CGCP NOW

• The final report of the CGCP's Research Panel on Environment and Security was released at the beginning of May. The report is titled Environment and Security: An Overview of Issues and Research Priorities for Canada. It provides a brief overview of the issues and current state of knowledge as regards environment and security; an overview of the current state of and plans for Canadian research in the area; and recommendations, with priorities, for further Canadian research. The report also includes a listing of international organizations involved in research related to environment and security, and a comprehensive bibliography.

• Another Changes issue bulletin was recently released, based on the 1995 report of the CGCP's Long Term Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Panel. Changes bulletins are designed to provide readers with a rapid overview of scientific, historical and policy information on a particular global change issue. If you would like to receive Changes bulletins as they are released, please contact the CGCP Secretariat.

• An new document called Understanding Our Changing Planet: An Overview of Global Change Research in Canada has just been published. Written in clear, non-technical language, the overview highlights how Canadian researchers are contributing to and benefitting from international research on global change in the biological and geological sciences, in atmospheric and oceanic studies, and in the study of the human dimensions of global environmental change. It provides current estimates of federal funding for global change research, and profiles seven important global change research projects under way in Canada.

  The CGCP Board of Directors presented the document to the Secretary of State for Science, Research and Development, Jon Gerrard, at their June 11th Board meeting. The document was also conveyed to Bob Correll, head of the U.S. Global Change Program, when he visited CGCP offices on May 31. Plans are to update this publication every two years.

• A report called Implications for Canada of Recent IPCC Assessment Reports was released this April. The report was a joint project of the CGCP and the Canadian Climate Program, and expanded on a popular overview of the same topic that was printed last November.

• A new edition of another popular document, a Compendium of Canadian Involvement in International Global Change Activities (CIGA), was finished in April. This document was produced both in print form and electronically for the Internet, in partnership with the Fisheries and Oceans Science Directorate of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The document is available at the CGCP's Web site (see address on page two).

• The CGCP's first Annual Report will be published this July, followed by the program's Five Year Plan early in the fall. Both documents illustrate how the CGCP has been and will continue to implement its Strategic Plan, released in early 1995.

• The CGCP held a special event called Biodiversity: Why Should We Care on June 10 at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. The event attracted about 80 participants to hear speakers Jean-Pierre Revéret of Université du Québec à Montréal, David Runnalls of Runnalls Research Associates Inc., Jean-Pierre Martel of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association and Karen Kraft Sloan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment and MP for York-Simcoe. Jacques Prescott of the Quebec Ministry of Environment and Wildlife, and the CGCP Board of Directors chaired the event. See page ___ for a commentary on the event by Digby McLaren.

The CGCP has also been involved in organizing and/or sponsoring several conferences and workshops, including:

• Electricity Production and Greenhouse Gases: Facts and Perspectives, Université du Québec à Montréal, May 4-7, 1997. This international conference is being organized by the Chaire de recherche en environnement, UQAM.

• Les changements climatiques: où en sommes-nous? at the 64th ACFAS (French Canadian Association for the Advancement of Sciences) conference — McGill University, Montreal, May 1996.

• Coastal Zone Canada ‘96 — Rimouski, 11-17 August 1996.

• Atmospheric Ozone: Issues, Science, Policy and Programs — Toronto, September 16-18, 1996, organized by the Ontario Climate Advisory Committee.

• Canada-U.S.A.-Mexico symposium on atmospheric changes and the North American transportation sector — Beckman Center, Irvine, California, November 17-20, 1996.

• The Earth System: Geology Lessons for Our Future — Ontario Science Centre, Toronto, December 5-7, 1996.

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