Subsidies to Industries That Cause Deforestation Worth 100 Times More Than Aid to Prevent it

the guardian

Brazil and Indonesia paid over $40bn in subsidies to industries that drive rainforest destruction between 2009 and 2012 - compared to $346m in conservation aid they received to protect forests, according to new research. Story here.

Canada May Have to Pay Hundreds of Millions of Dollars After Losing a Case Under NAFTA.

by Larry Powell

Will it be even harder for us to protect our own environment now?

It all began about a decade ago when “Bilcon Inc.,” a US company controlled by the Clayton family of Delaware, applied to expand a basalt mine and marine port in Digby County, Nova Scotia. (Basalt is a common rock used in road construction, concrete and other products.)

But the site, which would cover over 150 hectares , happened to be in a key breeding area for vulnerable marine animals, including an endangered whale species. After the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans expressed concern that the rock-blasting associated with the operation might adversely affect the environment, a Joint Review Panel (JRP) was appointed to look into it. The company labelled this development as "rare, costly and time-consuming," but it went ahead anyway.

The Panel conducted lengthy public hearings, calling a host of witnesses. Many expressed concern for tourism, air and water quality, the fishery and generally the quality of life in the area if the project went ahead. In the end, the JRP recommended against it.

In 2008, Bilcon then sued Canada under terms of the now-familiar “Chapter 11” of the NAFTA agreement, seeking $300 million damages. The investors argued before an international NAFTA tribunal, set up to deal with such disputes that, given the encouragement Nova Scotia had been giving them to invest, and the very nature of the agreement itself, rejection of their plan was both discriminatory and unfair. 

In March, the tribunal ruled in favour of Bilcon. It means Canada will have to pay up. While the family is demanding $300 million, the tribunal will decide in a future ruling what that amount will be.

But one member of the tribunal, Prof. Donald McRae of Canada, disagreed with the majority ruling. In a written conclusion of his own, he issues a note of caution about the downsides of the whole process.

"Once again, a chill will be imposed on environmental review panels which will be concerned not to give too much weight to socio-economic considerations or other considerations of the human environment in case the result is a claim for damages under NAFTA Chapter 11. In this respect, the decision of the majority will be seen as a remarkable step backwards in environmental protection and a significant intrusion into domestic jurisdiction. If the majority view in this case is to be accepted, then the proper application of Canadian law by an environmental review panel will be in the hands of a NAFTA tribunal, importing a damages remedy that is not available under Canadian law." 

It is not immediately known when a final decision on the amount of damages, will be determined.

-30-

Please also read: Free Trade; Pathway to Prosperity or Back Road to Corporatism?

Antarctica Recorded Its Hottest Temperature On Record Last Week

CLIMATEPROGRESS

The coldest place on Earth just got warmer than has ever been recorded. Story here.

Keystone & Beyond. Tar Sands & the National Interest in the Era of Climate Change.

inside climate news

The Keystone has already divided the nation on the fundamental questions of how we should respond to climate change and what our energy future should look like. Story here.

It is Time to Stop Monsanto's Poisoning of the Public With Cancer Causing Roundup

Ross Eade - OpEdNews

PinP photo

For this (UN) Agency to label an agent "probably" carcinogenic, there has to be sufficient and convincing evidence of carcinogenicity. Story here.

Blogger Takes Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada to Task Over His Latest "War Games." (Letter)

Dear Editor,

Sad, isn’t it? 

Canada’s days as an honest broker are over. The Harper government has transformed my country from a kinder, gentler peacekeeping nation, into a wanna-be petro-state that takes sides, “smites” its enemies, sows seeds of hatred based on culture, religion or gender and intimidates those whose views differ from its own. 

After all, by Harper's definition, I’m a “radical” because I oppose the tar sands and donate to “subversive” organizations like the David Suzuki Foundation. Apparently so, too are First Nations people who are trying to fight Harper’s draconian legislation which directly threatens their land, water and air. 

Harper may be backing off parts of his "anti-terrorist" Bill C-51 which threaten so many of our civil liberties. But only after repeated warnings from many informed people, including former Prime Ministers and Chief Justices. And the fact those parts were there in the first place, is revealing. And what remains, I fear, still gives police too many more power with little oversight.

Harper wags his finger at other nations for failing to implement “democratic values,” while shamefully letting ugly, vote-suppressing “robocalls” in the last election, go largely unpunished on his watch at home.

