A FORMER FEDERAL CLIMATE MINISTER GIVES US "THE STRAIGHT GOODS" ABOUT THE OIL INDUSTRY

 CANADA'S NATIONAL OBSERVER

This week, former federal climate minister  Catherine McKenna didn't mince words  about the fossil fuel industry's broken  promises. "Why does anyone think they'll uphold any  of their side of any bargain?" she told Canada's  National Observer in an exclusive interview ahead of  her memoir launch. Her warning comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney  pursues a $16.5 billion "grand bargain" with oil  companies – the same companies that encouraged  Liberal pipeline purchases, raked in "obscene" profits,  then abandoned their climate commitments. This is the kind of story you won't find elsewhere. We  sat down with McKenna to get the unvarnished truth  about climate policy failures, corporate promises, and  what's really happening behind closed doors in Ottawa. And we're not finished digging. Right now, you can get a full year of Canada's National  Observer for just $69.99 – that's 50% off our regular  price.

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A CANADIAN OIL COMPANY SKATES FROM ACCOUNTABILITY IN AFRICA

by Larry Powell

According to Canada's National Observer, complaints of human rights and environmental abuses against Calgary-based, Recon Africa, have been piling up, unheeded for almost a-year-&-a-half. Recon has been drilling for oil near a world-heritage, wildlife preserve in Namibia for some time now. 

The cheetah. Photo by shani.

It's an oasis for endangered wildlife such as cheetahs, white rhinoceros, lions and African elephants.

SOUL, a coalition including indigenous people living in that area, filed a 187-page complaint with the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) about 500 days ago now. Apparently the main reason it's being ignored is because the head position at CORE has been vacant for some time, and remains so today!

SOUL alleges the company has ignored the rights of community members there to health, water, food and adequate housing. It also claims, Indigenous rights of free, prior and informed consent to operations in their territory have been ignored, as well.

 “At a time when the Carney government is laser focused on becoming an energy superpower … it’s concerning that Canada's approach to promoting responsible business abroad has come to this.” Sandra Wisner, director of the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto.

RCMP informant's decades of spying on social reformers are chronicled in new book

YAHOO NEWS

Article chronicles startling revelations in                                    

 Denn Gruending'book, "A Communist for the RCMP."

Meet the groups spending the most on social media ads attacking the carbon tax

The Investigative Journalism Foundation

Despite its claims of being grassroots, Energy United has links to the largest fossil fuel industry advocacy group in the country. It's spending big on social media ads denouncing federal carbon pricing. Story here.

World's biggest meat firm, JBS, caught red-handed. (Video)

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

‘You can’t drink money’: Kootenay communities fight logging to protect their drinking water

The Narwhal

In Glade, BC, where clear-cutting could begin any day, determined residents are pulling out all the stops in an effort to protect their local creek — even though a judge ruled they have no right to clean water. Story here.

The south end of Kootenay Lk.
Photo by Shawn from Airdrie, Canada.

Replanting oil palm may be driving a second wave of biodiversity loss

PHYS ORG

A palm oil plantation in Malaysia,
poisoned to make way for new growth.
CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

The environmental impact of palm oil production has been well publicized. Found in everything from food to cosmetics, the deforestation, ecosystem decline and biodiversity loss associated with its use is a serious cause for concern. What many people may not know, however, is...story here.

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.

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..

Modern slavery promotes overfishing

More details here.

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The Olympics vs. the Wild Creatures of the Rainforests.

Rainforest Action Network

 The Borneo file-eared frog (Polypedates otilophus).

Photo by Charlels J. Sharp.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are likely built on the backs of endangered species. That’s because the very timber being used to build the Olympic venues is being sourced from Indonesia’s rainforests. So much for being “one of the most sustainable Olympics yet!” Details here.

"Manitoba doesn't need a carbon tax. We're already 'green!'" - Premier Brian Pallister.

by Larry Powell

Below is a copy of an e-mail I just sent to Chris Hall, host of the CBC Radio program, "The House." It concerns an interview he did this morning with Manitoba's Premier, Brian Pallister on the Premier's move to withdraw from the federal carbon tax plan. If you didn't hear it, Pallister announced to the world that a carbon tax is not needed in Manitoba because both he and his government are already green!

