Say NO to the Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline (Video - Natural Resources Defense Council)

The US Secretary of State must decide by year's end whether to allow construction of a massive pipeline carrying dirty tar sands oil from Alberta all the way to the Texas Gulf coast. Watch the video and find out more of the disturbing facts.

Heat, Drought, Famine All Part of Coming Increase Of Climate-Related Disasters

Alternet - Jul 22-11

Climate change will "exponentially" increase the scale of natural disasters -- so when are we going to take this threat seriously? Details here.

White House Pact with Industry to Push Genetically Engineered Plants

CommonDreams.org - 07/21/11 
High-Level Working Group Shielding Plan to Force GE Crops onto Wildlife Refuges. Details here.

Green Party of Saskatchewan Alarmed by Outcome of Canada's Annual Energy & Mines Ministers' Conference

Press Release    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 20, 2011

The Green Party of Saskatchewan today expressed "profound disappointment" in the outcome of Canada's annual energy and mines ministers' conference, held on Monday and Tuesday in Kananaskis, Alberta. 

Party leader Larissa Shasko (r.) said, "Instead of planning for an economically and ecologically sustainable green energy future in Canada where jobs will be created and pollution reduced, the energy and mines ministers have irresponsibly chosen to go the route of increased tar sands extraction that will take Canada and the rest of the world past the tipping point of climate change.

"In describing the Alberta tar sands as a 'sustainable major supplier of energy to the world', the ministers' communiqué distorts the English language to the breaking point. Non-renewable, high-carbon fossil fuels are by their very nature unsustainable," continues Shasko. 

We are already seeing the early impacts of climate change globally in record floods, record droughts, record temperatures, increasingly severe storms, the steady decline of arctic pack ice, and the melting of glaciers worldwide. Weather is becoming more extreme - and not only in rainfall and temperatures in the prairies. This year so far has seen 900 new temperature records in the USA alone and serious drought throughout the US southwest, as well as prolonged and unprecedented floods in Colombia and the developing tragedy of drought in the horn of Africa. 

Professional energy consultant Dr Mark Bigland-Pritchard, who ran for the Green Party in the federal election, pointed out that a graph used in the ministers' report to emphasise "growing global energy demand" describes the International Energy Agency's "current policies scenario", in which increased carbon dioxide emissions would result in a 6 degrees Celsius rise in global average surface temperatures by the end of the century. This would mean, amongst other things, irreversible loss of the polar icecaps, the loss to fire and die-back of most of the world's great forests, and the loss of much oceanic life through acidification. "It is unlikely", says Bigland-Pritchard, "that human civilization could continue for long in such an environment, because of unpredictable and extreme weather, the massive loss of agricultural land, the flooding of major centres of population, the inevitable wars over scarce basic resources, and the destructive impact of failed states." 

The Green Party of Saskatchewan insists that such a global catastrophe is not inevitable, and that as a province we have much to gain by doing our fair share to avoid it. Bigland-Pritchard notes the 300 thousand jobs created so far in the green energy sector in Germany. "By making a radical shift to energy efficiency and clean safe renewable energy sources," said Shasko, "we could create local jobs, strengthen local economies and build local communities throughout Saskatchewan." Saskatchewan has the best solar characteristics and the best usable inland wind resource in Canada, good hydroelectric resources, substantial potential for sustainable biomass and deep geothermal energy, and massive scope for energy efficiency savings. 

"Given the real enduring long-term opportunities which a green energy economy would bring," said Bigland-Pritchard, "I cannot help wondering why Brad Wall and Bill Boyd choose to pursue policies which privilege oil executives in the short term and cockroaches and mosquitoes in the longer term. They could instead be building a truly sustainable society in which our children can be proud to be citizens." 

"A Green government", said Shasko, "would place value on providing for our children, not stealing from them."   

- 30 –  

For more information, contact
Dr Mark Bigland-Pritchard, Professional Energy Consultant,
Mobile:  306.827.7431, Home: 306.997.5721
mark@lowenergydesign.com
Larissa Shasko, Green Party of Saskatchewan Party Leader,
Mobile:  306.690.1404, Home: 306.692.7925
Larissa.Shasko@gmail.com

PLT: Well done, Larissa! You are are a true asset to your country! 

