Artic Ice and Highways

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With all the climate news focused on the Bali talks this week, another important story may have been missed. U.S. scientists presented a report that forecast Arctic ice to disappear by 2013. For a public that sometimes has difficulty understanding the more abstract qualities of climate chaos this may be a dramatic wake-up call.

If the forecast is right it will occur just one year after the highway one expansion is scheduled to be completed. This project is projected to increase green house gas emissions from the traffic - already the largest source of emissions for this region. Will there be wide spread public anger against the project? Or will the government in a desperate attempt to meet its climate change goals restrict traffic in such a way that makes the extra lanes unnecessary? Either way it seems like a bigger fiasco than the fast ferries scandal.


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