Seeds of Corporate Power vs Farmers’ Rights

Foreign Policy in Focus

We need to start tilting the playing field back in favour of farmers and the environment. Story here.

The TPP's Climate Blindspot

Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy.

Free trade deals, and in particular the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), have taken a beating this election season. Most of the noise on trade from Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has focused on the loss of jobs linked to the offshoring. Much less attention has been paid to the serious impact the TPP and past trade agreements will have on our ability to respond to climate change. Story here.

Significant Diseases in Field Peas, Wheat and Barley in Manitoba. What to Do Next Season?

Manitoba Co-Operator

Too much rain and uneven crop staging made it difficult for farmers to apply fungicides at the optimum time. Story here.

Air Pollution is Creating a “Public Health Emergency”

Nation of Change

Over 90% of the world’s population resides in areas where air pollution levels are alarmingly high. Developing countries, especially the regions of Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, are the most vulnerable and the most affected. Story here.

Manitoba's River Decision "All Wet!"

Monsanto is Dead. Now What?

Manitoba Co-Operator

The lightning rod for resentment won’t be there to kick around anymore. Story here.

Longest Historic Temperature Record Stretches Back 2 Million Years

nature

Suggests greenhouse gases may warm planet more than previously thought. Story here.

Arctic Ice Melt is Killing Birds And Will Leave Caribou Stranded

New

Scientist

An Ivory Gull. Will they be next?
jomilo75 photo
The ongoing loss of sea-ice cover is wreaking havoc on ecosystems across the Arctic, and may spell the end of more species than previously thought. Story here.

Shipments of Liquid Nuclear Waste to Begin Soon

Authorities in Canada and the United States are preparing to ship approximately 150 truckloads of liquid nuclear waste from Chalk River, Ontario to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The material is a mixture of bomb grade uranium together with a witches’ brew of highly  radioactive fission products dissolved in nitric acid.

World's Biggest Sockeye Run Shut Down as Wild Pacific Salmon Fight for Survival

EcoWatch

Adult sockeye salmon. Marvina Munch, U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service

For as long as people have lived in the area, salmon have been an important food source. But something is happening to Pacific coast salmon. Story here.
RELATED: "Disastrous Fraser River salmon run eclipses 2009 collapse - Warmer waters, overfishing, fish farm impacts all likely contributed to this year's dismal returns: environmental group"

Seed: The Untold Story. Movie Trailer.

Canola Farmers Worried About Bayer-Monsanto Merger

Manitoba Co-Operator

PinP photo.

The fear is the new company’s market power will result in higher seed prices and less innovation unless regulators order some divestiture of assets. STORY HERE.

Superbug Explosion Triggers UN General Assembly Meeting

Scientific American

A confined animal feeding operation. "Unnecessary or incorrect antibiotic use in...agricultural production has worsened the problem." USGS photo.

Several times a week Brad Spellberg struggles with a difficult decision. A patient stumbles into his emergency room in southern California suffering from familiar symptoms: pressure when she urinates, pain in her side, fever and nausea. Based on these clues Spellberg can quickly diagnose the problem as a kidney infection, but the trouble lies in deciding what he should do next. He knows the patient is hurting and of course he wants to help, but more than his patient’s health hangs in the balance. Story here.

Indonesia's Illegal Deforestation Fires Killed Over 100,000: Study

CommonDreams  

Indonesian forests being burned for agriculture. NASA satellite image.

Illegal fires used to deforest land for palm oil and pulpwood plantations are raging again today. Story here.

Hesitance to Link Some Weather Events to Climate Change 'No Longer Appropriate'

inside

climate

news

Baton Rouge in Aug. USDA photo

Fast study showed climate change's influence on Louisiana's devastating floods. The method is being used to more quickly assess some types of extreme weather. Story here.

The Monsanto–Bayer Tie-Up is Just One of Seven Mega-Mergers That Threaten Seeds, Food Security

etc

              GROUP

Organic hemp seed. PinP photo.

Policymakers could still block the agri biz mergers; peasants and farmers will continue the fight for seeds and rights. Story here.

Media Silent as Two States Declare State of Emergency Due to Pipeline Spill

Nation of Change

A major fuel pipeline ruptured this week in Shelby County, Alabama, prompting both Alabama and Georgia to declare state emergencies. Yet, other than local media outlets, the mainstream media has been curiously silent about the situation. Story here.

