'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Environmentalist groups are sounding the alarm about a steep increase in the number of pro-plastic lobbyists at the UN pollution talks taking place this week.
Delegates from 175 nation states are in Ottawa to hammer out a binding global treaty to reduce the amount of plastic pollution that is overflowing in landfills, spilling into oceans and washing ashore.
Nearly 5,000 people are participating in the summit.
According to analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), 196 lobbyists working for oil, gas and chemical companies are registered as observers for this round of negotiations. CIEL says that is a 37 per cent increase from the previous round of talks held in Kenya and that there may be more lobbyists participating in negotiations who are part of state delegations.
“It’s troubling that the industry and those responsible for polluting are part of the negotiating and influencing the outcome of these talks,” says Suzanne Smoke of the Indigenous People’s Caucus.
Most plastic is made from fossil fuels and some of the chemicals used in the process are toxic.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, more than 430 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year
While most nations agree that plastic pollution needs to end, there is disagreement on how to get there and how long it should take.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault leaves a news conference on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Bethanie Carney-Almroth, a professor of ecotoxicology at the University of Gothenburg, says the lobbyists are actively blocking progress on plastic waste.
“What we find are commonly used techniques employed by industry and actors with conflict of interests to delay and block policy action. This includes providing misinformation, or misrepresenting science, cherry-picking data and producing false experts … and not providing a holistic understand of the impacts of plastics in the environment,” said Carney-Almroth, one of 58 scientists observing the negotiations in Ottawa.
Environmental groups say a cap on plastic production should be entrenched in the treaty as well as a ban on the most toxic chemicals in plastics.
Greenpeace International is calling for a 75 per cent reduction in global plastic production by 2040.
Graham Forbes, Greenpeace’s Global Plastics Campaign lead, says that the fossil fuel industry is investing “hundreds of billions of dollars” in new petrochemical plants to produce plastics for generations to come.
“We are clearly at unsustainable levels now and they are putting all their money behind plans to make the problem worse,” Forbes said.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which represents plastics manufacturers, says it is against a production cap.
“We believe in ending plastic pollution, not dealing with plastic production,” said Ross Eisenberg, the top lobbyist at the ACC.
Eisenberg says the ACC is against stopping the production of single use plastics such as food and beverage containers which make up more than half the plastic waste. Instead, the ACC supports helping all nations with their recycling efforts and designing better products that can be reused and recycled more efficiently.
“It’s called 'advanced recycling' or 'chemical recycling.' This is a technology that will make all those single-use plastics infinitely recyclable,” said Eisenberg.
Canada is one of 60 countries that support getting rid of non-essential single use plastics by 2040. Canada is also a major fossil fuel producer and, according to Environmental Defence Canada, ranks as the world’s 15th largest plastics producer.
As host of this UN round of talks, Canada is under pressure from environmental groups to take a leadership role in putting forward a strong treaty to reduce plastic pollution.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.