Listening to Al Gore, Jim Hansen and Ban Ki-moon talk about climate change recently it is easy to see why some people call the whole climate change movement extremist and alarmist. Al Gore recently compared those countries who have refused to act, to those that refused to take action to stop Adolf Hitler. However, despite... Continue Reading →

While there is no doubt that the current shortage of medical isotopes is a huge problem, simply restarting the reactor that produces them, against the advice of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is a bad idea. The House of Commons passed emergency legislation late Tuesday night to reopen an Ontario nuclear reactor that produces most... Continue Reading →

Canada is near the bottom of the barrel in a study that ranked countries based on their climate-change performances. The study, released Friday by environmental organizations Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe, compared the 56 countries who produce an estimated 90 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. The countries were ranked based on... Continue Reading →

While Harper's Conservative government have now admitted that climate change is an important issue they have refused to implement effective policy to tackle the problem. They have even gone so far as to successfully watering down a climate change deal at the recent Commonwealth meeting. Now it seems they are attempting to suppress any reports... Continue Reading →

While most government have accepted the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions, some have stubbornly refused to commit to any mandatory cuts. The reasons given are usually the high costs to business and the economy. However, a significant portion of business have begun to realize that the high cost of inaction and the uncertainty that... Continue Reading →

One of the most popular 'theories' currently being used by climate change skeptics, is that increased CO2 concentrations don't cause temperatures to rise, but rather a rise in temperature causes CO2 concentrations to increase. They argue this means that humans can't be responsible for the current warming trend, but this argument makes little sense when... Continue Reading →

A cap-and-trade system means governments put a limit on a nation's carbon emissions and issue licences for its businesses and maybe its citizens to produce carbon up to that cap. The licences can be bought and sold. This creates incentives for anyone wanting to expand their lifestyle or business to use more carbon-efficient methods, or... Continue Reading →

Recently the Conservatives have been attempting to greenwash their image, but at the Commonwealth climate talks they have shown their true colours. Canada is one of only two countries blocking a commitment to international climate-change targets within the 52-member Commonwealth frustrated foreign diplomats said Friday. [Australia is the other country holding up the negotiations, but... Continue Reading →

This new legislation is only one of many steps needed to tackle climate change. The B.C. government has introduced aggressive legislation that it hopes will help the province cut greenhouse gas emissions 33 per cent below current levels by 2020. Premier Gordon Campbell announced the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act on Tuesday, saying the legislation... Continue Reading →

The average park enthusiast will never set foot on a vast northern land mass that will be granted permanent protection today in what environmentalists hail as one of the largest conservation moves in Canadian history. But, then again, neither will hot-to-trot Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline developers or uranium mine drillers be allowed to stomp around... Continue Reading →

While the IPCC was working on it's latest and most dire report to date the US delegates were busy trying to water down the reports predictions, logic be damned. US delegates in particular said references to "irreversible" climate change and impacts were imprecise. They argued, for example, that the melting of glaciers or ice sheets... Continue Reading →

The latest report from the IPCC describes the effects of climate change more specifically and forcibly than any other IPCC report. Yet The IPCC process is inherently conservative and many scientists believe that the report is understating the severity of climate change and some of the biggest risks. Even though the synthesis report is more... Continue Reading →

Scientists use language differently from the unwashed masses, they purposely avoid speaking in absolute term since nothing in science can ever be fully proven beyond doubt. Creationists and intelligent-design boosters have a guerrilla tactic to undermine textbooks that don't jibe with their beliefs. They slap a sticker on the cover that reads, EVOLUTION IS A... Continue Reading →

Weathermen, no matter how famous, are not climate scientists. That makes them unqualified to challenge the science of climate change, especially if they aren't publishing in peer-reviewed literature. It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental... Continue Reading →

The Royal Society has published a great guide on some of the main misleading arguments deniers use to confuse the public on the reality of climate change. Misleading argument 1 : The Earth's climate is always changing and this is nothing to do with humans. Misleading argument 2 : Carbon dioxide only makes up a... Continue Reading →

