Monday, December 31, 2018

Emissions impossible


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."


Saturday, December 29, 2018

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


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.

Friday, December 28, 2018

Industrial farms in Britain receive millions in subsidies

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 
-  


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


New York Times
Ordinary people suffer because of Trump's deference to powerful interests.
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..







Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Why I’m looking forward to my first vegan Christmas


The Guardian
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.

Saturday, December 22, 2018

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


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.

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

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

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.

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Private research funders court controversy with billions in secretive investments


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, 

Conscientious investments and the tar sands connection" 
l.p.




by Larry Powell

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


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

Saturday, December 8, 2018

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


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.

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

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


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.

Monday, December 3, 2018

Modern slavery promotes overfishing






Adaptation, speciation and extinction in the Anthropocene


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.

Sunday, December 2, 2018

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


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.

Later is too late’: seniors show up for climate across Canada

Canada's National Observer Seniors across Canada attended “rocking chair rallies,” marches, movie nights, town halls and other protests ...