It's been revealed that RBS have been involved in providing loans worth $7.5 billion in the last three years to companies carrying out highly controversial ‘tar sands’ mining in Canada. Exploitation of tar sands have been the subject of international criticism for its negative impact on climate change, Canadian ecosystems and the Indigenous communities that live in the region. On the 1st of February, executives of European and North American banks, including RBS, met in Toronto to discuss concerns over a public backlash over the banking sector’s involvement in the increasingly controversial projects. [3]

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[3] The meeting was hosted by the Royal Bank of Canada and was held at the RBC Plaza in Toronto Canada and attended by 41 banking executives from around the world, including Baba Abu, the RBS Head, Sustainable Business, Global Banking. The day included presentations by Jim Ellis, the Albertan Deputy Minister for the Environment, and Peter Watson, the Deputy Minister for Energy, and a presentation on ‘Public Opinion on Canada’s Oil Sands’ by Bruse Anderson of National Public Relations.

(3) Investments were scrutinized of 26 banks from across the world, including Barclays, RBS and HSBC. The report looks at looks at the finance that RBS, Barclays and HSBC have made to companies that (a) have an ownership stake in existing tar sands projects and projects under development; or (b) own, operate or are developing pipelines primarily being used to transport tar sands oil over a three year period from January 2007 - December 2009

And like the Bush Administration, the Harper government has awarded enormous grants and tax breaks to the oil and gas sector, while failing to address the threat of global warming altogether.

http://www.ienearth.org/archives/cashinginontarsands/index.html

Every agency tied to the environment was stacked with industry hacks. And seeing as how it worked so well for the Bush Administration, Stephen Harper followed suit, appointing climate change deniers to science boards:

Already alarmed over funding cuts to basic research, scientists say two appointments in particular are worrisome. Mark Mullins, the executive director of the conservative-leaning Fraser Institute — and a former adviser to the Canadian Alliance Party — was recently appointed to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), which funds university research projects that have included studies on climate change.

Dr. Mullins is an economist and critic of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations-sanctioned scientific body that has authored warnings of floods, famine and extinctions that triggered political efforts around the world to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. More than 200 Canadian scientists have contributed to the IPCC's work and most of them are employed by the federal government. The 18-member NSERC already includes another Harper government appointee, mathematician Christopher Essex, who wrote a book challenging the "myth of climate change."

On the same day Dr. Mullins was appointed to NSERC, April 23, another skeptic of global warming was appointed to the board of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, which funds large research projects. John Weissenberger is a close friend of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a former chief of staff in the Harper government and a geologist who works for Husky Energy in Alberta.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/csr/2012/02/29/ten-ways-for-mining-companies-to-work-better-with-indigenous-people/

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http://hrbrief.org/2012/04/%E2%80%9Cmining-is-equal-to-misery%E2%80%9D-the-human-rights-situation-of-persons-affected-by-the-extractive-industries-in-the-americas/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=%25e2%2580%259cmining-is-equal-to-misery%25e2%2580%259d-the-human-rights-situation-of-persons-affected-by-the-extractive-industries-in-the-americas

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development, commonly referred to as Rio+20, is a political process wherein the world’s leaders come together to create a framework for international action around sustainable development. This year’s negotiations build on the progress of the historic Earth Summit held 20 years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which spurred the development of several critical environmental processes and agreements, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

It is critical that commitments or frameworks coming out of Rio+20

1) take bold steps to address the sustainability crises which threaten indigenous peoples, such as climate change;

2) ensure that mechanisms are in place so that indigenous peoples’ rights and livelihoods are protected in all development activities; and

3) embrace development models which acknowledge the contribution of indigenous peoples to sustainable development.

The Rio+20 process will include one more round of negotiations in New York City at the end of April before final negotiations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil June 20-22. Indigenous peoples and civil society organizations should make their concerns known to their country’s delegates and urge them to ensure that the Rio+20 process promotes a sustainable development model that protects the rights of indigenous peoples as guaranteed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, especially rights to lands, territories and resources.

http://www.iisd.ca/uncsd/ism3/enbots/20mar.html

Oh and of course if you want to rent out speakers, one of them is Dr. Tim Ball. I know all environmentalists just went into the fetal position. Ball (Friends of Science fame) is the kook that the Fraser institute hired on Harper's behalf to convince Canadians that Global warming wasn't real. Apparently Mr. "Colossal Fossil" just wasn't getting the job done.

http://pushedleft.blogspot.ca/2009/10/stephen-harper-and-fraser-institute.html

Donald Gutstein has written a book called; Not a Conspiracy Theory: How Business Propaganda Hijacks Democracy, that explains in detail how these so-called "think tanks" like the Fraser institute operate. They are not academic institutes but merely disreputable PR firms, who engage in spin. He suggests that 'we follow the money' and that is certainly the case with Climate Change denial.

The Fraser Institute is listed on Greenpeace's website as one of the groups receiving money from ExxonMobil to handle the 'big lie' on global warming. Scientists have concluded that there is better than a 90% assurance that climate change is a reality, yet these tanks capitalize on the less than 10% margin of doubt, and use that to promote their cause.

