Job Posting – Fraser Basin Council
Program Coordinator, Climate Change and Air Quality Program
Location: Prince George or Vancouver, BC

The Program Coordinator, Climate Change and Air Quality Program will coordinate the BC Community Adaptation initiative, which assists local governments and First Nations access climate change adaptation tools, information and expertise. BC communities participating in this program will be better equipped to identify local climate change impacts, vulnerabilities and priorities for action, and will be able to address these priorities in community plans and decisions.

As the Program Coordinator, you will develop and coordinate the following program components in collaboration with other FBC team members:

Learning events on climate adaptation tools, assessments and planning processes;

One-on-one assistance for local governments and First Nations to help them use adaptation tools, to identify local vulnerabilities and adaptation actions, and to integrate adaptation into decision-making; and

A resource website with community adaptation tools and information.
For further details, visit www.fraserbasin.bc.ca/careers/careers.html

This is a full-time, term position.

Please email a detailed resume and a cover letter by August 9, 2010 to:
Terry Robert, Manager of Climate Change and Air Quality
trobert@fraserbasin.bc.ca

A new report by the National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) has reported that “the combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for June 2010 was the warmest on record at 16.2°C (61.1°F), which is 0.68°C (1.22°F) above the 20^th century average of 15.5°C (59.9°F).” The previous record for June was set in 2005.

The UK, Italy, Russia, and other parts of Europe have recently been experiencing heat waves through the summer months. Rising temperatures have been most prominent in Peru, central and eastern parts of US, and eastern Asia.

To read more on the report click here.

See what ACT is doing in the face of extreme weather events here.

Analysis by The Canadian Press has shown that far more sewage has been spilled in Canadian urban centres over the last six years than any other harmful contaminant. CP obtained the newly released figures after a two-year battle and a complaint to the information commissioner to pry the data from Environment Canada under the Access to Information Act.

This never-before-released information has been kept in a classified government database called NEMISIS. The acronym stands for National Enforcement Management Information System and Intelligence System.

Read more from The Canadian Press on the story here.

The data and analysis raise concerning questions about the resilience of Canada’s infrastructure. A forecast for more frequent and severe extreme weather events as a result of climate change, could mean big and costly impacts for aging infrastructure unable to cope with climactic extremes coupled with the pressure of growing urban centres.

Sewage spills could also mean problems with contaminated ground water, and health impacts. To find out more about the work ACT is doing on adapting to the impacts of climate change, take a look at our program sessions here.

Environmental and economic disaster loom over the Shatt al Arab river in Iraq, and there is very little the government can do about it. For many years, Turkey, Syria and Iran have all been using the headwaters that make up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which eventually confluence to make up the Shatt al Arab. There is little left for Iraqi government leaders to do, aside from plead with their neighbours to release more water from the modern network of dams stemming the river flows.

To read more about the situation in Siba, Iraq, visit the New York Times here.

PICS Presents: New Approaches to Mobilizing Climate Action

Tuesday June 8, 2010

7pm – 9pm

Bob Wright Centre

Room B150

University of Victoria

Explore climate change issues through a new lens. This event will include skits by Spilt Milk Comedy Theater, presentations by local experts on the following themes, and an audience question period:

- Sustainable energy: Dr. Lawrence Pitt, Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions

- Alternative transportation: Sue Hallatt, Capital Regional District

- Compact land use: Ellen Pond, University of British Columbia

- Green buildings: Richard Iredale, Iredale Group Architecture

- Food security: Dr. Aleck Ostry, University of Victoria

For more information click here.

About the Foundation: Wilburforce Foundation protects wildlife habitat in Western North America by actively supporting organizations and leaders advancing conservation solutions. We are a private, philanthropic foundation that supports efforts to create a network of protected core reserves, corridors and buffer zones across Western North America that will support ecologically effective landscapes and viable wildlife populations.

