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Showing posts from March, 2011

High Food Prices Prevented Nearly 20 Million People Emerge From Poverty in Asia and the Pacific

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31 March 2011 Bangkok (UN ESCAP Information Services)     High food prices prevented 19.4 million people in the Asia-Pacific  region from climbing out of poverty last year and persisting food and oil inflation can keep up to an extra 42 million people poor in the region. Details here.

Garden As If Your Life Depended On It, Because It Does

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Alternet - Ellen LaConte Mar 30'11 There are at least five reasons why more of us should take up the spade, make some compost, and start gardening with a vengeance. Details here. Canadian organic garden

Farmers and Seed Distributors Sue Monsanto

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CBAN - Parkside, SK- March 30, 2011  Over 60 family farmers,  seed businesses and organic agricultural  organizations in Canada and the US, have  filed a lawsuit against Monsanto Company  over genetically modified (GM) seed. Details here. A field of alfalfa in Idaho

BP Spill's Impact Could be Much Worse Than Expected

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Margaret Munro,  Ottawa Citizen Mar 30 VANCOUVER — The death toll from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill goes far beyond the animal corpses washing ashore, says a report that warns that whale and dolphin deaths may be 50 times higher than believed. Read more:  This explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform sparked the nightmare. PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Some time back, I posted this article with some trepidation. Was it over the top? You decide! l.p.

Russian Boreal Forest Being Driven North, Diminishing

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Joshua S Hill - PlanetSave Mar 29-11 Russia’s boreal forest, the largest continuous expanse in the world, is undergoing a large-scale shift in vegetation types as a direct result of the warming climate. Details here.

Time for Plan B: Our Civilization Is on the Edge of a Systemic Breakdown

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AlterNet/by Scott Thill - Mar 29'11 Lester Brown (l.) talks about whether our civilization can survive the mounting global stresses of rising pollution, starvation,  food prices, water shortages and failed states. Details here.

Canada's Main Climate Skeptic Continues to Mislead

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Dear Editor, I am disappointed that a largely discredited individual like Tim Ball (r.) was afforded close to a full page in the March 15th Roblin Review ("People need to understand plants need C02"),  in which to air his negative views about climate change. The book, "Climate Cover Up - the crusade to deny global warming," describes Ball this way. "There are few 'skeptical scientists' with as little experience and as much ambition as the Canadian geography professor, Dr. Timothy Ball. Never a climate scientist, per se, Dr. Ball quit his position at the University of Winnipeg in 1995, ending an academic career that featured a lifetime output of just four peer-reviewed journal articles, none of which addressed atmospheric science." Dr. Ball is actually being sued by a Canadian climate scientist, Andrew Weaver, for libel. Dr. Weaver is a leading author with the Nobel-prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A

"Planet in Peril" Challenges Conservative Think-Tank on Food Regulation

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by Larry Powell I'd like to correct several statements in a recent article by Cam Dahl of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy that are either misleading, inaccurate, or both. In it, he insisted that Canada's current system of food regulation is "efficient, science-based and safe." Sadly, history tells us something quite different. Almost five years ago, a bright, dedicated young graduate student at the University of Manitoba, Jennifer Magoon, (above)  found statistically significant links between the amount of farm pesticides used in certain regions of this province and the incidence of several health problems in infants. These included severe birth disorders including spina bifida, Down syndrome, cleft palate, lower birth weights, respiratory distress and jaundice. There were eye disorders, too, including retinal degeneration and cataracts. Magoon's findings were based on health records of tens of thousands of people living in rural Manitoba. Her res

Oil Spill In Atlantic Ocean Puts Endangered Penguins And Islanders At High Risk

Shellee Tyler Mar 24'11 - Planetsave Thousands of endangered penguins have been coated with oil after a cargo ship ran aground and broke up on a remote British South Atlantic territory, officials and conservationists said Tuesday. Details here.

Climate "Crock of the Week - Plants Need the Extra Carbon" (Video)

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World Food Prices on the Rise — Expect That to Stay the Same

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Planet Save - Mar 24 '11 Worldwide, high crude oil prices, increasing extreme weather events, population growth and economic development of poorer countries, crop-based biofuels, political conflict and unrest in the Middle East, and slowing crop yield growth are all factors contributing to rising food prices. Details here.

Public Distrusts Climate Science due to Lack of Understanding

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Joshua S Hill - PlanetSave Mar '11 Despite a large majority of scientists with intimate knowledge of the planet’s climate agreeing that climate change is real and human-induced, the public still persists in distrusting the majority at the hands of a few wayward sceptics. Details here.

Healthy Food At School – The Laotian Way

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23 Mar'11 - United Nations VIENTIANE – For the first time in Lao PDR, close to 1,000 primary school children will receive a healthy and balanced school lunch prepared from foods bought at their local market. Details here. A Canadian farmers'  market. l.p. photo

Canada's Second Human "Mad Cow" Case Likely Not Caught In This Country

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Mar 24'11 Manitoba Co-Operator The person believed to be Canada's second-ever case of the type of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease transmitted by BSE-infected beef is seen as unlikely to have picked it up in this country. Details here.

