Ex-Nasa scientist: 30 years on, world is failing 'miserably’ to address climate change

The Guardian

James Hansen, who gave a climate warning in 1988 Senate testimony, says real hoax is by leaders claiming to take action. More here.

Britain's biggest butterfly threatened by rising seas

The Guardian

New charity warns Britain’s largest butterfly could be lost within four decades as rising seas turn its habitat into saltmarsh. More here.

Another kind of  swallowtail in Manitoba, CA. A PinP photo.

Wood Buffalo: Canada’s largest national park and its people in peril

The Narwhal

American White Pelicans at the Rapids of the Drowned, Wood Buffalo Park. Photo by Ansgar Walk.

International officials are warning the Canadian government not enough is being done to protect the Peace-Athabasca delta — one of the world’s largest freshwater inland deltas — from the ravages of ongoing industrial development. More here.

Deepwater Horizon disaster altered building blocks of ocean life

The Guardian

Oil spill disaster reduced biodiversity in sites closest to spill, report finds, as White House rolls back conservation measures. More here.

In a High-Stakes Environmental Whodunit, Many Clues Point to China

The New York Times

 The largest Antarctic ozone hole ever recorded on September 24, 2006. NASA.

Last month, scientists disclosed a global pollution mystery: a surprise rise in emissions of an outlawed industrial gas that destroys the atmosphere’s protective ozone layer. More here.

Palm oil ‘disastrous’ for wildlife but here to stay, experts warn

The Guardian

The deforestation it causes is decimating species such as orangutans and tigers - but the alternatives could be worse, finds authoritative report. More here.

Pikas in Peril

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Photo by Rémi Bigonneau

UBC scientists say mammal threatened by climate change. More here.

BP Canada spews thousands of litres of toxic mud during offshore drilling incident near Halifax

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

BP Canada has spewed out 136,000 litres of a toxic mud into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Halifax during deepwater offshore exploratory oil drilling, a federal regulator says. More here.

The Natural Gas Industry Has a Leak Problem

The New York Times

Fracking in the Bakken formation of North Dakota. Photo by Joshua Doubek

The American oil and gas industry is leaking more methane than the government thinks — much more, a new study says. Since methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, that is bad news for climate change. More here.

Canadian scientists discover Neonics are being ingested by free-ranging animals

Science News.

A pair of wild turkeys in Manitoba. A PinP photo.

Researchers at the University of Guelph, Ontario have found residues of the insecticides in the livers of wild turkeys, providing evidence that this common agrochemical is being ingested by free-ranging animals. More here.

Canadian study finds a pesticide-free way to combat mosquitos and West Nile

UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

Researchers at the University of Waterloo may have discovered a new, pesticide-free way to limit mosquito populations in some area and reduce the spread of the West Nile virus. Story here.

A more detailed version of this study can be found here.

Toxic legacy of Giant Mine found in snowshoe hares

TheNarwhal

Researchers find arsenic levels in animals living near mine 20 to 50 times greater than those living away from it. More here.

African Swine Fever could be in Germany in 4 years

PIG PROGRESS

A research team has concluded that the viral disease - often considered the most deadly of all hog infections - spreads west at a speed of around 200 km per year. More here.

The ear of an infected hog. ASF causes a condition called petechia - red or purple splotches due to bleeding into the skin. Photo credit - USDA

RELATED: "In Hogs We Trust" - Part 3 - The consequences of animal diseases, worldwide.

Diversion tactics: how big pharma is muddying the waters on animal antibiotics

The Guardian

Antibiotic use on farms is a major cause of human drug resistance. Yet slick social media campaigns – funded by the multi-billion-dollar industry – are confusing and complicating the issue. Story here.

A Canstock Photo image.

Hog Watch Manitoba Exposes the Heavy Hand of Government. (An audio podcast interview)

 Alon Olamel Onebird, host of the program "Rogue Primate" on CKUW - University of Winnipeg Radio - interviews Ruth Pryzner of Hog Watch Manitoba, about the tactics being used by our provincial government in order to secure the financial success of big hog corporations.

