File under “why bother”.

Bloomberg: Canada Requiring Oil-Sands Projects to Store Carbon
The Canadian government today announced a plan to limit the carbon emissions from the booming oil sands development in Alberta. How? By requiring any new oil sands development projects after 2012 to sequester their carbon. That means another four full years of wholesale carbon emitting, followed by a weak-kneed law that already presents obvious loopholes (my first thought: what exactly constitutes a “new project”?) The oil sands industry is the largest carbon emitter in Canada, itself one of the worst carbon-emitting countries in the world. It is embarrassing that amid so much wealth there is so little interest in offsetting the damage the extraction causes.

Rising temperatures, rising tensions

AFP:  Climate Change a new factor in global tensions
With both the oil shortage and climate change crises worsening before our eyes, there are plenty of new reasons on the table for international war and conflict.   This is one reason why the smugness of some countries — Canada included — is greatly misguided.  Some cynics say Canada will have a net benefit from a warmer climate, and I suspect that our slow response to the problem is at least partially due to this attitude.  Warmer winters, more agriculture, what’s not to like, right?  The problem is, Canada does not exist in a vaccuum, and even friends can rapidly turn to enemies in a desperate situation.  Clearly the time to resolve climate change issues peacefully and sensibly is rapidly running out.

Confirming the obvious

Toronto Star: Tories flunk green audit
An auditor confirmed today what most people already knew:  Canada’s conservative government has an abysmal record in almost every aspect of environmental protection.   They outright flunked in 9 of 14 areas, and this article doesn’t even mention the devastation of the Alberta Oil Sands.  In all, this is an embarrassment for Canada.  It is inexcusable that one of the world’s wealthiest nations does so little to protect the very land from which we have derived most of our wealth.

A false economy

Toronto Star:  Cheap salt outweighs green concerns
Our government in Toronto talks a good talk when it comes to greening, but their walk is not so effective.  Here again is a perfect example of false economy:  the use of environmentally damaging salt on the roads because it is “cheaper” even when many less toxic options exist.  In reality, of course, all that damage to our trees, plants, vegetation, rivers, lakes, animals and groundwater is immeasurably expensive.  But those don’t count, right?

Alberta’s tentative greens

Toronto Star: Albertans looking a little Green
Even in the midst of Alberta’s oil sands windfall, some Albertans are beginning to have reservations about whether the profits are worth destroying the province’s natural resources.  For some, this is even shaking their longstanding support for the federal Conservative party.