“This is the day that will define our century. Canada is fully acknowledging its historical climate debt and the legal responsibilities that follow. Today, we no longer have to wait for a COP20 or COP100 before the voices of our children are heard. Now that we are friends, I can say it is high time Canada changed.”

- Margaret Matembe, MP and member of the Climate Committee of Uganda

Too bad “the staged response” was in response to the fake news release claiming that Canada had done an about turnaround on its carbon emissions targets.

The hoax has created such a stir that PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas apparently accused eco-warrior Steven Guilbeault of being its author. François Cardinal reports that Guilbault caught up to Soudas and the two exchanged some unkind words for one another. Suffice to say that the Feds in Copenhagen are getting some pretty bad press.

So far, it seems the Yes Men are getting credit for the prank.

The Copenhagen climate change summit opens today and will run until December 18. Depending on who you read, either the Canadian government won’t buy into “the hype” and won’t be rushed, or will “push for a binding deal.”

Though Climategate still looms in the forefront, members of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) have released the Copenhagen Diagnosis — a review of hundreds of peer-reviewed research papers published since the IPCC’s last assessment in 2007 — which concludes that the climate situation is much worse than the IPCC has so far reported.

The lesson in all this is that it is important we continue to question the orthodoxy of scientists and deniers alike.

Some of our potential clients do not require detailed guidance text on legislation – they already understand the basics, they simply want updates on environmental legislation. They want to know what is changing, when, how and why. We have always offered updates as part of our various services, but now we are pleased to offer it as a stand-alone service. Priced at a very competitive 120$ per year per province and with all our Federal information free, we hope this new service will keep you on top of legislative changes. Sign up today and the first month is free.

Here is a sample of one our monthly updates.

To make an educated decision you need data, good data. Unfortunatly, much of the environmental data cited by NGO’s, governments, and the private sector has holes in it and is often out of date by the time it hits the newstand.

In this modern age of Google Maps, GPS, and broadband internet, there is no reason why we can’t have better data on our oceans, land, water and air. The New York Times recently lamented how UN data is out of date and its quality is even considered questionable by its own scientists, yet UN data is commonly cited in scientific journals. Though the problems are gravest in developing countries, Canada is not immune:

Canadian officials recently admitted their own struggles with environmental statistics. A system of decentralized data collection, with provinces leading the way, means the nation lacks good data on national water quality or accurate forest inventory, Statistics Canada said.

Canada has recently announced plans to map groundwater, as usual, we are playing catch-up to the United states. The chief geologist responsible for the study claims that our lack of data is holding up the development of new laws and regulations on water usage.

That [groundwater studies] led Michigan to pass a law requiring big water users to prove their use of groundwater won’t affect the rest of the water system.

No comparable laws exist in Ontario or Quebec. Rivera said he believes the lack of detailed information about Canada’s groundwater so far is what’s holding up the development of such laws and policies.

As an engineer, one of my main concerns with the global warming argument is the quality and quantity of the available data. When data is weak, it is much easier to bend and twist it into the shape you want. I distinctly recall sitting in a McGill course on climateology and hearing that the model they were using for global warming did not yet have ocean currents in it. Ocean currents! I know this has changed since then, but by its very nature, accuratly modeling heat and fluid flow in a body such as an ocean (never mind a pipeline) is near impossible.

Even once data is gathered, then there’s the question of sharing and using it. Too often the data is sequestered in proprietary databases that can’t talk to each other. Some people are trying to change this, Hans Rosling being one major example. His talk below was life changing for me, I highly encourage you to watch it and then visit his site (which has been bought by Google).

In the next few weeks, we will be unveiling a new feature: Municipal Tracking. We will offer bulletins (plain language updates) and links to municipal by-laws. Only Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver will include Topics (detailed guidance text) on municipal by-laws, other municipalities will only have updates. As such, municipalities are priced significantly lower than provinces: only 10$/month/municipality.

Some of the municipalities we will track include:

1. Montréal
2. Toronto
3. Vancouver
4. Abbotsford
5. Baie D’urfé
6. Calgary
7. Charlebourg (Arrondissement)
8. Charlottetown
9. Cornwall
10. Edmonton
11. Gander
12. Halifax
13. Hamilton
14. Laurentien (arrondissement)
15. Longeuil-StHubert
16. Mirabel 
17. Moncton
18. Ottawa
19. Quebec City
20. Regina
21. Saskatoon
22. St. John’s
23. Valleyfield
24. Winnipeg
25. Lac Brome
26. Mississauga