Tragic tanker sinking lays bare the true risk Kinder Morgan poses to British Columbia

Dogwood

Leaving an ocean of fire, and the largest oil spill since 1991 in its wake, MV Sanchi exploded and then sank to the bottom of the Pacific on January 14. As two of Asia’s most powerful countries stood by — BC got a firsthand look at just how easy it is to sink an oil tanker. More here.

World Maritime News photo.

Flooding in Paris Becomes More Recurrent

NDP urges Trudeau government to avoid ‘embarrassing’ climate research ordeal

 NATIONAL

OBSERVER

Canada's New Democrats are pressing the Trudeau government to take urgent, "ambitious" action to save a group of environmental research networks that may soon run out of funds. More here.

NAFTA tribunal exceeded its jurisdiction when it made determination on what a Canadian environmental assessment panel can decide, groups say

Ecojustice

Environmental groups are in court today to help Canada challenge a landmark arbitral award brought under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Chapter 11 provision by American corporation, Bilcon. More here.

The quarry in question. 

 Photo credit:      ISDS

                       PLATFORM

Conserving honey bees does not help wildlife

Science

Media attention focused on saving embattled, tame (managed) honeybees may be misguided. That’s because the tame kind can negatively affect thousands of wild pollinator species. Story here.

Bumblebees on a sunflower.
PinP photo.

RELATED: Pesticide increases probability of bumblebee extinction.

Humans take up too much space -- and it's affecting how mammals move

ScienceDaily

Study found that human-modified landscapes shrink mammal movements by up to half. Story here.

Moose in Riding Mountain National Park, 
Manitoba, Canada. PinP photo.

World's Oceans Last Year Hit Hottest Temperatures Ever Recorded... 'By Far'

COMMON

 DREAMS

Experts say the data indicates that humans must urgently "reduce the heating of our planet by using energy more wisely and increasing the use of clean and renewable energy." Story here.
Coral reefs. 
A Wikimedia photo.

Fox Creek quakes linked to volume and location of hydraulic fracturing

folio

Study is the first to identify specific factors causing seismic activity in Alberta’s Duvernay play. Story here.

Unique oil spill in East China Sea frustrates scientists

Nature

The lighter petroleum that spilled has never before been released in such massive quantities in the ocean. Story here.

Sparrows in the oilpatch are changing their love songs

NATIONAL

OBSERVER 

 PinP photo.

Some birds have been forced to change their tune as a result of noise pollution from oil and gas drilling, new research from the University of Manitoba has found. More here.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Ghost Cat Gone: Eastern Cougar Officially Declared Extinct

EcoWatch

Say good-bye to the "ghost cat." This week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially declared the eastern cougar (Puma concolor couguar) to be extinct and removed it from the endangered species list. Story here.

Photo credit - Pexels.

In Hogs We Trust - Part 111.

by Larry Powell 

(Warning, the words and images in this story are graphic.)

We all know that farm animals can get sick. But how many of us are aware of just how damaging animal epidemics can be - whether on the other side of the world or on our own doorstep? They can and do cause huge economic losses and harm to the health of animals and humans, alike. And, there’s ample evidence that, for generations, the model we’ve been using to raise animals in confined, crowded conditions, only magnifies the problems. So why is the Manitoba government  prepared to risk even more of the same by massively expanding pork production in a province with an already-large industry? I hope this part of my series will move you, the reader, to ask, “How much worse must things get, before we change course?” 

Losses suffered globally due to diseases of livestock, are staggering. As the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) notes, "Some of the most lethal bugs affecting humans originate in our domesticated animals. Thirteen of these (formally called “zoonotics”) are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths per year. As more pigs and poultry are raised in concentrated spaces, especially in poorer countries, the risk of zoonotic disease rises. 

While the vast majority (of human casualties) are in low-and middle-income countries, the northeastern U.S. has emerged as a ‘hotspot,’ too!” Whatever the case, the authoritative Centers for Disease Contol in the States reminds us, we in developed countries, cannot afford to be complacent. On its website, the CDC proclaims, "We are living in an interconnected world where an outbreak of infectious disease is just a plane ride away." 

