On Thursday in Canada, the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee delivered petitions with over 10,000 signatorys to the Premier of British Columbia's office. The petitions ask that thegovernment cancel the Gateway Program's highway expansions components and invest more in transit instead.

The Gateway Program is a transportation infrastructure project that includes over 260 km of new highway lanes.

Over a dozen activists rallied outside the office in downtown Vancouver including two dressed aspolar bears. The premier's office initially declined to accept the invitations. After the activists attempted to enter the nearby convention centre where the premier was speaking, staff working with the Premier agreed to accept the petitions.

Approximately 100 scientists and students will take part in the Verification of Rotation in Tornadoes Expermiment VORTEX2 project in May to study tornadoes in the central United States along Tornado Alley.

One of the unique features of VORTEX2 is that it is mobile, with no fixed base. The large armada will operate from the Dakotas down to Texas, operating in a different area every day as the weather dictates. The project will run between May 10 to June 13, repeating again in 2010 from 1 May until 15 June. 40 research vehicles will use mobile radar, deployable arrays of instruments called Sticknets and Podnets to measure around and inside tornadoes, ten instrumented vehicles, 4 balloon launching vehicles, unmanned aircraft, and other instruments to surround tornadoes and the supercell thunderstorms that form them.