Monday, December 28, 2009

Despite Disappointment, Climate Summit Marks High Point for Activist Movement

Worldwatch Institute - by Ben Block on December 28, 2009

Media audiences across the world took notice as...

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Greenpeace Will Keep up Pressure on Global Warming

Dec 24 - By DONNA BRYSON 
Associated Press Writer

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Greenpeace will keep up...

Maple Syrup Output at Record High: StatsCan

MB Co-Operator - 12/24/2009
Canada’s production of maple syrup...

(Above) A sugar bush in Manitoba. These Manitoba maples are the workhorse of producers here. But the "industry" on the Prairies is so small in does not even warrant a mention in Stats Can figures. However, as a Manitoba producer myself for many years, I can attest that the product itself is just fine! l.p.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Escape from Copenhagen

Worldwatch Institute - by Christopher Flavin on Dec. 23, '09

President Obama's speech in Copenhagen last Friday included a ...

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Copenhagen Outcome: a Real Climate Catastrophe

by David Roberts - the Daily Beast De.18th-'09

The deal Obama brought home from Copenhagen wasn't just...

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A Poem For Stephen

– by Larry Powell

‘Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the land

global warming was here. \
It was grand! It was grand!

Cars would start!
Ice would melt!
Folks wore their light clothes
,
while up through their chimneys
mere wisps of smoke rose!


On the air one could hear
mindless broadcasters say

"It's eleven degrees.

Hope this thaw lasts 'til May!”

But up at the pole it was not Santa's day.

Two of his reindeer had just passed away.

Dasher and Dancer had sadly drowned
while playing with mates confined to the ground.


There was a river they could normally cross.

But its ice had grown thin in the tenuous frost.


The two were not helped by the fact they could fly.

And the cold, clear water is where they did die.

The great bears of the north had met similar ends.
Just as learn-ed scholars did indeed portend.

Christmas day dawned, but alas, 'twas not white!

Lawns were brown, fields were black.
It just didn't seem right!

The skis and toboggans the kids had received
were soon tossed aside
just like old Christmas trees.

"The moon on the crest of the new-fallen snow gave the luster of midday to objects below."




A decade from now when these words are intoned

will their image be real - or merely a poem?

Tarsands Pollution Exceeds Official Estimates: Study

The Canadian Press - Bob Weber Dec. 7'09



EDMONTON – An independent study suggests pollution from...

Canada geese fly over an open pit of the tar sands
Courtesy of BeautifulDesruction



Seed Behemoth Monsanto Stumbles Into Antitrust Trouble

16 Dec 2009 - by Tom Philpott - Grist
Crop sprayer - l.p. photo
Even as it bombards the airwaves and magazine ad pages to tout its commitment to “sustainable agriculture,” GMO seed giant Monsanto...

BC Wilderness Committee Calls for Climate Action

Ken Wu Speaks out for Old Growth at Copenhagen Climate Talks

Wilderness Committee campaigner Ken Wu is in Copenhagen, drawing attention to the value of our remaining ancient forests on Vancouver Island for storing carbon. This past week he joined hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for Canada’s government to take real action on climate change.

Ken spoke at the conference on climate change in Copenhagen on Monday, December 14, about Vancouver's forests and their effect on the environment. He based his most recent information on a report issued by the Sierra Club, ‘State of British Columbia’ Coastal Rainforest: Mapping the Gaps for Ecological Health and Climate Protection’ released Sunday, which noted that industrial logging over the decades has decimated old-growth tracts to below the level needed to preserve species.

Decades of "industrial logging" have reduced vast tracts of old-growth coverage to below the 30 per cent per ecosystem mark -- the amount needed to preserve species. More than two million hectares of rainforest ecosystems on BC’s coast, mostly on Vancouver Island and the south coast, are now below that critical limit.

Logging removes BC’s carbon-storage capability, and also contributes to the province's greenhouse-gas emissions, through heavy equipment and the release of carbon dioxide when trees are cut. Logging on Vancouver Island alone has caused the release of 370 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. With climate change so important to face, we need more effort put into protecting our remaining old-growth forests.

Success?


by CHARLES CAMPBELL - Dogwood Initiative

Enbridge can't hide the fact that their Northern Gateway

pipeline and tanker project has been delayed yet again.

Could Dogwood supporters have anything to do with it?

Read More . . .

A Billion People's Water at Risk From Melting Ice - Al Gore

AFP. Posted December 14, 2009. At UN climate talks Monday, Gore warned that record melting...





Health Canada probes claim that government officials helped pesticide company overturn a ban

CANADA'S                                                                                                                                ...