In April 2012, the government of Canada announced that it would close the world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) in northwest Ontario. Since 1968 the world-renowned research station has hosted a unique whole-ecosystem approach to studying how lake ecosystems and fish respond to human and natural disturbances. The resulting data, unattainable anywhere else, is essential for objective, evidence-based decision-making.
Within hours of the closure announcement, marine biology PhD candidate Diane Orihel launched an international campaign to save the ELA.
For more on the vital connections between science, evidence and democracy, Evidence for Democracy offers two public events:
5 pm, Thursday April 3, Dr. Munir Sheikh, former Chief Statistician of Canada, on why public policy needs to be informed by evidence. The event will be live streamed. Details here.
Governing in the Dark, a recent public talk by Canadian biologist Scott Findlay can be seen or read online, here.
In dark times, signs of hope.
Follow the Save ELA story in Bold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science, coming from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.
Unafraid to make his findings public, US climate scientist Michael E. Mann has become a favourite target of climate change deniers. For anyone interested in a livable future, he’s worth reading.
In the March 2014 issue of Scientific American he analyses the latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and counters predictably comforting distortions in the mainstream US media.
Michael Mann concludes that the situation is not without hope, but argues that hope is rapidly fading. “Destructive change has already arrived in some regions. In the Arctic, loss of sea ice and thawing permafrost are wreaking havoc on indigenous peoples and ecosystems. In low-lying island nations, land and freshwater are disappearing because of rising sea levels and erosion.”
For an inside look at science and climate disruption, see Bold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science, coming from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.
As Atlantic gales batter the south of England, and historic rains swamp other parts of it, a scan of mainstream British print media reveals that less than 1 in 10 of the stories about the floods venture to suggest any possible link to climate change.
(Photo: Climate Outreach)
At the same time, polls indicate that two thirds of people in the UK have never talked about climate change outside their immediate social circle, and a third of people have never talked about it with anyone at all.
I strongly suspect that the British are not unusual in their deathly silence on this most vital of all subjects. But:
This short February 13 commentary looks at one local attempt to break the silence, and make the link.
More on scientists and climate change/global warming in Pesky Facts: unspun science for dangerous times, coming from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.
The federal government is asking Canadians to share our thoughts on how to shape the future of science policy in this country.
Photo: pencanada.ca
Frankly, given the current regime’s dismal record on public science, I doubt they want to know what we think unless it agrees with their corporate agenda, but why not at least give it a try? After all, it’s still a free country. In which, by the way, silence is taken for consent.
The stakes are enormous, really a matter of life and death. Think of the tar-sands, climate chaos, fracking, GMOs….
Evidence for Democracy offers thoughtful recommendations on how to restore public-interest science and evidence-based policy development in Canada. They request our input:
The existing strategy only focuses on science and innovation related to business. It completely ignores all the other science that is necessary for the long-term well-being and prosperity of Canadians. Federal government science capacity is crucial for the support of evidence-informed public policy.
The current strategy is also entirely silent about federal support for basic research. Amazingly, supporting basic research is not identified as a priority for Canadian science. Yet such research lies at the heart of all innovation. No basic research, no innovation: it’s that simple.
In late summer 2013, we saw only three or four of these beautiful butterflies in our eastern Ontario garden, a stunning loss that many other people have confirmed. Here’s why. It’s a sad, infuriating story of nature, science and power abused. Deeply entwined with our own, the story of the Monarchs is bleak, but not finished.
From Andrea Germanos at the independent news site Common Dreams, on January 29, 2014:
A new report from the World Wildlife Fund and Mexico’s National Commission for Protected Areas found that the number of monarch butterflies hibernating in Mexico dropped to its lowest level since records began in 1993.
The insects make an epic journey of thousands of miles each year from Canada and the U.S. to spend November through March hibernating in Mexico’s temperate forests.
Clues that this year’s numbers would be the continuation of a troubling trend have been in for months, with the new study bringing more grim proof that the monarch is in trouble.
Using satellite and aerial photographs, the new study documented that 1.65 acres of forest were inhabited by monarchs during December of 2013, marking a 44% drop from the same time in 2012.
“Twenty years after the signing of NAFTA, the monarch butterfly migration – a symbol of cooperation between our three countries – is in grave danger,” stated Omar Vidal, WWF-Mexico Director General.
While the study focused on deforestation and forest degradation in monarch reserves that serve as their winter habitat, it points to a trio of perils contributing to declining numbers of monarchs.
There are 3 primary threats to the monarch butterfly in its range in North America: deforestation and degradation of forest by illegal logging of overwintering sites in Mexico; widespread reduction of breeding habitat in the United States due to land-use changes and the decrease of this butterfly’s main larval food plant (common milkweed [Asclepias syriaca]) associated with the use of glyphosate herbicide to kill weeds growing in genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant crops; and periodic extreme weather conditions throughout its range during the year, such as severe cold or cold summer or winter temperatures.
Other butterfly experts have pointed to these three factors as well, though Lincoln Brower, a professor of biology at Sweet Briar College who has studied the monarch migrations for decades, told the Washington Post‘s Brad Plumer that “The most catastrophic thing from the point of view of the monarch butterfly has been the expansion of crops that are planted on an unbelievably wide scale throughout the Midwest and have been genetically manipulated to be resistant to the powerful herbicide Roundup.”
Another leading scientist who has spent three decades studying the monarch, Karen Oberhauser, professor at the University of Minnesota, added to this point, saying “Numerous lines of evidence demonstrate that the Corn Belt in the U.S. Midwest is the primary source for monarchs hibernating in Mexico,” and the region has been hit by the explosive use of Roundup-resistant crops.
This has meant that milkweed, the host plant for the monarch caterpillar, is being wiped out from fields, something that Chip Ward, Director of Monarch Watch, has been documenting.
“These genetically modified crops have resulted in the extermination of milkweed from many agricultural habitats,” added Oberhauser.
Dr. Phil Schappert, a Canadian butterfly conservationist, added in a statement that “‘the economy first’ practices, instead of sustainable land use practices, threaten monarch habitat” in Canada, and urges his country and the United States to “implement measures that protect the reproductive habitat and feeding grounds of this butterfly. Otherwise, this spiral of population decline will continue,” Schappert added.
Monarch Watch’s Ward adds, “Let’s plant milkweed – lots and lots of it.”
More on GMOs vs conservation biology in Pesky Facts: unspun science for dangerous times, from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.
Within hours of the closure announcement, marine biology PhD candidate Diane Orihel launched an international campaign to save the ELA.
Michael Riordon 