The Latest on Larry Powell's Groundbreaking Book - "The Merchants of Menace."

 

Is the Hog Industry a Sacred Cow?

By Larry Powell

About eight years ago (May, 2018), I reported on my blog, how

a rare, deadly and incurable virus called Nipah had first been identified nineteen years before in Malaysia (1999). It killed or hospitalized hundred of people. While fruit bats had probably been the initial carriers, the victims had all worked closely with pigs, which acted as intermediate hosts. To prevent the spread of the disease, more than a million hogs were euthanized, inflicting tremendous economic losses on the Malaysian economy. 

By 2018, Nipah had re-emerged in India, sickening or claiming the lives of dozens more. 

Today, the CBC is reporting two more cases of Nipah in India. This has prompted authorities in Thailand and Malaysia to step up airport screening to prevent its spread.

Nipah remains on the World Health Organization’s priority list of emerging diseases that could cause a global pandemic. It can be transmitted to humans from bats, pigs, contaminated food or other humans.

Despite all these warning signs, and despite high losses of hogs due to other diseases (like Manitoba's disastrous encounter with Porcine Epidemic Diahrrea virus (PEDv), Canada still doubles down on the factory-farm method of pork production.  

 

This places thousands of animals in close proximity, (see image, above) elevating the risk of disease-spread. And feeding dead pigs back to live animals, as atrocious as that sounds, and banned in other countries, is still permitted by our federal “watchdog,” the Canada Food Inspection Agency. Does this sound like a responsible way to protect our vulnerable herds from Nipah or Nipah-like infections?

Read more about this in my book, The Merchants of Menace - Chapter 22 - Livestock Diseases - The Ugliness, The Suffering, the Peril, the Waste.

THE COMMUNITY LIBRARY IN SHOAL LAKE, MANITOBA, CANADA BECOMES THE SOLE CUSTODIAN OF THE ONLY PRINT COPY OF LARRY POWELL'S E-BOOK, "THE MERCHANTS OF MENACE." (VIDEO)

BLOGGER REMOVES CLIMATE POST UNTIL FURTHER VERFICATION

 Friends; I've now taken down a video I posted recently. In it, I quoted some information directly (cut & pasted with some very minor rearranging of wordage) from the CBC's own "Climate Dashboard," against the backdrop of a rotating sun. The "Dashboard" allows you to take a peak at individual temperature/heat predictions in your own community in the future. For my home town of Shoal Lk., they were truly astounding in their extremes. I posted them because I trusted the source. And I'm still not prepared to say it was inaccurate. But the numbers are so alarming I've taken them down until I get a chance to verify further. Thanks!

So you think Canada's current cold snap means "global warming" is over? Well...think again!

CBC News.

Extreme cold and climate change: What's the deal?

Why are we breaking Canadian records amid record global heat?

Click here.

Severe drought leads to urgent order for Manitoba Hydro to raise rates by 4% on Jan. 1

CBC News

Crown corporation requested 3 consecutive rate hikes of 3.5%. Story here.

SHOULD WE WORRY ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE? NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS - WE PROBABLY SHOULD!

by Larry Powell

Chat GPT generated this image, representing AI. No humans are present.
Author: Alenoach.

Findings by a team of Dutch scientists, just published in *Science Direct show, AI systems globally may well have produced more than 72m tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2025 alone. That’s the equivalent of all of New York City’s carbon footprint for that year. 

They may have also consumed 765 billion litres of water in that same time span. That’s in the range of all of the bottled water consumed, worldwide.

And their power demand could approach that of a country the size of the United Kingdom.

AI data center operators do not publicly disclose the detail needed for more precise figures. So the findings are estimates only. 

"Further disclosures are urgently required," say the researchers, "to improve the accuracy of these estimates and to responsibly manage the growing environmental impact of AI systems.” They further suggest the AI sector be required to provide such vital information. 

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*ScienceDirect is a go-to resource for finding authoritative, peer-reviewed research in nearly every scientific field, leveraging digital technology for broad accessibility and efficient discovery.