Hundreds rally against Northern Gateway pipeline in Terrace, BC, June 16. (Image via Flickr from Friends of Wild Salmon)

Terrace – Hundreds of northern BC residents rallied in Terrace on Sunday June 16, demonstrating that public opposition to the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and tankers project is still very strong.

As the Enbridge Joint Review Panel (JRP) begins to hear final arguments in Terrace, after 18 months of hearings, northerners continue to send a clear message that the proposed pipeline and tankers are not in the public’s interest.

“Enbridge cannot stop the oil from leaking, and cannot clean it up once it spills,” said Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations. “Destroying the ocean we all depend on is not in the national interest. We will lay down our lives to stop this project.”

Geraldine Thomas-Flurer from the Yinka Dene Alliance reminded the crowd that 160 First Nations have signed the Save the Fraser Declaration: “We are the wall that is going to stop Enbridge.”

Skeena-Bulkley MP Nathan Cullen spoke to the crowd: “Raising our voice in a free and fair democracy does not make us radical. We say no, we will continue to say no, until we are listened to and respected. We are of this river, we are of this land.”

The message is clear: British Columbians still say no.

Signs at the rally represented the diversity and strength of opposition from around the province, including the 160 First Nations, 31 municipalities, 2 regional districts, 6 unions and over 250,000 public actions that have openly expressed opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway proposal. Over 95% of the letters of comment submitted to the JRP opposed the project (9,150 of 9,567 letters submitted).

First Nations, community groups and environmental organizations that have been participating as interveners in the federal review process submitted their final arguments the end of May and will be responding to Enbridge’s final arguments to the Panel over the next two weeks.

Another protest is planned for Monday June 17 at 4pm outside of the Joint Review Panel hearings in Terrace.

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By David Suzuki

The federal government recently announced a reorganization of the National Research Council to make it more ‘business-led’ and industry-focused. It appears we’re coming full circle to the early 1970s, when Sen. Maurice Lamontagne released ‘A Science Policy for Canada,’ a report proposing Canadian science be directed to “mission-oriented” work rather than “curiosity driven” research.

Since then, many politicians have encouraged support for science that serves market interests. I believe we should support science because curiosity and the ability to ask and answer questions are part of what makes our species unique and helps us find our way in the world. Still, basic research aimed at specific outcomes can lead to game-changing applications, from transistors and pesticides to nuclear bombs, penicillin and oral contraceptives. But how do new applications flow from science?

Many scientists support a mythical notion of what makes science innovative. To be “relevant”, they write grant applications as if their work will lead to cures for cancer, new energy forms or salt-tolerant plants, depending on the priorities of funders and governments. This creates the illusion that science proceeds from experiment A to B to C to solution. But we really have no idea what results an experiment will produce. If we did, there would be no point to the experiment.

It’s more likely that a scientist will do experiment A leading to F then O, while another in a different area will do experiment Z leading to W then L. Maybe the two will meet at a conference or even a pub and, in talking about their respective work, realize that results O and L could lead to a new invention!

In 1958, during my genetics studies, we were assigned to critique papers by corn geneticist Barbara McClintock. She painstakingly crossed corn plants, harvesting two crops, first in Indiana then in Mexico. She discovered an amazing and mystifying phenomenon: “jumping” genes that moved from one chromosome location to another, suppressing gene activity wherever they landed. It defied everything we had learned. I sweated blood to make sense of her elegant experiments, although we assumed the phenomena she studied were peculiar to corn.

Decades later, scientists discovered jumping genes in other organisms, including fruit flies, and found they were useful for studying their development. McClintock was belatedly lionized for her discoveries and ultimately awarded a Nobel Prize in 1983. If her research proposals had been assessed for relevance or potential applications, she wouldn’t have received funding for her early, trailblazing work.

As a graduate student, I also studied the experiments of microbial geneticists Werner Arber and Daniel Nathans, and biochemist Hamilton Smith, who were investigating an esoteric phenomenon: bacteria that resisted infection by viruses called bacteriophages (meaning “eaters of bacteria”). Like McClintock’s work, their experiments were elegant, especially when you consider they were working with microorganisms you can’t see the way you can observe a corn plant or fruit fly.