About the Position: We have an opening for a Program Officer position for Alaska and British Columbia. This position is based in our main office in Seattle, Washington, USA – please do not apply if you are unwilling or unable to live in the Seattle metropolitan area. The Foundation offers a strong benefits package and competitive salary that is commensurate with experience. Additional details about the position are found below.

Application Process: Please send a cover letter and resume by postal mail or e-mail no later than 12:00 Noon (Pacific Daylight Time) Thursday, June 10, 2010. Applications submitted by e-mail should include the cover letter and resume combined into one attachment in RTF, PDF or Microsoft Word formats. Send your cover letter and resume to:

Paul Beaudet

Associate Director, Wilburforce Foundation

3601 Fremont Ave N #304

Seattle, WA  98103

e-mail: paul@wilburforce.org

Please do not submit applications by fax, and please do not send applications by both postal mail and e-mail – one of the two will suffice.

Wilburforce Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Foundation does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, gender identity, marital status, or any other classification protected by local, state or federal law.

For more information about the Foundation and its program areas, please visit the Foundation’s website at www.wilburforce.org.

New legislation could mean tougher measures to protect Canada’s massive stores of fresh water, particularly for prohibitions on bulk water removal on rivers that cross into the United States. If passed, the law would create new powers of inspection and introduce fines of up to $6 million CDN for companies that try to export and sell water, reports Reuters.

It is estimated that Canada is home to one-fifth of the world’s fresh water supply, most of it in the Great Lakes system.

“We are strengthening our resolve to make sure that there are no exports of bulk water that take place,” says Lawrence Cannon, Foreign Affairs Minister.

Click here to read more.

The metal dome hasn’t worked. What do we do to stop the oil now? That’ the question BP executives are desperately mulling over as hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil are being leaked into the ocean following the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion last month.

New York Times Op-Ed editors asked five different experts what they think should be done about the spill.

Read their responses here.

Presented by: Dr. Tim Garrett, University of Utah

Date & Time: Monday, May 31 2010| 10:30 am – 11:30 am

Location: Social Sciences & Mathematics Bldg. Room A110, University of Victoria

Live Web Stream: http://www.pics.uvic.ca/broadcast.php

Where does money get its value? What physically is economic value? For climate studies, this is a highly relevant question. As the economy grows, so does its emissions of carbon dioxide. And, of course, increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are changing global climate.

In a recently published study, I used a mixture of physical principles and economic data to look at the relationship between civilization’s current global rate of primary energy consumption and its historical accumulation of economic wealth. It was expected that the relationship between wealth and energy consumption rates would be a constant, independent of time. This turned out to be true based on available statistics. The value for the relationship is 9.7 ± 0.3 milliwatts per inflation?adjusted 1990 US dollar.

So perhaps money is power. If so, the implications for controlling CO2 emissions rates are rather stark. Merely to stabilize emission rates at current levels, growth in wealth must cease, meaning that the inflation?adjusted GDP of civilization would need to drop to zero. Alternatively, we would need to switch to non?CO2 emitting power supplies at a rate equivalent to building about one nuclear power plant per day. This is unlikely, of course. In fact, because civilization has inertia, it may even be possible to make

forecasts of humanity’s wealth and its CO2 emission rates well into this century.

Dr. Tim Garrett is an Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. A native of Canada, he obtained a B.Sc. in Physics in 1992 from the University of Waterloo before receiving his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington in 2000. His current research focuses on the role of clouds in climate and climate change.

A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and here in British Columbia, report Reuters. “Cryptococcus gattii” usually only effects those with compromised immune systems, such as transplant and AIDS patients, however the newly-identified strain is different, according to researchers.

Findings presented in a new document indicate the fungus outbreak is continuing to spread throughout the temperate region of Western North America. The new strain appears to be unusually deadly, with a mortality rate of about 25 percent among the 21 U.S. cases analyzed, they said.

Climate change may be helping the disease to spread, say the researchers.

To read more about the report, click here.

Increased health risk from fungus, diseases, and other plant-based hazards are being exacerbated by shifts in climate. Take a look at ACT’s report on climate change adaptation Biodiversity here.