Every day, in communities across Canada, young people are actively demonstrating their passion for the environment through the important work they accomplish. These dedicated young Canadians are emerging as tomorrow's environmental leaders and advocates.
Toyota Canada and the Toyota Canada Foundation in partnership with Earth Day Canada established the Toyota Earth Day Scholarship Program to help cultivate and nurture this environmental leadership.
Make Sacred Headwaters gas drill ban permanent: eco-groups
By Gordon Hamilton,
Vancouver Sun
December 6, 2011
Environmental groups opposed to a Shell Canada proposal to drill for coal bed methane in the headwaters of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine rivers are calling for an existing provincial moratorium on drilling in the region to be extended indefinitely…
…The eco-groups say that under current regulations, Shell can drill 4,000 wells and clear thousands of kilometres of roads. The groups want Premier Christy Clark to make the four-year moratorium permanent. In a television interview one year ago, then-energy minister Blair Lekstrom said the moratorium is coming off in December 2012.
The Klappen Basin is rich in wildlife and one of the rivers that originates there, the Skeena, supports a $110-million-a-year fishery, said ForestEthics campaigner Karen Tam Wu.
She said gas drilling would require a network of roads in one of the province's last wilderness areas as well as the potential for gas extraction to result in pollution to the three rivers.
EnCana Corp. lashed out at an increasingly controversial report linking natural gas drilling with complaints of contaminated water by residents of a tiny Wyoming town, calling the results unscientific and the agency irresponsible.
Encana, the second largest natural gas producer in North America and operator of the wells in question, said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's findings that connected hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to poor groundwater quality at Pavillion, Wyo., were "conjecture, not factual and only serve to trigger undue alarm."
John Fenton says:
"I think there are some very important findings here, said John Fenton, a rancher in the area and chair of the Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens.
"I really think that this is going to change how a lot of people view hydraulic fracturing."
Fenton was instrumental in contacting the EPA to test smelly water in the area after residents felt local and state agencies were not responsive to their concerns about their health or the impact on land and livestock. He supports oil and gas development, but not at the cost of the environment or people's health.
"They cannot come into communities like ours, and communities around the rest of the country and turn us into a sacrifice zone for corporate profit and for energy for the rest of the country," Fenton said, in an interview with Wyoming Public Radio.
Linda Baker, the executive director of the Upper Green River Alliance in nearby Pinedale, Wyo., said the issue oil and gas companies should be focusing on is how to deal with possible chemical migration into water, rather than waging a public relations campaign.
Just picked up the latest ‘The Flyfish Journal’, the self-described coffee table book of the fly fishing magazine world.
Yes, hard copy. Real paper. And it even smells good. You know, like that ‘new car’ smell? Only better. :-)
We’ve only had time to read three short articles, but they all packed a good punch. Can’t wait to get to the features.
First up was "'Flyrod' Crosby, Maine’s first lady of the fly". She was born in 1854!! Talk about a fly fishing pioneer, someone ahead of her time. I wonder if anyone said “You go girl!!”?
Next, ‘Near Death by the Numbers, Jetboating to Hell’ caught our attention. And we think it’s sometimes bad on the Bow River! Author Will Rice writes: “Chaos. For the third time in 15 seconds, I think to myself, ‘I’m dead’”. And he's not kidding.
“The Heart of the Monster” is a scathing indictment of ‘Big Oil’. The Alberta Oilsands takes it on the chin, as do plans for various pipelines, running south or west out of Alberta. We’d best be paying attention, lest we lose our access to foreign markets. On the other hand, will it be worth the cost to our environment that we might have to pay?
According to the mag's local fly shop list, Fish Tales is your go-to shop in Calgary. But don’t procrastinate. Their supply is limited, and they move fast. Kind of like The Drake.