It was astonishing. The bacteria produced enzymes that cut DNA into pieces. They were called ‘restriction enzymes’ and acted by recognizing specific sequences within the DNA and cutting at that point. Various bacterial species evolved distinct restriction enzymes, cutting DNA at different sequences. When the original experiments were carried out, no one could have anticipated that these enzymes would turn out to be critical tools for genetic engineering. It was just good science. And, like McClintock, the scientists were awarded a Nobel Prize for their work.

Canada’s contribution to science is minuscule compared to countries like the U.S., Britain, Germany and even China. But if our top scientists are as good as any, they become our eyes and ears to cutting-edge science around the world, are invited to speak at top universities and institutes and attend meetings where the latest ideas and discoveries are shared.

If we’re serious about creating partnerships between science and business, we have to support the best scientists so they are competitive with any around the world. We also have to recognize that innovation and discoveries don’t always come from market-driven research. We should recognize truly internationally groundbreaking work to inspire young people who will grow up knowing they can be as good as scientists anywhere. This takes commitment from governments, more generous grants and long-term support.

Originally published as part of the Science Matters column on the David Suzuki Foundation website.

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Photo credit: Mike Jones via Flickr.

Toronto – The provincial Cabinet in Ontario announced its approval last week of sweeping exemptions for industry under the Endangered Species Act, 2007 (ESA), which caused many environmental organizations are incensed at the government’s abdication of its responsibility to protect and recover Ontario’s endangered plants and animals.

“This is the first major test of the new Cabinet’s commitment to the environment, and they have failed,” says Dr. Anne Bell, director of conservation and education at Ontario Nature. “They have turned their backs on the province’s most imperiled wildlife, and at a time when the federal government is poised to do the same.”

The new exemptions lower the standard of protection for endangered plants and animals across many industries, including forestry, pits and quarries, renewable energy, hydro, mining, infrastructure development, waste management, and commercial and residential development. They also dramatically reduce government oversight of activities affecting Ontario’s lakes, rivers, forests and wildlife.

“The scope of the exemptions is appalling,” says Amber Ellis, executive director of Earthroots. “The government has caved to industry and turned a deaf ear to all who believe in society’s duty to protect endangered species.”

Among the exemptions is a special five-year exemption for the forestry sector, which leaves forest-dwelling species like the threatened woodland caribou out in the cold. Listed as threatened in Canada in 2000, the woodland caribou has already lost about 50 percent of its historic range in Ontario and continues to decline, due to industrial activity.

“I guess we’ll need a new animal for the Canadian quarter,” says Dan McDermott, director of the Ontario Chapter of Sierra Club Canada.

The costs of administering the ESA were one of the factors driving the decision. Environmentalists question, however, the wisdom of Cabinet’s decision even from an economic perspective. A government study in 2009 determined the value of ecosystem services (pollination, carbon sequestration, soil retention, flood control, etc.) in southern Ontario alone at over $84 billion per year.

“Wise management of this asset demands careful government oversight and enforcement of environmental laws and policies, not environmental deregulation,” says Bell. “Society simply can’t afford to continue to lose species and degrade the natural environment.”

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Actor Peter Keleghan plays Peter Kent in Greenpeace’s new greenwash ads.

Toronto – Greenpeace Canada has launched a satirical television ad campaign aimed at debunking the Harper government’s campaign to “greenwash” the tar sands.

The 30-second ad stars comedic actor Peter Keleghan, known for his work on 18 to Life and The Red Green Show, as Environment Minister Peter Kent. In the ad, he complains that “being the kind of environment minister who makes big oil companies clean up their mess isn’t easy – but buying ads is!”

At issue are the federal government’s “Responsible Resource Development” ads, which depict the tar sands industry as environmentally friendly. First aired in 2012, Ottawa will spend $16 million in tax dollars this year to keep the ads running on television.

Greenpeace will promote the ad on social media before it airs the week of July 8 on CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. The organization is appealing to viewers to sign a petition aimed at Prime Minister Harper as well as contribute a donation to run the ad more widely.

