US Meat and Poultry Is Widely Contaminated With Drug-Resistant Staph Bacteria, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2011) — Drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus (r.), a bacteria linked to a wide range of human diseases, are present in meat and poultry from U.S. grocery stores at unexpectedly high rates...Details here.

Conversation with Deepak Chopra - GE Alfalfa - Video

deepakhomebase on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Since the making of this video, the USDA has, to its everlasting shame, approved both GE alfalfa and GE sugarbeets. Canada threatens to do the same! l.p.

Catastrophe In The gulf of Mexico: Devastation Persists One Year After Spill

Centre for Biological Diversity Apr 12'11
It’s been a year since BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people and unleashing the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. Details here.

Dam Construction Is Set to Destroy the 'Mother of all Rivers'

AlterNet / By Aviva Imhof - Apr 15 '11

A series of dams proposed along the Mekong River threaten 41 fish species with extinction and puts the livelihoods of nearly half a million people at risk. Details here.

The Red River Valley Could be Headed for its Second-Worst Flooding in a-Century-&-a-Half - The Gov't. of Manitoba

In its latest flood bulletin, the Government of Manitoba states, "While the upper level of the forecast range has been reduced slightly, it still remains somewhat above 2,009 levels for all points on the Red River. 2009 was the second-largest flood in the past 150 years."

While cooler-than-normal temperatures will blunt the severity of the flooding, it will also make it last longer than it otherwise would, the Government adds.

A swollen stream spills into Boggy Creek, just above Lake of the Prairies (on the Assiniboine River system) in western Manitoba.

PUBLISHER'S COMMENT: It's only mid-April. Yet,  already two people have died and hundreds more have been displaced in flood-related incidents. Scores of roads have been washed out and many homes and businesses are isolated by the floodwaters. Ranchers report conditions hazardous for their livestock. At least three personal care homes have been evacuated. At least one boil-water advisory has been ordered. The main CN rail line was damaged for a time and trains re-routed. In neighboring Saskatchewan, flooding closed the Trans Canada Highway east of Regina and there are fears for the safety of drinking water. 

Just how much longer can the "powers that be" ignore the role that climate change is surely playing in these catastrophic events? One would think the increase in the frequency and severity of these occurrences are now plain for all to see. In a saner world, it surely ought to be more than enough to prompt a response in the form of regulations to control greenhouse gas emissions. 

On the contrary, here in Manitoba, we are seeing:

• Exploration for oil, a non-renewable, unsustainble, climate-change-producing resource, at an all-time high.
• Massive excavation and earth-movinig in preparation for "Centreport," a misguided megaproject to turn Winnipeg into a "hub" for just about any mode of transport you can imagine, connecting the city with the rest of the continent, including Mexico and Nunavut! It's promoters call it "world-class." I call it Greenhouse-Gas City!"
• A massive expansion of the Winnipeg airport, to accomodate many more jetliners, among the worst contributors to the climate change crisis. 
• Rather than take measures which attack the root-causes of climate change, massive machines break up ice jams, dig deeper trenches and higher dikes, producing more harmful emissions in the process.
• Meanwhile, greenhouse gases in this province are, like most other places, on the rise. Yet we are apparently supposed to believe this government is, somehow,"green!!!!" l.p. 

Please also read: "Prairie Flooding Delays Seeding Two Weeks So Far."

Earth to EPA: Bees Need Help Now

PANNA - Apr 14 '11
In the last four months, 1.2 million people around the world have raised their voices on behalf of honey bees – urging officials to take decisive, precautionary action by suspending a suspect class of pesticides (neonicotinoids) known to undermine honey bee immunity. Details here.

EARTH DAY..22 APRIL - A Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,
 
We put aside this day each year to officially recognize and appreciate our Planet and to honour the sacred elements of Air, Water,

Earth and Fire.

Some estimate that North Americans alone need five planets, the size of our earth , to sustain their continued and present rate of green

house gas emissions. This is very sad and alarming news.

Our governments have an important role to play in solving this problem. Unfortunately,however,it is governments that have allowed and encouraged activities that increase emissions and brought us to a place of crisis. Our governments are supposed to be accountable for their actions, to regulate and make decisions that protect public interest, the environment.

Human health and survival depends on a healthy environment.

Yet, today's governments are unduly influenced and controlled in too many ways by industry and corporations with their promises of investments,development,technological solutions and globalized trade.

I have yet to see their names printed on ballots at the voting centres, yet their impact and corporate power are prominent and usually prevail in so many controversial decisions,regarding Nature and Earth. This leaves me to conclude, that although not democratically elected, they are the ones effectively in control.They are the ones that control the decision-makers.

With the compliments of our government, federal and provincial environmental assessment laws, originally put in place, "to protect" our waters and environment, have been gutted and stripped, so as to not hinder the progress of Industry. How often are development proposal approvals denied? Provincial regulations receive little or no enforcement in matters that could impede economic development

profit and "economic growth".

These are the workings of corporate-first politics. Is it any wonder,that our planet is in trouble?. 

Our home,planet earth, does not deserve the disrespectful,unethical exploitation that it is experiencing from the industries and corporations in their relentless pursuit of profit. Our earth does not deserve governments, who wilfully abandon responsibilities to protect, for the primary benefit and domination of industry.

Granted the planet, environment, water and air pollution issues and the associated health risks are all talked about, but, always seem to come in second best,and in the majority of the final decisions, are the losers. 

Why do we recognize only "one day each year" as Earth Day?  Shouldn't Earth Day be "every day"? After all, we do not have five other planets to depend on. Earth is our one and only home. "There's no place else to go" 

But I also know and realize there are a great many North Americans fighting very hard to preserve and save our planet from the ravages of industry and its continued plundering of the Earth's resources, realizing that the advertised concepts of "sustainable progress and development," so often end up as economic disasters. Disasters that we,as taxpayers, and nature, end up paying for.

The lessons of history are there to remind us all,about Corporate "greed".

In support of this Earth Day and every day from now on, let us all begin by treating and appreciating our earth with the deserving respect of its creation and be thankful for how it sustains human life. 

Let us continue to support these values by proclaiming "The Truth". The crisis is human. Man is the cause and the victim. We are destroying what we need to survive. Governments must be compelled, by us, to live up to their responsibilities.

Economy is not the bottom line. The survival of humans through the protection of earth is. 

The burden of responsibility for the survival of future generations and this Earth,is an honourable and moral commitment.

                                        

 John Fefchak.

 Virden,Man.

======

Please also read "Born of the Stump."

Prairie Flooding Delays Seeding Two Weeks So Far

Manitoba Co-operator - Apr 13'11 By: Rod Nickel Winnipeg | Reuters Farmers in flooded Western Canada look to plant at least two weeks later than normal as... Details here.

A flooded farm field near Winnipeg.

UN Document Would Give 'Mother Earth' Same Rights as Humans

By Steven Edwards, Postmedia News
UNITED NATIONS — Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans — Details here.

Parties Support Ag Sector, Differ on Details

MB Co-Operator Apr 13
The agriculture policies of all five major Canadian political parties were put front and centre in a debate hosted by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture in Ottawa on Monday. Details here.

Don’t Blame Canada - a Different Perspective on Tar

Earth Island Journal - Apr '11
I’ve always been surprised that so many environmentalists, typically found on the political left, are such stalwart believers in the conservative doctrine of supply-side economics. Details here.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Another view of the Alberta oil sands. Not mine! l.p.