In December 2012, the Council of Canadians and the Boreal Forest Network wrote to then Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and Manitoba premier Greg Selinger to ask that each provincial government contribute $1 million annually to the Experimental Lakes Area for a minimum of three years until federal funding could be reinstated after the next federal election.

In January 2013, we received a letter from the Government of Manitoba declining our request. But the premier said at that time that he would work to encourage "the Government of Canada to ensure funding for this program."

Undaunted, in February we repeated our request to the new Ontario premier, Kathleen Wynne, as well as to Selinger.

I had originally intended to write this column about my trip to Washington, D.C. on February 7-8, when I met with United States Senators and Congresspersons about climate and the Keystone XL pipeline. In brief, the trip was very successful in making links with strong proponents of climate action. Things are moving. The U.S. General Accountability Office had decided that as a threat to federal government finances, climate change is now classed 'high risk'.

The scientific community is sad to report the death of evidence, which passed away June 18, 2012, after an over six-year battle with Harper government policies. Objective and honest, evidence was heavily involved in all aspects of Canadian prosperity and will be sorely missed by all Canadians, whether they currently realize it or not.

The funeral service will take place on Tuesday July 10, 2012 beginning at the Ottawa Convention Centre, at 12:00 p.m. The procession will end at Parliament Hill.

Everyone is invited.

When hackers broke into an Internet server at East Anglia University in the U.K. and selectively released massive amounts of correspondence from the world's leading climate scientists, folks at the Chicago-based Heartland Institute were quick to exploit it. 

Heartland president Joseph Bast wrote: "The release of these documents creates an opportunity for reporters, academics, politicians, and others who relied on the IPCC to form their opinions about global warming to stop and reconsider their position."