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BPA mimics the hormone estrogen and does not occur naturally in the environment. Studies suggest that exposure to the chemical can ultimately lead to prostate or breast cancer.

"We are continuing our leadership on this issue and Canadians can rest assured that we are working hard to monitor and manage Bisphenol A," Environment Minister Jim Prentice said in a statement. The government said the listing allows it to develop regulations to manage risks posed by BPA.

Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defense Canada, applauded the announcement.

"It's a great victory for every mom and dad who sent a letter to their MP demanding the federal government do a better job protecting the health of Canadians," Smith said. The toxic listing is the foundation for any legal action, said Smith, who predicted BPA will be removed from all food and beverage containers in a few years.

In August 2010, Statistics Canada reported that measurable levels of BPA were found in the urine of 91 per cent of Canadians aged six to 79.

The Living Planet Report 2010, conducted by WWF International and produced with the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network, uses the global Living Planet Index as a measure of the health of over than 2,500 species. The report ultimate states that humans would now need 1.5 planets to sustain their consumption patterns.

"There is an alarming rate of biodiversity loss in low-income, often tropical countries while the developed world is living in a false paradise, fuelled by excessive consumption and high carbon emissions," states Jim Leape, Director General of WWF International.

The report shows the United Arab Emirates had the largest footprint per average citizen in 2007, consuming the equivalent of 10.7 global hectares of resources. This was followed by Qatar (10.5 hectares per person), Denmark (8.3), Belgium (8.0), the United States (8.0), Estonia (7.9), Canada (7.0), Australia (6.8), Kuwait (6.3) and Ireland (6.3).

If the global population continues growing and living beyond the Earth's limits by 2030, we will require the equivalent of two planets' productive capacity to meet our annual demands.

Climate prosperity is a new way of looking at climate change by admitting that there's a problem and trying not only to alleviate it, but also to mitigate it and prosper from that mitigation.

"There are risks to climate change, clearly, but there are also opportunities," explains David McLaughlin, president of the NRTEE, "climate change is happening, and we can deal with it, and we can gain from it."

Critics however note that for almost every benefit, there is also a downside. Canada may see a new breadbasket in the East at the cost of drought and desertification in the Prairies. Arctic shipping will become more feasible as the arctic continues to melt, but shipping through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway will get more expensive, as lower water levels mean ships must carry smaller loads.

Climate scientist Danny Harvey of the University of Toronto said "It is full of bad science and utterly downplays the serious impacts of climate change. How can we (Canada) talk about profiting from climate change when most of the world will suffer devastating impacts, in part because of our emissions? It is disgusting."

Since August 21, 2010 Grassy Narrows First Nation, in northwest Ontario has stopped the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) from interfering with community members who are maintaining a backroad used for fishing, hunting, trapping, and rice and berry harvesting.

Ontario MNR has threatened to issue a stop work order if the First Nation does not purchase a gravel permit, citing environmental, public and worker safety concerns.

"We have our own government here," said Roberta Keesick, capital projects manager for Grassy Narrows First Nation. "We support our chief and council – they are the authority here. They received their jurisdiction when they signed the treaty."

Also Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister issued a statement October 7, 2010 in opposition to Ontario Government plans to allow Weyerhaeuser to clearcut on Grassy Narrow's traditional territories. Logging was suspended on Grassy Narrows territory in July 2008. Now Ontario has produced a 3-year contingency logging plan for the Whiskey Jack Forest.

"We have never given our consent to any logging on our territory, and we have repeatedly said 'no'," declared Chief Simon Fobister. "Unwanted logging has a severe impact on our community's ability to sustain our health, culture, and livelihood."

During the meetings in Tianjin, participating delegates discussed long-term shared visions for international climate change work, abilities to adapted to the effects of climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, key operational elements of climate finance and capacity building, and the future of the Kyoto Protocol. Discussions in Tianjin will be continued in Cancún later this year.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sessions were attended by over 2,500 participants from more than 176 countries, including government delegates, representatives from business and industry, civil society organizations and research institutions.

The sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 16) and the sixth Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 6) will be held in Cancun, Mexico, November 29th to December 10th, 2010.

The Global Work Party came together online through websites, social networks, and a largely volunteer team around the world. The goal of the Global Work Party was to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis.

In the days surrounding the 10.10.10 Work Party, U.S. President Barack Obama, Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn all committed to install solar on their official residences. Mexico City and Parisian Mayors committed to cut their city's emissions 10% over the next year.

• In Turkey: 7,000 marched for climate action
• In China: 30,000 students joined over 300 events across the country
• In Bangladesh: citizens demonstrated knee deep in the flood waters affecting hundreds of thousands of people
• In Iran: hundreds of students attended an environmental symposium
• In Afghanistan: groups of students planted trees in a valley outside Kabul
• In South Africa: a local business installed solar panels on the roof of an orphanage
• In the United States: over 2,000 rallies were held, with events in all 50 states, including 400 clean energy rallies in California

"The size and spread of [the 10.10.10] events surprised even those of us organizing them. They demonstrate a continuing—a growing—hunger for real action on the most desperate problem the planet faces," states environmental writer and 350.org founder Bill McKibben.

The first three winners announced October 4, 2010 included Inuit Climate Change activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier. Watt-Cloutier lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and was born into a hunting and fishing family in Kuujjuaq, a coastal Inuit community in Northern Quebec's Nunavik region. She has striven for more than 15 years to connect the health of the Arctic with global well-being. In 2005 she served a landmark petition against the United States to the Inter-American Council on Human Rights linking the devastating effects of climate change to the human rights of her fellow Inuit in the Arctic.

