Takedown

January 2, 2010
 | by ontariogreen
No Comments

How Environment Canada ordered a Dutch web hosting company and  German server group to take down a Danish web site running an American political parody

By Bill Kovarik

A Danish web administrator says he only acted under duress when he complied  with a Dec. 21  Environment Canada order to take down a  Yes Men political comedy  web site criticizing Canada’s climate stance at Copenhagen. Yesmen.pix

“I felt really bad promising to take the sites offline without a warrant, as I am a firm believer of the UN Human Rights,” said Ole Tange, a Danish web developer.  However, had he not taken the sites down,  4,500 other sites he manages would have been kept off line.

This, said Tange, “would have been worse both from a human rights’ perspective and a business perspective.”

Environment Canada confirmed that it issued a take down request “because those websites infringe Environment Canada’s Intellectual Property Office and acts as  ‘phishing’  site to the official website.”  The agency declined to provide specifics on the “phishing” charge.  …

Climate justice advocate leads tar sands protests

January 19, 2010
 | by ontariogreen
No Comments

By Alana Power

Climate justice is high on the list of priorities for Toban Black.

Black heads up the group Mobilization for Climate Justice at the University of Western Ontario. He is working on his PhD in sociology, but that doesn’t stop him from being an environmental activist.

His group serves as advocates for the people who are harmed by climate problems.

“We look at who is more responsible for climate problems and who is harmed by climate problems and how that responsibility and that harm falls along the lines of injustices like racism and class inequalities,” he said.

However some people say that the justice issues are not really open to his group’s point of view.

“They’ll say it’s just about emissions targets… they have a more narrow approach to climate issues,” he said.

Black’s group formed this summer, and has made the tar sands their main objective thus far.

They are protesting the involvement of the Royal Bank of

…

Climate change may increase spring rain

January 19, 2010
 | by ontariogreen
No Comments

By Anna Delaney

Our changing climate is causing some to worry that our springtime rainfalls in South Western Ontario will be more frequent and more intense than in previous years.
One of those worriers is James P. Bruce, a Canadian policy representative for the Soil and Water Conservation Society. He spoke about this issue to a small group of students and faculty at the University of Western Ontario on Monday. His talk, Water Resources in a Changing Climate, looked at how greenhouse gas emissions in the past 40 years can predict how much warming we can expect in the next 40 years, he said.
“Since greenhouse gases are going to drive the planet in the next 30 or 40 years, I think it’s kind of a sensible thing to do to take a look at what’s happened in the last 40 years,” said Bruce.
Bruce’s expertise in the field of environmental research has brought him a great deal of acclaim. While he is currently a policy representative, he is also a chair for the Expert Panel on Groundwater for the Council of Canadian …

Ontario reindeer threatened

December 21, 2009
 | by ontariogreen
No Comments

By Maria Ionova

Rudolph — in all his plastic glory –  could soon become the only reindeer seen in the province of Ontario. Environmental scientists worry that non-fictional reindeer – or woodland caribou – may become extinct if their plummeting population cant recover quickly enough.
Since the introduction of the Endangered Species Act in 2007, the woodland caribou population has been a hot topic among the environmental community.
Reindeer are threatened because they have virtually vanished in the northern region and are, at this stage, considered to be in great danger of disappearing altogether. Only dispersed herds remain in Northern Ontario.
The exact count of the current population is unknown aside from the definitive evidence that Ontario is experiencing a drastic decline in these numbers. According to research  by Northwestern Ontario Boreal Forest Management, in 1965 the total caribou population was estimated to be approximately 13 000, but this estimate was “thought to be far below the carrying capacity of their current range.” More recent studies in 2008 suggest that the range of forest-dwelling woodland caribou has plunged by 40 to 50 per …

Where have the birds gone?

December 17, 2009
 | by ontariogreen
No Comments

By Steve Howard

Where have the birds gone?

One species has declined by 52% over the last twenty years. Another has declined 54% in the same time frame. Another has dropped 29%. Another 28%.BankSwallow

These are not species of insects from a foreign continent. They are small insect eating birds in Ontario.

According to The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario, the population of aerial insectivores, or small insect-eating birds have steadily decline in Ontario over the last twenty years. Why these birds are declining and what can be done to reverse the trend is a question that continues to baffle scientists.