Greenpeace Film (on ocean pollution) to be shown at special Winnipeg Screening

Larry,

Never has our blue planet been more under threat. 

And never before have we had a better sense of what's at stake. Come watch the latest film that will captivate and motivate you to join a global movement working to save our oceans.

Greenpeace Canada is sponsoring a special Winnipeg screening of BLUE — the critically-acclaimed and award-winning documentary film which takes you deep into our planet’s threatened oceans and seas. 

This one-night-only screening is an on-demand event. It only takes place if 50 tickets are sold. Reserve your spot now — and portion of ticket sales will go towards supporting Greenpeace's vital work to protect our oceans and the planet. 

WHAT: Special screening of BLUE — an award-winning documentary film

WHEN: Monday 25th June, 7pm

WHERE: Cineplex Odeon McGillivray Cinemas (2190 McGillivray Blvd, Winnipeg, MB, R3Y 1S6)

HOW: Tickets are $14.50 and you can order yours here

Environmentalists accuse B.C. government of fudging the numbers to log some of the world's biggest trees

NATIONAL OBSERVER

Environmentalists have accused the B.C. government of lying about the amount of majestic, centuries-old trees left standing in the province. Story here.

An 800 year-old Douglas-fir near Port Alberni, 
BC Photo by Gillian (EverySpoon)

This is Giant Mine

TheNarwhal 

Giant Mine - 2008. Photo by WinterCity296 WinterforceMedia

This gold mine was once so dangerous that it killed a toddler who ate snow two kilometres away. Canada’s second-largest environmental liability is inside Yellowknife city limits — and intrinsically tied to the city’s history and future. The federal government has now inherited the billion-dollar cleanup effort that could span a century. More here.

Climate change is wiping out the baobab, Africa’s ‘tree of life’

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim - the Guardian

The trees are a scientific wonder, once capable of living for thousands of years, but now becoming endangered species. Story here.

Boab trees. photo by ChatDaniels

Three trillion tonnes of ice lost from Antarctica since 1992

Nature Research Press

Antarctic ice. Photo by Greenpeace

The Antarctic Ice Sheet lost about 3 trillion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2017. This figure corresponds to a mean sea-level rise of about 8 millimetres. While it could take a thousand years for a total "meltdown," all of Antarctica’s ice sheets, contain enough water to raise global sea level by 58 metres. So they're a key indicator of climate change and driver of sea-level rise. See video, below.


RELATED: Antarctic ice melting faster than thought, studies show.

Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future - a new book by Edward Struzik

The Science Writers and Communicators of Canada is pleased to announce the winners of this year's book awards for books published in 2017.  The winner in the general audience category  is Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future by Edward Struzik.

A summary.

For two months in the spring of 2016, the world watched as wildfire ravaged the Canadian town of Fort McMurray. Firefighters named the fire “the Beast.” It acted like a mythical animal, alive with destructive energy, and they hoped never to see anything like it again. Yet it’s not a stretch to imagine we will all soon live in a world in which fires like the Beast are commonplace. A glance at international headlines shows a remarkable increase in higher temperatures, stronger winds, and drier lands– a trifecta for igniting wildfires like we’ve rarely seen before.

This change is particularly noticeable in the northern forests of the United States and Canada. These forests require fire to maintain healthy ecosystems, but as the human population grows, and as changes in climate, animal and insect species, and disease cause further destabilization, wildfires have turned into a potentially uncontrollable threat to human lives and livelihoods.

Our understanding of the role fire plays in healthy forests has come a long way in the past century. Despite this, we are not prepared to deal with an escalation of fire during periods of intense drought and shorter winters, earlier springs, potentially more lightning strikes and hotter summers. There is too much fuel on the ground, too many people and assets to protect, and no plan in place to deal with these challenges.

