For Climate Action, 2013 “Good As It’ll Get”: Nicholas Stern

INTER PRESS SERVICE

Manitoba sunset. PLT photo

WASHINGTON (IPS) - A confluence of factors could make 2013 the most fruitful opportunity in years for potentially major action on climate change, according to a leading voice on climate change policy, the British economist Nicholas Stern. Full story here.

United Nations Calls Canada's Pullout From Drought Convention 'Regrettable'

United Nations

The United Nations says it's 'regrettable' that the Government of Canada is withdrawing from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the only legally binding instrument that addresses desertification, land degradation and drought. Details here.

Related story: Desertification Too Important For Canada To Ignore - Suzuki

Fish Deformities Linked to Oil Pollution in U.S. and Alberta

CBC News

Alberta scientist calls for research on fish malformations in Lower Athabasca River. Details here.

Cheaper Green Energy Storage Solution Invented by Calgary Professors

CBC News

Chat over beer generates lower-cost way to make hydrogen from water. Details here.

Saskatoon Scientist Breaks Silence About Muzzling

CBC Radio

A retired federal researcher based in Saskatoon is going public with concerns Ottawa is muzzling scientists like her. Details here.

Not a Robin, But, I'll Take It!

Not exactly the harbinger of spring we look forward to most. I spotted this "gopher," actually a Richardson's ground squirrel, in a field near Roblin, (western) Manitoba today. PLT photo.

Top Water Specialist Ties Into Harper Government For Killing the Experimental Lakes Area (podcast)

CBC Radio - As It Happens

As we've discussed on the program this week, federal funding for the Experimental Lakes Area in northern Ontario will be cut off at the end of March. And scientists will not be allowed to conduct research at the facility this summer, even those with their own funding. David Schindler is the founding director of the world-renowned freshwater research facility. He is best-known for his research on phosphates, and on the environmental impact of the oilsands. Listen to the interview, here.

Backers of the Experimental Lakes Area Question Ottawa's Intentions

Winnipeg Free Press

Skeptics wonder about the sincerity of the federal government to get a new operator for ELA. Details here.

"Mystery" Malady Kills More US Bees, Heightening Worry on Farms

New York Times

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A "mysterious" malady that has been killing honeybees en masse for several years appears to have expanded drastically in the 'States last year, commercial beekeepers say, wiping out 40 percent or even 50 percent of the hives needed to pollinate many of the nation’s fruits and vegetables. Details here.

PLT; I see researchers and the media insist on clinging to  the line that Colony Collapse Disorder is a "mystery." ("Quotation marks"are mine.) This is tragic since a main contributing factor is pesticides. Period. While this is acknowledged in the story, it never seems to occur to the brightest mind to simply ban the fucking ones we already know to be the worst offenders!  

• Please also read: "Chemical Giants, Regulators & Politicians Fiddle While Honeybees Die!" 
• "Honey Bee Losses in Manitoba." 

Worst-Case Climate Scenario May Backfire on Activists: Study

Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- Climate activists' strategy of barraging people with information about the consequences of climate change could end up hurting the cause, according to a benchmark study released Thursday. Details here.

Canada's Governing Party Blows a Golden Opportunity to Curb the Brutal Practice of "Shark-Finning" on the High Seas

by Larry Powell

                   Robert Sopuck, MP for Bottom-Trawling & Shark-Finning.                                                                             

It may be deplorable.  But, for the Harper government (and my own MP, Robert Sopuck), not quite deplorable enough.

I'm talking about "shark-finning." Each year, worldwide, an estimated 100 million sharks are caught for their fins, only. The sharks, still alive and bleeding, with their fins cut off, are then dumped back into the ocean, either to die a slow death, or be eaten by other predators. 

Shark fins are considered a delicacy. While shark fishing is legal off Canada's coasts, finning was banned here years ago. Still, tonnes of fins obtained elsewhere in this manner, often from endangered species, are imported, yearly. So an NDP MP introduced a private members' bill to help curb the practice by simply banning imports into this country.

Sopuck (CPC - Dauphin/Swan River/Marquette), spoke at length during the Commons debate on the Bill. First, he made it clear how much he respected his colleague who introduced it, and that finning was not only deplorable, but "abhorrent." But then he announced his Party would not be supporting the Bill.

According to Sopuck, it would set "a very bad precedent, is overly broad and could unfairly target sustainable fisheries around the world." China is already taking action, he claimed. And Canada is "already exploring what can be done." Whatever that means.

Then, (despite winning only 39% of the popular vote in the last election, and despite a recent poll, showing 81 percent of Canadians support a ban) the government used its majority to defeat the Bill.

But this kind of behaviour is hardly new for the Harperites. In '06, shortly after they came to power, they distinguished themselves at the United Nations by helping to scuttle a motion to ban bottom-trawling. That's another brutal practise which basically devastates all sea-life in its path; All this in the face of grave predictions from top marine scientists that, if nothing changes, such life could actually disappear from our oceans in less than half-a-century. 

I guess we're all supposed to assume that the crisis facing dwindling world fish stocks, and the brutal practices that go with it, would be even worse, were it not for "environmentalists" such as Mr. Sopuck, watching out for all of us.