The Heat is On: The Economist

The Economist has produced a special report on climate change (on sale this week).

Not only do their articles advocate action on the issue, the entire issue was made carbon-neutral by purchasing carbon offsets!

You can view the articles online (after viewing a commercial). Here are links to two of them:

The Heat is On

The Heat is On: Survey Introduction

Let's just hope that Harper and Bush are paying attention!

Gardeners take note...

The US National Arbor Day Foundation has published an updated "hardiness zones" map, taking into account changes due to climate change. On their web site they've compared the old map (1990) and the new one (2004). Although the map doesn't include Canada, it's quite interesting to see this visual representation of how the North American climate has already changed!

According to their press release "once the Foundation analyzed the new data, hardiness zones were revised, generally reflecting warmer recent temperatures in many parts of the country".

Apparently, the USDA is also working on a new map. However they say that the new map will reflect "weather" changes rather than "climate" changes. Sounds like semantics to me. There is a very interesting article about the planned new USDA map at azcentral.com

Hotter Than Hell

Want to order a copy of Mark Tushingham's book? It's available at Chapters.ca. Or better yet, recommend that your local library purchase a copy!

Canadian Emissions Chart

Here's a scary chart, courtesy of the United Nations Environment Program:

Canada Emissions up to 2003

I can only imagine that our emissions have continued to climb in the last 2 years. You can also see other countries' charts. Check out Germany, France, and the UK for comparison!

By the way, it's rather embarassing that Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to be ahead of us on this issue.