“This project gave me the opportunity to help Greenpeace make an important statement on how the federal government is spending our money to promote the oil industry,” said Keleghan. “It richly deserves being lampooned.”

In addition to the television spot, Greenpeace made two longer skits featuring Sheila McCarthy and Richard Blackburn, who respectively play a sly assistant and exuberant Harper.

All three videos, available at www.stopgreenwash.ca, were directed by Michael Kennedy, whose work includes the hit sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie. Kennedy said he jumped at the chance to direct the videos: “Serious issues deserve serious attention, but sometimes humour works best when you’re trying to reach people.”

“There is no throne so high that it can’t be shaken by laughter from beneath,” echoed Greenpeace Climate and Energy Coordinator Keith Stewart. “Let’s laugh those government ads off the air!”

Keleghan, who has shown his comedic talents in episodes of Seinfeld and Cheers as well as in starring roles in The Newsroom and Billable Hours, previously appeared as Minister Kent in Greenpeace’s “Polluter Harmony” video two years ago.

By David Suzuki with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Ontario and Northern Canada Director-General Faisal Moola.

What makes a city great? Among other things, great cities are tolerant communities that welcome and celebrate ethnic diversity. They support and foster local arts, have access to venture capital to spur entrepreneurship and innovation, and benefit from healthy local environments with clean air, clean water and access to nutritious, locally grown food.

New York City is world class, not just because it’s a driver of global finance and a hotbed of cultural innovation; it’s also known for its green spaces, like Central Park and the award-winning High Line.

San Francisco is celebrated for its narrow streets, compact lots and historic buildings. These contribute to the city’s old-world charm, but they’re also the building blocks of a more sustainable urban form. They facilitate densification and decrease the cost of energy and transportation for businesses while improving walkability.

When it comes to urban sustainability, cities in the U.S. and Canada are employing innovative programs and policies to improve the health and well-being of residents and their local environments, like reducing waste and improving recycling (Los Angeles), containing urban sprawl (Portland), conserving water (Calgary) and passing policies to combat climate change (Toronto).

But most cities in Canada and the U.S. are lacking in infrastructure to move millions of people safely and affordably. With some notable exceptions, such as Vancouver and Calgary, no successful rapid transit infrastructure projects have been built in Canadian cities for decades.

A recent survey of urban experts and other “city-builders” across Canada — planners, municipal politicians, academics, nongovernmental organizations, developers and architects — concluded the abysmal state of public transit is the Achilles’ heel of urban sustainability and is holding many cities back from achieving greatness.

Toronto residents spend more time battling congestion to get to and from work than in any other city in North America. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as successive governments have failed to sustain and expand transit systems, even though the region has grown by about a 100,000 new residents a year. Toronto now scores 15th of 21 on per capita investment in public transit among large global cities — well behind sixth-placed New York City, which spends twice as much.

This failure to address transit infrastructure is serious. The Toronto Board of Trade estimates congestion costs the economy $6 billion a year in lost productivity.

Furthermore, air pollution from traffic congestion is a major threat to public health, especially for our most vulnerable citizens, like children and the elderly. According to the Toronto Board of Health, pollution-related ailments result in 440 premature deaths, 1,700 hospitalizations, 1,200 acute bronchitis episodes and about 68,000 asthma-symptom days a year.

Fortunately, politicians are starting to respond. Ontario’s government plans to spend billions to expand its regional transit system in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, under a plan called the Big Move. It’s also looking at new financing tools to ensure funding levels are adequate and continue into the future. But before we spend enormous amounts on improvements, we need to ensure projects contribute to a region-wide rapid transit network using the latest technology and adhering to the highest sustainability standards. They should also move the most people in the most cost-effective way.

That’s why a proposal to use diesel trains for the Air-Rail-Link plan to connect downtown Toronto with its international airport in Mississauga is concerning. A rapid transit link with the airport is long overdue, but heavy diesel trains emit particulates and other contaminants, including known carcinogens. The proposed rail line would be close to dozens of schools and daycare centres, several long-term care facilities and a chronic respiratory care hospital.

