¶ Published Wednesday, December 31st In Miscellaneous - No Comments »
This is a letter I found on slashdot, amazing. Some time ago I received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed a perfect score. The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected.I read the examination question: “SHOW HOW IT IS POSSIBLE TO DETERMINE THE HEIGHT OF A TALL BUILDING WITH THE AID OF A BAROMETER.” The student had answered, “Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower itRead the Rest…
¶ Published Tuesday, December 30th In Miscellaneous - No Comments »
For the second time in as many years, Canada has been chosen as the most uncooperative nation at the 2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland. Since 1999, the Climate Action Network (CAN), has been distributing “Fossil-of-the-Day Awards” to the country who is most active in “blocking, stalling or undermining” the UN Climate Change negotiations. As the recipient of 21 prizes, Canada outclassed both the U.S. and Japan - the perennial favourites in the international race-to-the-bottom concerning the reduction of CO2 emissions. This December, Canada received “awards” for ordering the Secretariat to tear down a photo presentation onRead the Rest…
¶ Published Monday, December 29th In Legal Issues, Miscellaneous - No Comments »
Way down in Tennesse, a major spill has occurred. Over 3.7 billion litres of slurry, comprised of fly ash from a coal fired power plant and water, has spilled into the local environment. The dams allegedly broke due to large rainfall and very cold weather – but ultimately, they broke because they were not strong enough. This spill is over 4 times larger than the oil spilt by the Exxon Valdeez and poses some questions about the safety of large tailings ponds. I was personally involved in the tailings management at a gold mine in Ontario and it was a constant battle toRead the Rest…
¶ Published Monday, December 29th In Legal Issues, Miscellaneous - No Comments »
Predictions are a fool’s game, especially in the wake of such an unpredictable year, but here’s one. Ontario is faced with a major decision in 2009: Who will build its next generation of nuclear plants? Two bidders — AREVA (France), and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. — are still in the race. One could expect Ontario to favour AECL, which has been trying to line up customers for a new CANDU reactor, and is promotting job creation as an added benefit. But the design has yet to be approved by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and foreign competition — fromRead the Rest…
¶ Published Sunday, December 28th In Legal Issues - No Comments »
Manitoba’s new Climate Change and Emissions Reductions Act aims to reduce the province’s GHG emissions by at least 6% below 1990 levels, by 2013. The Act comes into effect on January 1, 2009. Some of the highlights include: Setting up a public Registry where individuals and corporations can voluntarily report their emissions The creation of a vehicle standards advisory board to advise the government on cost-effective emission reductions for new private vehicles Requiring landfill owners to develop a plan to mitigate their emissions Banning the provincial power utility (Manitoba Hydro) from using coal to generate power after December 31, 2009Read the Rest…
¶ Published Saturday, December 27th In Legal Issues - No Comments »
The Energy Efficiency Regulations have been amended to add new products, harmonize minimum energy performance requirements with those of other jurisdictions, and update testing methodologies or labelling requirements. The amendments will: Increase the stringency of existing minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) for some currently regulated products Introduce new MEPS and associated reporting and compliance requirements for six products: Residential wine chillers, Commercial clothes washers, Torchieres (floor lamps), Ceiling fan lighting, Traffic signal modules and pedestrian modules, Commercial and industrial gas unit heaters; Introduce MEPS for general service lamps in 2012; Require consumer energy performance labelling for most common lamp types Related Posts: The ComingRead the Rest…
¶ Published Monday, December 22nd In Miscellaneous - No Comments »
An amazing mash-up based on Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot talk.
¶ Published Monday, December 22nd In Announcements - No Comments »
This week, we upgraded our code base to a new version. The practical implications for NIMONIK users are a significant speed increase and a number of bug fixes. When logged in, you may have noticed some items were displayed in French when they should have been in English and vice versa. With this upgrade, that bug should be gone. Also, the new framework speeds things up. In the previous version, each request, such as when you clicked to view a topic, bulletin, or make a change to your legal register, was queued up – one behind the other. The systemRead the Rest…
¶ Published Sunday, December 21st In Environment - No Comments »
Click on the image to see the large version. Warm Regards/Cordialement, Yves Faguy, Paul Maclean, Jonathan Brun, Sasha Mandy, Danny Baum, Stéphanie Pham-Dang, and Tadatoshi Takahashi.
¶ Published Saturday, December 20th In Legal Issues - No Comments »
In September 2008, in an effort to draw public attention to UK government support for new coal-fired electricity projects, Greenpeace activists painted Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s name on a smokestack at the power plant. They were charged for causing criminal damage during their protest. The company, E.ON, claimed that the paint cost more than £30,000 (US$50,000) to remove. The judgment : the activists were cleared. The British jury accepted a lawful-excuse defense for property damaged with the intention of averting even greater damage from climate change: in other words, the “climate-change defense” (as described in the NY Times). It’s uncertain how other courts will follow this. But it certainly illustrates the challengesRead the Rest…
¶ Published Friday, December 19th In Legal Issues - No Comments »
Ecuador has become the first country to grant constitutional rights to the natural environment. On Sept. 28, 2008, nearly 70% of voters voted for a new constitution that - among other things - gives rights to rivers, forests, plants and animals. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, based in USA, helped draft these new protections. Their views are worth to point out: most laws define nature as someone’s property, forcing environmentalists to prove extensive damage before regulations can be put in place. A rights-based approach, it argues, reverses that burden, putting the health of ecosystems first. As Clay Risen from the NY Times mentions, the scope of nature’s rights is unclearRead the Rest…
¶ Published Friday, December 19th In Legal Issues - No Comments »
Some interesting legal developments in France, reported in LeMonde. The country’s top appeal court, the Court of Cassation, has quashed a lower appeal court decision that had ruled in favour of Total oil group in a suit launched by the French seaside resort of Mesquer for reimbursement of the cost of removing oil from the Erika which washed up on its coastline in 1999. Now the Court of Cassation is indicating that oil spilled from the Erika in 1999 can be considered as waste. As such, Mesquer’s claim must be tested under the terms of the European Union waste directive,Read the Rest…
¶ Published Thursday, December 18th In Environment, Miscellaneous - No Comments »
Here is a top 10 list from Time magazine on the environmental stories this past year, admittedly very US oriented, but interesting nonetheless.
¶ Published Thursday, December 18th In Environment - 2 Comments »
From the Economist, a characteristically concise 4 minute overview of what’s at stake in the melting Arctic. Environment, natural resources and international law are discussed:
¶ Published Wednesday, December 17th In Environment - No Comments »
Andrew Winston recently blogged about Wal-Mart’s most recent sustainability summit in Beijing. Very interesting stuff, but one item stuck out: Supplier commitments: All suppliers will sign new agreements indicating compliance with environmental laws, starting with Chinese suppliers to the U.S., UK, and Canada in just 3 months. Over the next 3 years, all suppliers globally will sign. Of course, you already have to legally follow environmental laws, but now it is not just the government who will enforce them, it is also your clients. If you want to supply to the big distributors, you will need to comply with their rules and weRead the Rest…
