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Showing posts from April, 2008

AGROFUEL MADNESS - by Larry Powell

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WINNIPEG. Apr.29th - '08 - The awful consequences of the biofuel craze now sweeping the planet, were starkly brought to light at a public forum at the University of Winnipeg this evening. (Car/Combine rendering courtesy of  the Government of Manitoba।)   Called "Crops, Cars and Climate Crisis," the forum featured four notable experts on the topic. They all referred to the dramatic and disastrous food price increases that are devastating the world's poor and which are being aggravated by the diversion of so much food into vehicles. One of the guest speakers was Javiera Rulli, of "Base Investigaciones" in Paraguay. She told of an assault taking place on the environment, human health and human rights of citizens of that South American country। It is all due to the transformation of the small nation to monoculture crops for the production of "biofuels" or "agrofuels" to power vehicles, rather than to feed people, she sai

LOGGING AGGRAVATES CLIMATE CHANGE - GREENPEACE

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A new report released by Greenpeace on the 10th of April 2008 finds that logging in Canada’s Boreal Forest is making global warming worse by releasing greenhouse gases and reducing carbon storage. It also finds that logging makes the forest more susceptible to global warming impacts like wildfires and insect outbreaks, which in turn release more greenhouse gases. Executive summary Canada’s Boreal Forest is dense with life. Richly populated with plants, birds, animals, and trees; home to hundreds of communities; and a wellspring of fresh water and oxygen, the Boreal has long been recognized as a critically important ecosystem. But as rising temperatures threaten to destabilize the planet, the potential of the Boreal’s carbon-rich expanses to mitigate global warming continues to be underestimated. Based in part on a comprehensive review of scientific literature by researchers at the University of Toronto1, this report examines the complex relationship between global warming and Canada’s