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Showing posts from May, 2021

Bees are dying from toxic chemicals and the feds won't save them.

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The National Observer A PinP photo. After years of review, Ottawa recently approved a common class of pesticides known to harm pollinators like bees and other insects. Story here. RELATED:  Plight of the Humble Bee. Canadian regulators refuse to protect precious pollinators from known toxins.

A serious disease of Chinook salmon, originating from fish farms in Norway, has now spread to wild salmon off the coast of BC: Study.

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University of British Columbia The Chinook salmon. Photo by Zureks. The virus known as PRV, is associated with kidney and liver damage in Chinook salmon.  A new study in Science Advances shows -- it's continually being transmitted between open-net salmon farms and wild juvenile Chinook salmon in British Columbia waters. The study traces its origins to Atlantic salmon farms in Norway and finds that the virus is now almost ubiquitous in salmon farms in B.C. It also shows that wild Chinook salmon are more likely to be infected with PRV the closer they are to salmon farms, which suggests farms transfer the virus to wild salmon. Genome sequencing of viruses from farms and wild fish further indicates that transmission occurs between farms and wild salmon. "Both our genomic and epidemiological methods independently came to the same conclusion, that salmon farms act as a source and amplifier of PRV transmission," said Dr. Gideon Mordecai, a viral ecologist and Liber Ero fellow wi

Advocates protest Manitoba's proposed 'ag-gag' bill which outlaws feeding animals during transport 


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CBC News Millions of sows like this spend much of their lives in tiny torture chambers, euphemistically called "gestation crates." A Mercy for Animals photo. Province says law addresses biosecurity concerns, but animal rights lawyer disputes that claim. Story here. RELATED: "Confronting blatant propaganda from Manitoba's industrial livestock sector."

Air pollution from farms leads to 17,900 U.S. deaths per year, study finds

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 The Washington Post A lagoon waste management system for a 900 head hog farm in Georgia.  Photo by Jeff Vanuga, USDA The first-of-its-kind report pinpoints meat production as the leading source of deadly pollution. Story here.

Deaths From Fossil Fuel Pollution Much Worse Than COVID-19

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Below 2C The Koch fertilizer plant in Brandon, Manitoba, CA has, since at least 2004, been listed by "Climate Change Connection" as the worst "large final emitter" in this province. “LFEs” are industries or landfills which spew at least 50 thousand tonnes of C02 equivalent into the air annually. Latest figs. show the Koch plant released almost 800 thousand tonnes in 2018. (A PinP  photo.) More people die every year from fossil fuel pollution than have died from COVID-19 since the outbreak in early 2020. According to new research, 8.7 million died prematurely in 2018—more than 18% of the entire global death toll for the year. And while the daily media coverage of the pandemic is on every news feed 24/7, pollution-caused deaths remain largely unnoticed. Details here.

CONFRONTING BLATANT PROPAGANDA FROM MANITOBA'S INDUSTRIAL PORK SECTOR .

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by Larry Powell I feel I must respond to a column now appearing in some weeklies in Manitoba, (See bottom)  “Agriculture, environment and animal care.” Cam Dahl, Apologist-in-Chief for Manitoba Pork. What a masterful piece of propaganda from Cam Dahl, GM of Manitoba Pork, the official mouthpiece of an industry that’s become a runaway train in this province!  He commits so many sins of omission, trying to convince us of the industry's environmental virtues, Lucifer himself must be blushing! For example; Recent tests done for the global c harity, World Animal Protection, have found “superbug” genes developing in waterways around large pig barns in this province.  This is huge. Why?  Because, while we already know people can ingest superbugs either by coming in close contact with infected animals or eating the meat, this surely reveals a previously unknown pathway these harmful organisms can follow to invade our lives.  It surely makes those who eat fish from the contaminated water

Sea level rise is rapid and unstoppable unless Paris Agreement targets met

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Nature Aggressive efforts to limit global warming will sharply reduce future sea-level rise,  suggests a paper published in Nature.  Icebergs in Sermilik Fjord, SE Greenland Credit: Donald Slater A second paper, also published in Nature, indicates that warming of 3 °C could cause sea level to increase by 0.5 cm every year by 2100 as a result of melting Antarctic land ice. The findings provide further insight into the impact of melting land ice on global sea-level rises. This animation shows the rate at which the ice thickness is changing in meters per year (more red/yellow means faster thinning and thus faster ice loss) as the Antarctic Ice Sheet responds to changes in the atmosphere and ocean due to one potential climate scenario. This simulation, using the BISICLES ice sheet model, represents one of hundreds of such simulations used for this work to characterize ice sheet response to changes in the climate. Credit: Daniel Martin and Courtney Shafer. Since 1993, land ice has contribu