UPDATE: May 20, 2018:

It has recently been reported that the rare virus called Nipah has re-emerged in southern India, killing at least 11 people and causing more than 25 others to be hospitalized. Although global health officials consider this to be a relatively small outbreak, they’re worried. And while no cases have been reported in Canada, scientists with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have expressed similar concerns. 

Nipah is on the World Health Organization’s priority list of emerging diseases that could cause a global pandemic, alongside Zika and Ebola.

In 1999, Nipah claimed the lives of more than a hundred people in Malaysia and sickened almost 300 others. 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.

Some of the diseases referred to here, including Nipah, have been known to infect those who take part in the Raaj, the largest annual religious pilgrimages in the world, where animals are sometimes sacrificed. 

While “zoonotics” have not been as common in Canada as elsewhere, the same cannot be said for diseases deadly to hogs - outbreaks which have proven - for much of North America - to be nothing short of rampant. 

In 2004, Canadian hog producers found themselves in the middle of a "major animal-health crisis, worldwide." A new variant of a disease called "Porcine CircoVirus-2 Associated Disease," (PCVAD), had infected Ontario’s swine herds with a vengeance. It seemed to closely resemble a strain that had been first identified in Saskatchewan 20 years earlier. And, not long before the Ontario outbreak, a similar kind disrupted pork production in parts of Asia and Europe, too. 

Lesions “of unprecedented severity” were inflaming the intestines, blood vessels, kidneys and spleen of Ontario herds. In some, fully half the pigs died. PCVAD had become “the dominant strain” infecting barns in both Ontario and Quebec. One study in the journal, “Veterinary Pathology” states, “In the space of less than two decades, this virus has gone from being a provincial oddity to one of the most economically important infectious agents in modern swine production.”

As the outbreak swept on to western Canada, animals were developing rasping coughs, diarrhea, pneumonia, fluid on the lungs, then dying. Within a few years, almost all of Canada’s pig farms had tested positive. As Ottawa put it at the time, “It severely affected the health and livelihood of the Canadian swine industry. Hundreds of producers faced financial ruin and pork processors laid off hundreds of staff. By 2009, the economic impact on the industry in North America had been estimated at more than $500m.” 

When it ended, PCVAD had claimed about 9% of this country’s swine herds. Based on a hog population of about 15 million at the time, we must have lost some 1.35 million animals. By 2007, the federal government had stepped in. At the request of producers, Ottawa gave them more than $62 million to help with the costs of an inoculation program. The government proclaimed, “The hog industry is (now) better prepared to face disease threats.”  

But, is it?

Last spring, another disease deadly to pigs moved into Manitoba, disrupting the industry to a degree perhaps not seen since the crisis 13 years earlier. Ominously dubbed “Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea” (PED), it infected hogs in scores of barns in southeastern Manitoba. Despite frantic efforts by barn owners and workers to control the infection, it had, by summer, found its way onto 90 farms. At this writing, 42 of those are now described as “PED-free,” once again. But these gains have come at a price. Industry sources confirm, during the struggle to contain the disease, it had become so rampant, and stress levels so high among workers trying to contain it, they were developing symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. That’s what our veterans get in combat! There have been no new cases since October. So, is the worst behind us? Or is the epidemic just “in remissionIn another part of the world, the European Union, at this writing, was on high alert. After an absence of decades, a deadly viral disease called African Swine Fever (ASF) “re-invaded” three years ago. It is threatening both EU farm pigs and wild boar, who are believed to carry the disease. Despite heroic attempts by Lithuania, an EU country, to keep it at bay along its border with Belarus, the fever moved in. Then, it swept westward into Poland, the Czech Republic and three Baltic States.

