Independence Day 2011: Declaration of Freedom from Fossil Fuels

Two hundred and thirty five years ago, the colonies freed themselves from the injustice of British rule, now America needs to free itself from the injustice of fossil fuels.

The United States' Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. On that day, thirteen American colonies proclaimed their freedom from Great Britain. On the fourth of July 2010, America needs a declaration of freedom from fossil fuels.

A few years after the American revolution, the industrial revolution dawned, beginning America's meteoric rise to global dominance. However, the engine that drove this growth is also the leading cause of climate change.

This Independence day, as the Congress is working on budget cuts, Americans have some important choices to make.

We must rethink some of the basic notions of the old economy. We need to move towards more efficient and sustainable visions of the future. It is time for Americans to declare their independence and begin working towards a future free of fossil fuels.© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Global 100's Most Sustainability Corporations in North America for 2011

The Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World is an annual project initiated by Corporate Knights, the magazine for clean capitalism. In 2010, Corporate Knights collaborated with three strategic partners to identify the Corporate Knights Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World.

The Corporate Knights Global 100 team included Inflection Point Capital Management—a sustainability-focused asset management venture founded by Dr. Matthew Kiernan, Legg Mason's Global Currents Investment Management, and Phoenix Global Advisors LLC (a consulting and technology platform focused on sustainability). As with past editions of the Global 100, the aim was to highlight the global corporations which have been most proactive in managing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Launched in 2005, the annual Global 100 is announced each year during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Here is the Global 100 list (in alphebetical order) of the leading sustainable corporations in North America for 2011:

• Agilent Technologies
• Baxter International Inc.
• BCE Inc.
• Coca-Cola Enterprises
• Enbirdge Inc.
• Encana Corp
• General Electric Co.
• Hewlett-Packard Co
• Intel Corp.
• Johnson & Johnson
• Johnson Controls Inc.
• Kraft Foods Inc.
• Nexen Inc.
• P.G. & E Corp.
• Procter & Gamble Co.
• Prologis
• Royal Bank of Canada
• Sun Life
• Financial Inc.
• Suncor Energy Inc.
• Toronto Dominion Bank
• Weyerhaeuser

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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List of Canadian Animals and Plants that are in Trouble

Here is a list of Canadian animal and plant species that are listed as Extinct, Extirpated, Endangered, Threatened or Vulnerable.

DEFINITIONS

Extinct - a species formerly indigenous to Canada that no longer exists anywhere.

Extirpated - a species no longer existing in the wild in Canada but occurring elsewhere in the world.

Endangered - a species threatened with imminent extinction or extirpation throughout all or a significant portion of its Canadian range.

Threatened - a species likely to become endangered in Canada if the factors affecting its vulnerability are not reversed.

Vulnerable - a species particularly at risk because of low or declining numbers, small range or for some other reason, but not a threatened species.

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Extinct - 9 species

Mammals, 2; Birds, 3; Fish, 4

Dawson's Caribou, Sea Mink, Great Auk, Labrador Duck, Passenger Pigeon, Deepwater Cisco, Longjaw Cisco, Banff Longnose Dace, Blue Walleye

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Extirpated - 11 species

Mammals, 5; Birds, 1; Reptiles, 1; Fish, 2; Plants, 2

Grizzly Bear (Prairie population), Black-footed Ferret, Swift Fox, Walrus (Northwest Atlantic population), Gray Whale (Atlantic population), Greater Prairie-Chicken, Pygmy Short-horned Lizard, Gravel Chub, Paddlefish, Blue-eyed Mary, Illinois Tick Trefoil

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Endangered - 55 species

Mammals, 11; Birds, 14; Amphibians, 1; Reptiles, 3; Fish, 3; Plants, 23

Mammals: Peary Caribou (Banks Island and High Arctic population), Eastern Cougar, Vancouver Island Marmot, Sea Otter, Bowhead Whale, Right Whale, Beluga Whale (St. Lawrence River, Ungava Bay and Southeast Baffin Island-Cumberland Sound populations), Wolverine (Eastern population).

