Matthew Bramley, director of the Pembina Institute's climate change program, explains why the benefits of taking action on climate change outweigh the costs.

Tough on crime. Tough on people smugglers. Tough on prison pensions. The list of things the federal government is getting tough on continues to grow-with a glaring exception. If the intention is to project a "getting tough" image, we need to be consistent and get tough on polluters.

Imagine the City of Vancouver. Now imagine it covered in toxic sludge about two stories deep. That's how much toxic tailings waste you end up with after 40 years of unchecked oilsands production in northern Alberta. And that's what a flock of ducks came up against Monday night when they needed somewhere to land.

We've all seen the photos: northern Alberta's boreal forest marked by open pit mines, polluting smokestacks and growing tailings lakes. It's what oilsands mining looks like. With this big mess comes a big price tag and it looks like Alberta taxpayers might be left on the hook for the lion's share ($10 to $15 billion) of the cleanup bill, according to a report recently released by the Pembina Institute.

We're told not to lose sleep over oilsands reclamation though. After all, oilsands mine operators are required to clean up the land they disturb. Just in case operators don't follow through with that reclamation, the Government of Alberta collects what amounts to a security deposit to cover reclamation costs.

The problem is, it doesn't look as though the Government of Alberta has been collecting enough money to cover the cleanup - not anywhere near enough money.

Ongoing criticism of oilsands development in Alberta is wreaking reputational havoc on our province, culminating in an unfortunate hit to tourism operators with the recent Rethink Alberta campaign. We think a different response could level the criticisms.

We're not alone. U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson challenged industry to "do more to demonstrate how they're meeting the challenges of providing energy security while meeting their obligations of environmental stewardship."

That's not what's happening though. Instead, we're witnessing a self-defeating cycle of ramped up public relations from the Government of Alberta that never truly addresses the substance of the criticisms directed at the province's regulation of the oilsands industry.

It's been more than two months now that oil from BP's blown out Deepwater Horizon rig has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. A man-made disaster of epic proportions, some people are now claiming that it makes Alberta's landlocked oilsands look safe in comparison. In fact, that statement couldn't be further from the truth.

Clare Demerse explains how the G8 and G20 summits could contribute to progress on climate change.

Ever since Barack Obama's election, Stephen Harper has set a single goal for Canada's climate policy: "harmonizing" our efforts to cut greenhouse gas pollution with the United States' plans. Like marriage, harmonizing sounds good in theory -- but it doesn't work unless you find the right partner.

If carbon taxes really did kill private sector jobs, you wouldn't expect to find this statement on the website of B.C.'s largest emitter, Spectra Energy: "We believe that a workable federal climate change program should . . . provide certainty about costs of compliance, preferably through a simple, efficient, revenue-neutral carbon tax."

As oil gushes into the Gulf of Mexico, the consequences of a spill from the proposed Enbridge oilsands pipeline and related tanker traffic are all the more real.

Alberta isn't alone in its lack of a plan for resource development. The Northwest Territories is currently at its very own crossroads in deciding the pace and scale of development it will allow on its largely untouched landscape.

Clare Demerse wonders how Canada will become a climate champion with a poor track record and no training program.

There are no toxic tailings lakes, dead ducks, heavy-hauler trucks or strip mines visible from space: there's none of that associated with in situ oilsands development. So, as industry tells us, in situ oilsands development is nothing to worry about, right? Not quite, according to a new report evaluating in situ oilsands' real impacts.

If you show up at the landfill with a truck full of garbage, you have to pay to dump it. But if you pump pollution into the atmosphere, most Canadian jurisdictions provide a free dumping ground.

Marlo Raynolds argues that the real challenge for Canada's Prime Minister is whether he is able to create a made-in-Canada climate plan — or leave it to American lawmakers to decide our climate and, therefore, economic policy.

Three consecutive environment ministers under Prime Minister Stephen Harper have failed to implement a single major policy to cut our growing emissions.

Wild salmon are in trouble in British Columbia, and they face yet another threat in the form of a pipeline proposed by Enbridge to bring oilsands products through their habitat to the coast.

Climate change is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced and yet to most Canadians the current and potential impacts feel far away. What many Canadians don't realize is that climate change is having a large impact in Canada right now. I am a Dene youth from the small town of Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories. I am attending the UN Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen to communicate the concerns that my family, my people, and my culture are confronted with every single day.

When will governments get their act together on climate change? A huge body of scholarly research now exists on the science and economics of global warming. It shows that failure to limit our emissions would bring gigantic financial, human and environmental costs. It also shows that we still have time to reduce emissions enough to prevent the worst impacts, while continuing to grow our economies.

Seven out of nine tailings management plans filed with the provincial Energy Resources Conservation Board do not appear to comply with ERCB rules. It is baffling that key players in our largest industry seem to think the rules developed to protect Albertans and the environment do not apply to them.