A CHANGE is in the works that could go a long way toward making alternative energy less alternative, and more attractive to consumers and businesses. It’s not a technological fix from some solar-cell laboratory in Silicon Valley or wind-turbine researcher in Colorado or the development of some superbug to turn wood waste into ethanol. Rather,... Continue Reading →

While politicians continue to delay implementing meaningful action such as a carbon tax to tackle climate change a recent pool shows that Canadians are willing to make some of the necessary sacrifices Canadians are among the world's leaders in being prepared to accept potential lifestyle changes and higher taxes in order to address climate change,... Continue Reading →

Plants are the only source of oxygen on Earth -- the only source. And studies around the world show that as plant species become extinct, natural habitats can lose up to half of their living plant biomass. Half of the oxygen they produced is lost. Half of the water, food and other ecological services they... Continue Reading →

The BC government looks poised to introduce effective legislation in the form of a carbon tax to tackle climate change. The B.C. government is looking at a new carbon tax to combat climate change. Finance Minister Carole Taylor yesterday told The Province she's considering the tax in next year's budget, as a way of reducing... Continue Reading →

Why does the media insist on portraying the climate change issue as a debate amongst scientists as to what is causing the recent warming trend. Why do they pit real scientists publishing in peer-reviewed literature (or those echoing those findings) against 'scientists' who aren't publishing in the peer-reviewed literature, pundits, politicians, or think tanks. That... Continue Reading →

Without good, reliable data it becomes virtually impossible to create effective policy. Nobel Prize-winning scientists from Canada say the Harper government is failing to protect the country from the dangers of global warming because it has shut down a federal climate change research network and blocked new studies on the impact of rising greenhouse gas... Continue Reading →

Forcing higher prices for fossil fuels would be simple, fair, and effective. Why do politicians fear to do it? Conservative and liberal economists like it. James Connaughton, President Bush's top environmental adviser, backs it. Al Gore says he's always preached it. So why isn't a carbon tax on the table in Congress as it weighs... Continue Reading →

The UN has just released the fourth report by the Global Environment Outlook on the state of the earths environment. The results aren't encouraging. The environment we all depend on is in peril, our actions have degraded virtually all ecosystems. This degradation of the natural world has real implications for our quality of life, and... Continue Reading →

While Bush now accepts the reality of climate change, his old habits of censoring facts he doesn't like continue. There is no excuse for hiding scientific facts from voters and the public should not stand for it. Bring back an evidence based government. In the latest round of meddling, White House censors yesterday gutted the... Continue Reading →

These seemingly insignificant, poorly understood organisms are essential to the survival of the ecosystems we depend on, yet there is little public interest or grant money to study these organisms. Since our understanding of these vital organisms is minimal, we may fail to detect the serious harm our actions can have on them. Combine this... Continue Reading →

Yesterday I posted about how the oceans are absorbing less CO2 than they were even a decade ago, and implied that this development may increase atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases. It has now been confirmed there is good evidence showing that atmospheric levels of CO2 are higher than expected. Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the... Continue Reading →

Prime Minister Harper has officially killed Canada's commitment to Kyoto. At the end of 2005, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions were 33 percent above the Kyoto commitment. It is now widely understood that, because of inaction on greenhouse gases over the last decade, Canada’s emissions cannot be brought to the level required under the Kyoto Protocol... Continue Reading →

There is no magic-bullet fuel crop that can solve our energy woes without harming the environment, says virtually every scientist studying the issue. But most say that algae–single-celled pond scum–comes closer than any other plant because it grows in wastewater, even seawater, requiring little more than sunlight and carbon dioxide to flourish... GreenFuel Technologies, of... Continue Reading →

These costs of inaction are usually not taken into account when new environmental legislation is proposed. Usually opponents of such legislation focus on the costs of new environmental laws on industries, and consumers. Rarely do the benefits of a healthier population (and the costs savings that go along with such regulations) get properly included in... Continue Reading →