Dow moving ahead with Enlist corn in Canada despite US setback

AgroNews

Dow AgroSciences is moving ahead with plans for Enlist corn in Canada, despite a significant regulatory setback in the United States. More here.

How palm oil cultivation in Borneo is threatening the ecosystem everywhere

The Washington Post

Ahead of the Paris Sustainable Innovation Forum, COP21, taking place this month, In Sight spoke with wildlife photographer and filmmaker Mattias Klum, who will be among the many conservationists and activists speaking on environmental issues that threaten the Earth’s ecosystem. Klum has traversed the world as a photographer and filmmaker for National Geographic, documenting ecosystems from the Galapagos to the Okavango Delta in Botswana. But he believes that one of the Earth’s most pressing environmental concerns is palm oil cultivation in Indonesia and Malaysia, illustrated here in his stunning series of photographs. More here.

The Coming Climate Revolt

OpEd News - Chris Hedges

We have undergone a transformation during the last few decades -- what John Ralston Saul calls a corporate coup d'etat in slow motion. We are no longer a capitalist democracy…Story here.

Let's Kill Off the Most Criminal Corporation in the World

Hey wild one,

The next issue of Adbusters, hitting newsstands worldwide in a couple of weeks, is our CORPO issue. It asks this one profound question: in the age of Citizens United, can civil society — we, the people — still work up some leverage over corporate power?

Legal Expert Warns Canada-EU Trade Agreement Could Damage Sovereignty

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

The draft agreement "will provide foreign investors into Canada with the most investor-friendly set of corporate rights ever drafted by the Canadian government into a treaty. " Full story here.

IISD legal expert, Howard Mann

"Nobody Understands" Spills at Alberta Oil Sands Operation

TheStar

Oil spills at a major oil sands operation in Alberta have been ongoing for at least six weeks and have cast doubts on the safety of underground extraction methods, according to documents obtained by the Star and a government scientist who has been on site. Full story here.

World’s Largest Pork Producer Could be Sold to a Chinese Company

Grist - a beacon in the smog

In Smithfield, Va., on Wednesday, locals were shocked to discover that their town’s namesake, Smithfield Foods, founded in 1936 as a single meatpacking plant and now the largest pork producer in the world, is poised to be sold to Chinese meat company Shuanghui International. If approved by federal regulators, the $4.7 billion deal would be the biggest takeover in history of an American company by a Chinese one. Details here.

Chile Fines Barrick Gold $16m for Pascua-Lama Mine

BBC News

Chilean authorities have fined the world's largest gold mining company, Barrick Gold Corp. of CANADA, more than $16m for environmental offences. Details here.

PLT: A fine, Canadian "role-model" for the world - poisoning Earth for profit and bling!

Rallying Cry: Citizens Worldwide to Unite in 'March Against Monsanto'

Common Dreams

Dr. Vandana Shiva: "The March against Monsanto is a call to end the dictatorship over seeds, over life, over food and over our freedom." Details here.

'Monsanto Protection Act' Repeal Effort Officially Backed By Sen. Jeff Merkley

Huffington Post

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) confirmed on Sunday that he is proposing an amendment to the upcoming farm bill that would eliminate the "Monsanto Protection Act." Details here.
Related: Monsanto Protection Act May Soon be Repealed, Thanks to Activism.

There Is No Point At Which Those Who Accumulate Money Become Satisfied.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 6th May 2013.

“I never did anything for money. I never set money as a goal. It was a result.”(1) So says Bob…Full story here. 

Should Capital Punishment be Applied in the Bangladeshi Garment Tragedy?

by Larry Powell

I don't believe in capital punishment. Never have. 

But maybe now is the time for me - and the rest of society- to step back, take a deep breath, and take another look.

The profound evil which has been at play in the recent, horrific collapse of the garment factory in Bangladesh - killing hundreds of innocent workers - sinks to such depths of depravity in every aspect, such a re-assessment seems suddenly appropriate.

And I'm not sure I'd stop at the owners of the building. Western multinational corporations  have blood on their hands, too, by using such despicable sweatshops to make their clothing, cheap - Wal Mart, Sears, Loblaws (the latter through its "Joe Fresh" clothing line in Canada and the 'States) - they've all filled their boots with more than their share of guilt. And the history of such things, steeped in blood as it has already become over the years, offers no way out for these heartless entities, to somehow claim ignorance of what is going on. 

Perhaps its time to round up the CEOs, and ship them all off for trial before the ICC. I'm not even sure whether the death penalty is within that court's mandate. If it is not, perhaps it should be! Let the court assess their guilt, or degree thereof, and make its judgement.

For they are just as surely guilty of neglect, criminal negligence and, yes, even murder, as the buildings owners/managers who forced those poor (in more ways than one) souls, into that building when they apparently knew full well it was not safe. There, hundreds died horrible and sometimes slow deaths over several agonizing days.