  

A recent study by the University of Manitoba suggests, eradicating the disease won’t be easy. The virus can become airborne and spread on the wind for up to 18 kilometres. It can also withstand cold weather, be spread by livestock trucks, and survive for up to nine months in the earthen storage lagoons which producers use to store the waste. That waste, called slurry, is often spread on farm fields as a fertilizer. (An American expert even says, a single tablespoon may be potent enough to infect tens of millions of animals.) 

No hard numbers are publicly available on just how many pigs the outbreak has claimed. But an official said, at one point during the summer, almost a million were "under surveillance." She did not elaborate.

PED causes the animals to spew vomit from one end and diarrhea from the other. (See above.) While some adults can survive, almost all infected piglets become severely dehydrated and die on about their fifth day.

Infected herds must be culled. 
Photo credit - Science Magazine.

In Estonia, 22 thousand hogs had to be destroyed. Pork prices collapsed and more than a third of Estonia’s hog farms went out of business. The disease is now raising alarm in hog-producing countries like Denmark and Germany. With pork exports there worth billions, the stakes are high. That’s because any country where an infection is confirmed, might lose those markets. 

Below is a video depicting the seriousness of ASF, produced by the European Food Authority.

In a different part of the world, “Public Health England” (PHE), a government agency, has recently estimated that up to 200 thousand residents of England and Wales are being infected each year with Hepatitis E (HepE), mainly from eating undercooked meat, including pork. HepE is often not serious, but can sometimes cause liver failure in pregnant women and others with weakened immune systems. There are conflicting reports on the seriousness of some 60 cases over the summer, traced to imported pork products sold at a major London supermarket. PHE claimed the risk to the public was small, although newspaper accounts at the time, stated there had, indeed, been serious illnesses. The HepE strain responsible has been on the increase in the area since 2010. 

In 2001, a research team in this country concluded, “Hepatitis E is highly prevalent in commercial swine populations in Canada and…may be an important zoonotic agent for humans.” Those findings, however, have since been disputed, or at least played down. 

Officials here in Manitoba have, correctly, been informing the public that the PED virus (responsible for the current outbreak here), “is not a human health or food safety concern.” 

But research by experts at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech did note that PED is also a coronavirus. That’s a family of pathogens, other members of which are “known to infect humans and other animals and cause respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases.” The three PED strains they isolated, likely evolved from bats in China. This, they conclude, “provides further support of the... potential for cross-species transmission.”

The lead author of that study, Dr. X.J. Meng, in an interview with me, hotly denied any suggestion that PED might cross over into humans. 

So, while PED is not a “zoonotic,” the same cannot be said for other coronaviruses.

One of them, “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome” (MERS), claimed human lives in dozens of countries in and around the Arabian Peninsula after being confirmed in 2012. Humans can get it by drinking unpasteurized camels’ milk.

And another coronavirus, “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), took many lives in an epidemic in 2003, including 44 Canadians. Although the literature does not reveal any connection to hogs, much about the disease remains a mystery. These outbreaks (MERS and SARS), add the American researchers, “create further anxiety over the emergence of PED in the United States.” 

Early in 2009, the infamous “Swine flu” (H1N1) was first detected in Mexico.  By June of that year, the World Health Organization stopped counting cases and declared the outbreak a “pandemic.” When it was all over, human fatalities probably stood at about 285 thousand, mostly in Africa and southeast Asia. While the WHO still fears the disease may pose some threats in certain regions, it has declared it is now in a “post-pandemic period.”

Despite protests from hog producers and some politicians over the name, “Swine Flu” is not a misnomer. While it cannot be spread by eating pork, the virus contains five genes that normally circulate in pigs and is now considered a human influenza virus. Hogs infected with it were also found in three other countries, including Canada. And, yet another virus “of swine origin” was isolated in three people in Saskatchewan in 2010. All worked at the same large hog operation. 

So, are we taking livestock diseases seriously enough?

As the CDC cautions, "The more animals are kept in close quarters, the more likely it is that infection or bacteria can spread among them. Concentrated animal feeding operations or large industrial animal farms can cause a myriad of environmental and public health problemsAnd who will compensate for the huge economic losses which are sure to follow? Three guesses....