In Firestorm, journalist Edward Struzik visits scorched earth from Alaska to Maine, and introduces the scientists, firefighters, and resource managers making the case for a radically different approach to managing wildfire in the 21st century. Wildfires can no longer be treated as avoidable events because the risk and dangers are becoming too great and costly. Struzik weaves a heart-pumping narrative of science, economics, politics, and human determination and points to the ways that we, and the wilder inhabitants of the forests around our cities and towns, might yet flourish in an age of growing megafires.

Edward Struzikhas been writing about scientific and environmental issues for more than 30 years. A fellow at the Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, his numerous accolades include the prestigious Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy and the Sir Sandford Fleming Medal, awarded for outstanding contributions to the understanding of science. In 1996 he was awarded the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and spent a year at Harvard and MIT researching environment, evolutionary biology, and politics with E.O. Wilson, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin. His 2015 book, Future Arctic, focuses on the effects of climate change in the Canadian Arctic and the impacts they will have on rest of the world. His other books include Arctic Icons, The Big Thaw, and Northwest Passage. He is an active speaker and lecturer, and his work as a regular contributor to Yale Environment 360 covers topics such as the effects of climate change and fossil fuel extraction on northern ecosystems and their inhabitants. He is on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, a citizens’ organization dedicated to the long-term environmental and social well-being of northern Canada and its peoples. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

If you want to buy the book, click here.
Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future by Edward Struzik

Opposition Member of Parliament accuses Canada of buying 'lemon' from Kinder Morgan after estimated size of oil spill multiplies by 48 times

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

The "Kinder Morgan police" arrest those who protest against the project. Photo by Mark Klotz

NDP MP Nathan Cullen is accusing the Trudeau government of buying "the biggest lemon in Canadian history," after a dramatic revision of the estimated size of an oil spill that occurred right before it announced a $4.5 billion deal to buy the pipeline involved in the incident. More here.

Ocean Conservation Is an Untapped Strategy for Fighting Climate Change

WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE

Mangroves in Benin. Such vegetation provides an important 

buffer from the ravages of ocean storms and currents. Photo credit - Ji-Elle. 

The ocean contributes $1.5 trillion annually to the overall economy and assures the livelihood of 10-12 percentof the world’s population. But there’s another reason to protect marine ecosystems—they’re crucial for curbing climate change. More here.

Taxpayers Still Shelling Out Billions Annually in Fossil Fuel Subsidies

EcoWatch

The world's richest countries continue to subsidize at least $100 billion a year in subsidies for the production and use of coal, oil and gas, despite repeated pledges to phase out fossil fuels by 2025. More here.



Alberta's tar sands. Photo by Howl Arts Collective

A "Goldilocks World" for Disease? Climate Change Threatens to Make Things "Just Right" for a Dangerous Bug in Even More of Canada!

by Larry Powell

The culprit is the common wood tick (D. variabilis), also known as the American dog tick. Its range already sprawls across central and eastern North American, from the Gulf of Mexico to southern Canada. It carries diseases that make both people and animals sick.

These include the human ailments of Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever and a parasitic disease that kills domesticated cats.

The common wood tick, also American dog tick.

(Dermacentor variabilis) Benjamin Smith - USA.

But the present range of the ticks may be nothing compared to what the future might hold. 

A Canadian research paper just published in ScienceDirect, predicts climate change could actually shrink the southern reaches of the tick’s range. But overall, the news is not good. The climate could well become “just right” for the bug, in an area of this continent that is, by 2070, larger by half than it is now! This could include a northward expansion in Canada. 

The study concludes, "Due to the ability of D. variabilis to harbour and transmit pathogens, a change in the distribution of this species could also affect the risk of human and animal diseases throughout North America, particularly in the northern range of the tick (Canada) The research was conducted by a team of four scientists from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

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Oil may be Canada's past, but we cannot let it be our future

David Suzuki - The Guardian

Pipes loaded on a train in Manitoba. A PinP photo. 

There's a lot of fear around abandoning an industry that has been an economic driver for decades - yet the rest of the world is moving on. More here.

