PLANET IN PERIL

Wheat.  It is the most important cereal grain in the world and, along with fur trapping and the railroad, it made Canada. We are one of the largest wheat exporters on the planet, about 19 thousand tons a year, more than any other crop. There are some 75,000 farmers across the Prairies who make their livelihood from it. And to sell their wheat, they have depended for generations on the Canadian Wheat Board.   The Wheat Board, as we know it today, was established in 1935 to control prices, so as to benefit farmers in the Great Depression. Now, however, the Wheat Board could be gone by Christmas. The Conservative government has been promising to get rid of it for years, and with its majority in parliament, is making good on that promise. It's hard to say what it will mean to farmers and the rest of us. If anybody has an idea, it is John Herd Thompson, who has documented the history of the Wheat Board. Winnipeg born-and-bred, he earned his PhD at Queen's University a

By Janet Raloff - Science News Nov 13'11 Changes to clouds encourage drought in dry areas and torrential downpours in moist ones. Details here.

What to do with the Occupy camps. How about - let them be!  by Larry Powell A peaceful camp It's hardly surprising.  The mood of Canada's elites is becoming increasingly ugly as the "Occupy" movement continues to "hang in there" for a lot longer than they likely expected.  It is, after all, what elites do. They simply cannot tolerate those who challenge the very system that keeps them in power. Cops are already being ordered to start knocking some heads in some Canadian cities, as well as south of the border. Neither is it surprising that some news media are misrepresenting what the movement is all about.  A recent editorial in the Dauphin Herald, for example, dismissed the protesters as "whiners," whose support is dwindling. (In fact, the movement has persisted and spread to many parts of the world.) The editorial also proclaimed, "It was the squandering of tax dollars (by governments) which originally created the m