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Showing posts from 2018

Emissions impossible

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Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy A confined animal feeding operation in the U.S. Photo by the E.P.A. How big meat and dairy are heating up the planet. Story here. RELATED: "In Hogs We Trust -  Part 1V - The health and environmental costs of an expanded hog industry in Manitoba, Canada."

Fort St. John, B.C. earthquakes were caused by fracking: BC Oil and Gas Commission

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CTV News B.C's Oil & Gas Commission (OGC) has concluded that three earthquakes in the area around Fort. St. John at the end of November were caused by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations.          Details here. A fracking operation in New York State. Photo by US Geological Survey. Please also read my story from 2015: Is the "Dubious Duo" of Fracking & Earthquakes More Common in Canada Than we Know? PinP Wonders.    l.p.

Industrial farms in Britain receive millions in subsidies

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The Guardian The Guardian and Bureau of Investigative Journalism establish that intensive farms in the UK received nearly £70m in two years. Details here. Dead pigs in a dumpster outside a Manitoba factory farm await  removal to an unknown destination.  A PinP photo. Please read related:  "In Hogs We Trust - Part 11  -   The price Manitobans pay for corporate pig$."  

Farm workers sicken as Trump slashes regulations meant to protect them.

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New York Times Ordinary people suffer because of Trump's deference to powerful interests. Details here. RELATED:  Manitoba Family Believes it was Poisoned by Crop Spray  (like the one referred to in the Times story) Watch video here from Sept. 2006..

Why I’m looking forward to my first vegan Christmas

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The Guardian Damian Carrington   I won’t be eating turkey this year because of meat’s environmental impact. More here. A turkey farm in Missouri. Photo by  Billy Hathorn .

As Polar Bear Attacks Increase in a Warming Arctic, a Search for Solutions

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Yale Environment 360 An almost ice-free Northwest Passage, Aug. 2016. Photo by NASA. With sea ice reduced, polar bears in the Arctic are spending more time on land, leading to increased attacks on people. Concerned Inuit communities want to increase hunting quotas, but researchers are testing new technologies they hope will reduce these often deadly confrontations. Details here.

Chickens freezing to death and boiled alive: failings in US slaughterhouses exposed

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The Guardian. Chickens slowly freezing to death, being boiled alive, drowned or suffocating under piles of other birds are among hundreds of shocking welfare incidents recorded at US slaughterhouses, according to previously unpublished reports. Story here. An American broiler (meat) chicken house. USDA photo by Joe Valbuena.

Private research funders court controversy with billions in secretive investments

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Science Magazine Cruise ships often burn bunker fuel, the very kind warned about in this story. A Wikimedia image. A few years ago, scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust, one of the world's wealthiest private philanthropies, published sobering findings about the deadly effects of air pollution. In a long-term study of elderly residents of Hong Kong, China, those exposed to higher levels of smog—especially tiny particles of soot produced by burning fossil fuels—were more likely to die of cancer than people who breathed cleaner air. Details here. RELATED: Please read my blog-story,  "How Ethical Are Ethical Funds? Conscientious investments and the tar sands connection"   l.p. by Larry Powell

US and Russia ally with Saudi Arabia to water down climate pledge

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The Guardian Move shocks delegates at UN conference as ministers fly in for final week of climate talks.  More here

DDT in Alaska meltwater poses cancer risk for people who eat lots of fish

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Science Today -  University of Maine Mt. Jarvis, Alaska. Photo by R. McGimsey, U.S. Geological Survey Children in Alaska whose diet includes a lot of fish from rivers fed by the Eastern Alaska Mountain Range may have a long-term elevated risk for cancer because of insecticides -- including DDT -- in the meltwater. Story here. RELATED: " Research Suggests Our Past, Prolific Use Of The Insecticide DDT May Still Be Contributing To A Scourge Of Modern-Day Diseases Related To Obesity.  -  Is a world-wide ban now the only ethical thing to do?"

Greenland ice sheet melt 'off the charts' compared with past four centuries

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PHY ORG An aerial shot of mountains in Greenland. 2006. Photo by  TĆŗrelio . Surface melting across Greenland's mile-thick ice sheet began increasing in the mid-19th century and then ramped up dramatically during the 20th and early 21st centuries, showing no signs of abating, according to… More here.

Modern slavery promotes overfishing

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More details here.

