Recent sightings of grizzly bears, - extinct from Manitoba for decades - have raised fears that the iconic Canadian mammal may be making a comeback.

They've also prompted the provincial government to add the bears to the list of dangerous animals under the wildlife act.

Wildlife biologists say the bears have been spotted in the northern part of the province which now needs more protection against these hunters, to prevent the animals from settling back in Manitoba.

"When there are so few of them, anything happening to them would be catastrophic," said Will Williamson, wildlife biologist with National Parks Canada. "Now is the time to act before it's too late."

"If you only have two or three bears in the province, and one or two of them are poached, then that's the end of it. We can only hope."

While the province says increased sightings of the bear are a 'bad news story,' others say they are a harbinger of climate change and a warning that governments across the country must learn how to deal with dangerous new species so that they may be destroyed.

Grizzly bears used to roam across the prairies. The first European settlers came across the bears, but managed to kill them all by the 1800s, Williamson said.

The new bears appear to be coming from Nunavut to look for food but unless something is done they could end up staying, he suggested.

Gailann Ennis, director of Manitoba Wetlands said governments across the world will have to adapt as climate change drives species from their traditional habitat.

"We're going to have species shifting their range because of climate change and potentially bringing new risks. They're trying to get away from one risk and putting humans at risk in areas where they haven't been."

Grizzly Abrams, grizzly bear campaigner with the Ciera Club of Canada said the bears are particularly threatened in Alberta, where population studies suggest there are fewer of the animals than previously thought.

The Alberta government has sanctioned wholesale killing of the bears, but Sustainable Resources Minister there recently mused about raising the limit for hunters.

"By protecting habitat from grizzlies, you essentially protect a host of other plants and animals that fall under that umbrealla of protection," Abrams said.

Urban sprawl is a euphemism commonly used to describe the paving of the earth.

It is characterized by a situation whereby a muncipality's jurisdiction perpetually expands outward from the civic core, in a seemingly unbound fashion.

In the Greater Toronto Area, the direction of urban sprawl is largely dictated by a local geography that forces growth north from Lake Ontario towards Lake Huron, and east and west towards Peterborough and Hamilton respectively.

Because urban sprawl is associated with increased automobile use, it is seen as one of the main causes of air pollution and fossil fuel dependency. Consequently, there is a growing public debate and awareness of the problem.

By 2004, Toronto Public Health was already producing estimates to show that poor air quality was affecting the health of thousands of people in the GTA, some to the point of premature death.

But urban sprawl does not only affect human health.

To the north of Toronto lies a sprawling watershed known as the Oak Ridges Moraine. This health and preservation of the ecosystem surrounding the Oak Ridges Moraine has become one of the most contentious environmental issues in southern Ontario civic life at the dawn of the 21st century.

Urban development on the watershed has pitted a diverse group of stakeholders against each other, as Non Governmental Organizations, governmental and citizen's groups battle for control of the agenda with respect to the moraine.

In recognition of the public concern over the Oak Ridges Moraine, the Government of Ontario has acted to limit development in the area, and there is a lively public debate about the best way to manage the health of this sprawling ecosystem.

Because urban sprawl and commuter transportation are tightly linked, new funds have been allocated to public transit as a way to mitigate automobile use in the Greater Toronto Area, and the Official Plan has been drafted to mandate that new development will be linked to the expanded transit system.

Although the nearby Oak Ridges Moraine dominates the environmentalist debate in the GTA, there are other areas of concern.

Because urban areas consume enormous quantities of electricity, sustainable power generation policies are also prominent in the public consciousness. The GTA derives it's electricity needs from coal, gas and nuclear power generation. 

Through a mix of conservation initiatives and propaganda, residents of the GTA are encouraged by local government to take an active role in reducing electrical consumption. But until sustainable energy production is deployed on a wide scale, unfortunately this issue remains mired in interim solution seeking, and maintenance of the status quo.