How to help try to save ozone research at Environment Canada
19 Oct 2011Bottom line: The Harper Government is in the processes of eliminating Environment Canada’s long-standing program of routine monitoring of atmospheric ozone
Details:
Canada has a long history as a world leader in ozone research. It houses the World Ozone Data Centre. Which is more ironic? That much of the world’s ozone monitoring is done with Canadian designed and build Brewer-Dobson spectrometers. Or that it was just confirmed climate conditions have evolved to where a ozone hole has been confirmed in the Northern Hemisphere using in part these measurements (which of course won’t exist to track the hole in coming years if we allow this program to be cancelled).
Canada has a long history as a world leader in ozone research. It houses the World Ozone Data Centre. Which is more ironic? That much of the world’s ozone monitoring is done with Canadian designed and build Brewer-Dobson spectrometers. Or that it was just confirmed climate conditions have evolved to where a ozone hole has been confirmed in the Northern Hemisphere using in part these measurements (which of course won’t exist to track the hole in coming years if we allow this program to be cancelled).
The current government in Canada is proposing to eliminate atmospheric monitoring of ozone. Colleagues at The University of Toronto have gotten Kirsty Duncan (Liberal environment critic) to present a petition on this issue. She is willing to present the petition again, if she gets additional copies with at least 25 signatures, and in fact is encouraging this to help keep up the pressure. Any Canadian resident who collects 25 signatures, can mail them (no postage needed) to: Kirsty Duncan, MP, House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6. Only original signatures are acceptable; no faxes o
r scans. Petitions need to be judged to be compliant with the rules regarding such things, so it is wise to send them to Kirsty's staffer first, Ryan Murphy, who can "pre-clear" them with the House clerk. Just send them to kirsty.duncan@parl.gc.ca and ask Mr. Murphy to check them.
A sample petition is available below.
