Discover, Connect & Share from Sea to Sea to Sea

 We've entered an idea in the Aviva Community Fund challenge! But we need your help to make this vision a reality. The next round of voting starts on Monday, October 24 and every vote brings us one step closer to empowering young nature leaders across the country. Sign up now to be ready to vote or read on to learn more about our idea.

The Project

"It was in the Arctic that I started to realize the significance of a sustainable lifestyle."
– Donovan Taplin (17 years old)Bell Island, Newfoundland

Photo by Lee Narraway/Students on Ice

City traffic, air and noise pollution, cell phones, shopping malls and a daily deluge of e-mail are a reality for most Canadians. We spend our days indoors, sitting under fluorescent lights and breathing re-circulated air.

Our children play video games; they don't play outside. They know how to navigate the internet, but don't know what birds live in their backyards. They learn about big issues like climate change, but don't have the connection with nature that will let them truly understand the problem.

We are isolated from nature. We are isolated from each other.

Nature Canada and Students on Ice want to provide a life-changing opportunity for Canadian youth from sea to sea to sea. We will help them discover nature first-hand on the Arctic Expedition 2012, connect with peers and mentors in community dialogue, and share their experiences with other young people at a national Youth Leadership Summit. We hope that each person who is touched by the SEA to SEA to SEA experience is inspired to lead positive change in their own individual communities.

The Partners

For more than 70 years Nature Canada, a membership-based not-for-profit conservation organization, has been a leader in connecting Canadians to nature.

We have worked with hundreds of local groups in every province and territory to deliver community-based projects including the Parks & People program, allowing youth to experience nature first-hand; the Community Action Fund, enabling on-the-ground conservation activities; the Important Bird Areas Caretaker Network, engaging stewards for habitat and species protection; and Nature Explorers, an integrated program that will see one million children and their families participating in multiple experiences in nature over the next five years. 

Students on Ice is an award-winning program that provides youth from across Canada and around the world with ship-based education expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic.

The Students on Ice mandate is to educate and inspire the next generation of leaders and responsible global citizens, and in doing so help provide them with a greater understanding and respect for the planet.

The Plan

Nature Canada and Students on Ice are seeking $150,000 of support from the Aviva Community Fund to assist with on-the-ground delivery of the 2012 SEA to SEA to SEA experience that will empower Canadian youth through a transformative journey.

Photo by Lee Narraway/Students on Ice

In August 2012, 75 students from around the world will participate in the Students on Ice Arctic Expedition 2012. Through a nationwide selection process, a young Canadian from every province and territory will be chosen to participate on the expedition thanks to this support from AVIVA. These funds will facilitate this journey of discovery and the development of young nature ambassadors.

Highlights of the expedition will include a welcome event hosted by the community of Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, and a visit with community leaders and Inuit elders in Pagnirtung to learn about their observations of climate change and its impacts on their community and way of life. The team will stop at National Parks, Important Bird Areas, and spectacular fjords along the way to immerse themselves in learning directly in the spectacular landscape. Participants will have a chance to see magnificent Arctic wildlife, including seabirds, whales, and polar bears.

Throughout the expedition, students will have a chance to learn from each other and connect with mentors. Ongoing discussions will let them reflect on their experiences and energize them to become leaders for environmental and social change in their own individual communities when they return home.

In November 2012, 130 youth from across Canada will converge at a Youth Leadership Summit to explore what the Arctic means to Canada, how our country is connected from SEA to SEA to SEA, and why healthy sustainable communities are critical for our future, the Arctic's future and the planet's future.

The AVIVA Nature Ambassadors from the expedition will serve as youth leaders, motivating their peers as they share their recent Arctic journey, experiences and new knowledge.

The Youth Leadership Summit will empower participants as young leaders, changing their lives and communities. They will make lasting connections that will link Canadian communities from sea to sea to sea in a sustainable future.

"I am taking on the world as an ambassador of positive change."
– Victoria Wee (17 years old)Coquitlam, British Columbia

Please vote to empower change, from sea to sea to sea.

