Video - NASA Releases New Global Warming Animation 1950 - 2013

This new visualization from a January 21, 2014 report by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) shows how global temperatures have risen from 1950 through the end of 2013. NASA scientists say 2013 tied for the seventh warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the 10 warmest years in the 133-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record.

Canada's Ruling Conservatives at War with Science

Due to a number of actions from the ruling Conservative government, science funding in Canada is in a woeful state. This includes efforts to monitor and research issues related to the environment. Total public funding for science and technology has dropped by 12 per cent in the past four years, according to a recent Statistics Canada report. Of even more concern is where federal money is being allocated. Almost all of the $454-million in new research and development funding announced by the federal government for 2013, went public-private partnerships, largely for commercialization.

The federal government's funding largely eschews basic research which is so vital not only to developing profitable new innovations but for the wider aim of our collective betterment. Scientific research is also indispensable to informed government policy.