Tag Archives: University of Alberta

Cost of Climate Change, Energy

Call for Wind & Solar in Canadian Cities as Average Global Temperatures Rise

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There have been thousands of scientific studies warning about global warming, but one of the most chilling is a new report advocating the adoption of a combined rooftop solar and wind turbine energy in Canadian cities. Professors You Wu and Lexuan Zhong from the University of Alberta aren’t warning anyone about climate change. They base their projections on the assumption global temperatures could rise to 2.°C above pre-industrial levels in as little as fifteen years and to 3.5°C sometime between 2070 and 2090.

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Rivers & Oceans

DFO ‘legacy of neglect’ leaves North Coast salmon to flounder

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Fisheries and Oceans Canada cut the monitoring of salmon streams along BC’s North and Central Coast, leaving critical stocks uncounted at the height of spawning season.

Seasonal “creek walkers” — contractors for the fisheries department (DFO) who trek along streams to record salmon returns — haven’t been hired as stocks return along the coast from Bella Bella to the Alaskan border, including major watersheds like the Skeena, Nass and Kitimat systems, says a coalition of conservation groups. 

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Environment

Enviro groups suing Alberta premier say the foreign influence he accused them of is actually in Big Oil

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is doubling down on his attacks against the environmental groups he misleadingly claims “campaigned to landlock Alberta energy” using foreign money, but environmentalists are quick to point out the majority of Canada’s oil and gas companies are quietly controlled by foreign corporations seeking to influence climate policy through lobbying and elections.

“The irony of this whole conversation is that the foreign money involved in the conversations about what we should do on climate change or not is, of course, dominated by oil money, most of which is foreign,” said Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence, one of five environmental organizations suing Kenney and his government for misrepresenting the clear-cut findings of a provincial inquiry released last year.

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Food, Indigenous Nations

Traditional First Nation Foods Mean Better Diet Quality

By Sophie Gray, Osoyoos Times, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Underneath the surging waters of the Okanagan River on the traditional territory of the Syilx/Okanagan people, a major cultural revitalization is taking shape in the form of the salmon.

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Cost of Climate Change

Sea Levels Are Already Rising

Sea levels are already rising. One tends to think of this as a third world development but, between 1969 and 2010, Prince Edward Island lost 20 square kilometers. According to Dr. Adam Fenech, Director of the Climate Lab at the University of Prince Edward Island, close to a thousand PEI homes, 17 lighthouses (one of which is already half in the water) and a number of wind turbines could be lost by 2100. A new webinar from the Science Media Centre of Canada discussed an important factor not included in this calculation. The changing climate makes sea levels rise.

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