Cairn Energy Oil Spill Response Plans Now Public

Responding to pressure from environmental groups around the world, Greenland has finally released Cairn Energy's oil spill response plans for public review.

Last month, Nature Canada joined 53 other international organizations – including Greenpeace, the David Suzuki Foundation, and Council of Canadians – in sending a letter to Greenland’s Prime Minister, Kuupik Kleist, expressing serious concern over the lack of transparency regarding Cairn’s operations in this unique and fragile region.

Bizarrely, the Greenland government argued it had been necessary to keep Cairn's contingency plans confidential until now because of the "unlawful actions aimed at the safety measures at oil exploration". Greenpeace has launched a number of protests at Arctic drilling operations over the past year.

Cairn's drilling operations -- which so far haven't yielded commercial amounts of oil and gas -- are a real gamble for the pristine wilderness of the Arctic. Walrus, seal, bowhead whale and polar bear habitats could be disrupted and entire remote communities wiped out if a toxic spill eliminates their means of subsistence living.

A spill in this region could be devastating to arctic seabird colonies feeding on the ice floes at Important Bird Areas along Nunavut’s northern coast, Baffin Island or as far south as Labrador. Ivory Gulls, Northern Fulmars, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Thick-billed Murres and many other seabird or water bird species would be at risk.

Cairn's oil spill response plans are being made public even as Shell has admitted that more than 200 tonnes of oil have entered the North Sea after a leak in a flow line leading to the Gannet Alpha oil platform 180 km off Aberdeen, Scotland.
 
In a wearily familiar refrain, the company had at first vastly underreported the scale of the leak, and as for plans to stop the flow? Apparently, the leak is in an "awkward" place, and there are hundreds of tonnes of additional oil in the pipeline, yet to pollute a world-famous colony of bottlenose dolphins in nearby waters.
 
Canada should heed these events and think long and hard before allowing any new offshore drilling, especially in the Arctic, and enact a plan to end our reliance on dirty, polluting fossil fuels in favour of responsible development of clean, renewable energy.

With each new spill, and each inadequate clean-up response, it becomes clearer that even with preventive measures in place, accidents are certain to occur, so it is important to identify places of great ecological significance and permanently protect them. Establishing a comprehensive system of marine and coastal protected areas is essential before development begins, so that irreplaceable natural habitats aren't lost forever to disastrous industrial accidents. Important Bird Areas and existing Migratory Bird Sanctuaries are good starting points to better protect habitats for birds that, in many cases, Canada shares with the rest of the hemisphere.

Support Adding the Polar Bear to the Species At Risk List: Send Your Letter Now!

Last week we shared the news that Canada's Environment Minister, Peter Kent, has proposed adding the polar bear to the Species at Risk list. Thousands of Nature Canada supporters have sent letters and signed petitions to the federal government demanding action to protect the polar bear, as global warming destroys the bears' habitat and scientists raise warnings about the future of the species.

There is a 30-day comment period to voice support for the Environment Minister's proposal, and we've prepared a sample letter that you can send. Here it is.

The deadline for adding your comments is August 1, 2011. So make sure Minister Kent knows you support adding the polar bear to Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act as a species of special concern. Every letter counts!

Polar Bear to be Added to Species at Risk List

At last, in part thanks to thousands of letters sent by Nature Canada supporters, Canada appears set to list polar bears under Canada's species-at-risk legislation.

Ottawa gave notice July 2 of the proposal to list the polar bear as a species of special concern under the Species At Risk Act, something Canada’s scientific Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife has been recommending since 1991.

The proposal is undergoing a 30-day public comment period, and a final decision is anticipated to be made in November.

This important milestone means that, by law, a plan must be devised within three years to prevent the species from becoming endangered or threatened.

Polar bears are the world’s largest land predators, and the most majestic creature of the Far North. But dramatic changes, caused by global warming, are taking place in the Arctic that threaten the survival of this spectacular species.

Global warming is melting the polar ice caps, robbing the bears of the ice floes they need to hunt prey. As the annual sea ice melts, polar bears are forced ashore to spend their summers fasting. If the Arctic ice cap continues to melt sooner and form later, polar bears will become too thin to reproduce and many scientists predict they will become extinct by the end of this century.

