It was a hollow victory for environmental groups and the poster child of global warming, the polar bear. In May, the US Government finally listed the polar bear as threatened, but stated clearly that the bears would be given no additional protection beyond what is already provided by the Marine Mammal Act.

Now the Bush administration has also granted permission to oil and gas companies to harass “small numbers” of polar bears and walruses in the Chukchi Sea, stating that the major threat to the bear is climate change, not oil and gas exploration. Employees will be trained in how to handle bear encounters, but the companies will not be held liable if the bears are unintentionally harmed.

Environmental groups are suing the government because it has failed to protect the bears by addressing climate change. Coming at them from the other side, the state of Alaska is also suing the government to revoke the bear’s “threatened” designation, concerned that it will endanger oil and gas development.

Polar bears wishing to emigrate aren’t having any better luck in other countries. A wandering polar bear was recently shot and killed in Iceland, the first seen on the island in twenty years.

Take steps to protect the polar bear at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Finally, the US can point some fingers elsewhere. China has recently become the world’s dominant source of carbon dioxide emissions, contributing 14% more to the atmosphere than the United States, according to a Dutch study.

China is heavily dependent on coal, and, as a developing nation, has resisted pressure to reduce emissions that would reduce its economic growth. China also points out that its footprint is 5.1 tons per person, unlike the average American, who outputs a whopping 19.4 tons of carbon dioxide.

What’s your carbon footprint?

ARCTIC’s tour homecoming show will be on Friday, June 27 at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir Street, at Seymour). Also on the bill that night: Marinedrive, 1980 Sicks, Pedwell, and Cameron Dobb.

Details at IMU Productions’ website.

After a month on the road, we’d love to see you there!

If you’re just joining us now that we’ve returned home, and would like to catch up on our month-long Canadian tour, here’s a quick ‘n’ easy table of contents. Enjoy!

1. Vancouver tour launch
2. Kelowna
3. Regina
4. Winnipeg and Thunder Bay
5. Sault Ste Marie
6. A few days off
7. Guelph
8. Toronto
9. Montreal and Waterloo
10. Hamilton
11. Peterborough
12. Ottawa and Oshawa
13. Windsor
14. Northern Ontario wanderings
15. Thunder Bay return
16. Calgary
17. On supporting local businesses
18. Kelowna and home

Drizzly drive through the mountains from Calgary to Kelowna. We saw some coyotes along the way, and stopped in Golden for a bit of lunch, where we got to scrawl in crayon on butcher-block paper on the table. Yay! We followed this up with a lengthy conversation on the nature of sustainability and world economies, and the mascots of chain restaurants (eg. Grimace and Hamburglar).

We took up more than our share of the Grateful Fed, as it’s a pretty narrow room and we take up a lot of space for three people. The Fed has a nice patio and big garage-door windows that give the place a big open feel, though. The food is quite good and the staff are a lot of fun.

We almost thought we’d lost our opening act, Jeremy Head, as he still hadn’t appeared at door time. It looked like he was going to continue our trend of lost openers, but just in the nick of time he made it and played a fine set during which he broke a guitar string, borrowed the only other right-handed guitar in the place which happened to be a 12-string, and valiantly kept going. Nice work, as was the closing set by the owner of the 12-string who I know only as Steve. Steve was going to fill in at the last minute and had just gone off to get his guitar when Jeremy arrived, so we had him close out the night and he did a great job on short notice.

Our set went really well and we pretty much gave it everything we had left. Some of our loyal Vancouver crew had come out to Kelowna to see us, making an adventure of it and checking out the Okanagan wineries along the way. After a month away, it was wonderful to see them there. Once we were all done and packed up we all went out for an impromptu end-of-tour party ’til the town closed down.

So that’s it. Marcus and I are back in Vancouver now, Todd is in Kelowna with his family. We’re readjusting to life not on the road for a bit, and I’m doing my best to avoid what I call Post-Ecstatic Stress Syndrome - the inevitable crash that follows a really huge event where you’ve had a really great time. It’ll help that we’re playing again in a few weeks: our homecoming show is on Friday, June 27 at the Railway Club in Vancouver. You can read all the details over on IMU’s site.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped us out during our trip - all the venues, promoters and soundpeople, everyone who gave us a place to stay, everyone who hung out and chatted with us, the other bands we shared stages with, and very importantly, everyone who listened to us play.

We’re in the process of booking another tour starting in late September. If you’re not on our mailing list, please do sign up if you’d like us to send you announcements about upcoming shows and recordings and anything else we think you might enjoy.

Thanks for coming with us!