Concerned citizens from around Africa and the globe have gathered in Durban South Africa to “Occupy Cop17″, as hopes for a global agreement to address the climate crisis fades. As part of Occupy COP17, participants chanted “down with Canada” outside the official U.N. negotiations. It makes me so ashamed of
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DeSmogBlog: Denial Of Facts Is No Way To Understand Science
On Thursday December 1st, Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente declared herself a defender of scientific integrity by calling upon the scientific community to replace the “rhetoric” of climate change with open, honest debate. According to Ms. Wente, the impacts of climate change remain a future fantasy, unquantifiable by data collected
Continue reading350 or bust: It’s Official: Canada Breaks International Law, Withdraws From Kyoto Protocol
From the Globe and Mail: Environment Minister Peter Kent says Canada is finished with the Kyoto Protocol. Speaking in a teleconference from an international climate-change summit in South Africa, Mr. Kent said Monday Canada will not make a second commitment to Kyoto, which would run from 2013 to 2017. The
Continue reading350 or bust: COP17: Politicians, Get Your Head Out Of The Sands And Lead!
Our eyes on the ground of the Durban climate conference, Ani, updates us from Day 6 of COP17. To read more, visit Ani’s blog at YouthDelegateManitoba.wordpress.com: I could spend my time writing this blog about a draft text for the Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention, which has been circulated
Continue readingDurban hosts: Canada bullying poorer countries to abandon Kyoto protocols
Listen Africa, we’ve got Canadians on their knees. You’re next. Ah, our international prowess once again on display. It’s not enough for our government to bully our Aboriginals, our opposition, our media, our women and our youth. Peter Kent feels it necessary to push our tar sands-based Conservative government’s tragic anti-climate,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Old Talking Points Die Hard: "Climate Change Is Beneficial" Edition
Climate-Change.jpg If you follow the cycle of anti-climate change talking points, you’ll notice a pattern that repeats itself every few years. In between spurts of outright denial, the anti-science crowd will occasionally revert back to a less-heard talking point: Climate change is actually a good thing. Even as the year
Continue reading350 or bust: Tar Nation: Haunting Photos Reveal Rape of Canada’s Boreal Forest
Garth Lenz has spent the last 20 years photographing wilderness and indigenous peoples, focusing particularly on environmental issues, throughout Canada, the U.S., Chile, Ecuador, Borneo, and China. His photos have been published in numerous books, newspapers, and magazines including Time Magazine, B.B.C. Wildlife Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Times
Continue reading350 or bust: Canada, You Were Once Considered A Leader On Global Issues Like Human Rights & Environmental Protection
From Postmedia News: Archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu is challenging the Canadian government’s support for the oil and gas industry, while urging it to start leading the world in addressing climate change as it did in opposing the “whites-only” rule that plagued South Africa in the 1980s. An ad
Continue reading350 or bust: Canadian Youth: We Are Truly Sorry For Our Government’s Stance On Climate Change
Ani, a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation representing Manitoba at the Durban climate conference, will be a regular guest blogger during COP17 in Durban. Ani works as a Public Education and Outreach Coordinator for Climate Change Connection, a project of the Manitoba Eco-Network. To read more about Ani, visit
Continue reading350 or bust: Standing On Guard For The Tar Sands: Canada Wins Two Fossil Awards on Day 1 of Climate Talks
Today’s guest blogger is Ani, a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation representing Manitoba at the Durban climate conference. Ani works as a Public Education and Outreach Coordinator for Climate Change Connection, a project of the Manitoba Eco-Network. To read more about Ani, visit her info page at YouthDelegateManitoba.wordpress.com. While
Continue reading350 or bust: These Are Times That Try Our Souls
At a time during the American Revolution, when things looked very dire, Tom Paine wrote the following (gender-updated language added). As things look mighty dire in Durban right now, this might be appropriate for the current times as well: These are the times that try our souls. The summer soldier
Continue reading350 or bust: COP 17 in Durban – Day 1
Today is the first day of the U.N. climate talks in Durban South Africa. As I wrote earlier, many people’s expectations (including mine) for a meaningful and binding international climate treaty coming out of these 10 days is low. It seems, sadly, that unbridled capitalism will triumph over humanity’s need
Continue readingDo We Need More Proof That Harper Doubts Global Warming?
First we had the cuts to ozone monitoring that saw the shuttering of 17 ozone monitoring stations across Canada. The reason? Ozone apparently wasn’t a concern anymore (see Canada’s newest Ozone hole here). Then we had the sudden (and somewhat expected) cut of 700 jobs from environment Canada (which included Meteorologists, scientists, chemists and engineers). Now we have
Continue reading350 or bust: Bracing For Disappointment As Durban Climate Talks Begin
The annual circus round of global climate talks starts on Monday in South Africa. I wish I was feeling more optimistic about the possibility of elected politicians to come to an agreement that would preserve an admittedly changed, but still relatively stable climate, for future generations. As the IEA reminded
Continue reading350 or bust: Solving The Big Environmental Calamities Requires Measuring, Research, Monitoring
Today’s guest blogger is Graham Saunders. Graham’s weather and climate background includes work with the Australian Weather Bureau, the Atmospheric Environment Service of Canada and forest fire weather prediction for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. He does research and writing for several publications about weather, climate, Lake Superior, agriculture and
Continue reading350 or bust: Mark Ruffalo On Opposing Keystone XL Pipeline: I Look At My Kids and I Say I Can’t Betray Them
I’m looking out the window of my home office today, rejoicing at the sprinkling of snow on the ground. Yesterday rain fell outside, while a confused fly that should have been hibernating buzzed around inside. Both are examples, along with the tem…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Making Global Warming Official
There has been a lot of reluctance to link global warming to the spate of severe weather events our world has experienced in recent years. Nobody wants to tie specific weather events to climate change because, well because they’re weather e…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Daily Show Notes Irony of Koch-Funded Study Affirming Global Warming is Real
Last night's entire first segment of The Daily Show focused on the recent study funded by the Koch Brothers that confirmed (again) that climate change is indeed a reality – an ironic twist given the Kochtopus' track rec…
Continue readingImpolitical: Harper government lets the ozone scientist speak
“Scientist surfaces to praise ozone monitoring amidst federal review.” But he doesn’t speak without buddies on hand! This is a truly memorable picture painted in this report: A senior Environment Canada scientist whose job may be eliminated through bud…
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Climate change sceptic sponsored study group: Global warming is real.
This is very amusing:
The Earth’s surface really is getting warmer, a new analysis by a US scientific group set up in the wake of the “Climategate” affair has concluded. The Berkeley Earth Project has used new methods and some new data, but finds the same warming trend seen by groups such as the UK Met Office and Nasa. The project received funds from sources that back organizations lobbying against action on climate change.
Where did those funds come from?
…Funding came from a number of sources, including charitable foundations maintained by the Koch brothers, the billionaire US industrialists, who have also donated large sums to organisations lobbying against […]
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