The Arctic sea ice, which some reports say is shrinking by up to five per cent every ten years, not only provides hunting ground for polar bears, but shelter and transportation for seals, walrus, arctic foxes, and the Inuit people. The underside provides a surface for algae that supports cod, char, beluga, and narwhal. The white sea ice also has a cooling effect on climate by reflecting light away from Earth’s surface. As it melts, global warming advances even more quickly.

The United States designated the polar bear as threatened in May 2008. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the polar bear to its "Red List" of the world's most imperiled wildlife in 2006.

COSEWIC has said four of Canada's 13 polar bear subpopulations are at risk of becoming threatened over the next few decades, due to shrinking sea ice in some areas and overhunting in others. In 2009, the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) cited climate change as the greatest challenge to the conservation of polar bears, and concluded that 1 of 19 subpopulations is currently increasing, 3 are stable and 8 are declining. For the remaining 7 subpopulations available data were insufficient to provide an assessment of the current trend.

There are approximately 15,000 polar bears in Canada, accounting for 60 per cent of the world's polar bear population, according to federal estimates.

Nature Canada and its supporters have been actively lobbying for the polar bear to be added to the Species at Risk list. More than 3,100 people sent letters demanding official designation, and over 40,000 people signed our petition for fast action on climate change to save the polar bear.

We encourage you to take part in the 30-day comment period – let Environment Minister Peter Kent know your views on listing the polar bear on Canada’s Species at Risk list.

Is Cairn Energy Prepared for an Arctic Oil Spill?

We were all transfixed by the environmental destruction of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill last year. Yet, however bad the spill in the Gulf of Mexico was, almost everyone agrees a major spill in the Arctic sea would be worse. How much worse? Last November a report commissioned by the Pew Environment Group examined that question, and concluded a cleanup could take years – if it’s even possible at all. Efforts would be hampered by wintertime temperatures that can drop below minus 50 degrees Celsius, fierce Arctic storms, endless darkness and fog that shrouds the region for more than half the days of the year.


Yes, drilling in the Arctic is reckless, and dangerous – and something big oil companies are quite eager to do.

Case in point: Edinburgh-based oil and gas company Cairn Energy has plans to drill off the coast of Greenland – without making its oil spill response plan public. This is a document that an oil company has to draw up explaining how it would clean up a spill. They are nearly always made public, but Cairn is keeping its one secret.

On Thursday, Nature Canada joined 53 other international organizations – including Greenpeace, the David Suzuki Foundation, and Council of Canadians – in sending a letter to Greenland’s Prime Minister, Kuupik Kleist, expressing serious concern over the lack of transparency regarding Cairn’s operations in this unique and fragile region.

Cairn is gambling with the pristine wilderness of the Arctic. Walrus, seal, bowhead whale and polar bear habitats could be disrupted and entire remote communities wiped out if a toxic spill eliminates their means of subsistence living.

A spill in this region could be devastating to arctic seabird colonies feeding on the ice floes at Important Bird Areas along Nunavut’s northern coast, Baffin Island or as far south as Labrador. Ivory Gulls, Northern Fulmars, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Thick-billed Murres and many other seabird or water bird species would be at risk.

Our changing climate –due in large part to the burning of fossil fuels -- is melting the Arctic sea ice, changing the nature of one of the most remote, and vulnerable places on earth. It is time to place a moratorium on new offshore drilling, including the Arctic, and to end our reliance on dirty, polluting fossil fuels in favour of responsible development of clean, renewable energy.

Here in Canada, the Government should delay new off-shore drilling projects until a consistent, strictly enforced set of regulations is in place that protects the environment, oil and gas workers and coastal communities.

Even with preventive measures in place, accidents are certain to occur, so it is important to identify places of great ecological significance and permanently protect them. Establishing a comprehensive system of marine and coastal protected areas is essential before development begins, so that irreplaceable natural habitats aren't lost forever to unsustainable development projects and unforeseen accidents. Important Bird Areas and existing Migratory Bird Sanctuaries are good starting points to better protect habitats for birds that, in many cases, Canada shares with the rest of the hemisphere.

