Photosynthesising in a CO2-enriched world
Posted in Canada on Mar 14th, 2010
Winter 2009/2010:
4.0°C above normal
Warmest winter since records began in 1948
Driest out of the past 63 years, 22% below normal
Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan had 60% less precipitation than normal
It really has been extraordinary. Says David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment Canada:
"I think it’s a combination of a strong El [...]
Posted in Canada on Mar 8th, 2010
What does science get from the 2010 budget, after funding cuts of $147 million in 2009?
First, a promise about creating The Economy of Tomorrow [p.55]:
In designing Canada’s Economic Action Plan, the Government incorporated measures to help create the economy of tomorrow. In 2010–11, the Action Plan will invest almost $1.9 billion in post-secondary education, infrastructure, [...]
Posted in Canada on Feb 17th, 2010
Parliament may be prorogued, but the opposition parties are keeping busy. I was up on Parliament Hill last week for the Round Table on ‘Improving the Lives of Northerners’. Lots of interesting Arctic policy titbits.
Michael Ignatieff comments:
“An Arctic strategy can’t be only a military strategy.” Spot on. A couple of new icebreakers to keep the [...]
Posted in Canada on Jan 28th, 2010
Is the habitable zone for Winter Olympians shrinking?
Vancouver’s Cypress Mountain – one of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games venues – has had a bit too much green on the slopes, after an unseasonable amount of rainfall, necessitating implementation of the contingency plan: straw and wood to build the courses, with real and artificial snow layered [...]
Posted in Canada on Jan 23rd, 2010
“If the United States decides to go down that road of not carbon taxing and not capping and trading but rather, simply, detailed regulations across the economy, we would need to harmonize with the United States on a regulatory approach,” he said.
What is left to try, if not a carbon tax and if not [...]
Posted in Canada on Jan 20th, 2010
“I don’t think we should consider signing on to a deal that makes us virtually the sole country in the world that is going to take any action.” (Stephen Harper, Toronto Star, September 5, 2002)
“Kyoto does virtually nothing to deal with pollution and to deal with the quality of the air that we breathe. [...]