Technoparc: A Unique Wetland Area of Montreal - Home to Over 80 Nesting Species of Birds Faces an Uncertain Future

Sierra Club Canada

Wildlife similar to this Great Blue Heron inhabit "Technoparc." 

PinP photo

Imagine a wetland area that is home to over 80 nesting species including herons, raptors, songbirds and ducks. Then imagine it in the middle of a Technoparc on the Island of Montreal, a few miles west of downtown and just east of the Trudeau Airport. Story here.

Be Afraid. Writer Warns of the Possible Rise of "Trumpism" Right Here in Canada.

by Larry Powell

I hope we Canadians are resisting feelings of superiority while watching the horror show unfold before our eyes that is the U.S. election. If we haven’t done it ourselves, I’m sure we’ve seen others wag their fingers or click their tongues at that pitiful excuse for a  “Commander-in-Chief,” Donald Trump. And rightly so. But make no mistake, he has his supporters right here in Canada, too. I just read a letter-to-the-editor from a fellow Manitoban, for example, which loudly proclaims “I think we desperately need a Donald Trump here in Canada!” 

Odd, isn’t it? Those words are eerily similar to these. “I think Donald Trump would be best for the job.” Who said that? That was the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in the U.S.

Beating the drum, as Trump does, for a wall on the US-Mexico border and a ban on Muslims, he wears his racism on his sleeve like a badge of honour. How this hateful, lying demagogue can attract supporters here in my country, or anywhere for that matter, leaves me truly gobsmacked.

Trump is immune to evidence, facts or truth. Up 'til today, at least, he has clung to the lie he helped manufacture, that President Obama is a Muslim who was not even born in the ‘States. After sowing those toxic seeds (fuelled, no doubt by the fact that Obama is black) and unleashing the kind of harm only such conspiracy theories can do, he's had a death-bed repentance. Yes, Obama was US-born, Donald proclaims! I guess, just because Trump has now said it, Obama is finally qualified to carry on in his post! But Trump followed up immediately by launching another bald-faced lie: that Hillary Clinton had started the whole, ugly "birther" controversy. This man does not know when to quit. He is pathological.

And Canada, of course, once “belonged to the U.S” and ought to be returned! Trump actually said that? He sure did!

He has also labelled the now well-founded science of manmade climate change as a hoax, having been “created by & for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” He actually promises to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, the last bastion shielding the American people, their health and their environment, from unbridled destruction by soulless corporations bent on mining and polluting the Earth (and its oceans) to death.

While Trump may have dreamed up his own personal, perverted brand of climate denial, he has plenty of company right here in my country, too. Trust me, that denial, in one form or another, runs deep. It’s even ingrained to some degree in our educational, journalistic and faith communities.  

Not many may come out publicly, as that letter-writer did, to proclaim their support for this “wart on the rump of history.” But I fear they still privately share way too many of his dangerous, misguided beliefs. 

Please don’t let another Donald Trump slither into a position of power in Canada. If we do, we should all be afraid. Very afraid.

Obama Administration: Dakota Pipeline 'Will Not Go Forward At This Time'

inside

climate

news

Brushing aside a fresh court ruling, three federal agencies said they are withholding a permit on a portion of the project near Sioux Land. Story here.

Polar Bears Losing Crucial Sea Ice: Study

theguardian

Life-sustaining sea ice needed for hunting, resting and breeding is declining in all 19 regions of the Arctic inhabited by the species.  Story here.

Ansgar Walk

The FDA Finds Monsanto’s Weed Killer In U.S. Honey

The Huffington Post

The Food and Drug Administration, under public pressure to start testing samples of U.S. food for the presence of a pesticide that has been linked to cancer, has some early findings that are not so sweet. Story here.

Agrochemical Giant Bayer Just Announced it’s Merging With The Most Hated Company on the Planet: Monsanto. PLEASE DONATE!

+SumOfUs

These two companies joining into one mega-corporation is truly the stuff of nightmares. DONATE HERE.

Ontario Environment Officials Concerned That Clear-Cut Logging Releases Mercury. (They Allowed it Anyway!)

thestar.com

Another example of clearcutting. This one in B.C. Wikimedia Commons.

