Get Used to Weather Extremes, Expert Says

Winnipeg Free Press - Laura Rance
They could eventually bankrupt Manitoba. Details here.

 Excess moisture caused this key highway in western Manitoba to collapse in 2012. Detours were in effect for months while it was being repaired, costing area farmers and businesses dearly. PLT photo.

What Part of 'No' Does Enbridge Not Understand?

Huffington Post

"Pipelines, no! Salmon, yes!"

Last week, hundreds of B.C. residents gathered under the hot sun to say no to Enbridge's proposed pipeline and tankers. On a day better fit for cold drinks and swimming in lakes, people came from across northern B.C. to Terrace on the banks of the Skeena River to deliver a strong message to the energy giant: the answer is still no. Details here.

Indians Question How Far Flash-Flooding Disaster Was Manmade

theguardian

Boom in religious tourism and hydroelectric projects may have contributed to disaster in Uttarakhand. Details here.

Province of Manitoba, Canada to Proceed With Ban on Chemical Lawn Pesticides

Government of Manitoba

Low-Risk Alternatives for Lawn Care to be Focus of Legislation:  Mackintosh.

Manitoba is proposing to join most of Canada in reducing children's and pets' exposure to synthetic chemical lawn pesticides with legislation to be introduced in the next session that would replace the sale and use of those products with the rapidly growing array of federally approved, effective, low-risk bio-pesticides, Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh announced today.

Obama's Groundbreaking Speech Focuses On Power Plant Limits, Climate Change

Huffington Post
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama declared the debate over climate change and its causes obsolete Tuesday as he announced a wide-ranging plan to tackle pollution and prepare communities for global warming. Full story here.

Calgary's Manhattan Moment

By Andrew Nikiforuk. TheTyee.ca - Opinion

I only hope my city's nightmare is the climate change wake-up Alberta, and Canada, needs. Full story here.

Massive Flooding in Nations Including Canada Bring World to a Cross Roads - United Nations

UN News

A United Nations senior official today stressed that this year will be a “turning point” in how governments view and respond to extreme weather events, and floods in particular. Such events are currently affecting several countries across the world. Details here.

Calgary flooding: Photo credit: ca.news.yahoo.com 

Climate Change to Shrink Bison, Profit

Science News

As temperatures go up, bison get smaller. Details here.

Manitoba bison. PLT photo

Are GM Seeds a Saviour or a Menace?

delawareonline
The ranks of those who believe they are the latter, are growing. Full story here.

A field of wheat, blowing in the breeze. A PLT video.

Is New York City's Climate Plan Enough to Win the Race Against Rising Seas?

Inside Climate News

The city's climate adaptation projects should be devised to handle conditions far worse than even the most severe sea level rise estimates, scientists say. Details here.

Manitoba's Climate Change Chickens.

An Editorial - by Larry Powell

I call them Manitoba's "climate chickens."

Premier Selinger and Finance Minister Struthers had a golden opportunity to tackle this province's climate change woes bravely and effectively. And, they blew it. 

Backyard chickens

  

  

Climate chickens

During the last election campaign, they (and the other major parties) seemed to conspire to keep climate change off the table, altogether. Their lips were sealed, even tho the evidence was staring them in their faces. Now, apparently, they've been dragged kicking and screaming to the next level - recognizing that it is happening, after all. 

At long last, In his budget speech, for example, Struthers concedes, "Our climate is changing, bringing an increased frequency of major flooding." (Apparently, flood-fighting costs in this province have jumped, four-fold over the past 15 years compared to the previous 15.) And so, they claim, they need more money to pay the billions of dollars damage which that flooding has caused. 

So, what do they do? 

Instead of biting the bullet and bringing in a carbon tax, like BC did successfully several years ago, they strangely decide to hike the provincial sales tax (PST) by one percent! What on earth has the PST got to do with climate change? Not only is it surely proving just as unpopular as a carbon tax would have been, it is probably a regressive one - shifting an unfair portion of the cost onto the poor - at the same time.

Sure, BC's carbon tax isn't popular, either. But, while it discourages people from burning fossil fuels of any kind, it also rebates them in other ways, through reductions in income tax, for example. 

And, it's working. 

An economist who studied its effects found that, within three years of its introduction, the  carbon emissions and fossil fuel consumption had dropped more in B.C. than anywhere else in Canada by a significant margin! His conclusion; these emissions reductions are attributable to the carbon tax.

Don't forget, it is these emissions which are to blame for catastrophic global warming and an increase in the frequency and severity of such extreme weather events as we are seeing right now in Alberta.

Sadly, as long as our leaders think they can uses climate change as some kind of excuse for bringing in unpopular tax increases that do nothing to lessen the ravages of a changing climate, we can all brace for more floods, wildfires, droughts and crop losses in our future. 

And our climate chickens will truly have come home to roost!

Larry Powell

Related: "Is the Solution to Climate Change in BC? An American Perspective."