Water
Gulf oil spill ‘wake-up call’ for Ontario, groups warn McGuinty
Thirty environmental, urban planning and health groups will deliver a letter to Dalton McGuinty today, urging Ontario’s premier to break the province of its addiction to oil.
The groups — including Earthroots, Greenpeace Canada, Sierra Club Ontario and the David Suzuki Foundation — say the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a “wake-up call” for Ontario.
They say McGuinty should work to wean people off their dependence on oil and move the province towards cleaner energy methods, such as electric vehicles.
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Environmental Defence, one of the groups that signed the letter, says Ontario consumes almost 200 million barrels of oil each year, mostly for transportation, and sends up to $20 billion out of the province to buy it.
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http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/article/823162--gulf-oil-spi... - Login to post comments
It's food or floods say Ajax, environmental groups
AJAX-PICKERING -- Whether to develop a swath of land in northeast Pickering boils down to a choice between food and floods, Ajax Mayor Steve Parish and allies from environmental groups say.
On June 2, Mayor Parish joined Sierra Club Ontario chapter director Dan McDermott in releasing a Sierra Club report supporting Ajax's stance that the headwaters of the Carruthers Creek in Pickering should not be developed.
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http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/155770 - Login to post comments
Appoint a commissioner to lead unconventional oil review
OTTAWA - Sierra Club Canada congratulates Members of Parliament on voting for a review of unconventional oil production and looks forward to participating in it. In the meantime there should be a formal moratorium on new drilling and construction until a commissioner can be appointed to conduct a full and open public inquiry.
“It’s certainly about time we looked at the practices in offshore drilling and the tar sands,” said Sierra Club Canada Executive Director John Bennett. “There is an environmental disaster just waiting to happen in Canada.”
The review should be led by an independent commissioner appointed by Parliament to investigate the rules, regulations and practices of unconventional oil production in Canada. The independent commissioner should also examine the viability of available alternatives.
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Lawsuit seeks to end dumping of toxins
OTTAWA — A coalition of environmental groups has taken the Harper government to court over what they allege is a loophole in federal law that is opening the door for mining companies to dump toxic waste into lakes.
Some metal mining companies are already seeking permission to dump toxins into waters over a federal regulation that can reclassify a lake and exempt it from the federal Fisheries Act which restricts the dumping of harmful materials into water inhabited by fish, say the groups.
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http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Lawsuit+seeks+dumping+toxins/3112622/s... - Login to post comments
Pickering urban plan called an ecological threat
Building on watershed and prime agricultural land in northeast Pickering will have “catastrophic consequences” for the local ecosystem, a Sierra Club environmentalist is warning.
Pollution and flooding will result if Durham Region’s plan to develop the headwaters of Carruthers Creek goes ahead, Dan McDermott told reporters Wednesday at the marsh off Audley Rd. S. in Ajax. He is among a group of critics, including Ajax Mayor Steve Parish, working to change the region’s mind about converting 3,000 hectares of farmland, including 1,200 hectares in Pickering, to employment and residential use.
The Sierra Club’s research shows that “poorly planned infrastructure causes flooding,” McDermott said in releasing its “Floods or Food” report.
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