der folgende bericht dreht sich darum, dass nun die umweltschützer auch die bisher geheimgehaltenen "sünden" der industrie sehen können - mal so gesagt
Zitat Environment Canada forced to reveal full extent of pollution from mines Court ruling considered major victory for green organizations
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MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
April 24, 2009 at 8:15 PM EDT
Mining companies have long had a loophole in federal environmental right-to-know law that no other industry enjoys. Environment Canada has exempted them from having to track the full extent of the pollution their operations cause.
But a Federal Court ruling issued on Thursday will force Environment Canada to collect from the industry and divulge to the public the amount of toxic compounds in tailings and waste rocks found around every mine in the country.
It is a major victory for environmental organizations that have been pressing Ottawa for more than 16 years to have this information disclosed.
Environmentalists believe that when Ottawa releases the information, it will show that mining waste is the single largest source of industrial pollution in the country. The material is often laced with such hazardous compounds as arsenic and mercury, and if the rocks contain sulphur, is capable of creating sulphuric acid.
“The amount of pollution reporting by these mines is just going to be astronomical,” predicted Justin Duncan, lawyer with Ecojustice, a public interest legal group that brought the case against the government on behalf of Great Lakes United and Mining Watch Canada, two environmental organizations.
U.S. mines have had to reveal this information for the past decade, and while they account for less than 1 per cent of industrial facilities, the sector is the source of nearly a quarter of all pollution in the United States, Mr. Duncan said.
Environmentalists say the lack of reporting from the mining sector has skewed federal pollution data and made the industry look cleaner than it actually is.
The ruling requires Environment Canada to make public mining pollution for annual periods starting with information from 2006.
Environment Canada said in a statement that it “will carefully examine the court's decision to determine what steps will be taken next.”
Under federal rules, all major companies must publicly disclose to Environment Canada the amount of harmful substances their activity releases into the environment each year.
This information is then made available on a database known as the National Pollutant Release Inventory. Data posted on NPRI is easy for the public to see because it can be accessed over the Internet.
21. April: Ontario's Liberal government will introduce legislation tomorrow to implement a provincewide ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides. Rules would restrict sale, use of roughly 250 gardening products.
möchte dazu aus dem aktuellen newsletter der canadischen Botschaft zitieren:
Zitat OECD-Studie weist jungen Kanadiern gute Umwelt-Kenntnisse nach ----------------------------------------------------------------
Fünfzehnjährige Kanadier kennen sich besser als die meisten Gleichaltrigen in den OECD-Staaten mit Umweltthemen aus. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt eine PISA-Studie der OECD mit dem Titel "Green at 15?", die das Wissen von 400.000 Fünfzehnjährigen in 57 Staaten weltweit unter anderem zum Ökosystem, zur Biosphäre, zu Energiefragen oder zur Geschichte des Habitat Erde abfragte.
Es wurden auch Fragen zum Treibhauseffekt, zum Klimawandel, zum Sauren Regen und zum Grand Canyon gestellt. Die PISA-Studie untersuchte die Fähigkeit der Schüler, derartige Phänomene wissenschaftlich zu erklären und entsprechende Daten zu benutzen.
Ebenfalls erfasst wurden die Kenntnisse der Schüler über allgemeine Umweltbelange wie Luftverschmutzung, Atommüll, Wasserknappheit und das Aussterben von Pflanzenarten.
Die befragten Kanadier schnitten - wie auch die Finnen und Japaner - am besten ab. Ihnen bescheinigte die Studie eine große Aufmerksamkeit in Bezug auf Umweltthemen. Allerdings fühlten sich die wenigsten für die bestehenden Probleme verantwortlich.
Das Kanada Forum
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25.04.2009 11:01
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