The ninth annual Smog Summit will take place on June 4th, national Clean Air Day. At the 2008 Smog Summit Federal, Provincial and Municipal government leaders will have the opportunity to announce new initiatives they will undertake in the coming year to reduce smog, air pollution and greenhouse gases.

The Toronto and Region 2008 Inter-governmental Declaration on Clean Air will also be highlighted at the 2008 Smog Summit and will present the joint actions of the Greater Toronto Area Clean Air Council for the upcoming year. 

A Green Development Best Practices Exchange will follow the 2008 Smog Summit. The Clean Air Partnership will bring together experts, governments, municipalities, and developers to highlight green development standards, incentives and practices from the GTA and beyond. The Best Practices Exchange will review where we are now on green development opportunities and practices and where we are likely to go in the future. 

To register, please visit:
http://www.cleanairpartnership.org/smogsummit/

For more information on Canadian Environment Week, please visit:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?Lang=En&n=D58BD83C-1

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Planet in Focus Mixed Greens
Theme: Nuclear (June & July)
Location: Gardiner Museum
Time: 6:45pm
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Battle of Chernobyl (Jun 27)

On April 6, 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the city of Pripyat, Ukraine exploded, melting down to emit more radiation than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, top secret documents have finally surfaced on the systematic cover-up by the Soviet government; they admit the true severity of the Chernobyl disaster. Archived footage and personal interviews by former government officials reveal how the disaster was concealed from the world, and how thousands of men were sacrificed in order to prevent the possibility of a secondary radioactive explosion that would have poisoned Europe, rendering it uninhabitable.
 
http://www.planetinfocus.org/mixedgreens/27jun08

Broken Arrow (Jul 31)

In 1966 two American airplanes collided over Palomares, Spain and as a consequence, four H-bombs fell to earth. Two of them explode their conventional charge and due to the strong wind radioactive material is scattered over the region. An intensive search is stared to find the fourth bomb. At the same time, decontamination process of the zone is starting and the residual contamination of persons and environment begins to be checked and also the Proyector Indalo, still running 41 years later.

http://www.planetinfocus.org/mixedgreens/31jul08


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NFB Green Screen (June to July)
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**The World According to Monsanto (June 1/June 4/June 16/June 18/June 19)

Directed by Marie Monique Robin 
Monsanto is the world leader in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as one of the most controversial corporations in industrial history. This century-old empire has created some of the most toxic products ever sold, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the herbicide Agent Orange. Based on a painstaking investigation, The World According to Monsanto puts together the pieces of the company’s history, calling on hitherto unpublished documents and numerous first-hand accounts. 

http://www.nfb.ca/mediatheque/dethoraire.php?actif=0&idT=&idSM=1&id=1059

**Up the Yangtze (July 24/July 26/July 29)

Directed by Kevin Longdale
The Three Gorges Dam - contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle - provides the epic backdrop for Up the Yangtze, a dramatic feature documentary on life inside the 21st century Chinese dream. Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang crafts a moving depiction of peasant life, a powerful narrative of contemporary China, and a disquieting glimpse into a future that awaits us all.

Selected as one of Canada’s Top 10 Films of  2007

“Outstanding…gorgeously shot and as gripping as an epic novel”
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

Preceded by the NFB short film Engine 371

http://www.nfb.ca/mediatheque/dethoraire.php?actif=0&idT=&idSM=1&id=1105

Canada's nuclear safety watchdog warned last month that it was concerned about an "erosion of safety margins" at the Pickering B nuclear station near Toronto.

A letter from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission surfaced Tuesday on the eve of a hearing in which Ontario Power Generation will make the case for renewing the station's operating licence until 2014.

The commission's assessment of the station was sent to Patrick McNeil, a senior executive at the provincially owned Crown corporation, on April 7.

"CNSC staff remain concerned with the trend in erosion of safety margins ... and expect that OPG will address the identified outstanding issues, and, in particular, will develop and implement engineered solutions to re-establish robust safety margins," says the letter.

Greenpeace obtained a copy of the document and cited it as proof the nuclear station poses an unnecessary risk to the Greater Toronto Area.

"Nuclear technology is an unforgiving technology," said Shawn Patrick Stensil, a Greenpeace researcher on energy issues.

"When your safety margins are declining, you're increasing your risk of accidents, and accidents from nuclear stations can cause irreversible harm."

Safety margins set the boundaries of acceptable risks at a nuclear facility. That risk level determines what safety systems must be in place in case of accidents.

The Pickering nuclear facility is located roughly 40 kilometres northeast of downtown Toronto. Statistics Canada's 2006 census data shows about five million people live in the Toronto census metropolitan area.

Full Article:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/05/14/pickering-nuclear.html



Related Articles:

The 30km Zone: Disaster scenario of nuclear meltdown in Toronto
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2008/12/c7341.html

30Km - Are You in the 30km Zone?
http://30km.ca

Uranium Producer Warns of Lake Ontario Pollution
http://www.porthopehealthconcerns.com/

Plan to Oppose Creating an Underground Nuclear Dump in Lake Huron
http://www.michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1290

The Chinese government is banning production and distribution of the thinnest plastic bags in a bid to curb the white pollution that is taking over the countryside. The bags are also banned from all forms of public transportation and "scenic locations." The move may save as much as 37 million barrels of oil currently used to produce the plastic totes, according to China Trade News. Already, the nation's largest producer of such thin plastic bags, Huaqiang, has shut down its operations.

The effort comes amid growing environmental awareness among the Chinese people and mimics similar efforts in countries like Bangladesh and Ireland as well as the city of San Francisco, though efforts to replicate that ban in other U.S. municipalities have foundered in the face of opposition from plastic manufacturers.

More than one million reusable cloth bags have already been sold on various Chinese merchandising Web sites, according to Taobao.com, and local environmental groups, such as Shanghai Roots & Shoots, are promoting and giving away cloth bags in schools.

"Too many plastic bags is a great waste of natural resources," retired Communist Party cadre Liu Zhidong says through a translator. "When burnt, they produce poisoning smoke, and if buried underneath the ground they need more than 300 years to be degraded."

But it remains to be seen how strong enforcement will be. Specific penalties have not been set but will include fines. Other environmental efforts—such as a similar ban on disposable wooden chopsticks (a waster of trees) and so-called "green GDP," or gross domestic product, an effort to account for environmental costs when calculating overall economic development— fell by the wayside because they proved too difficult to implement and created significant opposition at the local level. It also remains to be seen whether some of the possible replacements—thicker or biodegradable plastic bags—will be any better.

"This is a very good measure to protect the environment. However, whether it can last long is still very doubting," chemistry graduate student Oliver says. "And another problem is [that] the so-called biodegradable plastic bags, it seems, cannot be totally degraded. Whether or not they are really good for environment protection in the long run remains unknown."

Yet, the ban enjoys enthusiastic support from many residents here, particularly students, who may not even recall the more traditional practice of cloth bags or baskets. "I will just carry the things by my hands," one young man told me on the campus of Shanghai International Studies University. "I will never use the plastic bags supplied in supermarkets and I'll ask my friends not to use them, too."

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=china-sacks-plastic-bags



Related Articles:

Modbury, Devon UK: The 1st European Town to go Plastic bag Free

http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2007/05/01/modbury_plastic_bags_feature.shtml

"Plastic Soup" of the World: A Garbage Tip that Stretches from Hawaii to Japan
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html