With breathtaking contempt for international law, Harper is barging ahead in the Middle East, selling the lie that ISIL is a threat to Canada. Could it not be just the opposite? Is not the very expansion of his war games there more likely to make us a bigger target?  After all, did most of the ISIL fighters themselves not get their start during the American invasion of Iraq, that grotesque, unjust bit of deception that Harper was itching to get Canada into, had he only been PM at the time? 

Harper actually labelled jihadi terrorists (as evil as they clearly are), “the most dangerous enemy our world has ever seen.” How conveniently he ignores the Nazis and Fascists who embroiled our world in two great wars in the 20th century, claiming the lives of tens of millions of troops and innocent civilians. Anyone who is prepared to use such inflamed hyperbole to get his way, richly deserves to have his term in office ended at the next election! 

More recently, after two useless wars which accomplished nothing, one in Afghanistan (where more of our returning veterans took their own lives than were lost in combat) and the other in Libya, now such a “paragon" of western democratic virtue, here he is, agitating for more of the same. 

For what? And for how long? Forever?

So why is he doing this? Simple; To divert our attention away from his monumental failure to diversify the economy, away from his singular vision of making Canada "an energy superpower." Now that oil prices have tanked, it has revealed that vision to be one that not only has harmed the environment, but the economy, as well.

Instead of having "clean, green" jobs to turn to (thanks to Harper's neglect of the solar and wind sectors), many of those laid off in the oil patch are having to go half way round the world to find similar jobs, the only kind they know how to do, just to put food on the table.

This man does not fool me. Please don’t let him fool you.

Larry Powell,

Neepawa, MB

Related: Elizabeth May's Speech in the Commons on Canada's Military Contribution Against ISIL

-30-

Project Shows Link Between Healthy Soils and Healthy People

Manitoba Co-Operator - Laura Rance

A unique project is improving nutrition and incomes through better farming practices. Story here.

Cancer Risk From Malathion Low For Winnipeggers, Says Canadian Scientist

CBC News

John McLaughlin is 1 of 2 Canadian scientists involved in WHO study on malathion. Story here.

TransCanada’s Other Massive Pipeline Plan

CommonDreams

TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has been front and center in a heated continental energy and climate debate for over four years now – and President Obama is sounding more and more like he is poised to make the right decision and reject the pipeline that would carry high carbon, high risk, high cost bitumen through North America’s heartland. Story here.

Monsanto Seeks Retraction for Report Linking Herbicide to Cancer

Manitoba C0-Operator

Monsanto, maker of Roundup, wants an international health organization to retract a report linking the product’s chief ingredient to cancer. Story here. 

A crop-duster on the way to a spray-field.

PinP photo. (Likely payload? Roundup!)

Manitoba Wildlife Officers Seek Leads in Illegal Moose Hunting Cases

CBC News

PinP photo.

Officers released graphic photos of moose remains along highways in province's northwest. Story here.

Canadian, U.S. Agencies Approve Genetically Engineered B.C. Apples as Safe

Winnipeg Free Press

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada have approved non-browning Arctic Apples for commercial sale in Canada. Story here.

Everyone bow down to the gods of bio-tech! 
They have saved us from a fate worse than death - 
the browning apple! PinP photo.

Journalism as Subversion

by Chris Hedges - OpEd News 

The assault of global capitalism is not only an economic and political assault. It is a cultural and historical assault. Global capitalism seeks to erase our stories and our histories. Its systems of mass communication, which peddle a fake…Story here.

Bark Beetles Are Decimating Our Forests. That Might Actually Be a Good Thing.

MotherJones

They gobble up trees and send politicians into a frenzy. But do the bugs know more about climate change than we do? Story here.

Related: Only “Heroic Efforts” Will Spare Earth’s Mighty Boreal Forest From the Worst Ravages of Climate Change - Experts.  

Malathion Can Kill Insects And Glyphosate Can Kill Weeds But They Can Also Give You Cancer: WHO

TECH TIMES

A "crop-duster" sprays a crop near Neepawa, Manitoba. PinP photo.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), reveals that the malathion insecticide and glyphosate herbicide are potentially carcinogenic. Story here.

Related: "Field of Nightmares. Ottawa continues to embrace the widespread use of Roundup on Canadian farms by letting corporate seduction trump scientific evidence."

Is the "Dubious Duo" of Fracking & Earthquakes More Common in Canada Than we Know? PinP Wonders...

by Larry Powell

PinP has learned that, years before “fracking” was blamed for a significant earthquake in northern Alberta early this year, a whole series of somewhat smaller quakes was happening in the Horn River Basin of northeastern BC, where fracking reached a peak some four years ago. 

