Brian Jackson's Blog

Posted by Brian Jackson

Everything we buy in the grocery store is labelled in abundance with price, health information, ingredients, and of course, advertising. So why not add one more nugget of knowledge to the plethora of print on our labels? Say a big sticker with a rating showing how many carbon emissions the product was responsible for.

A consumer may not be thinking about cutting down on carbon emissions when they're out at the grocery story now, but add this vital piece of information and suddenly you can easily add one more routine to your shelf comparisons.

Imagine this scenario: you live in winter-burdened Wisconsin and are shopping for fresh asparagus. Thanks to that crop of green stalks flown in from Peru yesterday, the produce section is full of the fresh, crunchy vegetable. But wait, there's a big fat number on that elastically-held together asparagus bunch.

Because of that airplane ride, the carbon cost of that asparagus is through the roof. You think twice and decide to buy the locally-farmed, yet canned, asparagus. When you eat dinner that night, less emissions were emitted to get the food to your plate.

Granted, the asparagus isn't freshly pricked from Peruvian soil. But I still say this is one fresh idea from The Toronto Star's deputy foreign editor Peter Martyn.

Posted by Brian Jackson

The U.S. Department of Energy has visions of Poplar trees dancing in their heads as a hopeful source of ethanol fuel. As it stands right now, most Poplar tree species don't easily yield the biofuel that promises a clean, green alternative to oil.

But with a bit of genetic tinkering, and these wooden behemoths could replace corn as the best prospect for ethanol harvesting.

That's what a three-year, $1.4 million research grant to Clint Chapple of Purdue University in Indiana hopes to accomplish. Chapple has been tasked by the U.S. Department of Energy to create a DNA toolkit that'll have ethanol-producing Poplar trees sprouting out of the Earth.

The plant biochemist has garnered much scientific recognition for his discovery of the metabolic pathway that creates lignin - the second-most abundant polymer on Earth after cellulose - and the polymer that causes cell walls to stiffen.

Simply put, lignin explains by certain plants break down more easily than others and stymies ethanol production from plants that have plenty of the polymer.

So a toolkit that allows Poplar trees to be grown that will easily be broken down is a big hope in mass producing ethanol. But the plan is not without its critics.

Greenpeace and other naturalist groups are as wary of genetically-modified trees as they are of GM food on grocery store shelves. They're concerned that when unleashed into the wild, there may be no way to control where this breed of tree spreads - and that could have unforeseen consequences on the environment if it competes with natural Poplar species for room to grow.

Time will tell whether the public's desire for clean fuel and alternatives to more-expensive oil is stronger than their wariness of genetic tampering.

The research is detailed in the Feb. 9 issue of the journal Science.

Posted by Brian Jackson

In what was billed as a mini-throne speech, Stephen Harper outlined what the Conservatives' budget would look like next month, and what their election platform might be should their minority government face defeat in a confidence motion.

The move is a response to increasing opposition pressure to take more action on the environment. That includes a non-binding motion the parties passed earlier this week demanding the government honor its Kyoto Protocol agreement.

That means Canada would need to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent less than 1990 levels by 2012. But Canada's levels have risen, not fallen, in recent years.

That's a badge of dishonor Harper is trying to pin on the Liberals for agreeing to Kyoto, then failing to meet its demands.

Cleaner cars were mentioned in the speech as well, not the first time Harper has keyed the ignition on the issue. In Chatam, Ontario in late 2005, Harper told an audience of farmers that he would enact a five per cent mandatory minimum renewable content in fuel.

That promise hasn't materialized into anything yet. But Harper did say the federal government would enforce fuel efficiency standards by 2011 and give tax breaks to those who buy cleaner cars. These are things that some provinces already do.

Despite Harper's promises towards the environment, these policy announcements won't be enough to appease opposition parties. They'll keep pressuring him until hard targets are set and enforced.

Like the ones called for by the Kyoto accord.

Posted by Brian Jackson

The Conservatives have been scrambling to improve their image in a green light after figuring out that Canadians see it as a priority. Even though Canadians have named the environment as a top concern in polls taken since the late '90s, the Torys didn't get the hint until Rona Ambrose's plan was met with harsh criticism.

So yesterday they made an announcement intended to convince Canadians they'd turned a new leaf. Too bad for them that the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists decided to wave their "the end is nigh" sign on the same day.

On their "doomsday clock," used to warn of nuclear annihilation for over 50 years, the new threat of environmental catastrophe was added. These scientists are so concerned about global warming that they say the human race is a metaphorical five-minutes to doomsday.

"Carbon-burning technologies continue to make the Earth warmer at an unprecedented rate," the Bulletin's website warns.

In the face of apocalypse, the Conservatives plan is underwhelming so far. Natural Resources MInister Gary Lunn announced $238 million for research and development of cleaner energy sources such as clean coal.

Fact is, this is just a fraction of the amount of money the Conservatives cut from environmentally-improving programs since they came to power. Plus, environmentalists are panning the announcement, saying commitment to R&D is good, but technologies exist now to make clean energy.

It's just a tactic to buy time. The Conservatives are trying to look like they're green while not offending the voters of Alberta, their Canadian stronghold where they hold every seat.

Albertans might see any move away from using carbon-producing fossil fuels as a blow to their oil-sands dependent economy, and then punish the Conservatives for such a move.

That's why Lunn is more interested in developing cleaner fossil-fuel technologies rather than using already-existing clean energy alternatives.

"The technology to substantially reduce emissions in the short term is not available," said Pierre Alvarez, the president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Of course, what Mr. Alvarez really means is that the fossil fuel industry doesn't know how to cut their emissions - and he's guarding against the consideration of other energy technologies.