A new scientific report says adding more mercury to the area near Grassy Narrows First Nation is “irresponsible” and “shameless” Story here.

Disposable Planet

by George Monbiot

Wikimedia Commons photo.

Consumerism occupies a sacred and inviolable space, while the wonders of the living world are dispensable. Story here.

Record High Temperatures: Toxic Slime Spreads Across Oceans as Climate Disruption Continues

GlobalResearch

It is August 30. I’m in Anchorage, Alaska, and it’s hot. Very hot. In fact, it’s the fourth straight day of record high temperatures, amidst a year that has seen record high temperatures becoming normalized across the entire state. Story here.

'Five-Alarm Threat to Our Food Supply': Monsanto-Bayer Merger Advances

CommonDreams

Chemical and GMO giants agree on takeover offer worth $66 billion; mega-merger to be reviewed by antitrust agencies worldwide. Story here.

Summer Arctic Sea Ice Set to Become Second-Lowest on Record (NASA VIDEO)

That information comes from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre. The video below shows the trends.

Dakota Access Construction Will Continue, Pipeline Corp CEO Vows

CommonDreams

As corporate head promises to go ahead with controversial pipeline project, nonviolent water protectors halt construction at one North Dakota site. Story here.

Arctic Death Spiral: Icebreakers Reach North Pole as Sea Ice Disintegrates

ThinkProgress

Second-lowest sea ice minimum, lowest average annual sea ice extent. Arctic sea ice continued its long-term death spiral in 2016, thanks to warming-driven ice melt. As the ice sheet shrinks and thins, it’s becoming easier and easier for icebreakers to reach the North Pole. Story here.

'Climate Change Is Here': August Was Another Hottest Month for the Record Books

CommonDreams

Copyright © 2016 PinP

As one climate scientist noted, the temperature has risen even though this year's unusually strong El Niño is on the wane. Story here.

Biologist Stumbles Upon 2 Winged 'Beasts' New to Manitoba

CBC News

Cherry-faced Meadowhawk..... Sympetrum internum.... female

Copyright © 2016 PinP

(Not one of the "new winged beasts." Just an attractive dragonfly found in Manitoba. 😊)

A Winnipeg biologist has had not one, but two chance encounters with winged insect critters this summer that aren't supposed to be in Manitoba. Story here.

The World Has Lost a Tenth of All Its Wilderness in The Past Two Decades

The Washington Post

Mule deer - Grasslands Nat'l. Park, Saskatchewan, Canada. 

Copyright © 2016 PinP

Wilderness areas on Earth have experienced alarming losses in the past two decades, a new study suggests. Story here.

There Is an Arrest Warrant Out for Jill Stein (Leader of the Green Party in the U.S.)

THE

Nation

Why? Because she protested with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Story here.

This Momentous Event - a Huge Indigenous Protest Over an OIl Pipeline, Predictably Got Precious Little Coverage in Major US Media. (Video)

(And what coverage there was, was distorted. - Video by Democracy Now.)

Planet In Peril.- a Snapshot of Our Climate Crisis. (Video) PLEASE WATCH!

For 2016, La Niña Proves to be an Unreliable Sibling to El Niño

Mashable

With stabilizing sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, climate forecasters announced Thursday that they have canceled the La Niña watch that had been in effect since April. Story here.

Fall of the Wild: Study Documents 'Catastrophic Decline' in World's Untouched Places

CommonDreams

Great Blue heron. PinP photo.

With 10 percent lost in just 20 years, researchers say wilderness is being lost at a 'staggering' pace. Story here.

End The Use Of Secret Corporate Courts! PLEASE SIGN!

SumOfUs

What if corporations were allowed to sue governments because its laws to protect people and the environment but hurt corporate profits? What if there was a tribunal where corporate executives were able to literally get away with murder? What if there were elite educated lawyers out there whose jobs were to figure out how to sue struggling nations to make huge amounts of profit? Sign here.

The Climate Cost of Free Trade

Bilaterals.org

On Earth Day 2016, the U.S. joined 175 countries in signing the United Nations Paris climate agreement setting a path forward to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. A few months earlier, the U.S., along with 11 other countries, signed the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade and investment deal.1 Remarkably, neither agreement acknowledged the other. The Paris agreement was silent on trade, and the TPP ignored the climate. As countries take action to protect the climate, conflicts between trade rules and climate goals will escalate. The intentional separation of these two global priorities is becoming increasingly untenable. Story here.