Numerous experts, including Toronto’s Medical Health Officer, have urged the Ontario government to abandon its diesel plan in favour of electric trains that could be better integrated into a region-wide rapid transit network.

Vancouver, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and New York City have consistently ranked among the most livable cities on the continent, in part because they take the environment into account for planning decisions. They all have world-class public transit systems that move residents in a safe, affordable and sustainable way. It’s time for Toronto and its suburbs to do the same. Effective transit and transportation solutions can spur economic productivity, protect the environment and improve quality of life.

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OFFICIAL LAUNCH. Green Communities Canada launched WALK Friendly Ontario, a designation program that recognizes municipal excellence in walkability. By awarding Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum designations to towns and cities from across Ontario, WALK Friendly Ontario will stimulate action to make communities safer and more enjoyable places to walk.

GCC SOCIAL ENTREPRISE. See new promotional materials from GreenIT, Web conferencing for non-profits and Websites that make a difference.

NEW E.D. Stephanie Crocker is EcoSource’s new Executive Director. Since 2004, she has worked with adult environmental organizations in the Region of Peel to help build capacity in communities for environmental change. She co-founded Peel Environmental Youth Alliance (PEYA). She then shared lessons of the PEYA-EcoSource collaboration across the province through the Environmental Youth-Adult Partnerships project.

WINDFALL FESTIVAL. The 12th Annual Windfall Ecology Festival focuses on environmental awareness: energy and water conservation, sustainable energies, lifestyle, health and wellness, and much more. 8-9 June … Drive Electric Conference is new to Windfall festival this year, and takes place on Friday 7 June.

RAIN WORKSHOPS. REEP Green Solutions offers three free RAIN hands-on workshops. “Learn ecological solutions to stormwater problems on your property from experienced contractors.” Permeable Paving, Cisterns and Pumps, 4 June; Rain Garden Sizing, Construction and Care, 11 June; Harvest Rainwater and Build a Rain Garden, 19 June.

LAST STEPS. Challenge your students to walk (or jog, skip or bike) for a week between Earth Week and Clean Air Day (5 June). Spring into Spring can be doubled up with other activities like Environment Week (2-8 June), Summer Safety Week (3-9 June), Bike to Work/School events and many more!

AKI ENERGY. See Enterprising Non-Profits’ article on Aki Energy, an Aboriginal social enterprise connecting First Nations to the green economy through geothermal energy. B.U.I..LD. Winnipeg brought its social enterprise movement expertise to Aki, while Green Communities Canada contributed its experience in insulation and project management with the federal government.

MARKETING GRANT. Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley received a $15,000 grant to put towards the development of a marketing plan that will help further spread the messages of programs like WildSmart and Sustainable Action Canmore. “What we’re doing is designing a strategic marketing plan so that we better reach different groups, including the semi-permanent population, which is a very difficult group to reach, and also visitors as well as residents,” said Melanie Watt, the Institute’s executive director.

GREEN PICNIC. See neat promo piece by GreenUP: an information sheet about environmentally-friendly picnics featuring the store’s products: market basket, reusable utensils, thermoses, insulated bags, stainless steel containers, cloth napkins, dish towels, natural bug repellent and sun screen.

OTTAWA TRANSPORTS. Green Communities Canada participated in the organization of a meeting/campaign launch along with Ecology Ottawa, Walk Ottawa, EnviroCentre, and a few others, March 2013. They demand that City of Ottawa adopts a plan that would better balance the needs of different modes of transportation. If passed, an official policy would guide the planning of new and retrofitted roads: wider sidewalks, more bike lanes, prioritized transit lanes or better crosswalks for pedestrians.

VOLUNTEER TRAINING. Green Calgary is seeking volunteers to help businesses be more waste-conscious and eco-friendly. In 2012, Green Calgary’s Green Workplace team completed 17 visual waste assessments with Calgary businesses, assessing 826 bags of garbage. Waste Assessment Orientation & Training is 5 June.

LEADERS SURVEY. Sustainabilility Network and Ontario Nonprofit Network encourage environmental NGO Executive Directors and senior leaders to complete ONN’s ‘ Looking Ahead Leadership Survey. Survey closes 7 June.

