New Era of Food Scarcity Echoes Collapsed Civilisations

Analysis by Lester R. Brown - Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON - The world is in transition from an era of food abundance to one of scarcity. Over the last decade, world grain reserves have fallen by one third. World food prices have more than doubled, triggering a worldwide land rush and ushering in a new geopolitics of food. Full story here.

Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza Mexico. PLT photo

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Letter-to-the-Editor)

Dear Editor,

Remember when school would start and your teacher would ask you how you spent your summer vacation?

While school is now a dim and distant memory for me, last summer is anything but. I spent about ten days of it, flat on my back in the Regina General Hospital, after a near-death experience. 

It all started on a dark and stormy night in late June. Like many other folks living in a huge area of the eastern prairies, we suffered property damage in the thousands when a dangerous "plow wind" of well over 100kph struck about midnight, while we were in bed. 

(Sadly, it was consistent with what our top scientists have been warning us about for decades: That the climate we humans are changing by our addiction to fossil fuels, is bringing "weather events" which have become way more severe and frequent than they once were.) 

The wind buckled our garage door (above), damaged our car inside, blew the tops off several of the spruce trees in our shelter belt and brought down two of the largest, brushing our sun porch and barely missing our house (below). 

Some days later, I was cleaning up the debris when it happened. I developed the kind of chest pain I knew I couldn't ignore. 

A Case for Civil Disobedience

By: John Bennett - Sierra Club of Canada - Wpg. Free Press

OTTAWA — All the benefits Roslyn Kunin attributes to life in Canada in her recent column, including peace and order and good government, came about through civil disobedience. The suffragettes who won women the right to vote did not shy away from it. Details here.

First Nations Protestor - Regina. PLT photo

Spruce Point Minesite Mess - a Black Eye for Manitoba (Video)

Wilderness Committee

Please also read: Mine Proposed in a Manitoba Provincial Park.

Wildlife in a Warming World

 

National Wildlife Federation (US)

'Only by rejecting dirty energy and embracing clean energy solutions — will we begin to alter the path we are on to catastrophic climate change.' Details here.

Red Wing blackbird.
PLT photo

      

Booming Coal Exports Threaten the Great Barrier Reef

living on earth

UNESCO is threatening to take the Great Barrier Reef off its list of World Heritage sites in the wake of Australia’s decision to build new coal transport facilities on the Queensland coast. Tim McDonnell of Mother Jones magazine's Climate Desk joins host Steve Curwood to explain how an increase in shipping could damage the vulnerable reef. Details here.

PLT: Just when you think human idiocy has reached rock bottom, behold! A new low! If I were an insensitive, heartless beast, I'd be tempted to say I have no sympathy for the victims of the terrible floods and wildfires which have swept that continent in recent years. But I'm not, so I won't!

Photo credit - Tourist Destinations

Mine Proposed in a Manitoba, Canada Park

Manitoba Wildlands

The Manitoba government is reviewing a new copper mine in Grass River   Provincial Park. An environmental license has not been granted. Forest   in the project area has been cleared, and work on the mineshaft already   commenced before the public comment period even began. The public has   until February 19, 2013 to provide comments. Details here. Moose in a SK park. PLT photo PLT: I know at least one NDP "insider" who is dumbfounded because his party and other "progressives" like the Greens have so much in common, yet can't seem to get together in some sort of union. Perhaps this story will help explain why! Interestingly, a recent Manitoba Wildands poll shows 100% of those asked, want no mines at all in our provincial parks. So who does our provincial government represent? Rich mining interests or the people?

North Dakota Went Boom

New York Times Magazine

It’s hard to think of what oil hasn’t done to life in the small communities of western North Dakota, good and bad. It has minted millionaires, paid off mortgages, created businesses; it has raised rents, stressed roads, vexed planners and overwhelmed schools; it has polluted streams, spoiled fields and boosted crime. Full story here.

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu Resigns, Chastises Climate Deniers And Clean-Energy Critics

Huffington Post

In a wide-ranging and sometimes defiant letter to staff announcing his resignation on Friday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, while highlighting his agency's achievements over the last four years, blasted critics of the administration's investment in the renewable energy market, suggesting that opponents were living in the "Stone Age." Details here.

Harper Names Top Adviser!

Paths Less Traveled would like to congratulate Wiarton Willy on his appointement as Stephen Harper's Chief Advisor on Climate Change!

 PLT photo

EU Stands Strong Against Canadian Tar Sands Lobbying

Climate Action Network Canada

The European Commission's plan to label dirty fuel could throw a curve ball in Canada's mission to diversify tar sands exports. Full story here.