Canada's North and a Changing Climate: What Does the Future Hold?

As rapid climate change continues to alter Canada’s Arctic in dramatic ways, there has been an unprecedented domestic and international interest in what the future holds for this fascinating – and important – region.

As the ice disappears, new opportunities for natural resource extraction, shipping, tourism, and infrastructure arise, and with them could come substantial new investment and employment to the North.

However, the effects of environmental change, such as shifting and melting permafrost, melting glaciers, shrinking ocean ice and a shortened season for ice roads could have significant social and economic consequences for Canada’s arctic peoples, and the entire nation.

If you’re in the Ottawa area tomorrow afternoon, I encourage you to join me at the Museum of Nature for a panel discussion hosted by the Canadian Committee of the IUCN. The event will bring together specialists and members of the interested public to have an interactive conversation on a range of topics:

• Sustainable wildlife use – David Lee, Wildlife Biologist, Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated

• Aboriginal traditional knowledge – James Eetoolook, Vice‐President, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., and Chair, Inuit Wildlife and Environment Advisory Council;

• Protected areas – Rob Prosper, Executive Director, Northern Canada, Parks Canada;

• Marine transportation – Ross MacDonald, Manager, Special Projects and Arctic Shipping, Marine Safety, Transport Canada.

The event will be chaired by Tom Laughlin, Deputy Head of the IUCN’s Global Marine and Polar Program. Following the presentations, the speakers and the audience will have an open discussion about how sustainable developments in the North can provide maximum benefits for indigenous communities, and for Canada as a whole, while ensuring development in the North occurs in a sustainable manner.

The IUCN (the International Union for the Conservation of Nature) is one of the world’s largest global environmental networks. The Canadian Committee is a unique group on the national conservation scene – it brings representatives from government, non-profit organizations, academia and Aboriginal groups around one table to talk about conservation issues of global and national concern, such as climate change, biodiversity, and indigenous peoples’ rights and interests.

I was excited to join the Canadian Committee this year, and to engage Nature Canada with fellow Committee members, including Parks Canada, Environment Canada, Nature Conservancy, and Aboriginal groups, to promote conservation awareness and action on biodiversity in Canada.

I encourage you to join me tomorrow. If you can’t make it, post a comment here with any message you’d like me to take to those in attendance – what should the future hold for Canada’s Arctic?

Event details:

A Panel Discussion Hosted by the Canadian Committee for IUCN
Canadian Museum of Nature, 240 McLeod Street, Ottawa
May 26, 2011, 1:30 ‐ 5 p.m.

Nature Canada’s Ian Davidson Appointed to Canadian Arm of International Conservation Body

We're very happy to announce the recent appointment of Ian Davidson, Nature Canada's executive directory, to the Canadian Committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The IUCN is one of the world’s largest global environmental networks. Founded in 1948, this leading authority on the environment supports scientific research, manages field projects all over the world, and brings governments, NGOs and local communities together to solve some of the planet’s most pressing problems.

As a member of the Canadian Committee of the IUCN, Nature Canada joins a diverse group of people from the Canadian conservation community to help shape policy and decision-making on the protection and conservation of wildlife and habitat.

“In most countries, the IUCN plays a strong and central role in facilitating conservation action and linking domestic agendas with global ones. I think that Nature Canada should be part of the global dialogue on nature conservation and participate in setting the agenda of the IUCN in Canada,” said Ian Davidson.

What makes this committee stand apart from all the others?

The Canadian Committee of the IUCN is a unique group on the national conservation scene – it brings representatives from government, non-profit organizations, academia and Aboriginal groups around one table to talk about conservation issues of global and national concern, such as climate change, biodiversity, and indigenous peoples’ rights and interests. The arctic, both in a Canadian and global context, is an issue that the Committee is eager to address, with plans in the works for a panel session on key events to which participants would be invited.

Nature Canada’s work promotes conversation, engagement and action on all of these issues.