Researchers representing the Geological Survey of Canada and the BC Oil and Gas Commission reviewed seismographs from the area from 2002 to 2011. They conclude there is a “high likelihood of a physical relationship” between the quakes and the fracking. They detected only 24 local quakes in the Basin in ’02 and ’03, before fracking began. But, by 2011, when fracking peaked, that number had jumped to 131. And so had the magnitude - from 2.9 (on the Richter scale) before fracking, to 3.6 afterward.

Then this past January, Alberta’s energy regulator blamed fracking for an earthquake in the northern part of that province, near Fox Creek. According to the CBC, it was “of 4.4 magnitude, severe enough to cause minor damage.” It was described as the worst quake of its kind ever attributed to fracking.

Fracking is another term for “hydraulic fracturing.” It’s a technique used in the energy industry. Water and chemicals are injected under tremendous pressure into underground shale formations, forcing the natural gas in them to the surface. Groups such as Physicians for Social Responsibility, have expressed a host of concerns about the practice, including the toxic nature of the chemicals which are suspected of polluting underground wellwater. Fracking has spread to many areas of the world over the past decades, including Canada. 

The research relating to the BC events was published recently in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. But it is not believed to have been widely reported in the mainstream media as yet. 

Which begs the question, just how many other earthquakes linked to fracking may already be occurring in Canada, which we haven't even heard about yet?

Stay tuned!

City of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Review WHO Report on Malathion

CBC News

A World Health Organization agency says that the insecticide is 'probably carcinogenic' to humans. Story here.

Why Keep Fossil Fuel in the Ground. (Video - go full-screen)

Arctic Sea Ice Hits All-Time Winter Low

National Journal

New data show how climate change is rapidly-changing the polar region. Story here.

Vanuatu: UN Finds ‘Extensive’ Loss of Agriculture; Full Scale of Damage Still to be Revealed

UN News Centre

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called for emergency support for farmers in Vanuatu, where the vast majority of crops have been destroyed by Tropical Cyclone Pam. Story here.

Officials Blame Climate Change for 'Worse Than Worst Case Scenario' in Vanuatu

Common Dreams

'For leaders of low-lying island atolls, the hazards of global warming...is a catastrophe that impinges on our rights—and our survival,' says Pacific Island leader. Story here.

Antibiotics Are No Longer Making Pigs Bigger

Mother Jones

For decades, it's been thought that low, regular doses of antibiotics help livestock grow big—thus increasing meat producers' profits. So common is the practice of lacing farm animals' feed with the drugs that an astonishing four-fifths of all antibiotics in the United States now go to livestock. Story here.

A Breathtaking Ode to the Beauty and Importance of the Imperiled Songbird, and What it Will Mean if we Lose Them. (Video-go full-screen)

Produced by SongbirdSOS Productions Inc.  The full show will be aired on CBC TV's The Nature of Things on March 19 at 8pm.

Canadian Climate Skeptic in the News Again.

A well-known Canadian climate-denialist, Tim Ball (above), appears on a list of about 24 people asked to block the release of a new documentary film. The award-winning website, Inside Climate News, has exposed secret e-mails from another denialist, Fred Singer, an American. In them, Singer seeks advice from a group of pundits and scientists, including Ball, on how to keep the film “Merchants of Doubt,” from being shown to the public. The film shows how these individuals go about trying to convince government and the public that climate science is not real and that human activity is not the driving force behind climate change. Ball argues on his blog, for example, that water vapour, not carbon dioxide, is the most important greenhouse gas. It is not known whether Ball supplied the kind of advice to Singer that he asked for. Singer has ties to both the fossil fuel and tobacco industries. 

United Nations Responding to ‘Devastating' Impact of Tropical Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu, Pacific Region

UN News Centre

The United Nations announced today that it is taking all necessary steps to respond to the catastrophic impacts of a devastating tropical cyclone that affected most of Vanuatu over the past two days. Story here.

'Merchants of Doubt' Author on the Origins & Persistence of Climate Denialism

Inside 

climate 

news

Naomi Oreskes discusses the network of pundits and scientists who have delayed action on climate change, and how they did it. Story here.

Some Facts About Alberta's Tar Sands Tailings Ponds

The Canadian Press

Alberta tar sands. Photo credit - Beautiful Destruction.

