Image of the Day: Athabasca Oil Sands from Orbit

By Holli Riebeek In the ranking of the world’s proven oil reserves, Canada stands behind only Saudi Arabia. Canada possesses an estimated 178.6 billion barrels of crude oil accessible using current technology. Of this reserve, 174 billion barrels are in Alberta’s oil sand fields, which cover 140,200 square kilometers (54,132 square miles) of the province. […]

Starving polar bears turn to cannibalism

By Jonathan LiewPublished: 2:40PM GMT 08 Dec 2009 New pictures show that polar bears are beginning to cannibalise each other as global warming destroys their hunting grounds.  The images, taken in Hudson Bay, Canada, around 200 miles north of the town of Churchill, Manitoba, show a male polar bear carrying the bloodied head of a […]

Oil sands pollution in Canada worse than industry and government claim

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.comDecember 07, 2009 Canada’s tar sands have been internationally criticized as one of the world’s largest industrial sources of greenhouse gases, but the energy-intensive extraction of oil also has a less-noted impact on the local environment. A new study shows that the Alberta’s oil sands are likely releasing more PACs (polycyclic aromatic […]

Much less stable ice for polar bears, cubs cannibalized

Arctic sea ice conditions are even worse than feared after a survey found that ice detected as older and thicker by satellites is actually thin and fragile, a prominent Canadian researcher reported Friday. University of Manitoba researcher David Barber said experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding, […]

Warming to hit ‘roads, pipelines’ in Canada north

  By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) – Roads, buildings and pipelines in Canada’s north are at risk from global warming and the government must do more to protect infrastructure in the remote frozen region, an official panel said Thursday. Temperatures in the north — which includes the Arctic — are rising much faster than elsewhere […]

Grizzly bear decline alarms conservationists in Canada

Demand for halt to hunting after decline in salmon stocks is blamed for bears starving to death By Tracy McVeigh First it was the giant panda, then the polar bear, now it seems that the grizzly bear is the latest species to face impending disaster. A furious row has erupted in Canada with conservationists desperately […]

Environmental impacts of oil sands development in Alberta

Posted by Nate Hagens at The Oil Drum …The liquid tailings, a by product of the oil sands mining process, contain naphthenic acids, unrecovered hydrocarbons and trace metals, making it toxic to aquatic organisms21 and mammals22. Operators are required to store tailings waste on site in large containment dykes because the water is too toxic […]

Pesticide additive widespread in Canada groundwater

Another contaminant found in Canadian groundwater samples may join the list of environmental substances that could be harmful to humans and the environment, according to recent study results published in the September 2009 issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. The newest potential threat to human health and the environment is fluorochemicals known as perfluorinated phosphoric […]

Grizzly bears vanishing from Canada's Great Bear Rainforest

BELLA BELLA, British Columbia, Canada, September 9, 2009 (ENS) – It’s called the Great Bear Rainforest, but few grizzly bears have been seen on British Columbia’s north and central coast this year. Conservationists and bear viewing guides are blaming the disappearance of the bears on the overfishing of salmon, their main food source. “I have […]

Tiny Arctic town fights losing battle against changing climate

By CHARLES J. HANLEY, Associated Press TUKTOYAKTUK, Northwest Territories — Caught between rising seas and land melting beneath their mukluk-shod feet, the villagers of Tuktoyaktuk are doing what anyone would do on this windy Arctic coastline. They’re building windmills. That’s wind-power turbines, to be exact — a token first try at “getting rid of this […]

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