Whether they be corporate entities, individual executives or even shareholders, whether they be in my country, the US or abroad, I can feel no more sympathy for them than I do for terrorists or pedophiles. And what about the millions of consumers, who expect to buy clothing dirt-cheap without giving a thought, or caring whether they are creating consequences down the line? Should they be considered blameless? I'm sure many are just plain ignorant - or don't give a thought - as to what happens in the world around them. Does that render them innocent? 

I wonder.

Having said that, I am under absolutely no illusion that what I suggest here, will happen. Thanks to hollow, greedy people and their spineless enablers, our lawmaking politicians, our world has now fallen under such complete domination by the globalists and free marketeers, all hope for justice or even for vengeance, is indeed nothing more than a pipe-dream.

While, by writing this, I may have succeeded in getting something off my chest in some superficial way, it will be cold comfort indeed to the families of the innocents whose lives have been so needlessly and senselessly taken from us.

====

Related article:  Battling for a Safer Bangladesh

Bangladeshi Outrage - Will Anything Change?

• P in P: Will the outrageous tragedy involving the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh change anything with regard to workers' rights? Of course not. Wasn't it just the other month when a horrific fire claimed over a hundred lives at another similar factory in that same country, with workers locked inside? That sure changed a lot of attitudes and practises, didn't it?
• While cute little kids dance on Canadian TV, advertising Joe Fresh clothes which are made in these horrific sweat-shops, there is plenty of blame to go around. But greedy, soulless, heartless corporations like Joe Fresh, Walmart and Disney, including their hollow, despicable shareholders, surely must remain at the top of the blame-list. 
• Instead of improving working conditions and pay for the world's poor, thus allowing them to buy clothing, ethically made in places which pay decent, livable wages, human society is on a downward escalator, on a relentless race to the bottom.
• As long as cowardly lawmakers there and here at home run from their obligations, as long as the world continues to worship at the altar of capitalism, greed, free markets and globalization, nothing will change.
• Below are a couple of interesting comments which have just appeared on the Joe Fresh Facebook page;
• Bex L Alex Until Joe moves it's manufacturing operations to North America, takes financial and legal responsibility for worker's rights and safety, I will not be shopping there. Also, a Bangledeshi worker's life is worth more than a $250 settlement. Do the right thing. Stop being greed-driven, exploitive parasites. Own up, pay out and end exploitational practices. 
  
• Naomi Clement I agree Bex, but we as consumers need to do our part as well, and stop expecting a t-shirt to cost less than $10.

Related: Should Capital Punishment be Applied in the Bangladeshi Garment Tragedy? 

‪David Versus Monsanto - 52 minute Documentary - Trailer‬

Why I’m Voting Green

By Chris Hedges - Truthdig



The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle between the corporate state and us. Details here.

Chris Hedges - columnist

Monsanto's Lies and the GMO Labeling Battle

Common Dreams

You may have never heard of Henry I. Miller, but right now he is attempting to determine the future of food in this country.  And he has enormous financial backing. Details here.

Separating Oil and State

Cameron Fenton Huff Post - National Director, Canadian Youth Climate Coalition - 10/20/11

The Alberta tar sands are not called a giga project for no reason. Details here.

One of many anti-tar sands demos 

in Regina some three yrs. ago. PLT photo.

Port in Winnipeg Could be Model for Port at Churchill

Diane Gray - 06/9/2011 - Winnipeg Free Press - View From the West

The Golden Boy faces north from his lofty perch-- serving as a bold reminder of the unrealized economic potential.... Details here.  

Courtesy of Manitoba, eh?

PLT - I wonder just how much is enough for the human species? Winnipeg & Manitoba are already beautiful places with lots of natural beauty, physical infrastructure and cultural resources. Just how much further must we go to "realize our potential" by making it ever-easier to move people and widgets from here to the far corners of the continent. As far as I'm concerned, "Centre Port" is an exercise it excess which will only enrich the pockets of the few, worsen traffic gridlock and climate change while doing little to advance the human condition. "We can build it - therefore we must need it," might as well be the rallying cry. Globalization has already been shown to be a failure on so many levels. Lets stop bowing down to it as if it were our religion! The biggest tragedy with all of this is, why the provincial government, which pretends to be devoted to lowering greenhouse gas emissions, is even allowing this misguided fossil-fuel generator to go ahead at all! It is also puzzling why the Chamber of Commerce is looking to the Port of Churchill with such envy. After all, the Chamber's "party of choice," the Conservatives, are in the process of killing the Canadian Wheat Board. Some say that move alone is enough to place the very future of that port in jeopardy. Perhaps it's time to remove those "development stars" from our eyes. Let's turn our minds instead to what is good for Mother Earth and creatures who live upon it, rather than ripping it all up with backhoes and jackhammers. l.p.