EDMONTON - Here a few facts about Alberta's oilsands tailings ponds: Story here.

Dozens Feared Dead After Cyclone Pam Hits Vanuatu

BBC

The death toll from a category five tropical storm that has hit islands in the South Pacific could run into the dozens, the UN's relief agency says. Story here.

Only “Heroic Efforts” Will Spare Earth’s Mighty Boreal Forest From the Worst Ravages of Climate Change - Experts.

by Larry Powell 

Like a giant green scarf, the boreal forest embraces the globe. It's home to a cold but living, breathing community of plants, animals and humans. Marked by mountains, over a million lakes and other waterways, muskeg and human settlements, it sprawls over the vast expanse of the northern hemisphere. Every third tree on the planet (mostly evergreen) is found there, making it one of Earth's largest remaining ecosystems. One-half of this immense, wooded habitat is found in Russia. One third of it is here in Canada, where it occupies more than half of our entire land mass. The rest is shared by Alaska and Scandinavia.

Part of the "boreal plains" of western Canada. A PinP photo.

                        An Important Gathering - an Ominous Conclusion

Every two or three years, the International Boreal Forestry Research Association (IBFRA) meets to assess the overall health of the region.  Delegates include government and university specialists in various fields relating to forests such as fire, disease, insects and the changing climate. It’s an opportunity to pool valuable and diverse knowledge and recommend ways for policy-makers to proceed with overall forest management.

IBFRA’s most recent prognosis is sobering; the forest is “at risk.” It’s future - “highly uncertain.”

Wildfire  in the Northwest Territories - Canada, 2014. 

Photo credit - Aboriginal Peoples' Television Network.

Along with the Arctic, the boreal is already at the epicentre of climate change. Concentrations of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas, increased in the region by one-half since 1960, a magnitude that has startled many scientists. While the planet’s entire surface temperature has risen .8 degrees Celsius since the 1870s, already a significant amount, the boreal region has warmed almost 4 times as much; 3 degrees C in that same period. 

Up to 5 billions birds, like this Cape May warbler, nest in the boreal forest. In 2001, 85,000 migratory bird nests were lost to logging. (Source, Cdn. Geographic).

A dramatic example of individual warming happened in July, 2013. That’s when parts of the Siberian forest were 16 degrees C above normal for a week. 

But this pales in comparison to what might lie ahead. According to wide-ranging scenarios, the boreal could warm up another 4 to 9 degrees C above present levels before the end of the century. It all depends on the volume of greenhouse gases emitted by then. But this would not just be for a limited period like a week or so.  This would represent an average, long-term increase that could become a "new normal” our great-grandchildren will have to endure! 

A herd of bison, North America's largest land mammal 
in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba -
where the boreal meets aspen parkland and fescue prairie.

Summarising the IBFRA findings, Werner Kurz, Senior Researcher with the Canadian Forest Service says, simply to keep warming to the lower end of the range, human-produced greenhouse gases would need to peak in about a decade, then actually decline before 2100! In other words, more carbon would have to be removed from the atmosphere by then than we would be adding from all human sources.

“This would require heroic efforts and technological changes,” Dr. Kurz observes. “We’re not saying it’s impossible,” he adds, optimistically. “It would just require big efforts.”

Worsening wildfires could bring a transition of the forest to more broad leaf tree cover, 

even grassland. Photos by PinP.

Paying the Price “as we speak.”

Drought conditions resulting from a warming climate have already led to increases in the extent of wildfires. Despite torrential rains and flooding  elsewhere in Canada last year, several boreal regions of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories were like tinderboxes, suffering “infernos” which consumed 4.5 million hectares of woodlands, three times the national average. 

Preliminary satellite data from Russia reveal, if anything, an even more alarming trend there. In 2012, fire consumed about 40 million hectares of Russian forest.  That's  40 times as large as the area burned there in 1979!

In an e-mail, Dr. Kurz tells PinP, "In areas that are affected by increases in forest fires, and where communities exist" (whether they are First Nations villages, fishing or mining camps), "the risks from fire will increase."

But warming forests won't be all bad news, he adds. "In some areas, warming will enhance tree growth, but bring losses in other areas where fires and drought impacts increase. The net impacts of these opposing trends cannot yet be determined, but will vary across the many regions of the circumboreal forests."

 Large wild animals need sizeable tracts of wilderness to thrive. 
That wilderness is being increasingly divided by logging roads and seismic lines.

                                                        Photos by PinP.

The Carbon Bomb.  