Climate Change Has Greatly Increased Chances of Rainstorms the Size of the One in Louisiana in August

World Weather Attribution

Torrential rains drenched south Louisiana in mid August, with parts of the state receiving nearly 30 inches of rain from August 10 to the 17.  Story here.

Humans Have Pushed Oceans to Their Absolute Limit, Warns Report

CommonDreams

Oceans protected us from worst effects of climate change by absorbing most of humans' CO2 emissions, report finds, but they can't take anymore—and will soon release that CO2 back into the air. Story here.

Enbridge Spreads Tentacles to Acquire Spectra, Creating 'Pipeline Enemy #1'

CommonDreams

Merger 'would only enhance the power of the oil and gas industry to manipulate the energy marketplace and encourage the continued use of fracking,' says Wenonah Hauter. Story here.

The Southern Ocean is Getting Less Salty. Here’s What That Could Mean for the Rest of the World

The Washington Post

The ocean surrounding Antarctica has become substantially less salty over the past couple of decades — and until now, scientists weren’t really sure why. But because changes in the Southern Ocean’s salinity have the potential to affect all kinds of important processes, including ocean circulation and its transport of heat and nutrients around the world, researchers have been eager to figure it out. Story here.

Oil, Gas And Coal Are Multi-Billion Dollar Businesses, Yet Every Year Fossil Fuel Companies get Billions in Tax Breaks and Handouts.

IISD International Institute for Sustainable Development

In a world that’s shifting to cleaner sources of energy, those subsidies don’t make sense—especially when they work against the other actions we’re taking to fight climate change. Story here.

Ten States Report Crop Damage From Illegal Dicamba Use on Monsanto’s GMO Seeds

Nation Of Change

To the horror of farmers across America’s farm belt, hundreds of thousands of crop acres have been adversely impacted by the apparent misuse of the drift-prone herbicide dicamba onMonsanto’s Roundup Ready Xtend soybean and cotton plants. Story here.

It's Official: The Anthropocene Epoch Is Here

EcoWatch

The Anthropocene Epoch has begun, according to a group of experts assembled at the International Geological Congress in Cape Town, South Africa this week. Story here.

Hutterite Colony in Alberta, Canada Blazes Antibiotic-Free Trail

AlbertaFarmer

A hog barn in Israel. Shpernik088
You don’t have to sacrifice productivity or compromise health standards by going antibiotic free, say swine managers at Spring Creek Hutterite Colony. Story here.

Closing the High Seas to Fishing Could Save Coastal Fisheries

EcoWatch

Researchers from the University of British Columbia say that closing the high seas to fishing could help coastal fisheries, increasing catches by 10 percent. But our waters are now more polluted than ever, threatening the entire food chain. Story here.

Obama Promises Huge Marine Reserve (Video)

The world's largest protected area is now four times the size of California. pic.twitter.com/lvtsbzXXJF

— AJ+ (@ajplus) September 1, 2016

UK Government to Ban Microbeads From Cosmetics by End of 2017

theguardian

Found in beauty products, tiny pieces of plastic which can harm marine life will be banned from sale in the UK from the end of 2017, government will announce. Story here.

Editorial: Canada Called Out on Our Dirty Little Secret

Laura Rance - Manitoba Co-Operator  Canola field - PinP photo. The world is full of customers who think they are special. Story here.

Millions of Honeybees Killed in Attempt to Prevent Zika

EcoWatch

Aerial spraying of the pesticide naled in a South Carolina county, done in an attempt to prevent Zika-infected mosquitoes from gaining a foothold in the state, resulted instead in the massacre of millions of honeybees. Story here.

Are Climate-Related 'Hot Blobs' Spreading and Killing Marine Life Worldwide?

CommonDreams

Marine heatwaves have killed whales, birds, sea lions, mangroves, and coral—and research suggests they are increasing as the climate warms. Story here.

Most Cities Too Hot to Host 2088 Summer Olympics

Nature

Marathon used as benchmark to judge safety of possible future host cities. Story here.