Snow cover trends in Canada

New from Statistics Canada: Study: Snow cover trends in Canada, 1972 to 2010

 
Highlights:

• mean annual area of snow cover in Canada has declined by 5.1% from 1972 to 2010
• lowest average snow cover occurred in 1998

Sustaining Canada's Marine Biodiversity

From The Royal Society of Canada: Sustaining Canada’s Marine Biodiversity: Responding to the Challenges Posed by Climate Change, Fisheries, and Aquaculture

"This report’s descriptions of the impact of climate change, the fisheries and aquaculture on biodiversity, and our projections of their future impact, do not present a positive vision of the future. Climate change and its consequences will take hundreds of years, possibly much longer, to reverse. We believe, on the other hand, that the consequences of mistakes in the fisheries and in aquaculture can be fixed more readily — if the effort is made." (From Report in Brief)

Are you a super greenie?

From Docuticker: All About the Super Greenies (source: Scarborough Research)

"...five percent of the adult population are “Super Greenies” - those adults who engage in 10 or more green activities, such as recycling, using rechargeable batteries or re-using grocery store bags."

New Envirostats - Temperature trends in Canada

From Statistics Canada: Temperature trends in Canada (1949 - 2009)
"Analysis of seasonal national mean temperature departures from normal shows that mean winter and spring temperatures got milder over the study period with these trends showing increases of 2.4°C and 1.8°C over the past 62 years."

Cognitive barriers to environmental action

New study from Harvard Business School Working Papers:
Cognitive Barriers to Environmental Action: Problems and Solutions
"... people intuitively discount the future to a greater degree than can be rationally defended. Second, positive illusions lead us to conclude that energy problems do not exist or are not severe enough to merit action. Third, we interpret events in a self-serving manner, a tendency that causes us to expect others to do more than we do to solve energy problems."

2010 Living Planet Report - WWF

From the WWF 2010 Living Planet Report:
"...humanity’s Ecological Footprint has doubled since 1966".

Fall 2010 issue of EnviroStats available

Included in this issue:
Trends in glacier mass balance for six Canadian glaciers.
"The six glaciers studied for this article experienced statistically significant reductions in their mass over the length of the data series. The major difference between the two regional groups of glaciers was the rate of mass loss, with the glaciers in the Western Cordillera losing mass at a faster rate than those in the High Arctic" (from summary section).

New report from the National Wildlife Federation: Oil disasters common in the last decade

From Docuticker: Oil disasters common in the last decade
Source: National Wildlife Federation
The full report: Assault on America: A Decade of Petroleum Company Disaster, Pollution, and Profit.
Also available:
List of oil disasters, 2000-2010 & list of oil disasters by State.

New Map Shows Global Forest Heights

From NASA: First-of-its-Kind Map Depicts Global Forest Heights
Using data collected by the ICESat, Terra, and Aqua satellites NASA's new map will help scientists record the amount of carbon being accumulated by the world's forests.

Global Climate and Ecosystems Map of Science

Under the category of, '"How cool is that?!" is Sciencewatch.com's Global Climate and Ecosystems Map of Science.

BP oil spill information

From Resource Shelf: Factsheets and updates on the BP oil spill via RestoretheGulf.gov.

Recycling in Canada

Statistics Canada has a new report on recycling in Canadian households.
95% of Canadians have access to recycling and 98% of us are recycling!

Top Air Polluters

From ResourceShelf: Top 100 Air Polluters in the United States.
Political Economy Research Institute's index of air polluters.
Includes company reports.

Oil spill database

Search for information on oil spills since 2000.
Access database.

New database: GREENR

GREENR (Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources)
Contains articles, videos and case studies on a wide variety of environmental topics.
All RRU research databases can be accessed from the Search for Articles link at the RRU Library webpage.