Scientists Question Why Ottawa Hired Top oil Lobbyist to Advise Government on Lakes Facility Studying Pollution

National Post

One of Canada’s most prominent oil lobbyists was hired to advise the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on the Experimental Lakes Area, a freshwater research facility that the federal government ordered shut in 2012. Details here.

California May Have Hit Its Driest Point In 500 Years And The Effects Are Frightening

Huffington Post

Cities are running out of water. Communities are fighting over what little water there is. Local governments are imposing rationing coupled with steep fines. Fires are ravaging the state. Entire species and industries are threatened. Full story here.

NGO Community Condemns Yukon Government Peel Announcement

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS)

Whitehorse – The Yukon Conservation Society (YCS) and CPAWS Yukon are condemning Yukon Government’s announcement today that they are throwing out the Peel Watershed Planning Commission’s Final Recommended Plan and instead implementing government’s own unilateral plan for the region.  This new plan will see 71% of the region opened up for staking. Full story here.

Enbridge - Another Cautionary Video

Rail Versus Pipeline is the Wrong Question

Dr. David Suzuki

Debating the best way to do something we shouldn't be doing in the first place is a sure way to end up in the wrong place. Details here.

Related: "Have our Servants Become our Masters?"
"More Oil Spilled From American Trains ini 2013 Than in the Four Previous Decades."

Hundreds of Millions of Hectares, Nearly the Size of Brazil, Face Degradation Threat - UN Report Warns

United Nations

Implications on Food Security and Natural Systems. Details here.

The "Shame on Canada" Music Video

Why Climate Deniers Have No Scientific Credibility: Only 1 of 9,136 Recent Peer-Reviewed Authors Rejects Global Warming

DESMOGBLOG.com  James Lawrence Powell.

I have brought my previous study (see here and here) up-to-date by reviewing peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals over the period from Nov. 12, 2012 through December 31, 2013. I found 2,258 articles, written by a total of 9,136 authors. Only one article, by a single author in the Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences, rejected man-made global warming. I discuss that article here. Full story here.

NOAA Says World in 2013 Was Fourth Hottest on Record

PhysOrg

Sunset. PLT photo.

The average world temperature was 58.12 degrees (14.52 Celsius) tying with 2003 for the fourth warmest since 1880, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday. Full story here.

More Oil Spilled From American Trains in 2013 Than in Previous 4 Decades, Federal Data Show

McClatchy Washington Bureau

A Canadian National freight, as seen from a Via Rail passenger train, parked on a siding. These "close encounters" are a common occurrence in Canada, where passenger trains need to yield the right-of-way to the freights. (PLT movie.)

More crude oil was spilled in U.S. rail incidents last year than was spilled in the nearly four decades since the federal government began collecting data on such spills, an analysis of the data shows. Details here.

Sochi Residents Blame Games for Ecological Damage

(Reuters) - The first warning of the problems that eventually swept away Irina Vorochkova's house near Russia's Olympic city of Sochi came when the garden began shifting, then the ground slid away downhill towards a river. Details here.