Canadian climate novel silenced?

It's the not-to-distant future when climate change has heated up the planet, and Canada and the U.S. are at war over water -- that is the premise of a fictional novel whose author was asked last week to not speak about it by his employer, Environment Canada, sparking speculation the government is trying to freeze discussions about climate change.Mark Tushingham, a scientist for Environment Canada, was set to talk at Ottawa's National Press Club on April 13th about his novel Hotter Than Hell, when the government requested the talk's cancellation. Tushingham obliged, but a flurry of media articles cried foul.Ryan Sparrow, a spokesperson for Environment Canada, said it was just a breach of protocol. "We [Environment Canada] only found out about the talk from a news wire release a few days before, where Mark was billed as a government scientist," Sparrow told The Scientist. "This...