Late Start Seen for Seeding on Prairies

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Mar 22'11 By: Dwayne Klassen - Commodity News Service Canada  Producers in Western Canada who hope to get an early start to seeding will be disappointed, given that the weather is not expected to be very co-operative over the next couple of months . Details here. A soggy, unharvested canola field in  western Manitoba. Fall 2010. l.p. photo

The UN Secretary-General's Message on World Water Day

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United Nations - New York, 22 March 2011  The reservoir behind the Shellmouth Dam, western Manitoba, CA As the world charts a more sustainable future, the crucial interplay among water, food and energy is one of the most formidable challenges we face. Details here.

Saskatchewan Launches Spring Flooding Website

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Mar 21'11 - By: Staff - MB Co-Operator   The Saskatchewan government has launched a website tying together flood and weather forecasts, runoff data and other information to get the public prepared for this spring. Details here.  The bridge over Lake of the Prairies,  on the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border.  l.p. photo

Greenpeace Shuts Down Darlington Nuclear Hearing

Feature story - March 21, 2011 Courtice, Ontario — Greenpeace activists today shut down environmental assessment hearings on a proposal to build new reactors at Darlington in response to the Joint Review Panel’s refusal to suspend the hearings until lessons are learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. (NOTE; Photos at very bottom are best.)

Canada Kills Genetically Modified Alfalfa - at Least for Now

By Barry Wilson, TheWesternProducer - Mar 14, 2011 As MPs began debating a proposal for a moratorium on genetically modified alfalfa, agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said there is no prospect GM alfalfa will be approved. Full story here.

New Lawsuit Filed Against the USDA for GM Alfalfa Deregulation

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March 18th, 2011 - By Heather Whitehead - CivilEats Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by Sam Beebe The Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, arguing that the agency’s recent unrestricted approval of genetically engineered, “Roundup Ready” Alfalfa was unlawful. Full story here.

"Neglible"Leak of Radioactive Water at Canadian Nuclear Plant

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CBC - Mar 16-11 - Ontario Power Generation has notified Canada's federal nuclear regulator about the release of 73,000 litres of demineralized water into Lake Ontario at the Pickering A nuclear generating station. Full story here.

Feedlot Meat Has Spurred a Soy Boom That Has a Devastating Environmental and Human Cost

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AlterNet by Jill Richardson - Mar'11 South America is being taken over by a handful of companies in the soy business that are destroying ecologically sensitive areas and pushing people from their ancestral land.   Full story here.    

Water Matters: Why We Need to Act Now to Save Our Most Critical Resource

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Read more here.

David Suzuki - The Story of the Future Has Yet to be Told

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REVIEWED BY NICOLA ROSS - From Thursday's Globe and Mail With about 25 pages left to read in David Suzuki’s The Legacy, I begin to panic. Read more here.

The Canadian Government Has One Last Chance to do the Right Thing - Clamp a Moratorium on GM Alfalfa! (Video)

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UNESCO Director-General Welcomes Suspension of Oil Prospecting at Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

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The UN official considers this an important step toward protecting endangered species, like the mountain gorilla. Full story here.   Courtesy of cryptomundo.com

Born of the Stump - a Cautionary Tale About the Basis of Life - Water!

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  PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I've known John Fefchak (r.) for quite a while. I might be presumptuous to call him my "friend," (since we know each other mostly through emails and the occasional telephone call). But we do have a good deal in common. We both know what it's like to try to draw certain important issues (often the same) to public attention - issues which never seem to garner the kind of attention they so richly deserve. Such is the case with our precious water resources. John is passionate about keeping our water supply clean and is clearly dismayed when his many letters-to-the-editor seem to go unheeded. I share his frustration. If his unique and timely article below (Tuesday is World Water Day) catches the eye of even a few more readers by posting it in this space, we will, together, have perhaps achieved something worth while. (Click story once to isolate - once more to enlarge.) Larry Powell Lake Winnipeg - Greenpeace photo 

Forests are Key to High Quality Water Supply

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17-03-2011 Food & Agriculture Organization - UN Waterhen River, Manitoba, CA. l.p. photo Better forest management needed to maximize water-related benefits from forests . Full story here.

Wholesale Prices Rise 1.6% Due to Biggest Jump in Food Costs in More Than 36 Years

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By: The Associated Press - 16/03/2011 WASHINGTON - Higher energy costs and the steepest rise in food prices in nearly four decades drove U.S. wholesale prices up last month by the most in nearly two years. Full story here. PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Weird weather & climate change are surely culprits here! l.p.

Mark Your Calendar - World Water Day is This Tuesday!

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Council chapters making waves on World Water Day On March 22 – World Water Day –  Council of Canadians chapters will be  taking action to protect and promote  clean, safe, public water in communities  across Canada. March 22 was designated World Water  Day in 1992 at the United Nations  Conference on Environment and Development  in Rio de Janeiro to raise awareness about the  importance of preserving global water resources.  Since then, communities, organizations and  activists around the world have come together  every year on the day to highlight water struggles  and the need for clean, accessible, public water for  everyone. Council chapters are actively involved in World Water  Day activities organizing at the local level to fight for  water justice. Chapters are fighting against lakes being  turned into dumpsites for mining waste and industrial  abuses of water

Wikileaks: Marine Protection Zones are Being Tailored to Help Corporate Interests, Screw Native Peoples

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Throughout the world, opposition is building to fake marine “protected” areas designed to fulfill the agenda of corporate globalization and the privatization of public trust resources. Full story here. Photo by PlanetSave