-30-

June 2nd, 2018,,,AN INDUSTRY UPDATE......

RELATED: "In Hogs We Trust."  

Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse.

Part 11 - The Price we Pay for Corporate Hog$. 

Part 1V - The price we and our environment will pay for an expanded hog industry in Manitoba.

Part V - So what's behind Manitoba's crusade to rapidly expand industrial hog production. Click here and find out!

POSTSCRIPT: I have gleaned the above information from the most reliable sources I can find - government agencies, world health authorities, scientific research studies published in peer-reviewed journals and, in some cases, industry itself. But please consider this a “sampling,” rather than a complete chronicle. l.p. 

      Unlike "ILOs," animals on this family farm in Manitoba get to bask in the sun,breathe             fresh air and roam in spacious pastures. 
A PinP photo.

There's a 'crisis looming' for Canadian climate research, scientists warn

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

Canada can’t become a world leader in climate change research without putting its cards on the table, say hundreds of scientists in a new open letter. Story here.

Insurers say Canadian weather getting hotter, wetter and weirder

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

If it seems as if the weather's getting weirder, you're not wrong. More Here.

Quebec, 2017. Wikimedia.

Richest 1% bagged 82% of global wealth created last year, poorest half of humanity got nothing:

 Oxfam

"Alphonse." A dumpster-diver in Vancouver, Canada.

A Wikimedia photo. Author unknown.

(Ottawa) Eighty two per cent of global wealth generated last year went to the richest one per cent, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity saw no increase, according to a new Oxfam report. Story here.

Human Activity Fouls Continental Waterways - study

U.S. National Academy Sciences

A Wikimedia photo.

Across North America, streams and rivers are becoming saltier, and freshwater bodies, more alkaline, all thanks to human activity. According to a new study, salty compounds like road de-icers and fertilizers, which make their way into rivers, are significantly changing the salinity levels of the waters in the United States and southern Canada. Researchers analyzed the data recorded at 232 U.S. Geological Survey monitoring sites across the country over the past 50 years. It's the first study to simultaneously account for multiple salt ions — such as sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium — in freshwater across the United States and southern Canada. The results suggest that salt ions, damaging in their own right, are driving up the pH of freshwater as well, making it more alkaline.

2017 One of Hottest Years on Record, and Without El Niño

 inside

climate

 news

Nine of the 10 warmest years on modern record have been since 2005. This was the warmest without El Niño's influence, and it was marked by climate-related disasters. Story here.

340 Billion Gallons of Sludge Spur Environmental Fears in Canada

Bloomberg

"Rainbow Lake" - Alberta tar sands. Photo credit - "Beautiful Destruction."

Amid the bogs and forests of northern Alberta, in the heart of the Canadian oil patch, lie some of the largest waste dumps of the global energy business. Story here.

To Save Oceans and Planet, Greenpeace Backs Plan to Create Largest Protected Area on Earth

Common Dreams

Mt. Herschel, Antarctica. Photo by Andrew Mandemaker.

"We are in desperate need for governments to come together and do what is best for these amazing ecosystems." More here.

The Snowy Owl is Placed on the "Vulnerable" List.

by Larry Powell

A "Snowy" swoops down on its prey (probably a lemming).

Photo credit - Government of Quebec.

The beautiful Snowy Owl, like so many other wild creatures on Earth, faces an uncertain future. The “Red List,” a British agency, has just put the graceful, white bird of prey on the “vulnerable” list for the first time. It has drastically downgraded earlier estimates of 200 thousand individuals, worldwide, to as low as 10 thousand. 

Snowy Owl numbers have proven hard to judge since they fluctuate so widely, depending on the availability of food. Factors in their decline may include illegal hunting, collisions with vehicles and power lines and climate change, which can affect the availability of prey. So the agency’s prognosis is a somber one. “This species faces a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future.” 

Snowy Owls nest in the Arctic, but have a range that spans the northern hemisphere.” 

A conservation specialist, Andy Symes of Birdlife International urges, Snowy Owls must now be considered "a high priority for further research and conservation action."