Underreporting of toxic waste at American hog farms prompts inquiry

The Guardian

Testing of 55 North Carolina lagoons showed large discrepancies in levels of key pollutants compared to what was self-reported. More here.

Hog lagoons in Iowa. 

Photo credit - USDA

Japan kills pregnant whales in the name of "research," Video. (Viewer discretion advised.)

In Hogs We Trust - Part V

               

GUARDIAN LINK; 

This is hardly the first body of research pointing to the hazards of red meat consumption. As the respected Worldwatch Institute concluded some years ago, "The amount of meat in people’s diets has an impact on human health. Eaten in moderation, meat is an important source of iron, zinc, and three vitamins. But a diet high in red and processed meats can lead to a host of health problems, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer."

So our ruling politicians can hardly plead ignorant of the downsides. And now, even less so. This newest study in the Journal Science, the most comprehensive of its kind yet, takes a step beyond past findings."Most strikingly, impacts of (even) the lowest-impact animal products typically exceed those of vegetable substitutes, providing new evidence for the importance of dietary change."

The research concludes that meat and dairy provide only18% of the calories and 37% of the protein we consume. Yet they require 83% of the farmland and produce 60% of all farm greenhouse gases. 

So, what's with this rush to expand, anyway?

*Confidential briefing notes to the Manitoba cabinet last fall, obtained by Planet in Peril, expose just where the push for industry expansion is coming from.

Was it coming from the Chamber of Commerce? Organized labour? Consumers? Grassroots voters?

Not really.

“Construction and expansion of existing pig operations,” the notes reveal, “are necessary to ensure an adequate supply of hogs to the Maple Leaf and HyLife slaughter facilities.”   


In other words, two big and already-prosperous Canadian food companies needed the government to help them find more pigs, so they could meet presumably spiralling global orders for pork (and fatten their bottom lines at the same time).

According to the notes, "Manitoba processors have indicated there's a 1.8 million pig shortage in slaughter capacity...this is equal to 285 new feeder barns and 1.8 million more hogs each year." 

And, either through blissful ignorance or willful blindness of the massive harm mega-livestock operations have long been shown to cause, worldwide (please read my series, “In Hogs We Trust,” see links, below), the Pallister government now appears to be giving Maple Leaf and HyLife pretty much all they want!

So, are these food processing companies really “in need?”


In its latest annual report, Maple Leaf describes 2017 as a “pivotal year.” Its adjusted operating earnings of $263.8 million were "well ahead of 2016." It completed the year with $203 million in cash. Shareholders were rewarded with $57 million in dividend payments, up 17% from the previous year. And its year-over-year share price increased 27%, outstripping the stock market, overall, by a factor of more than four to one.

And, with taxpayers' help, HyLife has just completed a $176 million expansion of its killing plant in Neepawa. In an industry newsletter, the company says it is now “processing about 6,800 hogs per day on a 5-day week, and with the new expansion, the goal is to get to 7,500 per day or just under 2 million pigs a year.” HyLife grossed $80 million in sales to China since breaking into that market in 2008. It also boasts of being Canada’s largest pork processing plant and now, “the number one exporter of ‘fresh chilled pork’ to Japan, returning $ 200 million worth of sales from the Japanese market annually.” 

The Japanese corporation, Itochu owns almost half of the HyLife operation. It's described as "a general trading company," second only in size to the giant, Mitsubishi. 

Since the vast majority of products from Maple Leaf and HyLife are being exported, could we ordinary Manitobans be forgiven for asking, to what degree should we be expected to place the quality of our air, water and soil at risk here at home, just to guarantee corporate success “over there?”

Are all sectors of the hog industry doing this well?

Figures from the Manitoba Pork Council itself, show the answer to that is “no.” The Council’s “cost of production summary” from 2009 to 2018 (l.), shows producers who’ve been finishing animals for slaughter, actually suffered net losses in seven of those ten years! They ranged from almost $10 per pig in 2012 to almost $20 in ’09. Even during the three money-making years, profits-per-pig ranged from just over $5 so far this year, to a razor-thin .41 cents last year!