Adaptation, speciation and extinction in the Anthropocene

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PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B An Oxfam photo. Humans have dramatically altered the planet over the course of a century, from the acidity of our oceans to the fragmentation of our landscapes and the temperature of our climate. More here.

Snowpack declines may stunt tree growth and forests' ability to store carbon emissions

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ScienceNews Hoar frost coats trees of the boreal forest in Manitoba, Canada.  A PinP photo. Researchers conducting a 5-year-long study examining snow cover in a northern hardwood forest region found that projected changes in climate could lead to a 95 percent reduction of deep-insulating snowpack in forest areas across the northeastern United States by the end of the 21st century. The loss of snowpack would likely result in a steep reduction of forests' ability to store climate-changing carbon dioxide and filter pollutants from the air and water. Story here.

The world needs more kids like this! (Video - PLEASE WATCH)

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Researchers say Canada’s race to conserve marine biodiversity may backfire

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Laurier Canada’s race to meet biodiversity conservation targets could jeopardize the very goal it is trying to achieve.  More here. Aerial view of the Bunsby marine park. West coast of Vancouver Island. Bc. Photo by  Kiwican

A cautionary tale even the "Commander-in-Chief" should understand. (Video)

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New Canadian research sheds light on how a disease deadly to certain animals, mostly in the wild, is spread. The answer seems to lie beneath their feet!

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by Larry Powell It's a terrible ailment called  chronic wasting disease (CWD). A moose in Riding Mountain National Park, Canada. A PinP photo. Canada's Food Inspection Agency describes it as "a progressive, fatal disease of the nervous system of cervids (deer, elk and moose)." It is blamed on a prion , or abnormal protein, which is also linked to mad cow  disease in cattle, scrapie in sheep and CJD in humans. But CWD is the only disease in this group which spreads through the environment. It's been common in North America for years and, to a lesser degree, south Korea. Here in Canada, it has long been ravaging free-roaming animals in Saskatchewan and Alberta. More recently, it has been detected on a farm which raises red deer in Quebec and even among domesticated reindeer in northern Europe. Up 'til now, at least, some experts have considered CWD pretty much unstoppable. But a new study by a team of four researchers at the U

Climate correction: when scientists get it wrong

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PHYS ORG  A few weeks ago, AFP joined news outlets around the world in covering the release of a major academic paper, warning that our oceans were warming dramatically faster than previously thought. There was one problem. It was wrong. Read more  here.  Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) are small schooling fish that can be found on both sides of the North Atlantic. A NOAA photo.

Climate-heating greenhouse gases at record levels, says UN

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The Guardian/WM0 Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are far above pre-industrial levels. Details  here. Air travel is the fastest-growing source of emissions.
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The story below appears in the latest issue of the Manitoba newspaper, "The Express Weekly."

Palm Oil Was Supposed to Help Save the Planet. Instead It Unleashed a Catastrophe.

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The New York Times A decade ago, the U.S. mandated the use of vegetable oil in biofuels, leading to industrial-scale deforestation — and a huge spike in carbon emissions. Story here. A palm oil concession in Sumatra. Photo by Hayd.

Newfoundland record oil spill shows risks of offshore drilling, regulatory board says

 Details here

Killing Plants Is the Fastest Way to End the World

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TRUTHOUT A Manitoba corn crop ruined by a freak summer frost. A PinP photo. A  recently-published study has found that “climate change and human activity are dooming species at an unprecedented rate.” Story here.

The 'new abnormal' — California megafires explode with off-the-charts fury

The National Observer California is on the burning edge of climate breakdown. Story here.

Humanity Sleepwalks as Earth Burns.

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--> by Larry Powell This is the Ashcroft Reserve fire in BC in 2017. That was the worst year ever for wildfires in that province - until this year!  Photo by Shawn Cahill. As I write this, human bodies incinerated beyond recognition, are being pulled from the ruins of wildfires in California. More than a thousand people are either missing or confirmed dead, with property damage set to top several billions of dollars. Smoke from the fires has now enveloped San Francisco. President Trump blames "poor forest management,"and, after first threatening to withhold it, finally grants emergency aid. His critics take him to task for his lack of empathy for the victims. After visiting the fire zones, he continues, disgracefully, to deny the role manmade climate change is surely playing here. But what's worse, his absence of a heart (which has been evident for some time), or his actual  policies  which have shown him to be