"Red List" has been assessing the status of wildlife species for 50 years.

Warming ocean water is turning 99 percent of these sea turtles female

ScienceNews

Rising temperatures are skewing population ratios toward extreme imbalance. Story here.

Photo by Karla

The (US) Centers for Disease Control gets list of forbidden words: Fetus, transgender, diversity

The Washington Post

The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in official documents being prepared for next year’s budget. More here.

New York City sues five oil giants for causing climate 'tragedy'

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

Five years ago, Superstorm Sandy ripped through the most populous city in the United States, spreading destruction fueled by climate change. Today, New York City's mayor said it was time to "break the cycle" by suing the culprits — fossil fuel companies. Story here.

As Climate Crisis Intensifies, $300+ Billion in Damages Makes 2017 Costliest Year Ever

Common

Dreams

Experts say this "historic and unprecedented year of disastrous extremes" reinforces "the fact that climate change is a threat to our health, and also a threat to our economy." More here.

Scientists warn of vanishing oxygen in oceans, including Canadian waters

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

A Mexican beach. PinP photo.

Almost two dozen marine scientists from around the world have issued a warning about an often-overlooked side effect of climate change and pollution. Story here.

New Study Showing Ozone Recovery Hailed as Model for Tackling Climate Crisis

Common

Dreams

"We see very clearly that chlorine from CFCs is going down in the ozone hole, and that less ozone depletion is occurring because of it." More here.

Corals are severely bleaching five times as often as in 1980

ScienceNews

Bleached coral off Florida. U.S. Geological Survey

Warming tropical waters are largely responsible, researchers say. Story here.

Are some Manitoba media stifling dissent on the hog barn issue? One activist speaks out.

John Fefchak of Virden (L.) has been a critic of the hog industry for years. An Air Force veteran now in his eighties, he writes many letters to the editor. They're often in a losing cause, and often at odds with the "pro-hog" editorial stance of many mainstream media. But neither circumstance nor time have deterred him. His letters drive home the wrong-headedness of politicians who "cheerlead" for an industry with so many downsides, including a propensity to pollute our precious waterways. Below is John's latest letter, telling of his experiences with the Sun, a daily newspaper in Brandon, Manitoba.  (PinP)

=======

Is The Brandon Sun Newspaper Applying a Double Standard?

On Nov. 14th, 2017, the Sun published yet another story about yet another hog producer complaining of being "hard done by." This after the Pallister government had already passed legislation recklessly slashing health and environmental protections, in order to pave the way for even more mega-barns. Still, the producer wasn't happy. He thought that legislation, which surely guarantees more pollution, more cruelty to animals and more disease among humans and animals alike, didn't go far enough. That's because a local council had the nerve to exercise some autonomy and turn down his own bid for a new barn.

But when I wrote a letter-to-the-editor to express these concerns, the editor informed me, it would not be published!

"It's not that we're not interested," he wrote. "But we are receiving far too many letters on one single issue to run. At some point, it becomes too much. I would really appreciate letters on other topics."

And that made me wonder, "Isn't that what Newspapers do...share the voice of the people?"

Personally, I have been writing letters to the Sun for nearly two decades. And editors I've dealt with up 'til now have always encouraged me to "keep writing." I believe my letters cover important issues like, animal stewardship, health, water, environment and future generations. 

Limiting letters from people like myself, while faithfully covering every burp and squeal from the pork industry, smacks of a double standard to me. Surely if their argument is, they're getting too many letters on one topic,...what about too much coverage from the Industry side?

After all, the Sun does advertise that it welcomes letters. Now, it seems to be saying something quite different...that freedom of expression just may be curtailed. 

And that's too bad.

John Fefchak,

Virden, MB

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Twenty-five percent of the earth could see a permanent drought by 2050

Nation of Change

If Earth’s temperature goes up by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, more than one-quarter of the world would live in a state of drought. Story here.




Parched ground in the southern US. 2011. Photo by Aljazeera English.