Climate Change’s is Threatening Global Security - UN's Ban Ki-moon Warns

20 July 2011 – UN

Climate change is a real threat to international peace and security, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today….Details here.

UN photo

Harper Disgraces Us All Once Again!

If you enjoy this blog, please consider 

donating to the author to keep it going. 

Just click on the link below.

Thanks! - Larry

                                                                                                      

Dear Editor,

Well, it looks as if Prime Minister Harper and his government are once again taking Canada's world reputation on a race to the bottom.

Many Canadians were already shaking their heads in disbelief when Mr. Harper disgraced this country's good name by turning his back on a binding international agreement to limit greenhouse gases which cause global warming.

Now, its asbestos. 
A Cdn. asbestos mine.
The Prime Minister's newly-minted government has brazenly refused to sign another international treaty which would simply have warned of its dangers. Asbestos causes deadly diseases including lung cancer. 

 (r.) This 58-year-old Canadian died in 2004 from mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure. (Courtesy Scotland on Sunday.)

Yet Ottawa continues to spin this indisputable fact because of the money it brings to the province of Quebec, where it is mined and exported abroad, often to developing countries. There, regulations are often lax, and those who are exposed to it have little knowledge of its deadly effects.

My own MP, Robert Sopuck (Conservative, Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette, l.), suggests there is confusion over the fact that there is more than one kind of such fibre in the world. 
Bob Sopuck, Honourable Member for "Asbestos East"
In an email to me, he points to "scientific reviews" which show the risks posed by the kind which Canada mines and exports "can be managed if adequate controls are put in place."  He doesn't spell out what scientific reviews he is referring to. 

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, Canada's asbestos exports contribute to cancer epidemics which kill 90,000 people, yearly! Not much room for confusion there, Mr. Sopuck!

Yet he refuses to admit that it is the Canadian kind that's responsible. He claims health problems showing up today are a result of "poor handling methods and high exposure levels, which were abandoned in the late '70s!"
 

I watched a TV documentary just a few months ago (not 3 decades), showing workers in India handling raw asbestos with their bare hands and nothing more than a kerchief over their faces! 

Courtesy, the Sierra Club

Are these the safe handling methods Mr. Sopuck implies are in use today?

His heroic attempts to divert attention from his government's outrageous behaviour simply do not fly with me. Nor will they, I trust, with many of my fellow Canadians.  Besides, if there are ways to handle asbestos safely, why didn't his government just sign the agreement so these could be included on the labels?                    

Sadly, that's not all.

Two years ago, according to the Ottawa Citizen, the government Mr. Sopuck now represents, covered up evidence from credible Health Canada scientists, tying asbestos to lung cancer. In the words of the newspaper, "It appears the government employs a variety of measures to suppress information on the threat to health posed by Canada’s asbestos."

Then, there's a final irony. Canada has, for years, been diligently removing asbestos from our own public buildings and even the Prime Minister's residence, because of the dangers it poses. If Mr. Harper is so convinced of its safety, why did he not simply leave it where it was?

Another disturbing aspect of all of this is the aura of environmentalism Mr. Sopuck has chosen to cloak himself in, while running for office and since. 

He regularly points out he was once a member of the National Round table for the Environment and Economy. Since his election, he has been chosen to serve on the Standing Commons Committee for the Environment and Sustainable Development.

Call me crazy. But would you not expect someone with his credentials, rather than defending such obvious affronts to anyone with a reasonable, environmental conscience, to be speaking out against them, instead?

Could it be that Canada is now a henhouse, firmly in the control of a strong, stable, national majority of Conservative foxes?

Larry Powell
Roblin, Manitoba
=====
References: "Canada's Asbestos Shame"
"Asbestos & Canada's Shame"

Manitoba Crop Report: Things Turn Hot & Dry

08/19/11 Manitoba CO-OPERATOR

After several months of cool wet weather, Manitoba has turned hot and dry... Details here.

Around Rosetown, Sask., 

farmers say they're worried 

the worst drought in decades 
could be underway. (CBC)

Please also read: Parched Prairies: Latest Drought a Sign of Things to Come? A university of Regina professor calls it climate change!