As Ruth Pryzner, a small-scale hog producer, member of Hogwatch Manitoba and long-time critic of industrial pork production puts it, “Why would any intelligent farmer want to invest in an industry where hog finisher/producers lose that kind of money?”

Is further environmental degradation already on the horizon?


Last fall, the ruling Conservatives did away with the requirement that new hog barns include anaerobic digesters, or "ADs" (considered the "Cadillac" of devices to clean up livestock waste). They use microbes in the absence of oxygen to sanitize the waste and transform its vast methane emissions into usable power. 

A joint study by Manitoba Hydro and Manitoba Agriculture, found that ADs (rumoured to cost about $1 million each) were “not economically feasible” here. Yet, south of the border, the story is different. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, by the end of 2014, almost 250 such digesters were operating there. While most were on dairy farms, about 38 were being used on hog operations.

And the Agency's assessment of their benefits, seems to paint a “win-win” picture.

•                ADs reduce odours by 95%;

•                turn slurry (animal waste mixed with water) into an almost pathogen-free product;

•                lower pesticide expenses because of reduced fly hatching;

•                and capture methane to generate green renewable energy that the farm can use as an energy source:

Somehow, all these positive outcomes have fallen on deaf ears in Manitoba. In this province, the "Johnny One-Notes" in the government and the industry see the world through one lens only - dollars.

In the confidential cabinet documents obtained by Planet in Peril,  anaerobic digesters or even other pollution control devices that might work as well, are considered "excessive, expensive and unfavourable economiic impacts for the pig industry."

While ADs are no long required in Manitoba, they’re not forbidden, either. Yet not one new hog barn proponent - apparently with lots of money to throw around otherwise - seems to have stepped up to volunteer to build one! 

Does this match the corporate rhetoric?

Here is what the CEO of Maple Leaf, Michael McCain, says in his latest annual report.

“We pursue a Better Planet by dramatically reducing our environmental footprint, recognizing that this is an area of high impact across our supply chain and core to our vision. We have publicly committed to cutting our emissions and energy use, our water usage and our waste by at least 50% by 2025 – and we are tracking well ahead of that goal.”

While Maple Leaf gets most of its hogs from independent producers, 40% are raised in its own barns. None of the existing ones are equipped with digesters. And, if any new Maple Leaf barns on the drawing board are set to include them, it's been a well-kept secret, so far.

Recently, the sole owner of the Canmark hog operation near Roblin, announced a 14 million dollar expansion. While promising it would continue to be “environmentally friendly,” there was not a whisper of an AD there, either.

HyLife will build more than a dozen new barns on four sites near Killarney, alone. Any ADs planned there? It doesn't seem so.

So, where does this leave us? Without a single working anaerobic digester on any farm in all of the province. Nor is there likely to be one for some time to come - if ever.  Instead, Manitoba seems willing to settle for cheap, old-fashioned earthen manure lagoons prone to leakage, the kind that already litter the province.  

This is a legacy the Pallister regime needs to to “wear” - and not with distinction.

And now, Bill 19!

Just when critics were thinking the government couldn’t be more Draconian, along comes ”Bill 19 - the Planning Amendment Act (Improving efficiency in planning),”

Despite an online petition by Hogwatch Manitoba, signed by almost 18 thousand people demanding it be withdrawn, Bill 19 has just been passed into law by the majority Conservative government.

As Ruth Pryzner warns, unless all rural municipalities are vigilant, and choose within a year to retain local control, Bill 19 will actually weaken the ability of their own ratepayers to appeal zoning by-laws. And there will be no process through which to object to new barn or expansion proposals in their neighbourhoods. 

The Bill will accomplish this by scrapping what used to be a mandatory public hearing process called Conditional Use. Once it is gone, RMs could be seduced into giving away the power to decide if a particular site is acceptable. They would no longer be able to make owners cover manure storage lagoons and plant shelter belts for odour control, or require hog factories to pay for road-building and maintenance!

