Jun 17 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — Eight U.S. senators say Canadian mines in British Columbia are endangering cross-border rivers through a combination of poor environmental assessments and inadequate monitoring. "We remain concerned about the lack of oversight of Canadian mining projects near multiple transboundary rivers that originate in B.C. and flow into our four U.S. states," says a June 13 letter […]
Jun 13 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — The status of Canada's largest park as a World Heritage Site remains wobbly after a United Nations body expressed grave doubts about a federal plan to rescue it. "Considerably more effort will be needed to reverse the negative trends at a time when climate change combined with upstream industrial developments and resource extraction are intensifying," says a draft […]
Jun 13 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — Ottawa plans to impose the federal carbon tax on Alberta starting Jan. 1 and federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says she has written the province about the decision. "We need to move forward to tackle climate change," McKenna said in Ottawa before question period on Thursday. "We see the impacts of climate change through extreme weather, including in […]
Jun 12 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — Several remote New Brunswick lakes still have high levels of a pesticide banned 46 years ago — findings with significant implications for today, says the scientist behind a study on DDT published Wednesday. "This is definitely a cautionary tale," said Joshua Kurek of Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B. "At the time, we applied these […]
Jun 11 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — Animal life in the world's oceans will drop steadily and consistently as the climate warms, a Canadian-led study suggests. "What we see is pretty consistent," said Derek Tittensor, a biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax. "For every degree of warming, we project a five per cent decline in the abundance of animals. The warmer it gets, […]
Jun 10 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — There's the battle on the court. Then there's the battle in the court. Win or lose the NBA championship, the Toronto Raptors will have to fight for possession of a team logo that — this week — seems almost as well-loved as the Maple Leaf. Documents filed with the U.S. Patent Office's trial and appeal board show that Monster Energy, […]
Jun 9 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — Climate change can seem like a problem too vast for everyday people to influence, but research using computer models suggests that public attitudes and social learning can have a measurable impact on global warming. "It feels like it's a bit of a hopeful study, in that it is possible for this change to happen," said Madhur […]
Jun 5 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — The Indigenous people of Canada's Western Arctic are descendants of some of the first humans to live in North America, new genetic research suggests. A paper published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature has found the Dene, who live across much of the northern part of the continent and into the southern United States, have roots […]
Jun 5 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — New research suggests North Americans eat, drink and inhale tens of thousands of tiny plastic particles every year. University of Victoria biologist Kieran Cox, whose paper was published Wednesday, says what his study shows most clearly is how little is known about the extent or impact of microplastics in people. "The last thing I want […]
Jun 3 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — An environmental group says Canada needs to up its game on protecting its oceans. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society says in a report that while there has been progress in recent years, recommendations from international scientific bodies suggest there's more work to do. "At least 30 per cent should be protected if we want to […]
Jun 2 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — One minute, it was dangling off the back of an icebreaker into the waters of the High Arctic. The next, the crucial piece of gear was gone. "We got pinched," recalls Mary-Lynn Dickson. "You're clearing a path, but the ice moves in and we got pinched." Dickson was the lead scientist on a 2,100-page report just submitted to […]
May 31 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — Pudgin Wanuch knew there was nothing he could do as he watched the out-of-control wildfire consume the only home he'd ever known. So he parked his truck outside the church in the evacuated northern Alberta settlement of Paddle Prairie, pulled out his guitar, sat on the tailgate and sang. "I knew exactly where my house […]
May 30 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — EDMONTON — Research from the University of Alberta is fledging out the idea that birds may travel in flocks but have personalities of their own. "In some ways, it's analogous to the human term 'personality,'" said behavioural ecologist Kimberley Mathot. "Individuals show predictable differences in behaviour." Mathot has been looking into individual bird behaviour for years. […]
May 27 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — Canada has finally made its case that the top of the world flies the Maple Leaf. After years of delay and political debate, Canada has submitted its scientific argument for control of a vast portion of the Arctic seabed, including the North Pole, to the UN body that will evaluate it. Denmark and Russia have already […]
May 21 2019 — Bob Weber, The Canadian Press — Newly published research has concluded that food insecurity in Nunavut grew after a federal program was brought in to fight hunger in the North. The study, published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that the ability of northerners to dependably put food on the table declined significantly during the years Nutrition North was being rolled out […]