Growth of Ocean ‘Garbage Patch’ Alarms Experts

Published on Friday, August 28, 2009 by The Associated Press

Three-week Pacific voyage highlights ‘shocking’ amount of plastic debris.

Desperate Food Industry Tries to Tar Michael Pollan and Organic Produce

By Vanessa Barrington, EcoSalon. August 24, 2009.(A busy market in Regina, SK. Photo by l.p.)

With growing numbers of food-conscious consumers, big corporations are trying to sully the reputation of alternatives to their style of agriculture.

Native Americans to Join London Protest Over Tar Sands

Terry Macalister - guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 August 2009

Canadian First Nations seek to highlight UK's 'criminal' role in CO2-heavy oil schemes.

Activist protests against the Alberta tar sands at a recent rally in Regina, SK. Photo by l.p.

LP Relents on Plant Inspection by Outside Experts - But Will There be One?"

- by Larry Powell

Louisiana Pacific Canada Ltd. has apparently had a change of heart. Initially, the company refused to allow an inspection of its wood products plant in the Swan Valley of western Manitoba by outside experts. But after a request from the Clean Environment Commission, (CEC) it has agreed. But only with strict conditions attached.

• LP must be given 5 business days advance notice.

• All those taking part must identify themselves with valid IDs in advance.

• The tour must be limited to six people.

• No photographs or recordings will be allowed.

• Participants must undergo a safety orientation.

• They must sign a waiver in order to get into the plant's production areas.

• The company will not answer any technical questions because "all pertinent technical information is already on the public record."

LP agreed after the Clean Environment Commission supported the request for the outside inspection from two citizens' groups; Concerned Citizens of the Valley and the Boreal Forest Network.

The company also agreed the CEC could provide what it calls "a third-party" observer on the tour.

The CEC has stated in an email that it finds the company's approach "reasonable."

Despite all of this, Dan Soprovich of "Concerned Citizens" says it's all academic, anyway.

One of their experts came all the way from the southern 'States a week ago, only to be turned back at the plant entrance. He says the company photographed him, but wouldn't let him in!

He adds he simply doesn't know whether that individual will be available again any time soon. So it's still not clear whether there will actually be a tour, or not.

LP's attempts to decommission its pollution controls have sparked a controversy over air quality in the Swan Valley. It culminated in public meetings before the CEC in late July.

The Commission has yet to rule on LP's application to make the shutdowns permanent.
====
Please also read - US-Based Logging Corporation Refuses Outside Inspection.

Climate Change May Cause Crops to Emit Methane

Staff - Manitoba Co-Operator - 8/18/2009

Canola Crop by L.P.

Crop stresses typically linked to climate change, such as increased temperatures, drought and UV-B radiation, might actually hasten climate change by causing crops to emit more methane into the atmosphere.

U.S. State Department OKs Pipeline From Canada's Oil Sands

WASHINGTON, DC, August 21, 2009 (Environment News Service)

The U.S. State Department has issued a permit for a multibillion-dollar pipeline to carry crude oil from Canadian oil sands to refineries south of the border, triggering a court challenge...

=====

(AFP/Getty image)

Editor's note...Surely this can only underline the urgency with which the U.S. should implement Barak Obama's commitment to CLEAN energy! l.p.

Manitoba Logging Road May Spark Court Battle

Winnipeg Free Press - By: Bruce Owen - 20/08/2009
Environmentalists oppose park route. (Click headline.)
Also read "Environmentalists pan new road...."
and how James Beddome, leader of the Green Party of Manitoba feels about the decision.

Ghost Pines 11
by Mary Jane Eichler

U.S.-Based Logging Corporation Refuses an Outside Inspection of its Manitoba Wood Plant

Environmentalists Cry Foul - by Larry Powell

Louisiana Pacific Canada Limited operates an "Oriented Strand Board" plant in the Swan Valley of western Manitoba. It's been at odds with critics ever since the provincial government allowed it to shut down its pollution control equipment last January.

Following an uproar from community members and environmentalists, the government instructed an advisory committee, the Clean Environment Commission (CEC), to review that decision. It conducted public meetings earlier this summer in Swan River. Participants argued for and against LP's application to make the shutdown permanent.

Then, two groups critical of LP's proposal, joined forces. "Concerned Citizens of the Valley" and "The Boreal Forest Network" tried to arrange for scientific experts to tour the plant.

They argued this was the only way for them to fully take part in the process, since the format of the public meetings did not permit them to cross-examine LP's witnesses.

The groups described one of the experts they hoped would tour the plant as a specialist in "human health risk assessment," another as an "expert in the environmental regulation of forestry operations" in Canada.

Despite their insistence that the individuals have PhDs with extensive experience, LP refused.

The company said it had already co-operated fully with the committee and saw no need to allow further tours or inspections.

But Dan Soprovich of "Concerned Citizens" doesn't see it that way. He suggests LP has refused the request simply because it has something to hide.

LP has threatened to close the plant if it is forced to start up the pollution controls once again.

Meanwhile, the people of the Swan Valley are anxiously awaiting the recommendations of the CEC.

Photo by Larry

=====
Please also read "Battle in the Boreal - Rekindling the Air Quality Debate."

O2 Dropping Faster than CO2 Rising

ISIS Report 19/08/09

=========

Implications for Climate Change Policies

New research shows oxygen depletion in the atmosphere accelerating since 2003, coinciding with the biofuels boom; climate policies that focus exclusively on carbon sequestration could be disastrous for all oxygen-breathing organisms including humans Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

Threat of oxygen depletion

Mention climate change and everyone thinks of CO2 increasing in the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect heating the earth, glaciers melting, rising sea levels, floods, hurricanes, droughts, and a host of other environmental catastrophes. Climate mitigating policies are almost all aimed at reducing CO2, by whatever means. Within the past several years, however, scientists have found that oxygen (O2) in the atmosphere has been dropping, and at higher rates than just the amount that goes into the increase of CO2 from burning fossil fuels, some 2 to 4-times as much, and accelerating since 2002-2003 [1-3].

