The United States of America decided to give Planet Earth an early Christmas present yesterday by hammering BP and five other businesses involved in the Gulf Oil Spill with a multi-billion dollar civil lawsuit. In addition to restoring my faith in humanity, President Obama and others in his administration have [...]

This week marks the 16th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16), currently taking place in Cancun, Mexico. This year’s conference has seen world leaders follow up on decisions made (or avoided) at last year’s Copenhagen summit, and once again try to come to an agreement on what can be [...]

It’s no secret that Beijing, China and Delhi, India are host to some of the worst air quality in the world. Rising up the ranks to join these two cities now is Tehran, Iran, who in the past two weeks has shut its entire city down for three days because [...]

The United Arab Emirates, Australia and the United States have the worst overall records for emitting greenhouse gases, according to the CO2 Energy Emissions Index (CEEI), released last week by Maplecroft, a UK-based global risks analysis firm. This adjusted index ranks nations by weighting 3 separate criteria. The index gave [...]

Today in Mexico City, 135 mayors from cities throughout the world signed a groundbreaking agreement on climate change, as a result of the World Mayors Summit on Climate (WMSC). Martha Delgado, Mexico City’s secretary of the environment and ICLEI vice president, had this to say about the agreement: “Cities have [...]

Biodiversity is a critical, and often little understood component of the health of our planet. At the recent Conference on Biodiversity, held this year in Nagoya, Japan, this issue was debated and reviewed by many of the top scientists in the field. 18,000 people attended the meeting, representing the 193 [...]

On Tuesday, November 2, 2010, the United States went to the polls for their mid-term elections. As predicted, the Republicans were able to capture a decisive majority in the House, while the Democrats retained the Senate with a slim majority. This now paves the way for the Republican Party to [...]

The issue of the Canadian seal hunt is a controversial one. It is a battle of animal rights versus First Nations rights, at least for the arctic seal hunt. In 2009, the European Union banned the import of seal products. The legislation was one of the most non-partisan bills to [...]

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are protected areas that include at least some oceanic territory. The degree of protection offered by these territories varies wildly, from a restriction on fishing seasons to an outright ban on any sort of exploitation. As ocean exploitation approaches a critical level, these areas provide some [...]

Prime Minister Harper has appointed John Baird as the new Environment Minister, to replace John Prentice. John Baird is currently the government House Leader, and will add the Environment to his ongoing duties. First elected in 2006, for the Ottawa-Nepean riding, John Baird served as President of the Treasury Board, [...]