Michael Byers on Politics

"Winter, M.I.A." -- Letter to the Editor of the Globe and Mail, January 28, 2012

It’s not easy to write about Canada’s recently erratic weather (Whither Winter – Jan. 27) without mentioning the term “climate change.” The unusual behaviour of the Arctic oscillation is almost certainly linked to dramatic increases in air and sea temperatures in that region. Around the world, thousands of scientists are working hard to understand the complexities of these climate-weather interactions. But few, if any, doubt greenhouse gas emissions are an important root cause.

Michael Byers, project leader with ArcticNet (consortium of Arctic scientists from 27 Canadian universities and eight federal departments)

For the original text, see: Letter to the editor

For the article to which I was responding, see: What happened to winter?

View from the Reichstag

In Berlin, I was told German history offers a lesson for Canadian democracy.

Michael Byers, TheTyee.ca , 26 January 2012

The glass dome above the Reichstag provides spectacular views of Germany's capital city. But British architect Norman Foster designed the structure to highlight another view: looking down from the edge of the spectator platform, one can see directly into the Bundestag -- the German Parliament.

The symbolism is powerful: the people are above the politicians, and the workings of Parliament are transparent to them.

The Russian Bear dominates the Arctic

To continue its dominance on the Arctic, the Russian Bear needs the help of foreign markets, investors and technologies.

Michael Byers, Al Jazeera.com, 3 January 2011

Vancouver, Canada - In the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October, Marko Ramius, the rogue captain of a Soviet nuclear missile submarine, evades the US and Soviet navies by maneuvering deftly through a narrow and winding - but precisely charted - mid-Atlantic trench.

In real life, the Soviet navy's charting efforts extended to the heart of the NATO-controlled Canadian Arctic. Soviet-era charts on board the Akademik Ioffe, an ice-strengthened ship owned by the Russian Academy of Sciences and chartered by a Canadian eco-cruise company, show many more depth soundings in the Northwest Passage than do comparable Canadian charts.

For the full text, see: Russian Bear