PLANET IN PERIL

Dear Editor,                                                                                          Many Manitobans are upset that the federal election is happening at the same time as major flooding threatens their homes, businesses and farms.  Red River Valley - 1997 - Natural Resources CA After all, who wants to be distracted from the stressful job of protecting your livelihoods and families by yet another political campaign and trip to the polls? In a saner world, there would actually be candidates on the ballot from the two major parties we could vote for, who would be attacking the root causes of the catastrophic flooding so they don't get worse in the future. These candidates would already know that these events are on the rise in both frequency and intensity, due to climate change. Climate change is anthropogenic. If that is too big a word for you, Stephen, or you, Michael, it just means, it is caused by human beings. That's because we

Dear Editor, I am disappointed that a largely discredited individual like Tim Ball (r.) was afforded close to a full page in the March 15th Roblin Review ("People need to understand plants need C02"),  in which to air his negative views about climate change. The book, "Climate Cover Up - the crusade to deny global warming," describes Ball this way. "There are few 'skeptical scientists' with as little experience and as much ambition as the Canadian geography professor, Dr. Timothy Ball. Never a climate scientist, per se, Dr. Ball quit his position at the University of Winnipeg in 1995, ending an academic career that featured a lifetime output of just four peer-reviewed journal articles, none of which addressed atmospheric science." Dr. Ball is actually being sued by a Canadian climate scientist, Andrew Weaver, for libel. Dr. Weaver is a leading author with the Nobel-prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A

Larry Powell I made what I thought was a reasonable request of CBC Manitoba the other day. I asked it to start including atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (C02), in its weather casts. After consulting with John Sauder ( CBC photo - r. ), their extremely competent "weather guy"(John is Manitoba's only broadcast meteorologist), a CBC spokesperson told me, "no." Why? Because it might be "inflammatory!" The CBC further explained that, wind chill factors and UV levels, which they report regularly, were things upon which their listeners/viewers "can actually take some immediate, personal action." The implication in that response is that there is nothing we can actually do about climate change! That, I found, was the most chilling part of all. Apparently, we can no longer choose to drive smaller cars, take the bus, live close to work or just visit the Mayan Riviera every other year. By way of background, I'm someone who re

Dear Editor,   When a hollow m an like Jim Prentice can don a phony cloak of "green," take on a sacred trust as this nation's "Minister of the Environment," then hightail it off to a cushy job with "CIBC" (which is helping to bankroll the Alberta tar sands, the world's dirtiest energy project), be afraid. Be very afraid.   Jim Prentice, Climate Criminal    Dead ducks in an Albrta tar pit. (Vancouver Sun photo) As Prentice skulks off into the night with visions of money bags dancing in his head, he gets a pat on the back from Stephen Harper and a free pass from a polite media. Fish caught near tarpits - Jason Franson CP Preoccupied with political "process," "strategy" and "positioning," news outlets obviously no longer believe they have any duty to actually hold the ethical behaviour of our leaders up to any kind of public scrutiny. That would just be wrong! Instead, they pontificate on how the balance in t

Au 24-'10 - Below is my letter to the Winnipeg Free Press (now published, Au 27.) l.p. === = Dear Editor, I find media coverage of Prime Minister Steven Harper's current tour of the north, appalling. If I heard the CBC correctly this morning, our Prime Minister is "putting emphasis on science" in his approach to northern development! An emphasis on science? The sad fact is, this so-called leader of ours has been spitting on science and scientists ever since he came to power. He has been appointing "climate-denying" oil and gas toadies as his "science advisers" while being nothing but criminally negligent in his approach to the crisis of global warming. As our "True North" melts around the people and creatures living there, Harper parades about, peddling "Arctic sovereignty" as some kind of opiate we can all use to avoid the harsh reality of climate change. No doubt Harper has a greedy eye on the petroleum bonanza that lies

By Larry Powell Sadly, politicians are again placing the interests of a failing industry ahead of science, the public interest and possibly even human health. 
Manitoba and Ottawa are doling out another 37 million dollars -good money after bad - to factory hog producers in this province. 
Both the Manitoba government and the "Feds" have swallowed, hook, line and sinker the siren song of the industry; that it is being unjustly connected to the current outbreak of swine flu and is suffering financial hardship as a result. 
In announcing this latest welfare payment, the Minister of Agriculture, Rosann Wowchuk, cites what she calls "the false connection to H1N1 flu" as one of the factors hurting the industry today. 
This rush to judgement and readiness to be a cheerleader rather than an even-handed lawmaker, does a disservice to Manitobans. 
In contrast, the Green Party of Manitoba has taken a position based on reality and science, as opposed to political ex

Dear Editor, Are our "opinion-leaders" doing their jobs? Or, are they letting us down? I will defend to the death the right of media commentators to speak their minds on any issue. But what if those opinions are based on fairy tales rather than facts? When addressing global warming, for example, are they seeking out the best evidence on which to craft their editorials? Or are they simply being contrary, making their pronouncements based on nothing more than junk science or personal bias? One doesn't have to look very far for media diatribes that label environmentalists as troublemakers or even "wackos." According to these "opinion-leaders," those who drive hybrid cars or buy carbon offsets when they travel are wasting their time. And lawmakers who clamp down on idling vehicles, are Communists! They would have us believe that either global warming isn't happening at all, or is being caused by just about anything other than human activity. So what is

Photos Courtesy of "Stop the Hogs." Dear Editor, Seldom has there been a more important public debate in Manitoba than the one now raging over the hog industry. Make no mistake. The issues here are grave. A powerful industry, represented by the Manitoba Pork Council (MPC), is not only pitting itself against those of us who actually care about our air, water and soil, it's also challenging the very right of a democratically-elected government to govern on behalf of its citizens. Thrown into this explosive mix are questions about the role of our cherished academic institutions. Are they remaining "above the fray?" Or are they taking sides? Over a year ago, amid howls and threats from the hog lobby, the government of Manitoba imposed a temporary ban on new factory barns. This was to allow the Clean Environment Commission (CEC) to study how sustainable they are. After receiving that CEC study a few weeks ago, the government obviously decided, they aren't sustain

The Failed Strawboard Plant at Elie MB. A tiny fraction of the massive straw piles at the plant.  now rotting and surely rat-infested. PinP photos. (Published in the Manitoba CoOperator - Jan. '08) Dear Editor, Regarding your recent story about the demise of the strawboard plant at Elie; my heart sinks every time I drive by that site. It is a testament to the failure of so many things that society ought to be supporting; not relegating to the garbage dump. Instead of being dismantled and sold to the highest bidder, the plant could still be up and running, diverting waste straw into a valuable building product. Rather than being gutted, it could still be providing a market for farmers to sell what is an otherwise useless, not to mention dangerous product. Instead, we can look forward to a future where irresponsible farmers continue to burn their stubble with impunity. In the process, people unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place, including kids with as

Dear Editor, It was a day in late July. A spray plane swooped low, dumping its payload of Lorsban onto a canola field in the Swan Valley, to control an infestation of Bertha army worms. Nearby, the owner of a small acreage and her son were outside doing chores. The woman says her son got a dose of what she calls the “direct drift.” According to the woman, both became “instantly nauseous with burning eyes.” Her husband developed the same symptoms, even ‘though he didn’t arrive home ‘till about 20 minutes after the incident. They’re all are okay now, but she says she suffered from a low-grade headache for about three weeks afterward. (And she doesn’t normally get headaches.) She even noticed one of her miniature horses became unusually listless right after the incident. She says they now wonder whether they should even keep grazing the animals on the grass that has also been sprayed. No one can seem to help them with advice. The woman claims agricultural authorities were wa