Notes

Primary Indicators

1. USEPA 1996a: 1. Cities from 50,000-100,000 have a class-two station and cities with populations over 250 000 are required to have a class-one monitoring station according to the NAPS.
   
2. Canada has a unique three-tiered system of objectives defining maximum desirable, maximum acceptable and maximum tolerable air pollution levels over periods of one year, 24 hours, eight hours and one hour. Each table in this section gives the corresponding levels explicitly in parts per million (ppm) or micrograms per cubic metre (mg/m3). ``Good'' means an ambient pollution level lower than the maximum desirable objective, ``Fair'' lies between the maximum desirable and maximum acceptable objectives, ``Poor'' lies between the maximum acceptable and maximum tolerable objectives, and ``Very Poor'' means an ambient pollution level higher than the maximum tolerable objective.
   
3. SO2 converts to sulphuric acid when it combines with oxygen and water in intense sunlight.
   
4. Individual stations may exceed these objectives; a 1990 Canadian study showed, however, that 98 percent of stations met annual ``fair'' objectives, 88 percent met 24-hr ``fair'' objectives and 82 percent met 1-hr ``fair'' objectives. See Environment Canada 1994: 12-17.
   
5. For a more complete analysis, see Ackerman and Hassler 1981. This regulation carries with it an enormous cost as well. Scrubbers on coal-fired plants can cost as much as US$200 million to install. See Portney 1990: 76.
   
6. Working Assets Long Distance, a San Francisco-based long distance phone company, bought and retired US$74,000 worth of permits in 1992; this represents 336 metric tonnes of emissions.
   
7. In the 1990 survey of individual stations, 100 percent of stations met annual, 24-hr and 1-hr ``fair'' objectives. Environment Canada 1994: 18-22.
   
8. In 1990, 38 percent of stations met annual ``Fair'' objectives and 31 percent met 1-hr ``Fair'' objectives, although no station exceeded the ``Poor'' 1-hr level. Environment Canada 1994: 28-34.
   
9. Although there are no annual objectives, in the 1990 study of Canadian stations, 98 percent of stations met the 8-hr and 1-hr Fair objectives. Environment Canada 1994: 23-27.
   
10. Dr. Donald Stedman, a chemistry professor at the University of Denver, has developed a device that can measure and test the exhaust of moving vehicles, thus isolating the heaviest polluters. For more on this see Bast, Hill, and Rue 1994: 115-6. Also, if power plants were to add chemical or isometric ``labels'' to their emissions, lasimetric technology could map chemical concentrations from orbit. See Smith 1995: 390.
    
11. It should be noted that the Canadian ozone standard (.082 ppm) is stricter than that of the United States (.120 ppm).
    
12. Even measures at Canada's worst sites are relatively low. A recent study shows that the lake-shore sites around the Great Lakes record an average of 150 hours (20 days) annually that exceed the .082 ozone standard. Recorded levels greater than .120 ppm are rare in most regions and very infrequent in southern Ontario with only 0.14 percent of measures exceeding this level. See Dann 1996: 1-27.
    
13. Point versus non-point sources of water pollution could be compared to stationary versus mobile sources of air pollution.
    
14. Eutrophication, or nutrient enrichment, is the oversupply of inorganic nutrients that cause algae and plants to multiply rapidly; when they die and decompose, the water's dissolved oxygen content is depleted. Dissolved oxygen, which is derived from photosynthesis by aquatic plants and atmospheric exchange, is essential to ensure the maintenance of aquatic life and self-purification processes in natural water systems.
    
15. Bioaccumulation in aquatic organisms occurs when a persistent, fat-soluble, contaminant enters the organism's body through the skin or by ingestion. If consumption exceeds the organism's ability to metabolize or eliminate the contaminant, over time it accumulates in tissues.
    
16. Phosphorus targets: Lake Michigan, 5,600 tonnes; Lake Superior, 3,400 tonnes; Lake Huron, 4,360 tonnes; Lake Erie, 11,000 tonnes; Lake Ontario, 7,000 tonnes.
    
17. DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane) is a persistent, bioaccumulative, synthetic insecticide. Its use was heavily restricted in the 1970s and prohibited after 1990. The breakdown product, DDE (dichloro-diphenyl-dichloro-ethylene), is most easily measured in the fat of animals or in the eggs of birds. Most other pesticides in use today are not as persistent and hence are not transported to the same degree as DDT.
    
