CBC Maritimes

Is there any science to justify what Chris Majka calls the "panic" over the Brown Spruce Longhorn Beetle ?

Reports that the Brown Spruce Longhorn Beetle has now been found in Cape Breton is causing panic among woodlot owners there. They fear that Ottawa might move towards quarantining wood products, as it did in Mainland Nova Scotia after the beetle was found in places beyond Halifax's Point Pleasant Park.
But Chris Majka thinks everyone - especially the Canadian Food Inspection Agency - should take a deep breath and look at the science to determine whether this beetle is a pest that deserves a radical response. That is, if there is any science to look at.
Mr Majka is an independent research scientist who focuses on the ecology of beetles.
To read an article he's written on the issue, click here.


What will it take to encourage more women to run for elected office ? Only 68 of 308 of Canadian MPs are female, a figure that's not even close to representing an electorate where 52% of the voters are women.        
The Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women is running a campaign school to encourage more women to seek elected office. Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May was one of the female politicians from all three levels of government who addressed the need to reform the electoral process to encourage more women to come forward as candidates.
        

There have always been people and cultures that treated the water, soil, plants and animals around them with respect.
But as we're all too well aware, the modern age has allowed humans to exploit all of those components of the ecology in an amazingly short-sighted way.
So-called renewable resources like the Northern cod have been hunted to near extinction. Portions of the ocean are now "dead zones" thanks to the runoff of industrial chemicals. The extraction of non-renewable resources, like minerals or fossils fuels, has often been accompanied by a trashing of  water systems and the landscape.
Men and women in the modern environmental movement have tackled these issues - and more - on many levels - from the local to the international. There have been successes, but many of the people who've been fighting those battles are feeling either exhausted, dispirited or just plain overwhelmed by the current challenges. The momentum of the conventional economic juggernaut can seem too powerful to redirect onto a more sustainable path.
We asked "What's the greatest challenge for environmentalists in the Maritimes ?" Our guests were Janice Harvey, a long-time director of the Conservation Council of new Brunswick,and  Peter Brown,a professor at McGill University who links environment, geography, natural resource sciences and economics. He's also involved in tree farming and is a certified forest producer.