Vivian Krause is a Vancouver-based independent researcher and writer who investigates the environmental movement’s lobbying efforts in Canada and their sources of funding. www.fair-questions.com

In previous blog postings, Vivian Krause stated that, “According to my preliminary calculations, since 2000 USA foundations have poured at least $300 million into the environmental movement in Canada.” Currently, she estimates that about $50 million a year is being funnelled into Canadian environmental organizations from U.S. sources.

The Pew Charitable Trusts (“Pew”) is one of the largest charitable foundation’s in the United States. In its annual report for 2011, Pew reports that it has $4.9 billion in assets that originated from the founders of Sun Oil, an American oil company.

 Pew recognizes boreal forests and the need to protect them in Russia, South America, Indonesia and Africa but the place where Pew is investing more far more money than anywhere else, is Canada.

Pew considers that about 60 percent of the entire national territory of Canada is boreal forest. Of that, 12 percent is already protected by Canada. For Pew, however, that’s not enough.

Since Canada has the world’s largest temperate rainforest and the world’s largest boreal forest, global interest is natural.  But lets not forget, Canada’s forests are also home to some of the world’s largest deposits of energy and minerals.  This fact is not lost on Pew.  In fact, some of Pew’s grants for the Boreal Forest Initiative are titled, “British Columbia mining.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business  provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Holistic mining

It sounds more like a reference to a new-age healing trend, but a novel approach to mining that will focus on holistic practices is poised to put Sudbury’s Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) on course to change the face of the industry.

In July, CEMI received $823,000 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. (NOHFC) to instate a Research Chair for Holistic Mining Practices, vice-president Douglas Morrison, whose scope of work will include the expansion of research opportunities and attraction of innovation in mining.

It’s holistic because the research and innovation opportunities will encompass a greater spectrum of considerations than the technical aspect of mining, explained CEMI president and CEO Peter Kaiser.

“You can’t think anymore just technical, little gadgets. You can’t just think of cost reduction. You need to think safety, environmental, permits, Native issues,” Kaiser said. “If you want to succeed, it’s no more just a technical problem and ‘How do I bring a ton of ore out of the ground.’ You need a more holistic approach.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

STUART, NEB.— Next to a sun-stained red flag that marks the planned route of the Keystone XL pipeline, Leon Weichman kneels on his Nebraska hay field. Moisture spots his jeans. It has barely rained in 30 days in this arid part of the central U.S., yet the grasses are thick and green. The soil is black and damp.

This field is naturally irrigated by the subterranean reaches of a vast underground formation called the Ogallala Aquifer that underlies the heart of America. It is half the size of British Columbia and filled with freshwater.

Mr. Weichman says he has slept uneasily for three years, knowing that the red flag portends a time when up to 830,000 barrels of oil could course through his field each day. “If we couldn’t use this water, this area would just be vacated.” Mr. Weichman says. “We couldn’t raise livestock here. We couldn’t use crops here. It would just be done.”

Now the Ogallala has inspired a fierce battle over oil, turning Keystone XL into a symbolic dividing line for opponents and supporters of Canada’s oil sands. The red flags marking the route have come to delineate an increasingly bitter fight between those who tout the economic and strategic benefits of a giant resource of North American crude and those who see the oil sands as an unacceptable environmental threat. Read the rest of this entry »