Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block
Continue readingCalendar note: Sunday, May 22 is the International Day for Biological Diversity
Recognizing that the Earth’s biological resources are essential to humanity’s economic and social welfare, yet species and ecosystems are threatened as never before, the United Nations established The Convention on Biological Diversity in 1993. The C…
Continue readingPembina Institute evaluates party posltions on the environment
For a capsule look at the various parties’ environmental platforms from the perspective of an environmental research group focusing on energy, the Pembina Institute offers the following:
Bloc Québécois:
The party supports a science-based 2020 target…
Bolivia calls on Pachamama to enshrine Nature’s rights in law
According to ancient Andean spirituality, the fertility goddess Pachamama is at the centre of all life. Pachamama has inspired the Bolivian government to pass legislation, entitled the Law of Mother Earth, which will grant all nature equal rights to h…
Continue readingHomo sapiens and the sixth great extinction
What kind of creature are we, we Homo sapiens?
According to a recent study by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, we may be among the half dozen most destructive forces ever to assault life on the planet Earth. Since life began on o…
Continue readingRepublicans wage war on the environment (with a little help from the Democrats)
If anyone still believes we are going to save ourselves from environmental catastrophe, the U.S. Congress is doing its best to disabuse us of our optimism. It has mounted a wholesale effort to preclude any serious efforts by the American government to …
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