Full impact of mysterious Brazil oil spill remains unknown

BirdLife

International

Last summer, an oil spill of unknown origin hit Brazil’s northeast coast – just as migrating shorebirds arrived in the area. Our Partner SAVE Brasil has been campaigning for action and striving to measure the impact on birds - but more support is urgently needed. More here.

Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

The Guardian

Cutting toxic air might prevent millions of people getting depression, research suggests.

Story here.

Smoke from wildfires in Alberta, two provinces away,
blankets Manitoba - 2018. A PinP photo.

Here's a related story of mine that you might enjoy. 

"Re-thinking extinctions"

New research suggests that pollution may be playing a bigger and more ominous role in pushing many of Canada's plants and animals to the brink than earlier thought.  

Larry.

Nitrogen crisis threatens Dutch environment—and economy

Science Magazine

Public domain - by Sachiho 

They're protesting a Dutch high court decision in May that suspended construction projects that pollute the atmosphere with nitrogen compounds and harm nature reserves. The freeze has stalled the expansion of dairy, pig, and poultry farms—major sources of nitrogen in the form of ammonia from animal waste. Also blocked are plans for new homes, roads, and airport runways, because construction machinery emits nitrogen oxides. All told, the shutdown puts some €14 billion worth of projects in jeopardy, according to ABN AMRO Bank. “It has really paralyzed the country,” says a political scientist Details here.

Marine life, fisheries increasingly threatened as the ocean loses oxygen – IUCN report

International Union for the Conservation of Nature

The Daggernose shark, one of several larger species
considered especially vulnerable. A NOAA rendering.

The loss of oxygen from the world’s ocean is increasingly threatening fish species and disrupting ecosystems, a new IUCN report warns. Ocean oxygen loss, driven by climate change and nutrient pollution, is a growing menace to fisheries and species such as tuna, marlin and sharks, according to the report released today at the UN Climate Change conference in Madrid.

Re-thinking extinction

New research suggests that pollution may be playing a bigger and more ominous role in pushing many of Canada's plants and animals to the brink than earlier thought.

by Larry Powell

                                      

       One of the species at risk, the small white lady's slipper, 

Cypripedium candidum. Photo by Mason Brock.

Habitat loss, climate change and invasive species are often referred to as significant players in Earth's calamitous descent into a sixth Great Extinction. While those factors obviously play a part, this new study better recognizes the magnitude of the role played by yet another culprit in the piece - pollution. The authors of the research label contamination of our air, soil and water as a "pervasive, often invisible threat to biodiversity in Canada." And, up until now, the threat it poses, especially to vascular plants (ones that flower, bear fruit and seed), they suggest, has been underestimated by experts in the field. These include ones who serve on Ottawa's advisory agency, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). And, because so little is known about the subject, they've "frequently identified the threat of pollution as absent or negligible," even for species living within areas affected by it.

In order to design a better way of analyzing these threats, the seven-member team mapped known pollution sources and compared them with known ranges of 488 endangered species in this country. These included mammals, birds, plants, freshwater fish, reptiles, amphibians, arthropods (such as insects and crabs) and molluscs (like slugs and snails). It found that, on average, 57% of the habitat of each species also contained at least one pollution source.

"Our analysis shows that species at risk and pollution sources co-occur at a high rate in Canada. In general, the highest densities (of pollution sources and species-at-risk) are concentrated in the south, where the human population density is also highest. The richness of these creatures overlapped strongly with areas of greatest urbanization and landscape modification, such as Ontario, the Prairies and the Lower Mainland of BC."

Agricultural refuse is burned on a farm in Manitoba.
A PinP photo.

Pollution. A challenge of both national and global magnitude

Quoting Government of Canada numbers, the study states: "Tens of thousands of chemicals exist in commerce today and the size of the global chemical industry is set to double by 2030. Contaminants such as flame retardants undergo transformations into more toxic breakdown products in the environment that contribute to heightened environmental effects.
 
"Each year in Canada, some five million tonnes of pollutants are released from seven thousand facilities. These have included about 700 pipeline spills over the past decade in which natural gas, crude oil and other contaminants have escaped into our environment."

Such spills are capable of either killing species immediately, or dealing "sub-lethal" blows which might sap their fitness, reduce their ability to reproduce or even deprive them of their food.

One of many similar sloughs in southern Manitoba. It's believed the spreading 

of livestock manure on farm fields contributes to the "greening" of 

wetlands such as this. A PinP photo.