Birds: Whooping Crane, Eskimo Curlew, Northern Bobwhite, Harlequin Duck (Eastern population), Anatum Peregrine Falcon, Acadian Flycatcher, Spotted Owl, Mountain Plover, Piping Plover, King Rail, Loggerhead Shrike (Eastern population), Henslow's Sparrow, Sage Thrasher, Kirtland's Warbler.

Amphibians: Blanchard's Cricket Frog.

Reptiles: Blue Racer Snake, Lake Erie Water Snake, Leatherback Turtle.

Fish: Salish Sucker, Aurora Trout, Acadian Whitefish.

Plants: Gattinger's Agalinis, Skinner's Agalinis, Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus, Slender Bush Clover, Pink Coreopsis, Southern Maidenhair Fern, White Prairie Gentian, Small White Lady's slipper, Furbish's Lousewort, Pink Milwort, Eastern Mountain Avens, Hoary Mountain-mint, Slender Mouse-ear-cress, Western Fringed Prairie Orchid, Heart-leaved Plantain, Large Whorled Pogonia, Small Whorled Pogonia, Wood Poppy, Engelmann's Quillwort, Threat-leaved Sundew, Cucumber Tree, Water-pennywort, Spotted Wintergreen.

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Threatened - 62 species

Mammals, 8; Birds, 9; Reptiles, 3; Fish, 12; Plants, 30;

Mammals: Wood Bison, Peary Caribou (Low Arctic pop.), Woodland Caribou (Quebec pop.), Newfoundland Pine Marten, Harbour Porpoise (Western Atlantic pop.), Pacific Water Shrew, Humpback Whale (North Pacific pop.), Beluga Whale (Eastern Hudson Bay pop.)

Birds: Yellow-breasted Chat (Okanagan pop.), Ferruginous Hawk, Marbled Murrelet, Burrowing Owl, Loggerhead Shrike (Prairie pop.), Baird's Sparrow, Roseate Tern, Hooded Warbler, White-headed Woodpecker

Reptiles: Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, Blanding's Turtle (Nova Scotia pop.), Spiny Softshell Turtle

Fish: Blackfin Cisco, Shortjaw Cisco, Shortnose Cisco, Channel Darter, Eastern Sand Darter, Margined Madtom, Black Redhorse, Copper Redhorse, Great Lakes Deepwater Sculpin, Shorthead Sculpin, Enos Lake Stickleback, Lake Simcoe Whitefish

Plants: Blue Ash, Anticosti Aster, Bluehearts, American Chestnut, Colicroot, Deerberry, Mosquito Fern, Western Blue Flag, Plymouth Gentian, Ginseng, Golden Crest, Golden Seal, Round-leaved Greenbrier, Giant Helleborine, van Brunt's jacob's Ladder, Small-flowered Lipocarpha, Red Mulberry, Sweet Pepperbush, Nodding Pogonia, Redroot, Western Spiderwort, Pitcher's Thistle, Athabasca Thrift, Kentucky Coffee Tree, Purple Twayblade, Sand Verbena, Bird's-foot Violet, American Water-willow, Tyrrell's Willow, Blunt-lobed Woodsia

----------------------------

Vulnerable - 119 species

Mammals, 22; Birds, 23; Amphibians, 3; Reptiles, 4; Fish, 38, Plants, 29;

including Grizzly Bear, Polar Bear, Woodland Caribou (Western population), Grey Fox, Blue Whale (Atlantic and Pacific populations), Wolverine, Eastern Bluebird, Peales Peregrine Falcon, Tundra Peregrine Falcon, Cooper's Hawk, Ancient Murrelet, Great Gray Owl, Trumpeter Swan, Eastern Yellow-bellied Racer Snake, Spotted Gar, Pacific Sardine, Green Sturgeon, Redbreasted Sunfish, Victorin's Water Hemlock, Wild Hyacinth, Phantom Orchid, Prairie Rose, Hop Tree.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Video: The Alberta Tar Sands Dirty Oil

Dirty Oil - A Documentary on The Alberta Tar Sands, is a film written and directed by Leslie Iwerks. This 2009 documentary explores Canada's role as the largest supplier of American oil. It also exposes the dishonesty and greed of the Canadian and Alberta governments as well as the oil companies.

Governments and oil companies make astronomical profits at the expense of the environment, the wildlife, and the native communities who live near the tar sands of northern Alberta.