In the coming year, we'll be working with fellow Committee members, including Parks Canada, Environment Canada, Nature Conservancy, Canadian Wildlife Federation and Aboriginal groups, among others, to promote conservation awareness and action on biodiversity in Canada.

“As a member of the Board of the Canadian Committee for the IUCN, we can advance the nature agenda on the national stage and then from there, on the global stage,” said Davidson.

The Committee will also help its members prepare for the 2012 World Conservation Congress in Korea by providing support for conservation forms and committee meetings across the country. The next big push will come this fall – a meeting has been called to bring members together in order to outline their priorities and responsibilities during the upcoming Congress.

The forum, scheduled to take place in September, will provide “an opportunity for the Canadian conservation community to share ideas and offer solutions on behalf of wildlife in this country and beyond,” said Davidson.

Government to Ratify Amendments to Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants, Protecting Canadians and their Environment

In the past, we’ve blogged about the effects of persistent organohalogen contaminants (OHCs), a form of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), on Arctic wildlife - such as the weakening of kidney and liver functioning in polar bears, which decreases their ability to adapt to extreme environments like the Arctic. Yesterday, the Ministers of Environment and Foreign Affairs announced that they would be ratifying amendments to the Protocol on POPs, under the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP). The amendments will add five additional substances to the Protocol’s list of 16 susbtances, which include DDT and PCBs. All substances listed under the Protocol are either banned or restricted in their use and production.

POPs are defined by Environment Canada as:

Toxic substances released into the environment through a variety of human activities. They have adverse effects on the health of ecosystems, wildlife and people. POPs tend to concentrate in colder climates such as Canada’s North, as well as in the Great Lakes Basin and St. Lawrence River.As chemical compounds, POPs are very stable and consequently can last in the environment for years or decades. POPs are also bio-accumulative, meaning they can concentrate in living organisms and accumulate up the food chain through fish, predatory birds, mammals and humans. POPs can enter the human system through traditional foods such as beluga muktuk (skin) and seal blubber. Aboriginal peoples, who rely heavily on such country foods, are particularly affected. Some POPs can be passed on from mother to child across the placenta, or through breast milk.POPs can travel great distances around the globe through the atmosphere. Touching down on oceans and freshwater bodies, they then evaporate into the atmosphere once again, and travel further to touch down in another spot until they ultimately gather in the colder climates. This is known as the grasshopper effect.

Additionally, the government has agreed to changes in the Protocol’s annex aimed at facilitating compliance. Canada’s Environmental Protection Act is the main piece of legislation that deals with POPs. Other legislation includes the Pest Control Products Act, the Fisheries Act and the Hazardous Products Act.

Governments Reject a Sustainable Approach for the Mackenzie Gas Project

This week, the Governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories released their final response to the environmental assessment of the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project.

Nature Canada is gravely concerned that, despite claiming they have accepted most of the recommendations, the Governments have accepted only 11 of the 115 recommendations to government from the Joint Review Panel that studied the environmental impacts of the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project.

The governments' response plainly dismisses the principles of sustainable development by rejecting recommendations on the grounds that they would constrain development. The governments’ refusal to commit to implementing all of the Panel’s recommendations creates the unsustainable conditions that the Panel warned about in an October 4 letter. “The Panel has concluded that, in the absence of implementation of its Recommendations, and in particular those Recommendations directed to the Governments, the adverse impacts of the Project could be significant and its contribution towards sustainability could be negative. In that event, the opportunity for the Project to provide a foundation for a sustainable northern future would be lost.”

Nature Canada is deeply concerned about the devastation that could be unleashed on important wildlife areas across the Northwest Territories as a result of the Government’s aggressive stance against the Panel recommendations. We are now studying the government response in more detail and will comment again soon. The National Energy Board is due to make a final decision on the project, likely before Christmas.

Mackenzie Gas Panel Rejects Governments' Attempt to Weaken Its Recommendations

It is no secret that the Governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories are strong supporters of the Mackenzie Gas Project. But it's shocking that they seem set on pushing it through with little or no regard for whether it will promote sustainable development for the North or harm this invaluable ecosystem. Fortunately, the Joint Review Panel (JRP) that was tasked with reviewing the environmental and socio-economic implications of the project is refusing to endorse this irresponsible approach.