"Runoff from urban, agricultural and industrial landscapes contaminates Canada's groundwater and downstream aquatic ecosystems. Finally, over 23 thousand known or suspected contaminated sites have been identified and classified in urban, rural and remote areas of Canada, many of which are contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons, metals and/or persistent organic pollutants such as PCBs."

Jenny McCune - Ast. Prof. Dept. of 
Biological Sciences,

University of Lethbridge, AB

The lead author of the study, Prof. Jenny McCune (l.) told PinP in an e-mail, "We did not measure the effect of different pollutants on individual species. We need more research to test the effects of specific contaminants on individual species at risk. We simply measured the potential for species to come into contact with different types of pollution based on the geographical overlap between sources of pollution and the known ranges of species at risk.

"The eastern prairies (MB and eastern SK) have sources of all 6 categories of pollution ( as defined by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature): household sewage and urban waste water, industrial and agricultural effluents, garbage and solid waste, air-borne pollutants, and excess energy"

The authors of the study, recently published in the journal, Facets, hope this new information will help us better understand just how much endangered wildlife are threatened, and where to go from here.

Other research only confirms the worst fears.

The Bakken formation (above) is a major oil deposit straddling
two provinces and three states. US Geological Survey.

A study published last year in "Cogent Science," reminds us that the Bakken oilfield "overlaps with one of the largest areas for grassland birds in North America. Access to the oil is made possible by fracking and horizontal drilling, both controversial techniques which have been banned in other parts of the world. This paper illustrates that oil development is impacting species through habitat destruction, oil and noise pollution, invasive species and road infrastructure. Current wildlife policy in Saskatchewan is insufficient to protect species at risk in the Bakken formation."

The iconic Eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna), a grasslands bird listed by 
COSEWIC as"threatened" in Canada. A PinP photo.

Grassland birds are said to be the among the group most vulnerable to environmental pressures in all of North America.

-30-

Some other stories of mine you may like:

• The day of the salamander. How a big highway project in southwestern Manitoba is having to "make way" for a little amphibian, or face legal consequences. (Video)
• Even our national bird - the Canada jay - is not immune from the ravages of manmade climate change.
• “The Sixth Extinction - an Unnatural History” - a Book Review.

Wexit and climate pollution: a tale of two Canadas

National Observer

This PinP photo was taken along a highway construction project in SK.

There are already two Canadas when it comes to climate pollution, and they've been heading in opposite directions for years. A successful "Wexit" would split them into two separate countries: One would become the world's most climate polluting country per person, with an economy twice as dirty as China's. Story here.

Study counts 1.8 million pieces of trash at the bottom of Canada's Bay of Fundy

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.

It's big. It's risky. It's unacceptable!

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 the proposed environmental assessment conditions that Teck would need to meet.

How strong are these conditions? The proposed mitigation measures do very little to address the startling list of impacts from the mine. It is clear that the conditions are inconsistent with a healthy future for our boreal and the communities that depend on the biodiversity of the region.

Want to speak up but unsure about what you will say? Use our public comment guide as a blueprint to your comment. We provide our key concerns about the mine and the proposed conditions to kickstart your comment. 

Now is our chance to let the federal government know that this project is a serious danger to our boreal forest and poses risks that cannot be ignored. 

Yours in Conservation, 

Gillian Chow-Fraser
Boreal Program Manager
CPAWS Northern Alberta

Microplastics found in oysters, clams on Oregon coast, study finds. (Last year, Canadian scientists discovered high levels of microplastics in B.C.’s oyster beds). Is our clothing to blame?

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!

Lakes worldwide are experiencing more severe algal blooms

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.

Thirty years of unique data reveal what's really killing coral reefs

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

Bleached coral. Photo by NOAA.

China Wrestles with the Toxic Aftermath of Rare Earth Mining

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.

Microplastics in freshwaters

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.

From Canadian Coal Mines, Toxic Pollution That Knows No Borders

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.

When mines poison waterways in British Columbia, Canada, taxpayers swallow the costs

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.

Reduce plastics! PLEASE SIGN!

Coal power stations disrupt rainfall, global study finds

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.

Private research funders court controversy with billions in secretive investments

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

Newfoundland record oil spill shows risks of offshore drilling, regulatory board says

 Details here

Canada, U.S. governments watching, but not intervening, in coal mine pollution controversy

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.