Mike Cadman, who is with the Canadian Wildlife Services and helped coordinate the Atlas, has spent the years since research finished in 2005 looking over the data. Some trends jumped out at him.

One the most obvious culprits of declining bird population is human interference. For an example of how harmful the human footprint has been, Cadman points to the Carolinian region of Canada, which is southernmost tip of …

Climate Justice group petitions UWO

December 17, 2009
 | by ontariogreen
No Comments

By Laura Schober

A climate justice group at the University of Western Ontario is circulating a petition that demands the university end its financial ties with the Royal Bank of Canada. The bank is the leading financier of the tar sands projects in Alberta, and Mobilization for Climate Justice organizer, Toban Black, says RBC’s funding is unethical because it contributes to the harmful environmental effects generated by tar sands.

“In terms of the tar sands alone, it’s the dirtiest oil in the world, because of all the pollution that’s generated as you produce it,” he said.

Black says the petition will be passed along for review to the university’s Senate committee once it is complete.

Black, a student completing his PhD in sociology at Western, noticed there was a lack of student involvement towards the issue of climate justice.

…

Reduce…Reuse… Recycle…Rebuild

December 17, 2009
 | by ontariogreen
1 Comment

By Marika Motiwalla

Household hand-me-downs are going far in London.

Habitat for Humanity in London, Ontario is finding new ways to be affordable and green. And the idea of green building may be catching on.

“The more you can reuse the more money you save,” said Robert Middleton, director of the North American Trade Schools branch in London.

The local Habitat for Humanity branch agrees with this. Habitat is a non-profit organization, it is self described on its website as an organization that seeks to build simple, decent, affordable homes for low-income families.

This branch of the established organization just finished

…

Worldwide water problems – but what can we do?

December 17, 2009
 | by ontariogreen
No Comments

By Marika Motiwalla

Intense storms and droughts could increase in number and severity – and Canadians will be affected by the changing climate’s effect on water resources, according to James P. Bruce.

Bruce, an environmental policy specialist, spoke about this to a small group of students and faculty at the University of Western Ontario on Monday, December 7. His talk was called Water Resources in a Changing Climate and emphasis was put on the effects of greenhouse gases on the world’s water supply.

Bruce is on the Expert Panel on Groundwater for the Council of Canadian Academics, has written several books and articles on climate change and holds honorary degrees from the University of Waterloo and McMaster University.

By analyzing trends in temperatures and water resources since the 1960’s Bruce discussed worldwide water resources and how changes in climate are occurring more rapidly

…

Polar Bears: Poster animals for peril

December 17, 2009
 | by ontariogreen
No Comments

By Carrie Simmons

Polar bears.

These marine mammals have long been the poster animals for climate change. Dramatic photos of members of this iconic species standing atop melting ice floes represent the declining health of the North, and are seen on posters and websites worldwide. Perhaps appropriately so, as the bears themselves have faced with some of the worst effects of climate change to date this Fall. Reports of cannibalism and infanticide in bear populations are the latest in a series of the negative consequences of polar warming.

Ursus martimus, the polar bear, is found exclusively around the Arctic Circle in Canada, Norway, the United States and Russia. They are the largest species of bear, well-adapted to life in the cold Arctic ocean where they spend most of their time. But despite their adaptations for making the

…

Biogas helps dairy farmer counter the myth

December 16, 2009
 | by ontariogreen
No Comments

By Joel Tiller

On any given day up to 800 cattle are fed, cleaned and milked – sometimes twice a day – at Stanton Farms’ new facility in Ilderton Ont.

To some this may seem less than impressive, or, perhaps, the norm for a farm of this magnitude. But Stanton Farms isn’t your typical dairy farm. Far from it in fact.

What makes this farm unique is it moonlights as a small power plant – converting its never-ending supply of manure into electricity using an anaerobic biodigester.

“The thought of all cattle farms being labelled factory farms disturbs me … we counter this myth by engaging in environmentally, and animal, friendly practices,” says Laurie Stanton, a third generation dairy farmer.

Since early 2009, Stanton Farms has actively used its operating biodigester to convert all its organic waste into renewable energy – a feat it shares

…

Page 1 of 512345»