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Mapping What Matters Survey— win a $1000 Capacity Grant

The Alberta Ecotrust Foundation is conducting a comprehensive survey of environmental non-profit groups in Alberta. By completing the survey, your organization will be eligible for a draw to receive a $1000 Mini-grant for Capacity. From the Ecotrust website:

At Alberta Ecotrust, we believe the environmental challenges we all face are too large for any organization to address alone. It is critical that we work together to find solutions to the most pressing issues of our day.


If you are the Executive Director, Board Chair or primary decision-maker for an environmental nonprofit in Alberta we would like to invite you to complete this confidential survey. The collective responses will help us understand the scope, scale and needs of Alberta’s ENGO community in order to optimise how our programs can best support the important environmental work you do as charities and nonprofits. Your responses will also contribute to a collective understanding of this sector and results will be shared with all participants via a summary report. Please add your voice!

The deadline for the survey is August 18 at 5:00pm.

If your organization has not received an invitation to complete the survey, follow the link below to request an invite. Read More

Tim Flannery on climate change and energy transition in Alberta

Alberta Climate Dialogue (ABCD) has posted video of Tim Flannery's recent talk in Calgary— part of the Low Carbon Leadership Speaker Series sponsored by ABCD & Clean Energy Canada. From the Alberta Climate Dialogue website:

Tim Flannery is the Chief of the Australian Climate Council, a new non-governmental organization providing information about the science of climate change. His books includeThe Future Eaters and the New York Times bestseller The Weather Makers—widely regarded as one of the pivotal public works on climate change.

In a candid conversation with Bob Page (Director of the Enbridge Centre for Corporate Sustainability at the University of Calgary and former chairman of the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy), Flannery shared successes and lessons from his nation’s experience in transitioning to a lower-carbon economy.

Monitoring on the Mind

With the spate of news & reports on environmental monitoring (or the lack thereof) in the oilsands region, monitoring is on the mind of a couple of AEN members.

Laura Bowman of the Environmental Law Centre posts on the need for an independent environmental monitoring agency:

…a clear, unambiguous commitment to better monitoring resources and stronger federal and provincial oversight at the approvals stage is still glaringly absent. What the oilsands really need is a well-resourced agency with the expertise and independence to be a bold regulator. 

Pembina's Terra Simieritsch writes on the importance of water quality monitoring, and asks some questions of the federal & provincial governments:

Will limits be set and will laws be enforced? And ultimately, if the data points to unacceptable changes in the Athabasca River, what are the federal and provincial governments prepared to do? Read More

Field Notes: News from AEN Member Groups

Melissa Gorrie posts on the Ecojustice Canada blog about the Carbon Capture and Storage Statutes Amendment Act and why Albertans…

"…should be concerned about the risks the government is taking with their health and the ecosystem and must call on government to amend this legislation before it is implemented."

Over at the Pembina Institute blog, Jennifer Grant posts about the ERCB's apparent "flip-flop" on the rules for oilsands tailings production; David Dodge introduces us to Pembina's new Executive Director; and Clare Demerse reports on the just-concluded UN climate talks in Cancun. Read More

National pollutant data finally released, sort of

Following the recent release of new mining pollution data — compelled by a lawsuit by MiningWatch Canada & Great Lakes United — the Environmental Law Centre's Laura Bowman posts on the "sorry state of access to pollution data in Canada":

The question remains, does anyone even know the environmental impact from spills and routine releases from industry and municipalities in Canada? Is it even possible for anyone to find out if there are reporting and access to information barriers?

Read More

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