More Conservative Stifling

Harper's policy for a less open government became known once again. It has been revealed that scientists associated with Natural Resources need the approval from the minister before speaking to the media. I wouldn't be surprised if the tar sands is one of the most censored issues from Natural Resources. It's not news that the Tory government is being less transparent; this is just a reminder. Imagine what would happen if Harper got a majority. That is why we cannot let Stephen Harper win. Next election, let's send Harper back to opposition.

News tips about the upcoming publication of the ancient flood study in Nature came not from Canada, but from two British universities. An isolated case? Hardly. Environment Canada and Health Canada also control media access to researchers who must have their scripts approved.

It's ominously totalitarian -- hardly the free, open and transparent approach to government that Harper promised.

Read more at the Calgary Herald.

Co2 is good for Agriculture

I've read this argument on many Conservative blogs. Carbon Dioxide is plant food, therefore, if there is more of it in the atmosphere there will be more food in the world for people to eat. That's why we should emit more. This video from Climate Denial Crock of the Week debunks this argument.

Bottled Bacteria

A new study has shown that popular brands of bottled water has a huge amount of bacteria. Even compared to tap water, bottled water had more bacteria. In fact, 70% of the brands tested didn't make the American standards for the number of colony forming bacteria allowed in drinking water. Bottled water is a waste. As shown, tap water is just as good, if not better. Bottled water, as we learn from the study, has potentially pathogenic bacteria inside and isn't good for the environment. When we consume it, we lose. The companies have obviously done a good job of marketing the product as we get water for free anyway. They are selling us something we get for free! I say we use bottled water only for emergencies.

Canadian researchers say they've discovered some bottled water in Canada contains more bacteria than what comes out of the tap — although they won't reveal which brands are the culprits. 

Researchers from C-crest Laboratories in Montreal bought and tested several popular brands of bottled water, and found many of them had heterotrophic bacteria counts that were "surprisingly high."

Read more at the Vancouver Sun.

The Oceans are Warming

Yet again, there is more evidence that the earth is warming. This time the data is from the oceans, not air temperatures. I do not know how there can still be climate deniers with all this data from global warming. Are they just going to say it's all fake. That's pretty much what their whole argument is based on, that data from 98% of climate scientists is fake. However, the studies done by the other 2% is correct. It isn't a small majority, it's an overwhelming majority of scientists who say global warming is true. According to the climate "realists," we should believe the 2%. Do we really want to take a risk hat big with our planet?

Between 1993 and 2008, the study finds, the upper 700 meters of the oceans absorbed about 0.6 watts per square meter of energy. That is roughly equivalent to the power of 2 billion copies of the atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II, said lead author John Lyman, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii's Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research.

 Read more at the New York Times.

Canadians Live Longer Lives

A new study has shown that Canadians are healthier and live longer than Americans. That was a bit obvious as we have universal health care. It's a bit weird that Americans are fighting against socializing health care. They should really get to know the truth and the greatness of providing care for the fellow human beings. Health care is a human right.

Canadians tend to lead longer, healthier lives than Americans on average, say researchers who point to lack of universal health care in the U.S. as one reason.

The study in Thursday's online issue in BioMed Central's journal Population Health Metrics was based on data from the 2002-03 Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health, which offered comparable data on the health of the population in both countries.

Read more at CBC.

SO, green energy is a go?

Sweden and Ontario both have something in common. Sweden is using excess body heat from a train station to heat another building. The cool air from the office building stops commuters from sweating and the hot air from the train terminal keeps the office workers from freezing. This idea was cheap ($30 000) and therefore will pay for itself quickly while saving tons of fossil fuels.

In Ontario, two studies say that solar energy could produce 95 gigawatts of power. That's enough to provide 60% of Ontario's electricity demands in 2025! Demands for energy in the future can only grow. That other 40% of the demands could be met by wind turbines, household geothermal energy and if everything else can't meet demands, exports from Quebec.

Both these ideas demonstrate that the world can run on green energy if we want to. It's possible but we just need to stand up and tell the politicians in Ottawa to start the switch.



Read about it at Time and the Ottawa Citizen.

Ice cap Melting

Big news: our largest ice cap has been melting since 1985. Apparently, warmth in the summers has caused the cap to melt. This is climate change at work. The melting ice will contribute to sea level rise of over a metre in the next century. This can drown out islands like Tuvalu and Kiribati (see the "about the environment" tab). When the climate refugees start coming to our countries, the Tories are going to start to complain. But only other people will realize that it's their fault for contributing to climate change.

Canada's largest ice cap has been shrinking steadily since 1985, say scientists studying the remote icy dome at the top of the planet.

They say there has been a decline in the volume and area of the Devon Ice Cap in the High Arctic over the past 25 years, largely because of warm summers.

Read about it at the Ottawa Citizen.

Scientists “muzzled” by Ottawa

What’s new? Well, documents from Environment Canada show that their climate-change scientists need to request permission form the government before participating in an interview. What is this now? I thought that censorship of science was illegal in a democracy. Well, leave it up to Harper to do something like this.

The analysis reviewed the impact of a new federal communications policy at Environment Canada, which required senior federal scientists to seek permission from the government prior to giving interviews.

In many cases, the policy also required them to get approval from supervisors of written responses to the questions submitted by journalists before any interview, said the document, obtained in an investigation into the government's views and policies on global-warming science that was conducted by Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of environmental groups.

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2682162

Science left out

By cutting funding to the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, the Conservatives are showing that they don’t care about the climate. Although this isn’t new news, I believe this is the first of many new cuts to come to the environment. Research is one thing, but acting on it is another. If this is one of the research cuts, I’d hate to see what’s going to happen to our targets in a few months or years.

When government funding for a foundation dedicated to climate research dries up at the end of the year, scientists say the aftershocks of its departure will be felt not only in Canada but by researchers around the globe.

The 2010 federal budget, unveiled this month, offered no new cash to the decade-old Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, a group that has been financing research on everything from melting glaciers to drought on the Prairies to the thawing permafrost.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/scientists-distressed-by-tory-cuts-to-climate-research-fund/article1500190/