|
Around Nunavut
December
9, 2005
Conservation groups
file for polar bear protection
Three international conservation
and environmental groups are planning to take legal action "as early as
next week" to have polar bears listed as "threatened" under the
U.S. Endangered Species Act due to global warming.
Greenpeace, the Centre
for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defence Council first petitioned
to have the polar bear listed as threatened last February. Under the Endangered
Species Act, the Secretary of the Interior has 90 days to reply.
But having not received
a reply to their petition by October, the three groups served a notice of intent
to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for action.
"The United States
has renounced the Kyoto Protocol and has yet to adopt any meaningful plan for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions... Thus, the threat to polar bears from global
warming has increased since the filing of the petition, and will continue to
do so," says the letter of intent sent in October.
Formal filing is expected
"as early as next week, after 60 days have passed from the October 12 notice,
if the agency does not comply with the law."
If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service lists the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, this move would
lead to a ban of polar bear trophy imports from Canada into the U.S.
December
9, 2005
Nunavut launches "Terminology
on Climate Change" book in Montreal
At "Arctic Day"
in Montreal, Nunavut's environment minister Olayuk Akesuk launched the GN's
new terminology book on climate change terms in Inuktitut and Innuinaqtun.
The 150-page manual, also
available on CD, explains and translates such terms as "alternative energy,"
"feedback mechanism," "northern sea route" and "solar
radiation."
The glossary will be an
"invaluable tool" for researchers, government and Nunavummiut, Akesuk
said.
December
9, 2005
Aglukkaq may face
removal from cabinet
When Nunavut MLAs meet
next June to hold their mid-term review of cabinet ministers, Leona Aglukkaq,
the health minister, may find herself at the top of their hit-list.
After all the plotting
and counter-plotting had ended, MLAs voted Dec. 1 to hold the review, during
which regular members get a chance to grill each cabinet minister, before June
30 next year instead of next fall. That occurred only after Hunter Tootoo, the
MLA for Iqaluit Centre, thwarted an attempt by Tagak Curley, the MLA for Rankin
Inlet North, to hold it even sooner, before March 31.
Tootoo, whose amendment
to Curley's motion won the support of all cabinet ministers, along with Levi
Barnabas, the member for Quttiktuq, said a cabinet review in March would interfere
with the budget session next spring.
On Nov. 28, Tootoo, in
an attempt to flush out MLAs who want to boot Aglukkaq from cabinet but don't
want to say so in public, made a notice of motion to have her removed - but
no one seconded it.
MLAs had discussed the
rescheduling of the mid-term review, and their problems with the cabinet, at
a closed-door meeting on Nov. 25. They're said to be displeased with the sudden
departure of Bernie Blais as deputy minister of health and social services.
TOP
| 
Nunavut 99