In December 2009, after 2 years of public hearings and another 2 years of deliberations, the JRP released its report on the Mackenzie Gas Project: "Foundation for a Sustainable Northern Future". The Panel concluded that the project could make a positive contribution to sustainability and that it could be carried out without significant adverse impacts, subject to the full implementation of its 176 recommendations. As we noted then, these recommendations are no joke. They're the product of a very serious, comprehensive and committed effort to map the conditions under which this massive undertaking could open up the pristine Mackenzie basin without leading to its destruction.

It is very disturbing that the Governments of Canada and the NWT have tried to have the JRP accept the Governments' commitment to implementing only about 10% of the recommended actions. The Governments -in an interim response that remains know to the public only through the JRP's response to it- are proposing to accept only 10 of the 115 recommendations directed to them, reject 28 and claim to "accept the intent" of 77.

The recommendations that the Governments would like to reject or "accept in intent" include those directed to limiting green house gas emissions, ensuring sustainable end use of the extracted gas, completing and implementing First Nations land use plans, and protecting wildlife like caribou and polar bears. They also include recommendations intended to protect the Kendall Island Bird Sanctuary from the impact of the anchor fields and other development that the project proposes to carry out inside this protected area.

It is encouraging that the JRP has both refused to engage in a confidential exchange with the Governments and that they have stood firm by their conclusion that "in the absence of implementation of its Recommendations, and in particular those Recommendations directed to Governments, the adverse impacts of the Project could be significant and its contributions to sustainability could be negative." Bravo to the JRP for standing up for transparency and sustainability!

This is not the end of the story, however, so stay tuned for further developments...

Study Reveals Massive Oil Plume in Gulf of Mexico

A new study carried out by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, US, published in the journal Science, has revealed that there is a plume of crude-oil based chemicals that extends 35km from the spill site, is 200m high and 2km wide. Apparently, the plume represents a relatively small amount (0.1%) of the total oil spilled when the BP Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010.

According to Dr. Chris Reddy, one of the scientists involved in the research carried out by WHOI, the impacts of the plume on marine life are not yet clear. WHOI did, however, find the plume to be degrading slowly, meaning it would remain in the Gulf for some time - and consequently be transported long distances by currents before being degraded.

These findings go against speculations about oil in the subsurface being easily biodegraded and are indicative of the unknown impacts that may arise in the future. They also give reason to caution against offshore drilling in Canadian waters, particularly fragile ecosystems such as the Arctic.

Gulf Spill Lessons Not Heeded by Canadian Government

Yesterday BP and the US government announced that the oil spill in the Gulf has been tamed, more than three months after oil began gushing into the sea. Capped a few days earlier, their latest reports are that about 75% of the almost five million barrels of oil that spewed into the Gulf had been eliminated – roughly 25% was “dispersed”, 25% had evaporated and 25% was scooped up by all of those barges. That leaves only about 1.25 million barrels, about five times more than the Exxon Valdez spilled into Prince William Sound in Alaska 20 years ago.

The so-called dispersed oil is turning up in water and sand samples at toxic levels, but officials are not talking about this. It appears as if the “out of sight, out of mind” approach is taking hold. In fact, a seemingly contradictory federal report released Wednesday indicated that roughly half of the more than 200 million gallons (750 million litres) of oil that gushed from the well before it was capped could still be in the gulf environment in some form as tiny dispersed droplets, tar balls, surface slicks or oil buried in sand and ocean sediment.

Yet even as the clean-up efforts continue, it seems that Canada’s government is ignoring some of the lessons of the Gulf disaster.

Today, the Globe and Mail reports that Chevron has been awarded rights to explore a 205,000 hectare deep water parcel in the Beaufort Sea for oil by Canada’s department of Indian and Northern Affairs. This award was granted despite the National Energy Board’s hearings that have yet to start on Arctic offshore drilling, called in response to the Gulf oil disaster.

