PLANET IN PERIL

The National Observer Daniels Flat (Bay of Fundy) A survey estimates more than 1.8 million pieces of garbage are strewn over the bottom of the Bay of Fundy, prompting concerns about potential harm to marine life. Story here.

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society In the northeast corner of Alberta lies Wood Buffalo National Park.  Known for its sheer size and biodiversity, it is Canada’s largest national park and World Heritage Site. Its size and remote location have led many to believe it is untouched by human impacts, but it has sadly been affected by upstream industrial development outside of the Park. It is now additionally threatened by a proposed open-pit oil sands mine just 30-km south of its borders. If approved, the Teck Frontier oil sands mine would be the largest open-pit mine in North America, with a massive 290 sq-km footprint.  This mine would pose serious environmental risks to the approximately 1 million migratory birds that fly over the region, species at risk that depend on the intact boreal habitat, and negatively influence downstream waters on the Athabasca River.  The federal government has a public comment period open until November 24, 2019  to hear what people think of

EurekAlert Pacific oysters, farmed in the U.S. Photo by NOAA. Tiny threads of plastics are showing up in Pacific oysters and razor clams along the Oregon coast -- and the yoga pants, fleece jackets, and sweat-wicking clothing that Pacific Northwesterners love to wear are a source of that pollution, according to a new Portland State University study. Story here. RELATED: More bad news for the world’s oceans - out of Canada!

PHYS ORG Lake Winnipeg. Satellite photo by European Space Agency. The intensity of summer algal blooms has increased over the past three decades, according to a first-ever global survey of dozens of large, freshwater lakes. Story here.

Science News Study is world's longest record of reactive nutrients, alga concentrations for coral reefs.  Story here. Bleached coral. Photo by NOAA.

Yale Environment 360 A rare earth mine in Bayan Obo, China. Photo by NASA. China has been a major source of rare earth metals used in high-tech products, from smartphones to wind turbines. As cleanup of these mining sites begins, experts argue that global companies that have benefited from access to these metals should help foot the bill. Story here.

PHYS ORG Microplastics  in sediments from the rivers Elbe (A), Mosel (B),  Neckar (C), and Rhine (D). Note the diverse shapes (filaments,  fragments, and spheres) and that not all items are microplastics  (e.g., aluminum foil (C) and glass spheres and sand (D),  white arrowheads). The white bars represent 1 mm.  PhotoS by Martin Wagner  et al. As small as a grain of dust—but of great global significance. The word microplastics is familiar to many, but the dangers are virtually unexplored. In recent years, plastic pollution has become an ever-increasing burden on the environment. Countless videos and media reports draw attention to this problem. While the dangers of large plastic pieces for animals are impossible to overlook, there is practically nothing about the dangers posed by microplastics. But what are microplastics anyway?  Get the answer here.

Yale Environment 360 Massive open-pit coal mines in British Columbia are leaching high concentrations of selenium into the Elk River watershed, damaging fish populations and contaminating drinking water. Now this pollution is flowing across the Canadian-U.S. border, threatening the quality of U.S. waters. Story here.

Dogwood The Mount Polley mine - Jul. 2014 - about a week before the infamous breach of its earthen containment dam. After the breach, massive amounts of wastewater surged into nearby creeks & lakes. Photos by NASA. Outdated laws, weak enforcement leave the public on the hook for cleanup.  Story here.

PHYS ORG A coal-fired power plant in Poland. Photo by Petr Stefek . Modern coal-fired power stations produce more ultrafine dust particles than road traffic and can even modify and redistribute rainfall patterns, a new 15-year international study shows. Story here.

Science Magazine Cruise ships often burn bunker fuel, the very kind warned about in this story. A Wikimedia image. A few years ago, scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust, one of the world's wealthiest private philanthropies, published sobering findings about the deadly effects of air pollution. In a long-term study of elderly residents of Hong Kong, China, those exposed to higher levels of smog—especially tiny particles of soot produced by burning fossil fuels—were more likely to die of cancer than people who breathed cleaner air. Details here. RELATED: Please read my blog-story,  "How Ethical Are Ethical Funds? Conscientious investments and the tar sands connection"   l.p. by Larry Powell

 Details here

The Narwhal U.S. officials accused Canada of omitting information on selenium pollution flowing from B.C.’s Elk Valley into Montana waters. Story here.

Yale Environment 360 A new Canadian government-backed pipeline that will triple the amount of thick Alberta tar sands oil flowing to a British Columbia port poses significant risks for a threatened population of killer whales and other coastal marine life. Story here.

RCI Radio Canada International The Cape May warbler, while not named in this story, also migrates from the  West Indies to the Boreal forests of Canada. A PinP photo. Examination of tail feathers suggests that mercury is one of the determining factors for the steep declines of many songbird populations that migrate long distances to and from North America. More here.

The Guardian Oil spill disaster reduced biodiversity in sites closest to spill, report finds, as White House rolls back conservation measures. More here.

NATIONAL OBSERVER BP Canada has spewed out 136,000 litres of a toxic mud into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Halifax during deepwater offshore exploratory oil drilling, a federal regulator says.  More here.

The New York Times Fracking in the Bakken formation of North Dakota.   Photo by  Joshua Doubek The American oil and gas industry is leaking more methane than the government thinks — much more, a new study says. Since methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, that is bad news for climate change. More here.

TheNarwhal Researchers find arsenic levels in animals living near mine 20 to 50 times greater than those living away from it. More here.