http://groups.msn.com/Moncton101           There's evidence everywhere of climate change -- expert Climate Action Network Ordinary Canadians can now see climate change happening with their own eyes, says the executive director of the Ottawa-based environmental group Climate Action Network. John Bennett has been travelling across Canada collecting stories about climate change in order to prepare a report that the Climate Action Network hopes will influence the public and the federal government. Early in the debate about climate change in the 1980s and 1990s it was all learned speculation, said Bennett. "It was mathematical models and complicated science and prediction," he said. But that has all changed. "We are seeing temperature changes in the oceans off Atlantic Canada," he said. "We are seeing hurricanes arriving in Halifax." "We saw hurricanes for the first time a few years ago in Brazil." Hurricanes south of the equator are rare, he said. New birds and insects are appearing in the Arctic and the thickness of ice patterns is changing, said Bennett. "The Arctic is the canary in the mine," he said. The insurance company Lloyds of London has been collecting data on the weather for centuries because it is an important part of their business, he said, and it is reporting changes. But it is also the little changes that the average Canadian is seeing that are being collected by Bennett's tour. Bird watchers everywhere talk about birds showing up they have never seen before, he said. Blueberry growers in Nova Scotia are harvesting smaller crops because pests and molds that feed on blueberry bushes are usually killed off during the cold winter are thriving, he said. The spruce budworm in British Columbia has devastated 10 per cent of the forest because it isn't being killed off by cold winters for the past five years, he said. "People do understand the connections between the kinds of changes they are seeing and climate change," he said. There was a drought this summer in parts of B.C., including Trofino, that are traditionally considered to be part of a rain forest, said Bennett. Some prominent conservative newspaper columnists say there is no proof that climate change exists and reject concerns as junk science, he said. Bennett dismissed such criticism as junk journalism. The idea for Bennett's national tour was born last year when the Harper government decided to replace the Kyoto accord on climate change with a made-in-Canada solution. Bennett said the Climate Action Network decided that if that was the direction the government wanted to follow, then it should hear from Canadians. "Climate change is now a really significant political issue," he said. "Canadians don't understand why government has been so hesitant to regulate the largest polluters." He cautioned the public to be wary of the Harper government and its environmental initiatives such as the Clean Air bill that is about to be tabled. Bennett said the Harper government has promised that by 2011 Canada will have the most fuel-efficient fleet of vehicles in North America. That is a meaningless pledge because this country already has the most fuel-efficient cars on average on the continent. The Harper government is copying tactics of the Bush government in the United States of using rhetoric to avoid actually taking action, he said. Bennett said he hopes to finish his report by early November.   http://groups.msn.com/Moncton101/_whatsnew http://groups.msn.com/MonctonsSingleAdults/_homepage http://groups.msn.com/NBsingles/_homepage http://groups.msn.com/LifelineGreaterMoncton/_homepage     crime beat,police beat,Moncton,greater Moncton,Moncton101,atlantic Canada,Halifax,Fredericton,Saint John,Dartmouth                                     http://groups.msn.com/Moncton101 Moncton101 is a Community Site for Greater Moncton to inform and help people . Buy,sell,trade,-Give away & Looking for, Yard & Garage Sales,Coupon Exchange, Local Events,4 & 2 Rent,People Locater F.Y.I.,Crime Beat,Promote your abilities, And much more