Monday, March 15, 2010 - 16:15
I've always found it strange that people can so quickly dismiss environmental concerns. I've been shocked and appalled when the governments we elect choose to do likewise.
I grew up in a city and I still live in a city. In fact, there's a good chance I will always live in a city - more and more of us are living in them after all. Yet, for all my time in a city, I've continually been amazed to find people who know nothing of the city they live in and have no desire to learn or to explore.
As it relates to the environment, people are even less inclined to care. For example, when suddenly the park/ravine/forest they used to play in is turned into a subdivision, they wonder how did this happen. When the beach they used to visit and the water they used to...
Thursday, February 25, 2010 - 13:53
I recently wrote two letters (which can be found below) to Ottawa City Council over two separate, but related issues in regard to urban sprawl and a proposed road that will adversely affect the future of a local endangered population of Blanding's Turtle.Sierra Club Canada is a grassroots organization. We have representation throughout Canada and part of the reason for our existence is to help out local communities. Our current efforts around the Blanding's Turtle are not unique. As an example, in Comox Valley, British Columbia we are currently in court to prevent a gas station from being built on a watershed.We, in the environmental community, often face an uphill battle in our efforts to preserve that which has no voice. These are not trivial battles. ...
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 13:31
Here in Ottawa, at the national office, we primarily deal with national/federal issues. Our chapters deal with regional/provincial issues and our local groups obviously deal with local issues.
Nonetheless, sitting around the office one staff meeting day, a local Ottawa population of Blanding's Turtle made it into the conversation. This species of turtle is a very distinctive, fairly large turtle with a yellow belly and can live to be 75 years old. They are also listed as a threatend species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and as an endangered species by the 2007 Ontario Endangered Species Act.
These turtles call a pristine piece of wetland home, which is located just a short drive from Parliament Hill and is one of the few...
Monday, February 22, 2010 - 11:29
Sierra Club Canada was called extremist last week by a Saskatchewan radio personality in an article published in the Regina Star Phoenix.Why is a bald father of three who is concerned about what kind of future his daughters will have an "extremist"? Why is wasting a billion dollars of taxpayers' money not a matter of concern to a person with Mr. Gormley's political outlook? These are questions that had my head shaking this week.For our society to progress and flourish we must eliminate: ignorance, attachment and aversion. Mr. Gormley appears to be clinging tightly to all three. His path of pointing figures and calling names is a symptom.The well-funded disinformation campaign of the climate change deniers is playing on our ignorance of science, our attachment to our lifestyle and our...
Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 16:33
Anyone out there been looking through the weekend Canwest papers lately? – You may have noticed this great read.It seems Shell Canada has taken it upon itself to explain climate change. Apparently scraping up and burning every glob of tar in Alberta is part of the solution. And a lot of nice photogenic people work for Shell too!What I don't understand is why the company is so shy about letting us readers know it is paying Canwest to print full-page ads in its papers across the country.On two occasions Shell lobbyists have tracked me down here in Ottawa. They have been very proud of their company's many innovations, efficiencies and cleaning up of pollution – they are often ahead of most other oil companies in Canada in this regard. So why not come right out and say, "these are ads we are...
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 12:55
We've been chatting the past couple days, here in the office, over an interesting full page ad...err...news article...err..."special information feature on climate change" that has appeared in the Ottawa Citizen (and the National Post, Calgary Herald, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun, and possibly others) the past couple of weekends. Indeed, it is quite unclear what this thing is. It looks like a regular newspaper article, has nice pictures, is seemingly well-written, and would appear to be written by a legitimate journalist. Yet, something isn't quite right.The full title reads "New Energy Future: The Energy Challenge and Environmental Responsibility." So far so good. I'm intrigued really - until the next line that is: "A six-week Canwest special information...
Monday, February 8, 2010 - 10:53
One of the reasons I still read the newspaper (besides being old) is the chance you might come across something you're not looking for. You can't google, "What might be important or interesting?" I was flipping through the Globe and Mail this morning and accidentally discovered a case of corporate blackmail. It was subtle and I would not have spotted it without the words "environmental rules" in the title (Yes, I could have googled "environmental," but I would have received thousands of meaningless hits). UTS Energy Corp apparently owns 20% of the proposed Foot Hills tar sands mine and last week it announced it was lowering its estimate of the recoverable bitumen (natural form of tar) reserves. The company says only 490 million barrels can be economically extracted...
Friday, February 5, 2010 - 14:33
Lors de mon parcours en autobus ce matin, je pensais à quel point Jean Charest, le premier ministre du Québec, paraissait bien lorsqu’il s'est défendu contre Jim Prentice, le ministre fédéral de l'Environnement, cette semaine. Lundi dernier, M. Prentice a attaqué le Québec parce que la province a adopté les normes californiennes sur les émissions des automobiles, qui sont plus sévères que les normes en matière d’économies de carburant de l’administration américaine sur lesquelles le personnel du ministre a tablé pour créer les règles nationales concernant le kilométrage du Canada. Prentice avance que la province s’est engagée seule dans cette voie, alors qu’en fait, 14 États et quatre autres provinces canadiennes ont adopté des mesures similaires. J’ai fait la...
Thursday, February 4, 2010 - 14:22
Riding on the bus this morning I was pondering how good Québec Premier Jean Charest looked standing up to Jim Prentice, Minister of the Environment, this week. On Monday, Mr. Prentice attacked Québec for establishing California standards for car emissions which are tougher than the Xeroxing of U.S. federal fuel economy regulations that Mr. Prentice had his staff do in order to create national mileage regulations for Canada. Prentice talked about Quebec going alone when in fact there are 14 U.S. states and four other provinces in Canada that are all going down the same road.I campaigned for California standards for several years working very closely with U.S. environmental organizations because they are better than the federal fuel economy standards and require continuing...
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - 12:36
Sometimes I like to pretend I know the future. I like to imagine how things could play out if only...Before I get to that though, let me begin with what I know.In 2008, Canada stated its intention to run for a non-permanent seat in the infamous United Nations Security Council for 2011-12 (Click here for more info). As per the rules of these elections, which are designed to ensure more equal represenation, two of the five seats (there are 10 non-permanent and 5 permanent members) that are up for an election in October of this year will come from the Western European and Others Group of which Canada belongs.Historically, every decade, Canada has had a seat as a non-permanent member on the Security Council. Most recently, this occurred in 1999 and 2000. ...
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