According to James Hoggan in his new book on the subject: "This seemed like an excellent example, however, of some of the activities of a large group of 'think tanks' that have come under public scrutiny for accepting funding from major industrial sources such as ExxonMobil and then challenging the science of climate change. I put the term 'think tanks' in quotes because it is so difficult to even define these organizations accurately, much less understand what they do." (Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming, by James Hoggan, Greystone Books, 2009, ISBN:978-1 55365-485-8, pg. 77)

However, one of the biggest challenges facing Harper during that campaign, was his weak stance on the environment, and complete denial of climate change.

Enter a group calling themselves the Friends of Science, who flooded the airwaves with attacks against Kyoto and global warming. But who exactly are these people so concerned with fighting environmental issues?
Oil Companies Funding Friends of Science

A Globe and Mail feature article by Charles Montgomery today has delivered what should be a death blow for the climate change denial and anti-Kyoto attack group, the Friends of Science.

The G&M says that FOS has taken undisclosed sums from Alberta oil and gas interests. The money was funneled through the Calgary Foundation, to the University of Calgary and on to the FOS though something called the “Science Education Fund.”

All this appears to be orchestrated by Stephen Harper’s long-time political confidante and fishing buddy, U. Calgary Prof Dr. Barry Cooper. It seems the FOS has taken a page right out of the US climate change attack group’s playbook: funnel money through foundations and third party groups to “wipe the oil” off the dollars they receive.

This comes as no surprise considering the FOS has been linked to some of the most notorious oil money-backed scientists in the US, including Drs. S. Fred Singer, Sallie Baliunas, Sherwood Idso, Willie Soon, Robert C. Balling and Pat Michaels.

http://pushedleft.blogspot.ca/2009/05/friends-of-science-just-friends-of.html

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More than 600 scientists signed an open letter opposing changes to the federal Fisheries Act, which would allow for the destruction of waterways so long as it does not "result in an adverse effect on a fish of economic, cultural or ecological value." One scientist told The Tyee: "It's a stupid idea. What do they think all these commercially important fish eat?” The changes were made official in the 2012-13 federal budget.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/03/24/Fisheries-Act-Gutting/

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Despite organized opposition, and an outbreak of the potentially deadly, and highly-transmittable “infectious salmon anemia” (ISA) at one of its pens, Cooke Aquaculture said it has no plans to stop a $150 million expansion of its Nova Scotia farmed-salmon operations.

http://halifax.openfile.ca/halifax/text/eastern-shore-residents-question-net-value-offshore-salmon-farming

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/03/08/ns-salmon-virus-cfia.html

In Victoria, hundreds of people attended a colourful and creative "Rally Against Enbridge" in front of the British Columbia legislature to speak out against the Northern Gateway oil pipeline, oil tanker traffic on the coast, and the tar sands. See more photos of a rally local environmental activist Zoe Blunt called "incredibly empowering."

http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/photo/photos-hundreds-rally-against-pipelines-and-tankers-victoria/10538

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The 2012-13 federal budget was greeted with a protest in the House of Commons and criticism from a wide swath of society, including environmentalists, students, teachers, health care workers, Indigenous people, journalists and housing advocates. The budget announced the elimination of 19,200 public sector jobs; reforms to the immigration system, moving it further towards wealth and economic based immigration; fast-tracked environmental assessments on large-scale projects like the Northern Gateway pipeline; and 10 per cent budget cuts to the National Film Board, Telefilm and the CBC. The government also formally announced the increase of Old Age Security admission from 65 to 67 years of age and the elimination of the one-cent coin. "This budget fails to address the pressures of a middle class losing ground and young people struggling to find work," said a member of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. "The books will be balanced, but we'll all pay the price."

http://www.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/10358?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=030412

Recent changes to Canada's Fisheries Act allow for the destruction of freshwater bodies - lakes and rivers can now be used as toxic dump sites for mining corporations.

These toxic creations will permanently scar the area, destroy habitat for major species like grizzlies, moose and deer, and potentially contaminate the largest wild salmon run in North America (the Fraser River).

The tailings ponds are toxic waste ponds: naphthenic acids and PAHs (among many others in the chemical soup in the ponds) are priority pollutants with known toxic effects (e.g., naphthenic acids: hepatotoxicity, brain hemorrhage, cardiac periarteriolar necrosis and fibrosis after acute exposure; liver function and other secondary problems such as elevated blood amylase, hypocholesterolemia, and excessive hepatic glycogen accumulation after subchronic exposure).

The Federal government marked 16 lakes for reclassification using a controversial provision under the Fisheries Act that allows them to redefine any lake as a "Tailings Impoundment Area."

Once a lake has been "redefined" it is no longer considered a natural body of water.

You can see the lake map here: http://intercontinentalcry.org/stop-canadian-lakes-from-becoming-mine-waste-dumps/

The International Energy Agency's prediction of 6 C increase by the end of the century is bizarre even when measured against the most dire of global warming predictions. That Price would give it credence does not speak much for his critical faculties.

Hey Matt..I ask myself those questions all the time and it pisses me off that I have so little influence to make a difference. I did make a contribution to the David Suzuki Foundation yesterday after Harper ordered a drone strike on the foundation.

My MP is brain dead on environmental issues and refuses to discuss them. I'm tired of receiving his twisted propaganda on how well the Harper Cons are dealing with the environment or his sales job emails on "Ethical" Canadian Asbestos.

I read between the lines of your questions.. frustration.. So where do we go from here?

Finally the conversation has started. We must keep pushing the issues. Complacency cannot be an option. Great journalism Mr. Price.