Apple Turnover - How This "Supercool" Tech Giant Plays Fast & Loose With the Environment

George Monbiot

Apple offers 21st Century technology – with 19th Century ethics. Full story here.

Writer Knocks Manitoba Government for "Disgusting" Response to Arsenic Issue

Dear Editor:

Complacency about water safety thrives in Manitoba.

What are we putting into our water ?

PLT photo

We are putting toxic waste (poison) into our water. Toxic = dangerous, immediate or long term effects. In the absence of scientific research, no one should simply claim those products are safe and acceptable, then allow them to be discarded into a water source.

There is absolutely no legitimate government interest

fulfilled, by allowing arsenic, lead and other contaminants 

into a water source. Yet, that is exactly what is happening!

The town of Virden, Manitoba, for instance, has been issued 

a  licence by the province  to dump arsenic taken from the 

water treatment plant, into a surface water source, which

downstream, enters into the Assiniboine River.

The questions then that need to be answered are:

Why does government, the province of Manitoba 

condone and permit such a disdainful action?

Why are the long-term health risks from chronic exposure

to arsenic being ignored? Why are we being valued

as subjects, used in an experimental laboratory?

Why is this human impact allowed?

Why are people being complacent and not speaking

out on this travesty and mockery to our personal health 

and the health of water, the life blood of all living creatures.?

This is a shameful and disgusting act against humans

and our most precious resource. It's time that the

public retaliated; put aside its complacency, and 

started voicing  its opposition to the province. 

The government's lack of moral and humane principles 

must be challenged.  Arsenic is a deadly poison and warrants 

extreme respect, not defensive political bafflegab.

John Fefchak.

Virden. MB.          24 Sept. 2013
Related: "Keep Arsenic out of the Water at Virden, Manitoba, Canada! An Open Letter to Manitoba's Minister of Environment"

Wake Up! Make Agriculture Truly Sustainable - UNCTAD

United Nations Conference on Trade & Development

The world needs "a rapid and significant shift from conventional, monoculture-based and high external-input-dependent industrial production towards mosaics of sustainable, regenerative production systems." Full story here.

Climate Change: IPCC Cites Global Temperature Rise Over Last Century

The Guardian

More than half a trillion tonnes of carbon have been burned since the industrial revolution, according to an IPCC report. Full story here.

PLT: What doesn't get burned, gets spilled!

Protest Song - Save BC's Wilderness

Rachelle Van Zanten - My Country (Official Video) from Taylor F. on Vimeo.

Environmental Report Details Extent of Contamination in the Quebec Runaway Train Disaster

(The Toronto Star)

There was never doubt that the deadly train derailment in Lac-Mégantic caused an environmental disaster, but a report made public this week by Quebec's ministry of the environment details the extent of the devastation to the soil, river and lake near the disaster zone. Details here.

Related: "Have Our Servants Become Our Masters?"

Water is Our Most Precious Resource

by John Fefchak

Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.

Water is the life blood of all living things.

It just seems we have so much fresh water in Canada, we don't look after it, as we know we should. (U.S. and Canada need to reduce algae bloom on Lake Erie, WFP 29 Aug)

It is clear that governments have ignored the basic principles of water stewardship for too many years in the pursuit of narrow economic interests.

Lake Winnipeg has become a horrid reminder of devastation, that we are leaving our children and their children to bear alone.

Now Lake Erie has a sickness that has returned.

So many of our Lakes have become diseased.

The name of this disease is 'human complacency.'

Slime on a Lake Winnipeg beach near 

Gimli. PLT photo.

Food Crisis Fears Prompt UN Wake-Up Call to World Leaders

UN Conference on Trade & Development

Wake up before it is too late: Make agriculture truly sustainable now for food security in a changing climate. Full story here.

Read Guardian story here.

Family From Turtle Mountain in Southwestern Manitoba Says Crop-Dusting Spray Made Them Ill

CBC Radio

Woman says she had allergic reaction to pesticide sprayed on canola field. Details here.

A "crop-duster" similar to the one said to be involved in this latest incident. PLT photo.

Related: 

• Family Believes it was Poisoned by Crop Spray
• Are Crop Sprays Making Us Sick?

CDC Study on Superbugs Does Not Reflect Well on Factory Farming Methods

Centers for Disease Control - Threat Report 2013

This report, Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States, 2013, gives a first-ever snapshot of the burden and threats posed by the antibiotic-resistant germs having the most impact on human health. Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year...Details here.

Related: 

• CDC Reveals Scary Truth About Factory Farms and Superbugs
• Could Antibiotics Actually be Killing You?

World 'Not On Track' To Prevent Warming - UN Climate Official

Huffington Post

Appealing directly to the world's voters to pressure their politicians into taking tougher action against the buildup of greenhouse gases, a top climate official with the United Nations says, international leaders are failing to fight global warming. Details here.



A brooding skyline in Manitoba, CA. PLT photo.