Manitoba beekeepers fight to come back after extreme honeybee die-offs

CBCnews

Long, cold winter could be to blame for some 

beekeepers losing more than half of their bees. More here.

A Manitoba beekeeper tends to his hives.

A PinP photo.

Costco takes stand on insecticides

THE WESTERN PRODUCER
Costco is saying no to neonics. More here.

A corn-harvester in Manitoba. 

Planting of neonicotinoid-coated corn raises honey bee mortality and sets back colony development - 

Nat'l. Institutes of Health.

Anti-pipeline activists are fighting to stop Line 3 on the US-Canada border. Will they succeed?

Bill McKibben for The Guardian.

Pipe loaded on a train in Manitoba, destined for God-knows-where. A PinP photo.

The oil industry is building yet another pipeline - but Native American groups and progressive activists are fighting back. More here.

More help from the public trough for the corporate hog sector

by Larry Powell

Manitoba’s hog industry is delighted with the latest infusion of money into swine research. Ottawa has just announced that another $18.5 million will be spent over 5 years to look into the nutrition, health and care of the nation’s swine herds, along with their "environmental sustainability" and the quality of the pork. Canadian taxpayers will pay almost $13 million of that amount, the rest from industry.

This is in addition to more than $30 million already spent over the past decade (by both industry and taxpayers) for other so-called “agri-science” research.

The group representing pig producers and processors, Manitoba Pork, hails the announcement as “Great news!” It says the research will be “industry-led,” and will “bring together experts in the public and private sectors to help increase the competitiveness of the Canadian pork sector.”  (Conveniently, the industry statement makes no mention of the apparent provision in the federal grant for a study into its own "environmental sustainability.")

And earlier this year, $176 million began flowing across Manitoba’s farm sector from both federal and provincial taxpayers. Among those eligible for financial help are “agri-processors.” These would include the province’s two big hog slaughterhouses, HyLife and Maple Leaf Foods (both of whom have been reporting profits to their shareholders of late).

And this is all part of a larger, $3 billion "investment" by federal, provincial and territorial governments to “help farmers manage significant risks that threaten the viability of their farm and are beyond their capacity to manage.” This seems to be a reference, in part, to swine diseases which have devastated herds in Manitoba and elsewhere for over a year now.  For more on this, please read “In Hogs We Trust - Part 111 - From Malaysia to Manitoba. The magnitude of livestock diseases, worldwide.”

For a more in-depth account of government subsidies flowing to this “high-maintenance” industry, please read, “In Hogs WeTrust, Part 11 - the price we pay for corporate pig$”

These Underwater Mountains are Huge & Hugely Important. A video from Oceana Canada.

Newest Canadian UNESCO World Heritage Site announced

CBC news

Pimachiowin Aki Canada's 1st mixed cultural and natural heritage site. More here.

For more background, watch this brief video PinP produced last year, before the site was approved.

Ex-Nasa scientist: 30 years on, world is failing 'miserably’ to address climate change

The Guardian

James Hansen, who gave a climate warning in 1988 Senate testimony, says real hoax is by leaders claiming to take action. More here.

Britain's biggest butterfly threatened by rising seas

The Guardian

New charity warns Britain’s largest butterfly could be lost within four decades as rising seas turn its habitat into saltmarsh. More here.

Another kind of  swallowtail in Manitoba, CA. A PinP photo.

Wood Buffalo: Canada’s largest national park and its people in peril

The Narwhal

American White Pelicans at the Rapids of the Drowned, Wood Buffalo Park. Photo by Ansgar Walk.

International officials are warning the Canadian government not enough is being done to protect the Peace-Athabasca delta — one of the world’s largest freshwater inland deltas — from the ravages of ongoing industrial development. More here.

Deepwater Horizon disaster altered building blocks of ocean life

The Guardian

Oil spill disaster reduced biodiversity in sites closest to spill, report finds, as White House rolls back conservation measures. More here.

In a High-Stakes Environmental Whodunit, Many Clues Point to China

The New York Times

 The largest Antarctic ozone hole ever recorded on September 24, 2006. NASA.

Last month, scientists disclosed a global pollution mystery: a surprise rise in emissions of an outlawed industrial gas that destroys the atmosphere’s protective ozone layer. More here.