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Computer Modelling Shows Climate Change Will Affect Wheat Yields

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Manitoba Co-Operator A combination of multiple computer models of weather’s impact on wheat warns of a six per cent dent in world wheat production for every degree Celsius in temperature increase. Story here. Wheatfield.  Larry Powell - PinP photo.

Honeybee Health and Colony Collapse Disorder. A Manitoba Beekeeper Tells it Like it Is.

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by Larry Powell Tim Wendell, above, his wife Isabel and a seasonal staff of about 30 tend to over 3,000 hives in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, south of the Town of Roblin. A PinP photo. A veteran Canadian beekeeper whose operations produce almost half-a-million kilograms of honey per year, Tim Wendell, has learned the hard way, just how big a threat "neonicotinoids" pose to operations like his. "Neonics" are now the most widely used group of insecticides in the world. They are either sprayed on crops such as corn, soybeans and canola, or used to treat their seeds.  On a recent speaking engagement, he told audiences in Neepawa, MB, he lost one "bee yard" himself in 2012. It was next to a field which had been planted 4 or 5 years straight to corn treated with "neonics."  He estimates, of the 40 thousand bees in that colony, perhaps only 5 thousand were left. And they were "very disorganized - no longer a community."  He says governm

Hottest Year on Global Record Was Canada's Coolest in 18 Years

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CBC News Despite that, the country was 0.1 C warmer than 'average.' Story here.

Three Major Oil Companies Give Up On Arctic Exploration

True Activist As the price of oil continues to drop, oil companies are having less of an incentive to spend their resources extracting oil from new and difficult places. Story here. 

Environmental Degradation Puts Life on Earth at Risk, say Scientists

the guardian Humans are ‘eating away at our own life support systems’ at a rate unseen in the past 10,000 years, two new research papers say. Story here.

It’s Time to Ban Bee-Killing Pesticides. Please Sign Message Encouraging Ontario, Canada to Press on With Efforts to Restrict Them!

David Suzuki Foundation On November 25, the  Ontario government   became the first government in North America  to announce a plan for regulations to restrict  the use of seeds treated with neonicotinoid pesticides.  Story here.