"Today, everybody talks about climate change as a human-rights issue. I think we've been successful in making that connection. The style of leadership that I have is one of bringing people together and understanding that we're all one here. The planet and its people are one. It's interesting that it is our shared troubled atmosphere that is connecting us as a shared humanity," stated Watt-Cloutier.

The other winners announced were: James Orbinski, a physician, humanitarian, scientist and author who received the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Doctors Without Borders; and stem-cell biologist Dr. Gordon Keller.

Nominations close Friday, Nov. 26, 2010; an overview of all 25 will appear in the January 3, 2011 Globe and Mail.

The partnership will develop a sustainable energy strategy for Canada, one that achieves science-based greenhouse gas reduction targets, makes Canada a global role model in sustainable energy generation, distribution, and energy use, while ensuring all Canadians have access to sustainable energy.

The David Suzuki Foundation and Canadian Academy of Engineering will be supplying services in kind to match Trottier's $2.5-million contribution to the venture.

Lorne Trottier, engineer and co-founder of Matrox, states the project seeks to offer objective information about energy options in a transparent and open process.

"We want to produce a greener energy system for Canada and we are going to be as objective as possible in analyzing the various alternatives," says Trottier.

"The goal is to influence public policy, and to achieve that we need to bring Canadians into the energy debate", said Michael Charles, president of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. "We need to engineer widely accepted solutions that reduce negative environmental impacts of the energy sector, while maintaining the social and economic well-being of Canadians."

"Do we really want the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence to become routine transportation routes for radioactive debris for decrepit nuclear reactors?" asked Kevin Kamps, a researcher for Washington-based Beyond Nuclear.

Environmental groups, opposition politicians, aboriginal leaders and mayors of 100 towns and cities along the proposed route through Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence seaway, fear contamination of lakes that provide drinking water for 40 million people in Canada and the United States.

Gordon Edwards of the Great Lakes United Task Force on Nuclear Power and Green Energy highlighted the dangerous precedent allowing this shipment would set. "This is just the tip of an enormous iceberg because once they ship these 16 steam generators, they're going to be shipping more and more and more radioactive waste," explained Edwards.

"We're talking about 200,000 kg of nuclear waste, transporting it several thousand kilometers. Melting it down for recycling will result in some radioactive material getting into the general recycling of metals around the world." said John Bennett, Sierra Club of Canada spokesperson.

"Canada's policy for nuclear waste is that the waste remains where it is until there is an ultimate solution for Canadian waste. This is just a way to reduce costs for Bruce Power," Bennett said.

• Peter Dillon, University of Trent water-quality centre.
• Subhasis Ghoshal, soil and groundwater contamination expert.
• Andrew Miall, Gordon Stollery chair in basin analysis and petroleum geology.
• Joseph Rasmussen, Canada Research Council chair in aquatic ecosystems.
• John Smol, Canada Research chair in environmental change.

Recently a peer-reviewed (University of Alberta) study by water scientist David Schindler found elevated levels of cadmium, mercury, lead and other toxic elements in the Athabasca River.

"It's the first time we've really seen the federal government step up to the plate and show a genuine interest in environmental impacts," states Pembina Institute policy analyst, Terra Simieritsch. "However, we continue to see governments approve more development in the oilsands arena, despite the fact that there are signs pointing to this type of pollution."

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach also has begun appointing a scientific panel to review water-monitoring data from the oilsands region, however, the panel's review will not be completed until February 2011.

By Fred Curatolo
Larger version

Reclamation of oil sands tailings ponds isn't sufficiently viable — either economically or scientifically — to offset the environmental impact of oil sands mining, and the province needs to regulate the industry more closely, he added.

"[The oilsands deposit] will be a curse if it's not managed properly. It can also be a great gift to Canada and to Alberta, if it is managed properly," Cameron told a news conference in Edmonton.

The Canadian-born director, whose blockbuster science fiction film Avatar tells a cautionary tale of corporate greed and the consequences of a fight over natural resources, was joined by a number of First Nations leaders.

They included the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn Alteo; Al Lameman, the chief of the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation; Gerald Amos of the B.C.-based Coastal First Nations Alliance, and activist and former Mikisew Cree chief George Poitras.

"Any movement forward must include real, not token, involvement from First Nations people," says Cameron.

Her most recent incarceration ended in September 2007 when Krawczyk stepped out of the B.C. Alouette Correctional Centre for Women after serving seven months behind bars for criminal contempt of court. The charge revolved around Krawczyk defying a court injunction to stay away from West Vancouver's Eagleridge Bluffs, which were being bulldozed to widen the Sea-to-Sky Highway ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Upon release Krawczyk launched an appeal on the basis her breach of the court order was protected by her right to freedom of expression under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed the case in 2009, and further leave to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied in 2010.

Krawczyk, appealed her sentence seeking a new trial on the basis she was sentenced to ten months (serving seven) when the law says six months is the maximum for conviction under the summary process used in her trial. Krawczyk and her supporters were particularly upset the B.C. Attorney General took the position, citing case law that involved repeat pedophilia offenders, that if the sentence was to be re-examined it should be elevated upward because Krawczyk's repeat offenses meant she could be declared a dangerous offender and possibly put away for life.

Krawczyk and her supporters held a rally on the steps of the Courthouse before Krawczyk's most recent court appearance September 22, 2010. Judgment was reserved, and will be released at a later date.