Chevron and its buddies, including Exxon and BP, were pressuring our government to further relax our already lax regulations for drilling onshore in Canada’s Arctic by removing the requirement for companies to demonstrate capacity to drill same-season relief wells. They argue that they have a new technology that makes the relief well unnecessary.

Heard this before? Can you imagine a Gulf-like leak in the Beaufort with its very small ice-free window – Mackenzie delta nearby, birds, sea mammals, fisheries, and indigenous communities that live off the sea and the land?

This is exactly the wrong approach Canada should take to development in the North.

Now is not the time to relax offshore drilling regulations. Rather than do away with the requirement to have advance plans for drilling relief wells in case of a spill, oil companies should be required to actually have relief wells in place before working wells are built. Also, blow-out preventers of the type that failed in the Gulf should be tested regularly.

Unlike the United States, Norway and Britain, Canada lacks a regulatory process governing whether or where oil and gas development can happen in the Arctic. Licenses are granted, and contracts signed with oil and gas companies before any environmental assessment by the NEB takes place.

The result: exploratory licenses exist in environmentally sensitive areas in the Beaufort Sea, where a blowout would have immediate negative effects on the delicate ecosystems there.

Strict regulations, and the will to adhere to them, are absolutely essential for safe, sustainable oil and gas development off of Canada's shores, and in the Arctic.

Study Shows Toxins Affect Polar Bears, Gulls, other Arctic Wildlife

A recently published report uses new data on the effects of persistent organohalogen contaminants (OHCs) on Arctic wildlife to evaluate health risks of a range of species, including polar bears, killer whales and black-backed gulls.

The study, created for the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, looked at OHC contamination in relation to other stressors like disease, predation, climate change, food scarcity, and body condition, to see how contaminants affect species at a population level.

For the Arctic's top predator, the research findings:

have highlighted that OHCs adversely affect polar bear liver and kidney functions, immune response and endocrine system, which helps regulate growth, cognitive abilities, and body temperature. These impairments may alter the ability for bears to acclimatize and adapt to extreme Arctic environments.

When these effects are considered in combination with climate change, natural periods of fasting, cub survival rate, and female reproductive impairment, polar bear populations in East Greenland and Svalbard may be at higher risk of chronic population-level stress.

Studies of other species found similar trends. The effects of certain OHCs on great black-backed gulls from northern Norway, for example, appeared to have been aggravated when the birds were exposed to parasites, climate change, and food scarcity, among other things.

More details from this study are summarized in Environment Canada's quarterly newsletter, Wildlife and Landscape Science News, which, incidentally, I always find an interesting read.

Care to pay for an oil spill?

Does the BP Gulf spill have you wondering who would pay for the economic and environmental damages in case of an off-shore spill in Canada?

Will Amos from Ecojustice has figured it out: Canadian taxpayers.

Learn why and what could be done to change this.

Polar Bear Numbers Could Decline by 30% in One Year: Study

A new study from Dr. Andrew Derocher, one of the world’s leading polar bear authorities, predicts that polar bear populations may crash in one year by 30%. Derocher warns that the bears will starve as the number of days adults are forced to fast increases while they wait for Arctic sea ice to return.

From the Toronto Star:

Scientists factored in the shrinking sea ice, which affects how many seals the bears can eat before they hibernate and how easily they can find mates. Without enough food or opportunity, mating is less successful, fewer, less robust cubs are born, and teenage bears spend longer “wandering around trying to find something to eat.”

All of that information can be subjected to “some fairly advanced math” to create data tables that chart the estimated time of death by starvation for adult male polar bears.

Typically 120 days in the 1980s, the time polar bears have to spend fasting has increased by about seven days per decade and is continuing to increase.

While 3 to 6 per cent of polar bears in the Western Hudson Bay die during a 120-day summer fast, 28 to 48 per cent would die if it reached 180 days, the study found. The fast occurs because polar bears depend on frozen sea surface to cover distances.