THE FUTURE OF CROWDFUNDING. Research firm has identified five major crowdfunding developments for 2013 and beyond: niche platforms, locavesting, enterprise crowdfunding, crowdfunding economic development, and live crowdfunding. With crowdfunding volumes reaching $2.7 billion in 2012, it has emerged as a viable, scalable alternative to public and private finance across the globe.

TWTTER STRATEGIES. Spitfire Strategies’ two-pager aims at helping organizations use Twitter to identify target audiences, find connections with key influencers and offers best practices to spread their message effectively.

WEATHER VS CLIMATE. Hilarious British comedy duo simultaneously comments on science, social trends, government, and the British attitude to the weather.

JOBS. Sustainable Waterloo Region has two positions: Executive Director, due 14 June, and Regional Carbon Initiative Program Coordinator, due 12 June … Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, Swim Guide Beach Coordinator. Toronto, no due date … Centre d’écologie urbaine de Montréal, Conseiller/ère aux politiques publiques. Due 10 June … Zeidler Partnership, Marketing Coordinator. Calgary, no due date … Interim Executive Director, Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs, Toronto, due 15 June.

Image from Corporate Knights.

Toronto – Corporate Knights, the Toronto-based media and investment research company, announced its ranking of North America’s Most Sustainable Cities for 2013.

Cities were assessed on 28 indicators spanning five categories of sustainability: environmental quality; economic security; governance and empowerment; infrastructure and energy, and social well-being. The supporting research included a survey completed by many of the ranked cities, along with publicly available statistics. Overall, 20 cities across North America were included in the ranking, with 15 from the United States and five from Canada.

This year, San Francisco proved to be the top performer on urban sustainability, a city well known for its environmental stewardship. An 80 per cent waste diversion rate, the lowest energy-consumption rate per person and a strong environmental quality record propelled it to its number one position. “San Francisco was the first municipality to pass a sweeping ordinance mandating city-wide composting at all residences and businesses,” says Darek Gondor, lead researcher on the project. “The mayor and the city council, for the most part, continue to be on the same page for sustainability implementation.”

San Francisco is followed by Washington, D.C., a city that has increased its tree canopy over the past decade while also embarking on a campaign of zoning reform and launching the most successful bike-sharing program in the U.S. The leading Canadian city is Ottawa, the nation’s capital, which finished third overall. It maintains the greatest percentage of green space among the 20 cities surveyed and performed well among other environmental quality indicators such as air pollution and water quality. Vancouver and Toronto came fourth and fifth, respectively.

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By David Suzuki,

Scientists often come up with new discoveries, technologies or theories. But sometimes they rediscover what our ancestors already knew. A couple of recent findings show we have a lot to learn from our forebears — and nature — about bugs.

Modern methods of controlling pests have consisted mainly of poisoning them with chemicals. But that’s led to problems. Pesticides kill far more than the bugs they target, and pollute air, water and soil. As we learned with the widespread use of DDT to control agricultural pests and mosquitoes, chemicals can bioaccumulate, meaning molecules may concentrate hundreds of thousands of times up the food web — eventually reaching people.

As Rachel Carson wrote in her 1962 book Silent Spring, using DDT widely without knowing the full consequences was folly. She showed it was polluting water and killing wildlife, especially birds, and that it could cause cancer in humans. Her book launched the environmental movement but did little to change our overall strategy for dealing with bugs. Although DDT was banned worldwide for agricultural purposes in 2001, the chemical is still used to control insects that spread disease.

Recent research shows that widespread use of pesticides like DDT may have caused us to ignore or forget benign methods of pest control. Because the chemicals were so effective, infestations were reduced and there was little interest in non-toxic methods. But bugs evolve quickly and can become immune to pesticides. That’s true of bedbugs, the now ubiquitous critters that are showing up around the world in homes, hotels, schools, movie theatres — even libraries.

But a method used long ago provides an effective and non-toxic weapon against the pests, according to a U.S. study in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. The authors looked into the once-common Eastern European practice of spreading bean leaves around a bed to control bedbugs;. What they found was fascinating.

