As July has begun with a sauna of a heatwave in Montreal, the thought of attending a show at Metropolis is the slightest bit daunting, especially when the Humidex is approaching 40 in the celsius column.

Some good news from the MSM - well, in reality the evidence was in a long time ago but you take good news where you get it - the New York Times acknowledges "climategate" was not a scandal after all.

In another bit of good environmental news, water and life are returning to Iraq's 'Garden of Eden.' Saddam Hussein's draining of the Mesopotamian marshes of Iraq – recorded as the Garden of Eden in the Bible - was one of the most infamous outrages of his regime, leaving a vast area of once-teeming river delta a dry, salt-encrusted desert, emptied of insects, birds and the people who lived on them.

In case you missed it, Naomi Klein's op-ed in the Globe and Mail about the G20 and how we all got stuck with the bill - not the $1 billion for security, that's a given - for the crisis that the bankers created and are wholly to blame for.

Amy Goodman over at Rabble.ca reporting on how the media and scientists are being shut out from examining and covering the ongoing catastrophe in the Gulf and how the lack of transparency may lead to more disasters.

Here's some of the things you could have missed if you were busy and had a life and a summer to get to: In the US the Republicans doing everything they can to screw the economy and the unemployed strangely hoping there will be no accountability for their actions and that it will in fact win them seats in November - maybe they hope they can just bury the Dems under an avalanche of corporate money.

Hi, I'm back after a day off. Wanted to make sure all the links from Friday's show got posted. Hope your weekend is awesome!

The heat wave in the east has abated somewhat although the long-range forecast for this week includes lots more heat so no putting away those fans yet. A study by Stanford University climate scientists says that exceptionally long heat waves could become the norm in the near future. As the mercury rises outdoors, it's a fitting time to consider the effects of summertime droughts and global warming on ecosystems.