Herbicide Resistance a Global Food Threat

Laura Rance - Winnipeg Free Press

Ground sprayer. Larry Powell - P  in P photo.

For decades, the experts have treated the growing problem of herbicide-resistant weeds as something solvable by the next new chemical or biological breakthrough. Now, more are stepping back and acknowledging it as a symptom of a much bigger issue in agriculture. Story here.

Volcano Shows Japan Needs a Green Revolution

By: William Pesek - Winnipeg Free Press

With the discovery of a 47th body on the slopes of Mt. Ontake, the volcano’s eruption is now Japan’s deadliest in 88 years. It’s impossible not to worry about an even bigger volcanic threat that lies just 90 miles from Tokyo: Mt. Fuji (above). All this has both seismologists and anti-nuclear activists asking anew whether the most earthquake-prone nation in the developed world should be restarting its 48 nuclear reactors.... Story here.

Canadian Scientists Rail Against Imposed Ignorance

OurWindsor.Ca

By  Carol Goar

From the Montreal Gazette

A group of Toronto scientists makes a successful foray into the realm of public 

advocacy. Story here.

Efforts Fail to Save Mersey Biodiversity Centre in Nova Scotia, Canada

The Queen's County Advance

Lake whitefish. Image via NYSDEC.

The holding ponds used to raise salmon were filled in with gravel by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans earlier this year. The fish hatchery cannot run without them. Story here.

Good News For St. Lawrence (Canada) Belugas… at Least, For Now

Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society

Photo credit: W. Klenner

Last week, we had good news (albeit temporary) about one of Canada’s most threatened wildlife species – the beautiful beluga whales of the St Lawrence Estuary. Story here.

How the Effects of Climate Change in Arctic Canada are Shrinking Polar Bears

The Globe and Mail

Polar bears are an international symbol of Canada and a barometer for what is happening in the climate-sensitive North. And according to wildlife experts now monitoring the impact of global warming in greater detail, the big bears aren’t as big as they used to be.  Story here.

Becoming Hezbollah's Air Force

Chris Hedges

Those who use violence to shape the world, as we have done in the Middle East, unleash a whirlwind. Our initial alliances -- achieved at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dead, some $3 trillion in expenditures and the ravaging of infrastructure across the region -- have been turned upside down by the cataclysm of violence. Thirteen years of war, and the rise of enemies we did not expect, have transformed Hezbollah fighters inside Syria, along with Iran, into our tacit allies. Story here.

Voter Suppression on EDay Canada 2011 and Since...Please Contribute to the Making of an Important Film. GIVE GENEROUSLY!!

INDIEGOGO

This film will be for all Canadians.

WWF Report: Global Wildlife Populations Down by Half Since 1970

CBC News
Opportunity to 'develop sustainably' must be seized, says the Director of the World Wildlife Fund. Details here.

Pine grosbeak (f.) Larry Powell - P in P photo: 
Susceptible to habitat loss from logging operations that destroy their preferred coniferous forests. 

Alberta Ranchers to Conserve Huge Tract of Native Grassland

Canadian Press

CALGARY - Southern Alberta ranchers have banded together to preserve a huge swath of almost untouched native grassland that some call a prairie Serengeti. Story here.

Cause of California Drought Linked to Climate Change

National Science Foundation

Extreme atmospheric conditions responsible for drought more likely to occur in current global warming. Story here.