Pryzner says all of this threatens to “open municipalities up to uncontrolled and unlimited livestock growth. It changes the rules so that 25 people have to make formal objections to zoning by-laws to get a Municipal Board review. Immigrants and permanent residents are disqualified from participating. Imagine not being able to say anything about decisions that could harm your investment in a home, farm and community?

“If the hog industry and government get their way,” she predicts, “Rural people could wake up one morning to find a factory hog barn next door and there will be nothing they can say or do about it.”

In a classic display of political double-speak, the government claims its Bill will “enhance fair say for municipalities.”

Some 16 years ago, I personally protested when Canmark Family Farms and the local council tried - through a sadly secretive process - to set up a network of factory barns near Roblin, where I lived. It was partly because of that “conditional use process,” our citizens’ group was able to be heard. And the proposed project moved to another location.

The legacy of factory farming everywhere, is fraught with community discord and division. The actions of the Pallister government now seem about to inflict more of the same. Even in the past several months, since it began relaxing provincial rules, a project in the RM of Woodlands was abandoned due to “public conflict.” And the municipal council in Oakview denied a 6,000 feeder pig project due to “public pressure.” 

Sadly, the torrent of applications for new barns now pouring in, and being approved, promises to be nothing less than a recipe for even more unrest here in rural Manitoba in the years ahead.

Is “hidebound” political ideology playing a role here?

                                                                                                                                                           Since Brian Pallister and his government came to office in 2016, one could, with some justification,  describe their policies as “ultra-conservative.” Despite the tragedy concerning the rail line to Churchill, washed out by extreme flooding and still not fixed, they've resisted a carbon tax (widely viewed as the most effective way of battling climate change). They've also taken a hard line on labour negotiations and health care costs, sold off crown assets and pretty much given up the very concept of "conservation," replacing it with a department formally called "Sustainable Development." 

And, on hog barn expansion, Pallister could well be playing from the songbook of Donald Trump himself. Both men seem to view any kind of regulation, (from the red tape variety to the enlightened kinds that can and do protect you and me from the excesses of corporations) with a knee-jerk hostility. Trump is convinced climate change is a Chinese plot. Pallister treats it as some sort of abstract threat and has come up with a lame "made-in-Manitoba" solution that gives the agriculture sector, a major player in greenhouse gas production, pretty much a free pass.

Trump even issued an executive order some time ago, requiring that, for every new regulation issued, at least two old ones be identified for elimination! (Not much room for the merit system here!) And, if any regulation is deemed to be doing something other than greasing the wheels of corporate friends, it's future looks grave, indeed! 

Are there similar trends here at home? Consider Pallister's Bills 19 and 21 and decide for yourself!

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Footnote: I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian. But I do believe it's important to listen to the voices of science, even when they may be telling us what we don't want to hear. I'm a strong believer in compromise. So I try not to eat meat in excess. Neither do I believe it is helpful to flaunt being a carnivore as if it were a badge of honour or proof of one's masculinity. It's not. 

And my faith in humanity is restored when I see small-scale, family owned livestock operations which are operating as part of the solution, not part of the problem. The world needs more of them. l.p. 

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In Hogs We Trust?

An in-depth series, critiquing Manitoba’s ambitious plans to expand industrial hog production.

by Larry Powell

Part 1

Could the Manitoba government’s return to a deregulated hog industry actually contribute to a world health crisis?

Part 11

The Price Taxpayers Pay For Corporate Hog$

Part 111

The devastating consequences of livestock diseases, worldwide.

Part 1V

The environmental price of intensive livestock operations.

Part V

What’s behind the push by the Manitoba government to dramatically expand the hog industry?

A rebuttal to the findings in "Science" from the International Livestock Research Institute in Africa. 

Related: "New Research Confirms the Common Fly Spreads Serious Hog Diseases. Is Manitoba's Industry Doing Enough to Prevent Them?"

*