18. PCBs were once used extensively in many parts of the electrical and transmission industry, in flame retardants, water-proofing agents, printing inks, adhesives; they were also spread on roads to prevent airborne dust. In the 1980s, tight restrictions allowed PCBs to be used only in closed electrical equipment, and safe incineration technologies now are used to destroy those currently in storage. They have been associated with declining fish populations in some locations.
    
19. HCBs are used in fungicides, dye manufacturing, and wood preservatives; they are also produced as a waste by-product of chemical manufacturing. The Great Lakes region is at risk from HCB contamination since numerous chlorine plants are located near the Lakes on both sides of the border.
    
20. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Environmental Data Compendium, 1997, p. 120. Production for each nation as a percentage of global production: wood pulp--US, 19.8%; Can., 34.7%; sawnwood and sleepers--US, 10.2%; Can., 33.0%; industrial roundwood--US, 26.3%; Can., 2.0%; paper and cardboard--US, 10.2%; Can., 15.6%; wood-based panels--US, 5.96%; Can., 9.2%.
    
21. Environment Canada 1991b: 74. Conversion based on 1989 exchange rate of CDN$1.184 per US$1, from Statistics Canada 1995: 89. Prices are quoted in US dollars.
    
22. Calculations of Canadian and American figures are based on data from OECD 1997: 67-70.
    
23. One measure of energy efficiency is the ratio of energy use to the size of the national economy. See OECD 1995: 205.
    
24. Brookes 1991: 104-112. This estimate excludes Alaska, which is 90 percent wetland area and 90 percent government owned.
    
25. Comparable data do not exist after this period because the Canada Land Use Monitoring Program ended in 1986. Statistics Canada is attempting to derive comparable data for 1991 (Trant 1996).
    
26. Whatever happened to the Mobro garbage barge? After wandering up and down the Atlantic seaboard for several weeks, the trash it carried was placed in a landfill in New York, just a few miles from where it had started its journey.
    
27. The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) has set a nation-wide goal of 50 percent reduction per capita from 1988 level, by the year 2000. A second initiative, the National Packaging Protocol (NAPP), targets the 35 to 40 percent of solid waste that is composed of discarded packaging, and aims to reduce the level of discarded packaging to 50 percent of the 1988 level by the year 2000. See Environment Canada 1991c: (25)4.
    
28. In the United States, municipal waste is waste collected by, or on the order of, municipalities. It includes waste originating in households, commercial activities, office buildings, institutions like schools and government buildings, and small businesses that dispose of waste at the same facilities used for municipally collected wastes. In Canada, municipal waste is all waste that is not construction and demolition debris. See OECD 1997: 153.
    
29. Imperial measures are 44 square miles and 120 feet deep. See Wiseman 1990.
    
30. Canadian data are based on apparent consumption (a proxy for waste generated derived from consumption) using figures from domestic consumption of the respective product + imports - exports. American data are based on amounts of waste generated. OECD 1995: 153.
    
31. Canada's glass recycling figure includes the reuse of refillable money-back bottles. OECD 1997: 164.

Secondary Indicators

1. The atmosphere contains 750 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide; living plants contain 560 billion tonnes, soils 1,400 billion tonnes, ocean sediments 11,000 billion tonnes and the oceans themselves 38,000 billion tonnes. See Environment Canada 1991c: (22) 7.
   
2. Scientists do not dispute that the increase in equivalent CO2 has occurred. Since the Industrial Revolution, equivalent CO2 levels have risen from approximately 290 ppm to nearly 440 ppm in 1994 (Bailey 1995: 87). Humans do not, however, contribute to the main absorbers of infrared light in the atmosphere. Water vapour and clouds are responsible for over 98 percent of the current greenhouse effect (Lindzen 1992: 2).
   
3. Extinct: a species no longer existing; extirpated: a species no longer existing in the wild in Canada but existing elsewhere; endangered: a species facing imminent extirpation or extinction; threatened: a species likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed; vulnerable: a species of special concern because it has characteristics that make it particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events. From COSEWIC 1995: 1.
   
4. Easterbrook 1994. Easterbrook argues that the number of spotted owls has been badly underestimated, that it does not differ genetically from the spotted owl populations in California, that it thrives in more kinds of habitat than is claimed, and, therefore, that it is not endangered.

Index

1. For a comprehensive discussion of the wide variety of beliefs about nature in this century alone, see Bramwell 1989.
   
2. This two-stage averaging process is necessary to avoid giving exaggerated weight to categories that include a larger number of sub-categories.
   
3. This is the time period for which the data are most complete across all categories.

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