bike lanes, tar sands, climate plan, cancer, unions, anxiety

[angela bischoff]

"May the sun bring you new energy every day. May the moon softly restore
you by night. May the rain wash away your worries. May the breeze blow new
strength into your being. May you walk gently through the world and know
its beauty all the days of your life.”
- Apache blessing

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Physically Separated Bike Lanes

Catch this 8 min. online video http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=2865
It's all about bike lanes. It shows nicely how bikes can be accommodated
on heavily trafficked streets. Indeed, such facilities are commonplace
throughout Europe, and are becoming more so on west coast North American
cities. These cities show a commitment to cyclists' safety.

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New Poll Shows Canadians Support Action on Tar Sands.

Canadians are looking for more leadership from the federal government when
it comes to dealing with the environmental effects of the oil sands. A new
poll released today by Environmental Defence shows that Canadians
overwhelmingly reject the federal government’s recent announcement to let
greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands rise.

72% of Canadians polled said they favour a more active federal government
role in the environmental management of the oil sands, even if it means
tensions with the Alberta government. In Alberta, 51% of those polled
favoured this approach.

A large majority of Canadians, 79%, also agreed that emissions from the
oil sands should be capped, and then reduced. 81% of Albertans supported
caps and reductions on oil sands emissions.

<http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/pressroom/viewnews.php?id=362>Read the
news release: Poll Shows Canadians Reject Federal Oil Sands Emissions Plan
<http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/reports/Oil%20Sands%20Omnibus%20Questions%20-%20Topline%20Rep%20FINAL.pdf>Read
the full poll, conducted by McAllister Opinion Research.

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Climate Action Network

Press Release
Thursday, March 27, 2008

New Loopholes in Federal Climate Plan will allow Oil Sands Emissions to
Increase

Ottawa -- Major new loopholes in the federal government’s climate change
plan will allow greenhouse gas emissions to grow and lets the polluting
oil sands industry off the hook by delaying emission reductions for a
decade, say representatives of the Climate Action Network Canada-Réseau
action climat Canada, based on a new analysis from the Pembina Institute.

“At a time when Canada should be getting tough on major polluters, the
country is going in the opposite direction,” said Arthur Sandborn,
Greenpeace Canada. “We need absolute caps on emissions and mandatory
targets for the industrial sector that come into effect now, not 10 years
down the road.” <snip>

One of the federal government’s new measures is to set targets based on
carbon capture and storage (CCS) for oil sands starting operations that
come on stream after 2011 – an obligation that won’t come into effect
until 2018.

The government’s own projections show that its timeline for CCS targets
will allow oil sands companies to nearly triple their emissions by 2017
before dropping once the new targets take effect in 2018. And by exempting
facilities that start up before 2012 from these targets, the federal
government’s timeline actually creates an incentive for companies to bring
new oil sands facilities on stream more quickly to “beat the deadline” and
avoid the CCS targets altogether.

Canada is also presenting misleading information to the international
community. In documents submitted to the UN, the Government of Canada
states that “Canada will require new oil sands facilities and coal-fired
power generation plants to put in place large-scale carbon capture and
storage and other green technologies,” leaving out the fact that there is
no “requirement” (only targets based on CCS); that facilities starting up
before 2012 are exempt; and that the CCS-level targets will only be
applied starting in 2018. <snip>

Other weaknesses of the regulatory framework include:

-The use of intensity targets instead of absolute caps on industrial
pollution. Intensity targets allow emissions to increase if production
grows rapidly. (Canadian emissions grew 25% from 1990 to 2005, in spite of
intensity decreases of 17% over the same period.) A better solution would
be to regulate absolute emission reductions through a cap-and-trade
system, or to charge a carbon tax high enough to significantly reduce
emissions.

- The use of a Technology Fund, which allows emitters to meet their
targets on paper by making payments to the federal government rather than
reducing their emissions.

- The use of 2006 as a base year for calculating targets. The federal
government plans to cut emissions 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020.
However, when converted to the internationally-recognized base year of
1990, Canada’s target is actually about 2% above the 1990 emission level.
This leaves Canada far short of doing its fair share in the global effort
to prevent dangerous climate change.

- New “corporate” targets for the electricity sector open the door to
double-counting. In the case of Ontario’s coal-fired power plants alone,
these new targets could weaken the system by 20 million tonnes a year
after 2014.

- 30 -

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Eden Mills, Ontario is going Carbon Neutral!

We are a small Canadian village with an ambitious goal. Inspired by the
lead of Ashton Hayes (www.goingcarbonneutral.co.uk), a village in England,
we are engaging in a grassroots initiative to tackle the urgent issue of a
warming planet. We want our children and grandchildren to know that we not
only cared but tried to do something.

We are aiming to become the first village in North America to achieve
carbon neutrality. We will share freely with cities, towns and
neighbourhoods around the world our knowledge, resources and experience to
assist others in their pursuit of carbon neutrality.

http://goingcarbonneutral.ca/

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<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/takeonestep/cancer/?msource=EML0318MAREN&tr=y&auid=3481486>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/takeonestep/cancer/?msource=EML0318MAREN&tr;=y&auid;=3481486

THE TRUTH ABOUT CANCER
PREMIERES ON PBS APRIL 16, 9 p.m. (check local listings)

Emmy Award-Winning Filmmaker Linda Garmon Takes on the Question "How Far
Have We Come in the War on Cancer?"

What is the truth about cancer? Is it the same deadly killer it was 30
years ago - or are we making progress? Find out through the poignant
stories of patients battling the disease. Written, produced, and directed
by award-winning filmmaker Linda Garmon, The Truth About Cancer premieres
nationally on PBS Wednesday, April 16, at 9:00pm ET (check local
listings). Comprised of a 90-minute documentary followed by a 30-minute
panel discussion, the two-hour broadcast event takes a deep look inside
the cancer field gauging how far we have come in this decades-old war and
asking, "Why does anyone still die of cancer?"

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Stop union-busting in Saskatchewan

The Canadian province of Saskatchewan was once known as the citadel of
democratic socialism in that country.  No longer.  A new right-wing
government has made its first legislative priority the enactment of
union-busting legislation.  The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour is
asking for our help to pressure the government to back down.  More details
and a chance to send off your protest message are available
<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=910657&msgid=79180&act=P8ZT&c=154875&admin=0&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.labourstart.org%2Fcgi-bin%2Fsolidarityforever%2Fshow_campaign.cgi%3Fc%3D350>here
.

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HIGH ANXIETY

By Christopher Lane
March 27, 2008

The United States has reached a point where almost half its population is
described as being in some way mentally ill, and nearly a quarter of its
citizens — 67.5 million — have taken anti-depressants.

These eye-popping statistics have sparked a widespread, sometimes
rancorous debate about whether people are taking far more medication than
is needed for problems that may not even be mental disorders.

Studies indicate that 40 percent of all patients fall short of the
diagnoses that doctors and psychiatrists give them, yet 200 million
prescriptions are still written annually in the US to treat depression and
anxiety. <snip>

Full article: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=12735

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