The Guardian

It is a classic case of slowing down with the Joneses. Across Britain, planes, trains, ferries and buses have cut their speed to conserve fuel. Motorists are doing the same, or leaving their cars at home altogether. And petrol is just the start: falling sales on the high street show that overall consumption is slowing, too. This national downshift is usually reported as bad news, but perhaps there is a silver lining. The economic slump and soaring oil prices might just be a long-overdue wakeup call. Maybe this is our chance to relearn the lost art of slowing down.

The Globe and Mail

The equivalent of 412 billion barrels of crude lies tantalizingly beneath the pack ice and frigid waters of the Arctic, making it the largest source of untapped oil on the planet, according to a new report by the U.S. Geological Service.

Toronto Star

As first announced in the spring budget, the Ontario government is extending the provincial sales tax exemption on energy-efficient appliances and most bicycles.

International Herald Tribune

The World Bank and its partners need to do a far better job of considering the environmental effects of projects they finance in poor countries, its internal review group concludes in a new report.

Toronto Star

A pact designed to preserve the Great Lakes is in reality a “slippery slope” that threatens severe harm to the world’s largest body of fresh water, a top U.S. environmental lawyer has warned Canadians.

Reuters

Beijing will plant more than 40 million potted flowers around Olympic venues and city streets, including special “heat-resistant” strains capable of withstanding the Chinese capital’s baking summer temperatures.

The Globe and Mail

Canadians are finally scaling back on their gasoline consumption in response to soaring prices, retail sales figures released Tuesday suggest.

The Guardian

Scientist Anne Hershey paddled a small inflatable raft across an arctic lake, pausing in her stroke to consider how the melting permafrost caused a landslide of mud and sediment spilling down the bank into the water.

Since the bank collapsed two years ago, the water has grown cloudy with sediment, providing scientists a natural laboratory for studying how warmer temperatures may play out in ecosystems far and near.

The Guardian

The roads were unusually clear but skies remained stubbornly smoggy in Beijing today at the start of an attempt to curb smog before the Olympics begin in three weeks.

The final stage of the programme, which began yesterday, saw half the city’s 3.3m cars banned from the roads each day, depending on whether their number plates end in an odd or even digit.