A Former Federal Scientist in Canada Pleads His Case Against Roundup to the Minister of Health, Rona Ambrose

Robyn O'Brien

Last week, Dr. Thierry Vrain, a former scientist with the federal government in Canada, reached out after watching an interview I did with Dr. Ray Seidler, a former senior scientist at the EPA. Story here.

Canada's Biggest Province, Ontario, Acts to Protect Bees While The Federal Government Twiddles Its Thumbs

The Sierra Club

TORONTO – The global campaign to ban neonicotinoid pesticides took a big step forward in the province of Ontario today. The provincial government -- using its own pesticide control legislation -- will reduce the use of neonicotinoid pesticides by 80%. Details here.

Honeybee hive. 

Larry Powell PinP photo.

Related: "PinP Declares Manitoba's Minister of Agriculture a Liar."

Farm Leaders on the Canadian Prairies Peg Water Damage in the Billions

Manitoba Co-Operator  

A sodden farm field near Neepawa, Manitoba. 

Larry Powell PinP photo.

Farm leaders from Manitoba and Saskatchewan hope a new lobby group of stakeholders from both provinces can bring some long-term solutions to excess water problems that have led to billions of dollars in damages. Story here.

Related: "Manitoba makes $1M available to compensate farmers flooded last summer."

Climate Change Overview

The World Bank

Flood refugees in Manitoba.

Climate change is a fundamental threat to development in our lifetime. If we do not confront climate change, we will not end poverty. The sooner we act, the better chance we have of addressing it at a lower cost. Story here.

Keystone XL's Silent Role as a Forest-Killer

The New York Times - Andrew Nikiforuk

An intact bit of  Boreal forest in Ontario. Larry Powell PinP photo.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS typically fret about the prospect of adding monstrous new amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere if the Keystone XL pipeline is approved, and for good reason. Less attention is paid to the vast stretches of boreal forest already laid bare by tar sands development. In this opinion piece in the New York Times, preeminent Canadian journalist Andrew Nikiforuk poses this disturbing question….how much more must we lose? Story here.

Contamination Nation - Disaster Lurks on the Shores of Canada's Great Slave Lake - Global News Video (Pardon the Ad)

What's In Our Water? Flame Retardants, Anti-Microbial Nanosilvers And Synthetic Estrogen

                                      International Institute for Sustainable Development

              Experimental Lakes Area wraps first research season under new management

A (pristine?) lake in Manitoba, Canada.

Larry Powell PinP photo.

OTTAWA & WINNIPEG – What’s in our lake water? As we learned this year, increasingly the answer includes flame retardants and anti-microbial nanosilvers from our clothes and baby products, synthetic estrogen and other hormones from flushed pharmaceuticals, and mercury from coal plants. 

Save Endangered Grizzly Bears from Canada's Jumbo Ski Resort! PLEASE SIGN!

Care2Petitions

Jumbo Glacier Resorts is planning to build a 5500 bed ski resort with hopes to attract between 2000 and 3000 tourists per day. Although Jumbo Glacier Resorts has stated they examined the affects its resort will have on the area Grizzly Bear population and determined there will be little impact; they are using scientific data that is over 15 years old!  PLEASE CLICK here to sign!

Taps Run Dry in São Paulo Drought, But Water Company Barely Shrugs

Washington Post

A dam which supplies water to 45 percent of Sao Paulo. (Getty Images) 

ATIBAIA, Brazil — Seen from a micro-light aircraft, flying low near this small town in Brazil’s interior, the scale of the water crisis blighting São Paulo, a megalopolis 40 miles away, was frighteningly clear. Four of the five reservoirs in an interlinked system that supplies 6.5 million people, more than a third of its metropolitan population, were vividly depleted. Caked red banks of exposed earth showed just how low the water levels had fallen.  Story here.

Saving the Planet, One Meal at a Time

OpEdNews - Chris Hedges

A feedlot near Dauphin, Manitoba, CA.

PinP photo.

My attitude toward becoming a vegan was similar to Augustine's attitude toward becoming celibate -- "God grant me abstinence, but not yet." But with animal agriculture as the leading cause of species extinction, water pollution, ocean dead zones and habitat destruction, and with the death spiral of the ecosystem ever more pronounced, becoming vegan is the most important and direct change we can immediately make to save the planet and its species. Details here.

Related "Overgrowth."

Leaked Documents Reveal Shady Tactics Behind PR Push For Even Bigger Canadian Pipeline

ThinkProgress

With the debate still raging over Keystone XL, the company behind the pipeline is already hard at work promoting a PR strategy for its larger and entirely Canadian pipeline, Story here.