Simultaneously, oxygen levels in the world’s oceans have also been falling [4] (see Warming Oceans Starved of Oxygen, SiS 44). It is becoming clear that getting rid of CO2 is not enough; oxygen has its own dynamic and the rapid decline in atmospheric O2 must also be addressed. Although there is much more O2 than CO2 in the atmosphere - 20.95 percent or 209 460 ppm of O2 compared with around 380 ppm of CO2 – humans, all mammals, birds, frogs, butterfly, bees, and other air-breathing life-forms depend on this high level of oxygen for their well being [5] Living with Oxygen (SiS 43).

In humans, failure of oxygen energy metabolism is the single most important risk factor for chronic diseases including cancer and death. ‘Oxygen deficiency’ is currently set at 19.5 percent in enclosed spaces for health and safety [6], below that, fainting and death may result. The simultaneous decrease in ocean oxygen not only threatens the survival of aerobic marine organisms, but is symptomatic of the slow-down in the ocean’s thermohaline ‘conveyor belt’ circulation system that transports heat from the tropics to the poles, overturns surface layers of into the deep and vice versa, redistributing nutrients and gases for the ocean biosphere, and regulating rainfall and temperatures on the landmasses.

This dynamical system is highly nonlinear, and small changes could make it fail altogether, with disastrous runaway effects on the climate [7] (Global Warming & then the Big Freeze, SiS 20). More importantly, it could wipe out the ocean’s phytoplankton that’s ultimately responsible for splitting water to regenerate oxygen for the entire biosphere, on land and in the sea [4]. Read the rest of this article here http://www.i-sis.org.uk/O2DroppingFasterThanCO2Rising.php Or read other articles about climate change here http://www.i-sis.org.uk/climateglobalwarming.php

==========

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/O2DroppingFasterThanCO2Rising.php All new articles are also announced on our RSS feed http://www.i-sis.org.uk/feed.xml If you like this original article from the Institute of Science in Society, and would like to continue receiving articles of this calibre, please consider making a donation or purchase on our website http://www.i-sis.org.uk/ISISappeal.php ISIS is an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to providing critical public information on cutting edge science, and to promoting social accountability and ecological sustainability in science. If you would like to be removed from our mailing list unsubscribe at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/unsubscribe or email unsubscribe@i-sis.org.uk

============

CONTACT DETAILS The Institute of Science in Society, The Old House 39-41 North Road, London N7 9DP telephone: [44 20 7700 5948] [44 20 8452 2729] For email details, see http://www.i-sis.org.uk/contact.php MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT EXPLICIT PERMISSION. FOR PERMISSION, PLEASE CONTACT ISIS at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/contact2.php

Scientists Uncover New Ocean Threat From Plastics

By Steve Connor, Science Editor - the Independent - Thursday, 20 August 2009.

Plastic pollution is not just unsightly but it could be to toxic to humans and animals.

The North Pacific Gyre, which traps untold
amounts of plastic particles in its eddies.
(Credit: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)

A Cleanup Begins - but Concerns Remain Over the Massive Straw-Bale Piles at Elie, Manitoba

by Larry Powell - (Please also note comments at bottom.)

A resident of Elie, Manitoba, Linda Aquin, says she worries that the massive backlog of straw-bales stored near the town will catch fire, resulting in the release of toxic chemicals. Aquin and her husband operate a bed-&-breakfast in the small town on the Trans Canada Highway, west of Winnipeg. She says Dow Bio Products which owns the now defunct strawboard plant, has hired exterminators to control the rodents living in the straw.

She believes they used a poison possibly containing arsenic for this purpose. If a fire breaks out, she adds, she doesn't know what could happen. But, it could be like a chemical fire and if the wind is in the wrong direction, results could be serious. She says a fire at the Elie school some time ago produced toxic smoke when some plastic chairs burned. "We couldn't breath and had to get out of there," she remarked. She fears a similar incident, only on a larger scale, could still happen with the bales.

Aquin says there have already been fires that smoldered for a long time in the bales and even ones inside the plant, when it was still operating. There have been rumours that the bales will be removed, she adds. These include a deal with a Hutterite band (to bury them) and with the Trans Alaskan pipeline, who would use the straw to cover some of its equipment. But this has not happened, so far. *

Aquin adds, the failure of the plant, which has been dismantled and the machinery shipped to new owners in Brazil, means area farmers, who once had a market for their straw at the plant, are burning it, once again. She believes the owners set money aside to clean up the site. Yet the bales "just sit and sit and sit." The question becomes, is it now even safe, given the chemicals used to control the rodents, to attempt to destroy the bales even in a controlled burn, because of the possible toxins they would produce?
=====
* Dow has now begun a cleanup program on the west side of the straw bale piles, nearest the town.
=====
Please also read "A Testament to Failure." Click here.
=====COMMENTS; That rat breeding grounds on the #1 is owned by Dow Ind. and is backed by our government. A gov'nt article stated it was now tarped and just ignore the tumbled piles. Very responsible, don't u think? Anon.
=====Apparently Dow Industries was using the straw piles (and piles and piles and...) to manufacture building supplies. They have tarped some, according to a government article, but we're told to ignore all the tumbled over piles-probably the rat infested piles. Every year I drive down the #1, I see the same eyesore too, and you know it's not the farmers. Anon.