beetle invasion

 

An exotic beetle that destroys ash trees could spread from the Great Lakes states across the east-central United States within the next two decades, federal agriculture officials said Tuesday.

Authorities didn’t mention if the beetle was bigger than Jesus.

did he make pickton cry ?

It’s was a shame to hear the oil industry purring this week as John Baird announced his “let’s do something about Kyoto” plan.

Oh yeah *purrrr* it’s going to be tough *purrr* to adjust to these measures *purrrr*, we are talking *purrrr* about huge commitment here *purrr*…

If you can’t at least take out the smile out of Alberta’s big shots, that’s a worthless plan.

Even better:

Most Canadian energy stocks got a lift on Friday as investors and oil bosses expressed relief that Ottawa’s plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions avoided absolute caps and adherence to commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

Sadly, sometimes, great moments in History meet very small people. And this week, History met John Baird.

We’ll see how long Tories remain in power and how much Liberals will be able (and willing) to do to fix this mess.

Even more sadly, a political/environmental/ethical fault is not a crime. Just a disgrace.

ecoholic - new book

 

  When the world’s environmental woes get you down, turn to Ecoholic – Canada’s best resource for practical tips and products that help you do your part for the earth. You’ll get the dirt on what not to buy and why, and the dish on great gifts, clothes, home supplies and more. Based on the popular and authoritative “Ecoholic” column that appears weekly in NOW, Ecoholic is a cheeky and eye-opening guide to all of life’s greenest predicaments.

please just shut up and take a nap

John Baird painted a distastrous economic picture Thursday if Canada were to meet its Kyoto promises on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but opposition parties accused the environment minister of not basing his forecast on facts.

Man, did I ever wanted more to slap a politician on the back of the head ?
What’s the point of having a ministry of environment then ?

give it to the kid

Who chose Mario Dumont to be responsible of Environment and suitable development ? Simon-Pierre Diamond (French article), the youngest politician Quebec ever had !
Mario ? Hello ? Seriously ?

fossil fuel thought of the day

Ethanol may cause more smog

Hmmm… Corn smelling pollution…

she’s bold

We have to give it to Elizabeth May: she’s bold.

Running in the district of Peter McKay is something and she explains why in 10 points.

6. I need to prove that the Green Party is NOT a one issue party. By running in Central Nova I will be taking on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, raising the clarity of vision of our international policies versus the “aye, aye, Sir” approach of Mr. Harper.

I hope for her she didn’t really plan to get elected there. This world can’t afford much more deluded politicians.

dumb surveys

I often hate surveys. You can make people say pretty much anything. Like if, for the exact same question, you ask before something like “How long convicted pedophiles should be incarcerated?” or like “What do you like the most about Christmas?”, you won’t get the same results.

I don’t know what I should think about this:

A little more than half of Canadians believe nuclear power is one way to have cleaner air and lower greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new poll commissioned by the government.

Should I get angry at the half who doesn’t understand that nuclear power can help global warming or at the one who thinks it’s a good idea? I don’t know what the question was. If they asked something as ambiguous as this result, well…

Fortunately, something better a little further:

81 per cent of Canadians polled said no plants should be built until a permanent solution to the problem of radioactive waste is found.

Doesn’t fit AT ALL with the previous result but this number is releaving. They don’t want to solve the problem by creating another.

If at least we could solve the dumb surveys problem.

my ideal government of quebec

After reading Julie’s post about her ideal government, I decided to do the same. I used French titles as I’m too lazy to translate and anyway Quebec’s website doesn’t even translate them.

Premier Ministre: Pierre Curzi (Philippe Couillard, Louise Harbour (can a judge become a politician ???), Lucien Bouchard and Claude Charron has been considered. I picked Curzi even if I would have preferred a federalist but I prefer a passionate separatist to a dull federalist. I think being a prime minister is mainly about personnality.)

Finances : Bernard Landry (real balanced budget this time and aggressive plan against the debt)

Santé : Amir Khadir (change an expensive system fighting illness into a affordable, flexible and mobile system promoting health)

Éducation : Gilles Proulx (those kids will sweat, work and learn, for a change !)

Environnement : Steven Guilbeault (need I say more ?)

Sport: Don Ferguson (agressive plan to make people move !)

Énergie et régions: Mario Dumont (more clean power for North American and more political power for the regions)

Emploi, solidarité sociale et ainés : Yvon Deschamps (need I say more ?)

Agriculture, Pêcheries et Alimentation : Roméo Bouchard (Laure Waridel has been considered)

Transports : Richard Bergeron (moving from a car nation to public transportation nation)

Développement économique, Innovation et Exportation : François Legault (the PQ understands way better than the PLQ how to make our society grow)

Services sociaux : Camil Bouchard (one rare politician knowing something about empathy)

Justice : Françoise David (could be really interesting)

Sécurité publique : Pierre Paradis

Culture: Patrick Huard (brilliant and hard working)

Immigration et Communautés culturelles : Fatima Houda-Pepin

Famille: Nathalie Rochefort

Communications et services gouvernementaux : Christine St-Pierre

Tourisme : Bernard Drainville

Ressources naturelles : Richard Desjardins (need I say more ?)

Municipalités: Elsie Lefebvre (because I want to see her on tv)

Relations internationales : Line Beauchamp

Travail: Naomi Klein (need I say more ?)

Revenu : Claude Béchard (whatever)

Relations intergouvernementales : Thomas Mulcair (tell them, Tom)

Whip, Norman MacMillan (the only one here keeping his job)

French Quebecer: 22 or 81%

English Quebecer: 3 (MacMillan and Guilbault are counted as French) or 11%

Quebecer from other origins: 2 or 7%

I think that would be the most representative government Quebec would ever have. Even Liberals don’t promote much minorities as minister.

toxic water

The city of Montreal is warning pregnant women and young children to abstain from drinking tap water in certain areas because of trace levels of lead.

Others can die in peace.

ugly electricity

 

Quebec environmentalists anger about an evil hydro-electric project that will mess a lot of land, including a superb river.

But when we know that USA and Ontario uses a lot of coal and nuclear power, should Quebec mess a bloody lot of lands to sell them cleaner power ?

There is also opposition about wind-power. Ugly. Noisy. Some patrimonial group in France is trying to make a country free of wind turbine.

What, do you think that a coal power plant is cute, pal ? Do you think that a radioactive waste disposal site is patrimonial ?

Consuming less energy is part of the solution. But not the only one. Even more is the world eventually runs on electric car. Do we want electric car powered by coal ? Wow, that’s a better idea that a car running on gas…

a thirsty empire

As the Himalayan glaciers are melting, I wonder what 1.3 billion Chinese will do when they will face serious water shortage.

feeling hot hot hot

 

As rain and warm weather in Montreal gives this January 5th the look of April 5th, I have no difficulty believing 2007 could be the world’s hottest year on record.

A rainy January in Montreal isn’t scary itself, but when you think about how fast Winter changed down here and wonder what could be ahead in a few years…

monitors & energy…

Another link to this diagram so any American internet user won’t doubt of the relevance to spare energy with their monitor.

energy saving

I found a marvelous blog about energy saving. Many topics with strong facts. Including about monitors. The brighter they get, the more energy it takes. One damn interesting advice:

Right click on your desktop or background, go to properties>appearance tab>advanced. Now select “window” in the list and select a light gray color instead of white.

Maybe I’ll get something nicer than grey…

And also because of all this, I decided to sacrifice my design sense and my mostly-white template to pick this mostly black template I like a little less. So, as you’ll come here, you’ll waste less energy. Not coming on this blog and talking a walk to the park would be even better for the environment.