Monday, January 22, 2018

Insurers say Canadian weather getting hotter, wetter and weirder

NATIONAL
OBSERVER


If it seems as if the weather's getting weirder, you're not wrong. More Here.

Quebec, 2017. Wikimedia.

Richest 1% bagged 82% of global wealth created last year, poorest half of humanity got nothing:

 Oxfam
"Alphonse." A dumpster-diver in Vancouver, Canada.
A Wikimedia photo. Author unknown.
(Ottawa) Eighty two per cent of global wealth generated last year went to the richest one per cent, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity saw no increase, according to a new Oxfam report. Story here.

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Human Activity Fouls Continental Waterways - study

U.S. National Academy Sciences
A Wikimedia photo.

Across North America, streams and rivers are becoming saltier, and freshwater bodies, more alkaline, all thanks to human activity. According to a new study, salty compounds like road de-icers and fertilizers, which make their way into rivers, are significantly changing the salinity levels of the waters in the United States and southern Canada. Researchers analyzed the data recorded at 232 U.S. Geological Survey monitoring sites across the country over the past 50 years. It's the first study to simultaneously account for multiple salt ions — such as sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium — in freshwater across the United States and southern Canada. The results suggest that salt ions, damaging in their own right, are driving up the pH of freshwater as well, making it more alkaline.

Friday, January 19, 2018

2017 One of Hottest Years on Record, and Without El Niño

 inside
climate
 news

Nine of the 10 warmest years on modern record have been since 2005. This was the warmest without El Niño's influence, and it was marked by climate-related disasters. Story here.

340 Billion Gallons of Sludge Spur Environmental Fears in Canada


Bloomberg
"Rainbow Lake" - Alberta tar sands. Photo credit - "Beautiful Destruction."
Amid the bogs and forests of northern Alberta, in the heart of the Canadian oil patch, lie some of the largest waste dumps of the global energy business. Story here.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

To Save Oceans and Planet, Greenpeace Backs Plan to Create Largest Protected Area on Earth

Common Dreams

Mt. Herschel, Antarctica. Photo by Andrew Mandemaker.

"We are in desperate need for governments to come together and do what is best for these amazing ecosystems." More here.

Health Canada probes claim that government officials helped pesticide company overturn a ban

CANADA'S                                                                                                                                ...