One way to achieve a Canadian population of 100 million as advocated by Doug Sanders [Populate or perish: Canada needs 100 million people, 31 March] is to invite 70 million people from low-lying regions of the world [for example, Vanuatu, the Maldives, Tuvalu, Bangladesh] to Canada.
After all, in a few years, many of these people will be environmental refugees from sea levels rise, thanks, in part, to Canada's failure to curb its greenhouse gas emissions.
Submitted: 2 April 2001. Published
re: Let's Make a Deal, Thomas Axworthy, 5 April 2001
And if the Americans still won't budge on lumber after we offer them our natural gas, we should get really tough and show them that we mean business by giving them our water.
Submitted: 5 April 2001. Unpublished
According to various media reports, Prince Charles is in favour of small-scale organic agriculture, maintaining rural communities, supporting indigenous cultures, reforming health-care, and respecting heritage architecture. Apparently, he also questions GM foods and globalization.
Small wonder the Globe and Mail is against the monarchy.
Submitted: 2 May 2001. Published
Environment Minister David Anderson claims that "forest and agricultural sinks can absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and make an effective contribution to fighting climate change. This is broadly recognized by the scientific community" (Carbon-sink doubts don't hold water, 15 June).
The ability of forests to absorb and store carbon dioxide cannot be disputed. However, recent research from Duke University's FACE (Free Air CO2 Enrichment) experiment suggests that Minister Anderson's views are both outdated and misleading.
First, the FACE research shows that elevated levels of carbon dioxide do not in themselves cause trees to enhance their ability to sequester carbon as woody biomass. Without adequate moisture and nutrients (notably significant increases in nitrogen), carbon sequestration by trees is short-term or transient.
Second, the research found that the soil uptake of carbon from leaf litter is less than expected. This means that only a small fraction of the leaves left on the forest floor turn into soil (trapping the carbon); the rest decompose, returning the carbon back to the atmosphere.
In other words, for Canadian forests to act as carbon sinks, the federal government must ensure that these forests maintain proper moisture levels, have sufficiently high levels of nitrogen fertilization (with all its associated problems), and that all carbon from leaf litter is reduced to humus. Furthermore, these forests cannot be destroyed by disease, fire, or storm.
Submitted 18 July 2001. Unpublished.