New Meta data centre could add up to $460 a year to Albertans’ electricity bills due to government policy

New Meta data centre could add up to $460 a year to Albertans' 

electricity bills due to government policy. Story here.

Lights! Camera! Action! Roll the Data Centre Sell Job!

The Tyee

Alberta Premier, Danielle Smith.

Notes on Premier Smith’s video attempt to reassure Albertans that AI tycoons are everybody’s friends. Story here.

Canada Just Cleared the Way to Bulldoze the Amazon for Gold

Indigenous Insider

A Canadian mining company just beat an Indigenous lawsuit on a technicality — days after Ottawa gutted its own corporate watchdog. Story here.

Feds race to destroy key organic research fields

Canada's National Observer

A field of certified organic potatoes in Manitoba. A PinP photo.

Field crews at the federal agricultural research station in Swift Current, Sask. have destroyed Canada's only public organic research plots and are planning to plant the fields with non-organic wheat seed. Story here.

WORDS WORTH HEEDING - THE IDIOCY OF CLIMATE DENIAL

The Tyee

"The atmosphere does not negotiate. It operates on known laws and properties of physics and chemistry. Either we reduce emissions or we do not. Either we meet our emissions targets or we do not. Either our elected representatives respond to the issue of our time — or they do not. If not now, when? Our house is on fire. 'Pragmatic' is putting the fire out. Fossil-fuel expansion and new pipelines are not 'pragmatic' politics — just plain lunacy. What could be more pragmatic than basing climate policy on the best available science? What could be less pragmatic than letting fossil-fuelled denialism determine climate policy?"

Canada's Deregulation Agenda is Putting Its Own Citizens at Risk

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives 

Dismantling regulatory capacity and privatizing state infrastructure leads to disaster. Story here.

Even Harper ‘Did Not Put Extinction on the Table'

The Tyee

    Carney’s proposal to allow major projects that threaten species at risk is ‘morally wrong,’ former environment minister says.   Details here.

Alberta scraps environmental assessment for Kevin O'Leary's 'world's largest' data centre

Canada's National Observer 

Danielle with her "besties," Donald 
and Kevin.

Danielle Smith's government is exempting celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary's massive Wonder Valley data centre near Grand Prairie, AB, from a provincial environmental assessment, Canada's National Observer has learned. Story here.

AI minister meets with mining, energy companies on environment impacts — not green groups.

                             Canada’s National Observer

Chat GPT generated this image, representing AI.
No humans are present.
Author: Alenoach.

Canada's AI Minister Evan Solomon has met with energy and mining companies about the environmental impacts of AI infrastructure, but no environmental organizations, according to documents tabled in the House of Commons. Story here. 

THE LAMENT OF A FAMED SCIENTIST

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

“I thought I’d spend my entire career working at this wonderful place. But I never expected that science itself would come under attack, simply because it—like journalism, history, and even the best kind of art—is a way of seeking the truth. I’m leaving because I want to tell the truth.” 

Famed climate scientist Kate Marvel on why she resigned from NASA, amid federal government turmoil and funding challenges. 

Carney government could face legal challenges on climate

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
A publlic domain photo.

Canada's National Observer

Prime Minister Mark Carney's push for new fossil fuel infrastructure and rollback of climate policies could expose Ottawa to legal battles on several fronts, legal experts warn.. Story here.

LNG carbon bomb tops Carney’s list of major projects

Canada's National Observer

A major carbon bomb sits atop Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first tranche of major projects, sparking backlash from environmental and Indigenous communities who say that doubling down on liquified natural gas is placing a dangerous bet on Canada’s future. Story here.

Ottawa to invest in biofuel production

Manitoba Co-Operator

Carney announces $370 million to biofuel production. 

Story here.

ANOTHER ANGRY BLOGGER RANT

 If our current crop of political leaders at all levels (Liz May excepted), is intentionally setting out to poke the gods of climate calamity with a stick - it couldn’t be doing a better job! In a grotesque display of either “eco-stupidity” or “climate illiteracy,” it’s gleefully setting out to turn (or burn) Canada into “an energy superpower!” That’s eerily identical to the goal uttered by Stephen “climate change is a Socialist plot” Harper more than a decade ago. And it’s all under the phoney guise of “nation-building.” These poor sods either don’t know, or care, that you can’t gain an upper hand on the climate beast by unleashing evermore greenhouse emissions into our air. And the main opposition voice federally, isn’t speaking out AGAINST these abominations, but going to bat for the gasoline car instead. As for our newly-minted PM, who’s shown loudly and clearly on the public stage he understands that climate change is "an existential threat," must not be acting out of ignorance or stupidity now, but rather with downright malice aforethought. When you think about it, what could go wrong when we elect a world banker as our leader? Perhaps the saying, “at least the Tories stab you from the front,” is true, after all.) In any case, if any of them love their children, they have an odd way of showing it.

Larry Powell

SHOAL LK MB

FEDS SPEND MILLIONS ON RESEARCH INTO WILDFIRES! (VIDEO)

By Larry Powell.

This is the email I sent to government officials in Manitoba, informing them of my new book which had already been up on line for weeks.

"Dear Premier Wab Kinew and Honourable Ministers, please download my new book,'The Merchants of Menace. How Puppets in Government and Some in Academe are Helping Corporate Hog Producers Have Their Way in Manitoba, Canada. A Tragedy.' This is a work of non-fiction. So please bring any inaccuracies to my attention and they will be corrected. If no substantive mistakes can be found, I expect a donation. Thank you for your interest."

In addition to the Premier, I copied several Ministers, including Ag., Health & Environment. That was over a month ago. So far, stony silence - no corrections and no donations!

Silly me! I forgot! POLITICIANS DON'T READ!

Why does Alberta yearn for the coal mines?

Canada's National Observer

This is how corporate bullies get their way. Alberta’s energy regulator last week approved coal exploration plans by Australian-based Northback Holdings on Grassy Mountain in the Crowsnest Pass region. The approval came after a consortium of powerful coal mining companies sued the Alberta government for more than $15 billion over losses they claim were incurred when the province imposed a mining moratorium in the area. Northback is not part of the joint lawsuit, but it too filed a claim against the Alberta government that will be heard separately. Story here.

Why Now is the Best Time to Reform Fossil Fuel Subsidies

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

A PinP photo.

With the current drop in the price of oil, now is an ideal moment to scale back subsidies with minimal disruption to households and industries. Story here.

Did Danielle Smith lobby the U.S. to help Pierre Poilievre? Sure looks like it

The Globe and Mail

Did Danielle Smith lobby the U.S. to help Pierre Poilievre? Sure looks like it. Story here.

Elon Musk responds to allegations he made a Nazi salute at the Trump inauguration.

Please click here for video.