Howie Chong

It’s hot in Toronto.  But that’s not the only place in the world experiencing sizzling weather.

Twillingate, Newfoundland – the self-described Iceberg Capital of the World, isn’t seeing any icebergs floating off of its coasts this summer even though there are usually lots of them this time of year.

Meanwhile, Northern Europe is going through a killer heatwave.  Russia is going through its worst drought in 100 years and roads in the Czech Republic are melting in the heat.

The air conditioning units in some trains in Germany broke down and some poor souls were baking inside at 50ºC.

A report by the Environmental Law Institute outlines how energy is subsidized in the United States from 2002 to 2008.  Not only are fossil fuels subsidized by nearly $60 billion more than renewables, but for every dollar that conventional fossil fuels are subsidized directly more than $3 are given to companies in the form of tax breaks.

So here’s the question:  would the fossil fuel industry be self-supporting if there were no direct or tax subsidies from governments?

(via BoingBoing)

Despite the economic slowdown (which, by some sources, is actually on the recovery), global levels of greenhouse gas emissions are at their all-time high.

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Yesterday I posted my opinions on the three negative outcomes of the Copenhagen conference on climate change.  Today, we’ll go over the big-picture positives.

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It’s been some time since I’ve posted here, having spent most of January and February (a) recovering from a month away and (b) catching up on work.

Now that I’ve had a nice vacation, caught up on some work and had some time to reflect on the results of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, it’s about time that I get back to writing, blogging and tweeting.

So I thought I’d start off by going over some of the take-home messages from the Copenhagen Conference, starting with the three key negative outcomes.

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