“During the night, bed bugs walking on the floor would accumulate on these bean leaves, which were collected and burned the following morning to exterminate the bed bugs. The entrapment of bed bugs by the bean leaves was attributed to the action of microscopic plant hairs (trichomes) on the leaf surfaces that would entangle the legs of the bed bugs,” the scientists, from the University of California, Irvine, and University of Kentucky, wrote.

They discovered that after bugs get caught up in the hooked plant hairs, they struggle to escape, and in the process vulnerable parts of their feet are pierced by the hooks, permanently trapping them. The research focuses on a way to replicate this. “This physical entrapment is a source of inspiration in the development of new and sustainable methods to control the burgeoning numbers of bed bugs,” the researchers wrote, adding that the method “would avoid the problem of pesticide resistance that has been documented extensively for this insect.”

Other research has literally dug up pest control methods that go back millennia. An international team of archeologists recently found evidence that people living in South Africa almost 80,000 years ago made bedding out of insect-repelling plants.

According to the journal Science, the research team found 15 different layers containing bedding made from compacted stems and leaves of sedges and rushes, dating between 77,000 and 38,000 years ago. One layer of leaves was identified as River Wild-quince, which contains “chemicals that are insecticidal, and would be suitable for repelling mosquitoes.” The archeologists also found evidence that people often burned the bedding after use, possibly to remove pests.

These are just two examples of what we can learn from our ancestors and from nature. Because natural systems tend toward balance, the fascinating field of biomimicry has developed to explore what nature can teach us. It’s aimed at finding “sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies,” according to the Biomimicry Guild website. “The goal is to create products, processes, and policies — new ways of living — that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul.”

Maybe the truest sign of human intelligence is not to learn how we can shoehorn nature into our own agenda, but to see how we can better find our own place in nature.

Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Communications Manager Ian Hanington.

Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

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Image from the Wilderness Committee

Vancouver – Environmental groups are filing of a lawsuit over the BC government’s failure to protect Coastal Douglas-fir forests.

The lawsuit attests that BC’s forestry laws require the BC Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations to protect the remainder of these endangered forests and that, if the forests are to survive, all logging of this forest type must stop.

The environmental groups — Wilderness Committee, ForestEthics Solutions and Ecojustice – are seeking a court order stating that the province has violated its own laws to protect these forests from extinction. The case is expected to be heard this year.

“This is a greenwash test case,” said Valerie Langer, Director of BC Forest Conservation with ForestEthics Solutions. ”The province brags that it has world-leading environmental laws. Clearly this is misleading, and it’s about time that the province put some teeth into environmental protection. We’re going to court to press for that.”

BC’s Coastal Douglas-fir forests were formally designated for protection by the Ministry of Environment in 2006. However, logging of the remaining forests has continued for the last six years.

Reduced to fragmented pockets of mostly second-growth stands, these forests that once thrived on eastern Vancouver Island and parts of the Lower Mainland now teeter perilously close to elimination – the ecosystem equivalent of extinction. According to government documents, these forests are “almost gone,” with less than one per cent of old-growth forest intact due to years of successive logging and clearing for agriculture and human settlement.

The Coastal Douglas-fir forest used to be dominant in an area covering approximately 2,600 square kilometres. The BC Forest Practices Board has estimated that only 1,600 square kilometres still remain as forest, and that less than one per cent of that area remains in old-growth condition.

“This forest type is listed under BC’s forest laws as being at risk, but instead of being protected, the entire forest is being wiped out,” said Torrance Coste, the Wilderness Committee’s Vancouver Island Campaigner.

The BC government controls about nine per cent of all lands in the Coastal Douglas-fir forest (235 square kilometres). Recently, the province allowed logging in endangered Coastal Douglas-fir forest near Nanaimo, despite its purported protection under BC’s forestry laws. Local environmentalists have disputed this development, contending that the BC government cannot legally grant logging rights to the area.

“Do our laws say ‘protect the environment’ in one clause but in the next provide a loophole to legally destroy it? Or is the province legally required to protect these endangered forests and species?” said Devon Page, Executive Director of Ecojustice, whose lawyers are leading the case. “If the government is breaking its own law, then we want the courts to make the province take action to protect the last of these endangered forests.”

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