The film indicates that renewable sources of energy offer a way out of our dependence on destructive fossil fuels. It cites America's mobilization at the beginning of World War ll despite being a recessionary economy. At the start of World War ll, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "Let no man say it cannot be done, it must be done, and we are undertaking to do it."

We are at a crossroads, we can either engage the struggle to reduce our footprints or ignore it at our own peril. The film also encourages personal responsibility as a way out of the environmental calamity we face.

The film concludes by quoting President Obama who said, "We must end the age of oil in our time, energy independence will require an all hands on deck effort from America , efforts from scientists, and entrepreneurs, from businesses and from every American citizen."

"Its going to take leadership and its going to take a vision and its goinng to take action by each of us, saving civilization is not a spectator sport. We all have to get involved, we all have a stake in it."

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Lack of Canadian Co-ordination in Efforts to Reduce GHGs

According to a new report, there is a woeful lack of co-ordination in efforts to reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. This is the finding of a Conference Board of Canada report.

"Lack of co-ordination between governments in Canada has hindered both the effectiveness of efforts to reduce GHG emissions and their efficiency," the Conference Board of Canada says in its new report Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Canada. "Although it is unrealistic to expect that a single tool can be applied to all sources of emissions, the efficiency of GHG reduction policies, regulations, and programs could be significantly improved through better coordination and broader, more consistent application."

For more information or to see the complete report click here.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Canada Lags Behind in Protected Land

Canada lags behind the US and the global average when it comes to setting aside wilderness for protection. This is the finding of a Global Forest Watch Canada report entitled Canada's Terrestrial Protected Areas Status Report. The mission of the Edmonton-based non-profit group, is to provide information about development activities in Canada's forests and their environmental impact.

In 2010, just 8.5 per cent of Canada's land mass was in permanent protected areas. This is more than four percent lower than the global average of 12.9 percent and more than six percent lower than the United States at 14.8 percent.

"We thought it was strange that Canada is so far below the global average given that we have all these large northern spaces that are essentially undisturbed," said Ryan Cheng, a Global Forest Watch Canada researcher who co-authored the report. "Also, as Canadians, we value nature."

Much of the undisturbed space is owned by the Crown, making it relatively easy to designate as protected, Cheng said. "Protected areas are essentially the global cornerstone for conserving biodiversity," he added, noting that they are used to measure and compare different jurisdictions' conservation efforts.

The researchers also found that more than half of the permanently protected areas were subject to human disturbance. A quarter of the protected land was within 500 metres of roads, power lines, mining, logging, hydro-power and oil and gas developments, and other human activity.

Many provinces allow resource exploitation within protected areas. For example, oil and gas development is allowed in some Alberta protected areas, and forestry is allowed in some Manitoba protected areas.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Canadian Conservatives Disregard for Canada's Environment

As Canadians celebrate Canada Day their environment is under siege. Under the newly elected majority Conservative government, concern for the environment -- as a political issue -- is all but dead.

Under the Harper led Conservatives, Canada has officially withdrawn their support for the Kyoto Protocol. Like many nations who signed on, Canada, did little to nothing to actually curb their emission of greenhouse gases. Canada's greenhouse gas emissions actually increased 24% since signing the agreement in 1997.

When it comes to the environment, Canada has no leadership at the federal level. However, to Canada's great shame, the country is a leader in other ways. According to an analysis by Climate Action Network, Canada is among the world's leading sources of GHGs. Canada is a global leader in historical emissions, absolute emissions and per capita emissions.

Under Tory leadership, the state of Canada's environment is degrading every day. According to a WWF Canadian Living Planet Report, Canadians are some of the biggest consumers of resources in the world. Canada is also one of the world's biggest energy consumers, burning the equivalent of roughly 8,300 kilograms of oil equivalent per person per year.

The Conservative government is aggressively pushing the expansion of the tar sands. Extracting oil from tar sands pollute the environment, waste huge quantities of water and release much more greenhouse gas (GHG) then conventional oil. This has prompting the Canadian NGO Environmental Defense to call the Alberta tar sands, "the most destructive project on earth."

Sadly, those concerned about the environment have little to celebrate this Canada Day as the Conservatives can be expected to continue their wanton environmental destruction for at least another four years.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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