Arctic sea ice is shrinking by up to five per cent every ten years – sea ice that not only provides hunting ground for polar bears, but shelter and transportation for seals, walrus, arctic foxes, and the Inuit people. The underside provides a surface for algae that supports cod, char, beluga, and narwhal. The white sea ice also has a cooling effect on climate by reflecting light away from Earth’s surface. As it melts, global warming advances even more quickly.

The United States designated the polar bear as threatened in May 2008. Canada's scientific Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada places them in a less serious category, as a species of special concern, and they are not included on Canada's official Species at Risk list. Regardless of its current official status, the polar bear’s habitat is under assault from the effects of our climate crisis, which, if not reversed, will mean the end of this iconic species within our lifetime.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the polar bear to its "Red List" of the world's most imperiled wildlife in 2006. In 2009, the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) cited climate change as the greatest challenge to the conservation of polar bears, and concluded that 1 of 19 subpopulations is currently increasing, 3 are stable and 8 are declining. For the remaining 7 subpopulations available data were insufficient to provide an assessment of current trend.

You can send a letter to Environment Minister Jim Prentice asking him to add the polar bear to Canada's official species at risk list. Here is a sample letter that you can send.

Mackenzie Gas Project: Final NEB Hearings Start Next Week

After approximately four years, the Mackenzie Gas Project's review is finally coming to an end this month. The National Energy Board will hear final argument from April 12th to 24th in Yellowknife and Inuvik, NWT. The NEB is then expected to make a decision this fall on whether or not to grant approval to the project.

Nature Canada will not appear at the hearings, but we will be following them closely. In addition to the many specific concerns we have about the proposed project, we are concerned by the National Energy Board's reaction to the recommendations made by the Joint Review Panel in its December 2009 report. The Panel made 176 recommendations and concluded that the project could be carried out without a negative impact to the region if all the recommendations were fully impelmented. The NEB comments on the Panel's report addressed only about half of the recommendations, arguing that the rest were not within the Board's jurisdiction, instead of committing to ensure that all of the panel's recommendations are implemented as a package.

In response to the NEB, the Joint Review Panel last week reaffirmed its conclusion the project can only be carried without a negative impact if all the recommendations are fully implemented. The stakes are very high for sustainability, as a new Pembina Institute fact sheet makes clear.

Perhaps the NEB will be convinced at the final hearing to adopt the Panel's approach to sustainability for the Mackenzie Gas Project, if it approves the project. The NEB hearing will be broadcast live on the NEB’s website in Inuvialuktun, Gwich’in, North Slavey, South Slavey, Dene Tha’, English and French. Listen in or stay tuned for an update.

Mackenzie and Suffield: Opportunities for Sustainability?

The Joint Review Panel of the Mackenzie Gas Project spent two years writing a report that optimistically and ambitiously set out the conditions under which the Panel believes the basin-opening project could be the basis for sustainable development in the Mackenzie Valley and Delta.

The report tackles the big picture issues and many of its recommendations aim to mitigate negative cumulative impacts and maintain a high standard of care for future developments. If all the 176 report recommendations were to be fully implemented, perhaps the project could be a positive thing. But the chances for that are looking slim.

The National Energy Board responded last week to the Joint Review Panel's recommendations by rejecting the integrated approach to sustainability the Panel recommended. Despite claiming in November 2009 that it's taking a sustainability approach, the NEB seems inclined to taking a narrow approach to the Mackenzie Gas Project. The NEB can still reconsider after its hearings in April and the federal and territorial governments have yet to respond to the Panel's recommendations, so a commitment to sustainability might still prevail.

Yes, I'm trying to be positive today.

Another place where an opportunity to do the right thing is waiting to be seized is Suffield National Wildlife Area, or perhaps I should say EnCana's headquarters. As readers of this blog are aware, EnCana has applied to drill an additional 1,275 gas wells within Suffield National Wildlife Area. But why does EnCana still want to drill there? In North America, proven reserves of natural gas have increased substantially in the past two years, so the time may be just right for EnCana to abandon further drilling within Suffield National Wildlife Area. Read more here. And stay tuned, we'll continue to report on both energy projects, as well as the Northern Gateway.

Image: CFB Suffield by Cliff Wallis