Tag Archives: Ocean acidification

Environment, Rivers & Oceans

Canada confirms protections for marine protected areas but shipping pollution isn’t included

 Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada formalized its minimum protection standards for marine protected areas on Wednesday at a global ocean conservation summit in Vancouver. 

Oil and gas activity, mining, the dumping of certain waste materials and destructive bottom trawling fishing won’t be allowed in any MPAs established from April 2019 and onward, said federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray and Steven Guilbeault, minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, during a press conference at the IMPAC5 summit. 

The new protection standard is a policy blueprint based on a 2019 promise by the federal government to curb these industrial activities.

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Rivers & Oceans, Transportation

Prince Rupert port set to ban cruise ships from dumping contaminated wastewater

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A second port on Canada’s West Coast is proposing a ban on cruise ships dumping contaminated and acidic wastewater while docked to protect the marine environment. 

The Port of Prince Rupert on B.C.’s north coast is taking public feedback until Feb. 5 on changes slated for 2023, including forbidding the open-loop scrubber systems that cruise ships use to clean their exhaust when burning dirty fuel. 

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Rivers & Oceans, Tourism, Waste

B.C. municipalities want action on cargo and cruise ship pollution

By Natasha Bulowski with files from Rochelle Baker, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporters

B.C. municipalities are pushing for stronger environmental protections from the federal government to keep harmful cargo and cruise ship pollution out of the ocean.

In a “historic” motion unanimously passed Sept. 16, the Union of BC Municipalities asked the province to urge the federal government to address pollution produced by exhaust cleaning systems on cargo and cruise ships, according to a Stand.earth press release.

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Environment

The Quadra Project: The Club of Rome

This year, 2022, marks the 50th anniversary of The Club of Rome’s 1972 publication of The Limits of Growth, a book that attempted to warn humanity about the consequences of excessive use of the world’s resources. The genesis of the idea came two years earlier from an Italian industrialist, Aurelio Peccei, who invited to Rome a group of scientists, businessmen, academics and diplomats to explore how they might address his concerns.

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Rivers & Oceans

Canada hopes to lure more nations into fighting illicit fishing on the high seas

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada aims to tackle illegal international fishing and lead global commitments on marine protected areas with the close of the United Nations Ocean Conference last week. 

Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), headed a delegation at the five-day summit in Lisbon with a focus on sharing science and data to solve the ocean crisis driven by climate change, overfishing, biodiversity loss and pollution. 

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