Manitoba Premier, Brian Pallister.

Photo by grainnews.ca

Hi Chris!

I'm a native Manitoban who has, as a journalist, researcher and citizen, long been immersed in the politics of this province. I could hear the lies dripping from Premier Pallister's mouth as you interviewed him on the carbon tax this morning.

His assertion that both he and Manitoba are already green, comes less than a year after his government slashed important legislation. It once provided us with a measure of health and environmental protection from the mass pollution created by this province's already large "factory hog" industry. 

And, despite a wealth of science that shows the harm this industry has, for years, inflicted on our water, soil and air, countless new mega-barns are going up as we speak. Predictably, this is also being accompanied by a growing swell of complaints from rural residents whose solitude, privacy and property values are being invaded, not only by the stench from the barns and the disease-carrying manure being spread widely on food crops, but from dust and noise from huge semi-trailers rumbling along, nearby. 

Don't forget, animal agriculture is a significant contributor to the climate crisis, which was, after all, the topic at hand. It produces copious amounts of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than the most common one, carbon dioxide. 

Not surprisingly, under the guise of "investments" or "loans" (which may not be loans at all, but outright grants), this expanding industry is being "helped along" with generous dollops of our tax dollars. In what alternate universe could this possibly be considered a "polluter pay" policy?

Pallister's hidebound ideology - that we must have growth at all costs - and that most regulations amount to nothing more than "red tape" - amounts to contempt for his own citizens and an insult to our intelligence. 

Lake Winnipeg and other important waterways in this province have, for years, been so overgrown with algae (much of it the toxic "blue-green" kind), they can be seen from space! Does anyone in her right mind believe that massive industry expansion will make these problems anything but worse?

If Pallister had boasted that his province was not really green but "blue-green" he would have been closer to the truth!

Larry Powell

Shoal Lk. MB!

Busted! Citizens' group exposes Illegal hog operation in Manitoba. Few consequences likely for barn owner.(Video)

Read an alternative version here. Also....

"In Hogs We Trust."  

A critique of Manitoba’s “runaway” hog industry.

Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse.

Part 11 - The price we pay for corporate pig$. 

Part 111 - From Malaysia to Manitoba - the global magnitude of livestock diseases.

Part 1V - The health and environmental costs of an expanded hog industry.

Part V - What’s behind Manitoba’s drive to expand? 

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.

World's Biggest Brands Are Pushing Indonesia's Endangered Wildlife to Extinction

EcoWatch

An ancient Indonesian rainforest, home to elephants, orangutans, tigers and rhinos, is being destroyed by industries which extract products such as palm oil. Story here.

A Sumatran tiger. Dick Mudde.

Exxon Loses Appeal to Keep Auditor Records Secret in Climate Fraud Investigation

 inside

climate

 news

The documents, held by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, could provide a glimpse into the oil giant's calculations of the business risks posed by climate change. Story here.

Pipeline leaks more than 70 thousand litres of crude oil onto Oklahoma farmland

Nation of Change

Plains All American Pipeline has been behind at least 25 pipeline incidents in the state of Oklahoma since 2004, with more than half of them due to corrosion. Story here.

Trump sued over Keystone XL pipeline

Nation of Change

"We cannot stand by and allow oil and gas companies to ruin our climate and pollute our land, water and sacred cultural sites." Story here.

St. Boniface residents say metal shredder is polluting air, harming health

CBCnews

Province says neighbourhood is safe, but residents and environmental researcher disagree. Story here.

How Protecting Native Forests Cost a Southeast Asian Activist His Life

YaleEnvironment360

Logging in Malaysia. Photo credit: Stephen Codrigtonn

Malaysian activist Bill Kayong fought to save native forest lands from logging and oil palm development. Like a troubling number of environmental campaigners around the world, he paid for it with his life. Second in a series.

Stop Trump From "Blessing" a "Marriage" (between Monsanto and Bayer) Made in Hell. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION!

AVAAZ

This is urgent! Trump is ready to bless a merger between chemical giants Monsanto and Bayer to create a $100 billion agribusiness beast designed to dominate our earth's food system. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION!!!