Even the ominous term, "carbon bomb" has crept into the usually understated scientific literature. And, for a reason. The peat bogs and permafrost which underlie the boreal regions (and the Arctic), contain one-third of Earth’s terrestrial (in-the-ground) carbon stocks, twice as much as that in the atmosphere. 

And, they're melting! 

This could release up to 250 billion more tonnes of carbon into the air by 2100, a huge amount that is not even taken into account in the current scientific modelling. This would surely be a “tipping point” beyond which all bets are off. 

As Dr. Kurz puts it, “There is potential for terrestrial feed backs that are far greater than currently assumed. It is therefore critically important to understand how the global boreal forests will act, either as a net source (emitter) or net sink (absorber) of carbon in the future. The more carbon that is released from these old pools, the more these forests act as carbon sources; the greater mitigation efforts (those that reduce emissions, the root causes of climate change) will be required in all other sectors.” 

Global Warming and the Mountain Pine Beetle. 

What Will the Future Hold?

A section of the mountain boreal region in western Canada, 

possibly showing early signs of pine beetle infection.

Warmer winters have already meant higher survival rates for highly destructive mountain pine beetles. Native to British Columbia, they swept through that province some two decades ago, killing about half of the province’s commercial pine trees, notably lodgepole and ponderosa. It was the worst outbreak ever recorded anywhere. Then, the bugs spread into Alberta to the east, decimating thousands of additional hectares there. 

And, they're still on the move. It's estimated they have marched at least 400 kilometres to the north and the east in the past five years or so. The consensus is, “In the absence of control, (even) further range expansion is likely.” 

Lower impacts are expected through Saskatchewan and Manitoba. But that news is cold comfort to those provinces. It is now known that the bugs can and have spread to jack pine, a more common species in the forests here.

A Government of Manitoba website notes,  for example, that large sections of forests destroyed by the beetles in B.C., harvested and exported in salvage operations, may still be infested with live beetles. So there are fears of a similar “epidemic” here.

Increasing Human Activity Complicates the Boreal's Future,

Many parts of the boreal are experiencing ramped-up levels of industrial activity such as mining (for metals, minerals and peat moss), logging, oil sands extraction and power generation. (Even though the impact that a warming planet will have on our future ability to generate hydro-power is anyone's guess, the province of Manitoba, for example, is spending billions of dollars on new hydro transmission lines and generating stations.) 

A waterfall in the Canadian Rockies. 

What will a changing climate do to it and the aquatic life it nurtures?

David Kreutzweiser of Natural Resources Canada, refers to these activities as “environmental stresses,” which place unknown pressure on the vast water resources of the boreal and the biodiversity of the aquatic creatures they sustain. 

This surely raises the question, might this increasing activity itself be an example of how our politicians are barging ahead, without even bothering to read the kind of scientific research so readily available to them? The conference was told many of them either can't understand the research or believe it has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

It’s a poorly-kept secret that many scientists feel frustrated with this kind of political response. 

This frustration has not been helped by the actions of Stephen Harper's federal government government in recent years. It has fired many researchers while others have been forbidden to speak out about their work. So the wording of the final communique out of the IBFRA conference is, perhaps, understandable for its remarkable restraint.

“Scientists believe their results are under-utilized in policy formulation.” 

In a practise called "slashing," trees growing on land wanted for agriculture, are bulldozed and burned, eating away at the edges of the boreal in central Manitoba.

Where To From Here?

Phil Comeau of the University of Alberta's Department of Renewable Resources was a co-chair at the IBFRA conference. In an interview with PinP, Prof. Comeau puts it this way. 

"It is already too late to stop change from happening, but if we can find effective ways to seriously reduce greenhouse gas emissions now, we may be able to reduce the level of long-term impacts. As one questioner put it: 'We are driving at breakneck speed towards the edge of a cliff, but we still may have a chance to avoid going over that clifcliff."

Muuch of the information for this article was gleaned from material published online by IBFRA and The Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 

(Except where noted, all photos are by the author. )

RELATED:

• "Warming Could Mean Major Thaw For Alaska Permafrost"
• "Tar Sands Threaten World’s Largest Boreal Forest"

Be Afraid (Video)

Demolition of Mount Agassiz Underway

Manitoba Co-Operator

Parks Canada is seeking public feedback in efforts to determine the future of the former Riding Mountain ski hill in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba.  Story here.

