Sharon Oosthoek
CBC.CA
Why Haiti’s quake was so devastating
CBC.CA January 13, 2010 by Sharon Oosthoek Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti was especially destructive because its epicentre was close to a major city and its hypocentre, or focal point, was close to the Earth’s surface, says a Canadian seismologist familiar with the area. Natural Resources Canada seismologist John Cassidy says the 7.0 quake — centred [...]
Ski industry lagging behind public on helmet issue
CBC.CA January 8, 2010 by Sharon Oosthoek As the ski season hits its stride across Canada, the issue of mandatory helmets on the slopes is once again gaining traction. “The market demand is out there,” says Anthony Toderian, spokesman for the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). “It’s really up to the manufacturers now.” The CSA, which [...]
Climate change turns conservationists into triage doctors
CBC.CA December 1, 2009 by Sharon Oosthoek Deep in the wilds of northern British Columbia, people are trying to imagine what the region’s forests, salmon streams and alpine meadows will look like by 2050, when climate change is expected to have drastically altered the ecosystem. The Taku River Tlingit First Nation and the province are [...]
Boreal forests ignored in climate change fight
CBC.CA November 11, 2009 by Sharon Oosthoek Boreal forests store more than double the carbon originally thought, yet policy-makers overlook their role in fighting climate change, says a report released Thursday by an international conservation group. “For reasons that are unclear, boreal forests seem to be the carbon the world forgot,” write the authors [...]
Bird migration: why do they do it?
CBC.CA September 21, 2009 by Sharon Oosthoek Bird migration looks like a bad idea at first glance — all that energy needed to fly thousands of kilometres, all those predators along the way and the promise of doing it all over again just a few months later. But of course Mother Nature knows exactly what [...]
Predatory wasp gives early warning of beetle infestation
CBC.CA September 19, 2009 By Sharon Oosthoek A centimetre-long wasp is poised to become a lead investigator of potential infestations by emerald ash borers, a beetle that is destroying swaths of trees across eastern North America. Researchers at Ontario’s University of Guelph say Cerceris fumipennis — a wasp native to the region — can determine [...]
Cormorant debate: Which part of the ecosystem to protect?
CBC.CA May 27, 2009 by Sharon Oosthoek Gunshots rang out across Middle Island this month as Parks Canada launched in earnest its controversial five-year plan to protect the Lake Erie island’s rare Carolinian forest from a native bird. While officials hope culling the habitat-altering cormorants will save an ecosystem that makes up just one per [...]
Sinkholes below Lake Huron hold strange ecosystem: researchers
CBC.CA February 25, 2009 by Sharon Oosthoek Twenty metres below the surface of Lake Huron, scientists have discovered peculiar sinkholes where a bizarre ecosystem at odds with the rest of the lake flourishes. The huge lake’s freshwater fish shun the dense, salty, oxygen-deprived waters of these sinkholes off northeastern Michigan. Instead, brilliant purple mats of [...]
Registered with the do-not-call list? Expect more calls, says consumer watchdog
CBC.CA January 23, 2009 by Sharon Oosthoek Canada’s highly touted do-not-call list is having the opposite effect, leading to more telemarketer calls, says the Consumers’ Association of Canada. “It’s a travesty,” president Bruce Cran said Friday. “Here we have all these people thinking they were getting rid of incoming phone calls. Anyone who is registered [...]
Calgary team shows how to scrub CO2 from the air
CBC.CA September 30, 2008 by Sharon Oosthoek University of Calgary climate change researchers say they are close to figuring out how to commercialize the capture of carbon dioxide directly from the air with a simple system that could be set up anywhere in the world. If they can make it work, it would allow greenhouse [...]
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