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The tornado connection to climate change...
2013-05-24  |  Paul Beckwith

By Paul Beckwith 

As I write this blog in the aftermath of the massive tornado that passed through Oklahoma this week, I have multiple computer screens playing live feeds (like the one in Diagram 1). This mega-storm was generated as part of the massive cyclonic system that passed over the central U.S (from May 18th through May 20th). It spawned many storm systems and severe tornadoes.

In Oklahoma, it took less than 1 hour for a thunderstorm system to develop into a full-blown 3 km diameter tornado of the highest size/strength (EF5). As you know, this tornado caused total devastation along a swath greater than 30 km long and about 3 km wide in the southern part of the city. Two schools and a hospital were destroyed resulting in heavy loss of life.

The actual tornado tracked through the most built up part of the city and had a length of 6.22 km (Image 2). As bad as this was, if the tornado had tracked further north by about 10 km, the path length...

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Sorry Jim
2013-04-26  |  John Bennett

I, like most Canadians, don't like it when a member of the family misbehaves in public and I feel it’s necessary to apologize on their behalf (for the good of the family name).

Well this is one of those occasions. So here goes:

On behalf of Canadians, I would like to extend a full and sincere apology to Dr. James Hansen (or “Jim” as his friends call him). He is owed an apology for recent derogatory remarks by Joe Oliver, the Federal Minister of Natural Resources.

So what’s this all about? Oliver, Canada’s Oil Minister (as the UK Guardian recently dubbed him), was in Washington last Tuesday flogging the Keystone XL pipeline yet again. While speaking, he dropped the veneer of sober economic pragmatist and diplomat, and the real Joe emerged.

Clueless Joe Oliver

You may recall he’s the same minister who calls...

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Pipeline Snakes & Ladders
2013-04-16  |  John Bennett

By John Bennett

I want to alert you to the most recent attack on environmental protection and democracy in this country and share with you a letter I wrote to Gaetain Caron, Chair and CEO, National Energy Board of Canada (NEB). I was spurred to write after a frustrating experience last week.

The NEB is now operating under NEW rules created by last June’s omnibus bill and, as predicted, democratic participation has suffered – in this case regarding the environmental review process concerning Enbridge’s proposal to reverse its old “Line 9” pipeline (that has been transporting light oil from Montreal to Sarnia for decades). Enbridge wants to use Line 9 in reverse to pump corrosive Tar Sands bitumen from Sarnia to Montreal and beyond eastward (exactly where we don’t know).

Line 9 passes through some of the most populated areas in Canada. Remember the oil spill we witnessed earlier this month, running through the middle of...

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Appeal of the decision to allow the discharge of Hydraulic Fracturing Wastewater from Atlantic Industrial Services’ facility into the Debert Sewer System
2013-04-10  |  Gretchen Fitzgerald
Municipality of the County of Colchester
c/o Sheila Arsenault, County Executive Secretary
P.O. BOX 697,
TRURO, NS
B2N 5E7

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

RE: Appeal of the decision to allow the discharge of Hydraulic Fracturing Wastewater from Atlantic Industrial Services’ facility into the Debert Sewer System

To CAO, Ramesh Ummat and Mayor Bob Taylor:

 

We are writing to respectfully request you appeal of the decision to allow the discharge of hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) wastewater from Atlantic Industrial Services’ facility into the Debert Sewer System on behalf of Sierra Club Canada – Atlantic Canada Chapter.

 

Sierra Club Canada – Atlantic Canada Chapter is a member-based organization that engages Atlantic Canadians through education and political...

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Information on New Brunswick Rules on Fracking
2013-04-03  |  Gretchen Fitzgerald

February 2013 

General Concerns 

  • It is unclear in many ways who is in charge of regulating the industry and most measures in regulations involve self-reporting, industry self-monitoring and assessment. 
  • Liability limits are too low: $10 million if you have prove negligence or malfeasance, $500,000 cap on compensations for water contamination (other forms of damage like air quality, decreased property value from noise, etc, not included or mentioned) for property owners, $50,000 per well security for not plugging a well properly or abandoning it - but the damage could be more than this - also, they get the assurances back as soon as they abandon the well (what if leaks are found afterward?). 
  • Fracking companies can wait 3 months (90 days) after they drill to start checking to see if gas has migrated from the drill hole. 
  • The process to get to these regulations did not include thorough public consultations....
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