Ag Canada Developing Plan for "Judicious Use" of "Neonics," a Bee-Killing Pesticide

Western Producer

Agriculture Canada and the crop protection industry are developing a plan to wean canola growers off neonicotinoid seed treatments. Story here.

A Bucket of Whitewash for Amanda Lang

iPOLITICS

Let’s recap. Amanda Lang gets paid a bushel of money to talk at events sponsored in part by a big bank — the one her boyfriend works for. She then invites the bank’s president on her TV show to crap on a story broken by her CBC colleagues about that bank and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program while, at roughly the same time, she goes AWOL and disses the story herself in The Globe and Mail without warning her bosses.

And it was no big deal. Not, apparently, according to the CBC’s in-house ‘review’ of events. Story here.

Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground to Stop Climate Change

George Monbiot - The Guardian.

In the fourth piece in the Guardian’s major series on climate change, George Monbiot argues that once coal, oil and gas are produced, they will be used. And yet, after 23 years of UN negotiations there have been almost no steps taken to stop the production – rather than the use of – fossil fuels. Story here.

In Florida, Officials Ban Term ‘Climate Change’

Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

The state of Florida is the region most susceptible to the effects of global warming in the US.

But you would not know that by talking to officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection...Story here.

Plans for an Immense Canal Could Spell Catastrophe in Nicaragua and Elsewhere.

Common Dreams

Group of scientists says massive earth-moving project already underway threatens irreversible harm. Story here.

Tech-Savvy Indian Women Farmers Find Success With "Sim Cards."

INTER PRESS SERVICE

MAHABUBNAGAR, India: “My profits have increased from 5,000 to 20,000 rupees (80-232 dollars) each season,” declares  a smallholder farmer participating in a mobile technology scheme to create awareness among rural women. Story here.

Crime In North Dakota’s Oil Boom Towns Is So Bad That The FBI Is Stepping In

ClimateProgress

Canadian pump jacks work the same geological 

formation as North Dakota. PinP photo.

High levels of crime in North Dakota’s oil fields have prompted the FBI to set up shop in the region.  Story here.

Infrastructure Boom Threatens World's Last Wildernesses

theguardian

Spread of new roads in developing nations is a greater danger than the dams, mines, oil well or cities they connect, as they open up untouched habitats to poachers, illegal loggers and land speculators, study says. Story here.

Canadian Government Pushing First Nations to Give up Land Rights For Oil And Gas Profits

The Guardian

Harper government organized private meetings between oil firms and Indigenous chiefs to try and gain support for oil and gas pipelines and other investments located on their lands, documents reveal. Story here.

Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?

National Geographic

We live in an age when all manner of scientific knowledge—from climate change to vaccinations—faces furious opposition. Some even have doubts about the moon landing. Story here.

Some California Farmers Will Get no Federal Water, Meaning Fields Could go Unplanted

Winnipeg Free Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - For a second straight year, the federal government said Friday it won't send any of its reservoir water to the Central Valley, forcing farmers in California's agricultural heartland to again scramble for other sources or leave fields unplanted. Story here.

Residents of São Paulo – Brazil’s "Failing" Mega-City - Struggle as Water Taps Run Dry.

theguardian

Many residents are hoarding water in their apartments – and some are even drilling homemade wells – as they prepare for possible rationing. Story here.

World's Largest Bee-Killing Corporation Threatens to Sue an Advocacy Group Trying to Save the Precious Pollinators! PLEASE DONATE!

Sum

   of

+ us

Honeybee. PinP photo.

We've just received a letter from a major corporate agribusiness firm threatening legal action unless we stop our campaign to save the bees. The letter came from a contractor for Bayer, one of the biggest producers of bee-killing pesticides in the world--which means we could be facing a long, drawn out legal fight against corporations with incredibly deep pockets. PLEASE HELP!  CONTRIBUTE HERE!

Alberta in Talks on Climate Policy With Eye to Keystone Approval

BloombergBusiness

Sunlight breaks this tailings pond at the Alberta tar sands down into a rainbow spectrum. Pond contains toxins including bitumen, naphthenic acids, cyanide, phenols and metals such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and zinc. Photo credit - Beautiful Destruction.

Alberta is in talks with other Canadian provinces and U.S. states to cooperate on climate and environmental policies as it seeks to improve the reputation of its oil sands and win approval of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone pipeline. Story here.

As Antarctica Melts Away, Seas Could Rise Ten Feet Within 100 Years

CommonDreams

Based on rapid thawing, continent has become 'ground zero of global climate change without a doubt,' says geophysicist. Story here.