Last night, Dr. Werner Kurz, a researcher with the Canadian Forest Service and a lead author with the IPCC, gave a presentation to my forest management class at University of Victoria. His talk focused on climate change and it's impacts on the forests of Canada and British Columbia. During the presentation, he emphasized that much of the data used for the recently released 4th report of the IPCC is already quite dated and that new data, particularly concerning the collapse of the Arctic ice pack, is frightening, to say the least. And now this from the Antarctic. One wonders how much worse things must get before the nations of the world realize that the planet is a lifeboat on which all are dependent and that they must get very serious about reducing GHGs dramatically and quickly. This particularly includes Canada, and specifically Alberta, where the recovery of oil from the tar sands is creating an international embarrassment for those of us desperately trying to reduce our country's carbon-foot print.
