Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from September 2002

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from September 2002

Time is running out: a 2002 United Nations report estimates we have about 30 years to halt the rate of environmental damage to Earth. (Introduction).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... A thousand earth scientists wrote a report called The State of the Environment: Past, Present, Future? That question mark at the end of the title is ominous because it suggests a lot of very bright people think our planet might not have much of...

From Stockholm to Johannesburg: most, but not all, of the world's major players accept that future economic growth must not cause the depletion of resources of which there is a limited supply; development must be sustainable over the long haul. (Background).
September 1, 2002... Every ten years, the world's leaders gather to discuss the state of the environment. The first such meeting was in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972, followed by Nairobi, Kenya in 1982, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1992). The venue for the fourth summit...

The sixth extinction: throughout the 4.7 billion-year history of Earth life forms have vanished, usually because they couldn't adapt to a changing environment. (Biodiversity).
September 1, 2002... Earth's environment has always changed, usually slowly. As the environment changed so too did the life forms it supported. Some adapted to the new world by evolving to take advantage of the new conditions. Others, that were not able to adjust,...

Hot enough for you? In the late Antarctic summer of 2002, a chunk of ice half the size of Prince Edward Island broke free of the eastern tip of the continent. Scientists called the event "staggering" and said it raised fears that global warming is starting to destroy one of the world's crucial reserves of ice. (Kyoto).
September 1, 2002... The Kyoto agreement (signed in that Japanese city in 1997) is aimed at reducing the emission of carbon-based fuels into the atmosphere. It is believed that this and the release of other gases is a source of global warming and other changes in...

Trees for life: the world's ancient forests are disappearing, and it could spell disaster for all living things. (Forests).
September 1, 2002... Eight thousand years ago, large tracts of ancient forest covered about 40% of Earth's land area. Today, only about half of the original forests remain. There are several reasons why we're losing our forests, including agriculture, mining,...

Beyond the dirty dozen: twelve chemicals, known to cause severe health problems in humans, are closely controlled or even banned completely, but there are still tens of thousands of other artificial substances that are a byproduct of our industrial society about which very little is known. (Toxicity).
September 1, 2002... Choccolocco Creek has the kind of name that makes you want to visit it; have your picture taken by the signboard. Best not though. It's near Anniston, Alabama, about halfway between Birmingham and Atlanta, Georgia. A fish was taken out of...

What tourists leave behind: hotels, tourist transport, and related activities consume huge amounts of energy, water, and other resources, and generate pollution and wastes, often in destinations that aren't able to deal with them. (Tourism).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The ecosystem along the coast of Florida is stressed, overloaded by the construction of hotels and condos. The Mediterranean Sea is an open cesspool because too many people flock to its beaches and resorts each year and not enough attention is...

Quote ... unquote.
September 1, 2002... "Over the last hundred years, life on Earth was dominated by growth. Growth of population, of production, of income and capital formation, of exhaustion and pollution. This growth is going to stop and must stop, and the only question is by what...

Not a pretty sight. (Introduction).(Canada)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... To people living elsewhere in the world, Canada has the image of being a pristine wilderness. It's a land of endless forests, sparkling mountain streams, and clean, cool lakes. But, that's just an image. In reality, Canada's environment is in...

Promises made, promises broken. (Politics).(environmental policy)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... With enormous fanfare, the leaders of the G8 gathered at Kananaskis, Alberta in June 2002. A couple of months earlier, the environment ministers for the same big, industrialized countries met at the same venue and received almost no attention....

Nature's bounty. (Economics).(National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy)
September 1, 2002... Everybody is gung-ho about economic growth. And, why shouldn't they be? Economic growth creates jobs, it increases wealth, it enables us to pay for better social programs such as health care and education. The standard measure of how well our...

Going, going ... (Forests).(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... We tend to forget that Canada is one of the most forested nations in the world. As Global Forest Watch points out, our country "contains over a third of the world's boreal forest, one fifth of the world's temperate rainforest, and a tenth of...

Natural ejection. (Biodiversity).
September 1, 2002... Stories about the passenger pigeon are almost legendary. They gathered in huge colonies that were very densely populated; there might be as many as 100 nests in a single tree. It was said that a migrating flock of these birds would darken the...

Death in the city. (Urban).(photochemical smog)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Hacking and wheezing through smog alerts is becoming a frequent experience for Canada's city dwellers. And, as 78% of Canadians live in urban areas, that means most of us. By far the largest and worst affected area is southern Ontario....

Quick! Bury it! (Toxicity).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Canada has nothing to crow about when it comes to cutting pollution. According to a North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) report, released in May 2002, toxic releases declined 6% in the United States from 1995 to 1999. During the same...

Underfunded and under pressure. (National Parks).
September 1, 2002... Canada has some of the world's most magnificent national parks. * The Gwaii Haanas Park is in the southern Queen Charlotte Islands on the British Columbian Coast. It covers almost 1,500 [km.sup.2] and is home to 39 unique plants. Each year...

Sierra Club's Rio report card.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Each year, the Sierra Club rates the performance of the federal and provincial governments on how well or badly they are doing in meeting commitments made at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The complete report can be found at:...

Quote ... unquote.
September 1, 2002... "Over the past half billion years, the planet lost perhaps one species per million species each year, including everything from mammals to plants. Today, the annum rate of extinction is 1,000 to 10,000 times taster." Edward O. Wilson,...