Health Canada Has 100,000 New Reasons to Rethink Approval of Controversial Pesticides

Today at 8:43 AM

OTTAWA – More than 110,000 people have told Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) not to register flupyradifurone, Bayer's latest bee-killing pesticide. Over the past three weeks, Sierra Club Canada Foundation, David Suzuki Foundation and SumOfUs.org spearheaded a campaign to inform the public of the opportunity to submit formal comments to the PMRA. "We shared the facts about flupyradifurone, and the response has been incredible," said Paul Ferris, of SumOfUs.org. “Over 110,000 Canadians sent a clear message to PMRA: Protect the bees.” The PMRA proposed approving flupyradifurone in September, initiating a mandatory comment period that ended November 3, 2014. Flupyradifurone has the same “mode of action” as bee-killing neonicotinoids: both types of pesticides attack the nervous systems of insects.

On The Importance Of Appreciating Animals

Arianna Huffington - The Huffington Post

You can tell a lot about people from their screensavers. Mine is a picture of gazelles: Details here.

Pelican at Prince Albert Nat'l. Park, CA. P in P photo.

Here Comes The Sun

Larry This morning activists climbed Leduc #1, the oil Derrick that started western Canada's oil boom 70 years ago, at the Edmonton Energy Discovery Centre. They hung a banner that read: “Go Solar: 100% Climate Safe", sending a clear message to the Alberta government that it’s time to transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy – for the sake of our climate.  They also set up a small solar panel atop the derrick, using its energy to power a sound system playing music proclaiming the power of the sun. Help us get the message to Premier Jim Prentice, tell Alberta to go solar!

Confessions of a Former Climate Change Denier

by Kasra Hassani - Canadian Science Writers' Association

I, a scientist with a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology, was a climate change denialist. Wait, let me add, I was an effective climate change denialist: I would throw on a cloak of anecdotal evidence and biased one-sided skepticism and declare myself a skeptic. Good scientists are skeptics, right? I sallied forth and denied every piece of evidence that was presented to me, for a relatively long time. Details here.

 Photo via 

Shutterstock.

'Leaders Must act', Urges Ban, As New UN Report Warns Man's Impact on Climate May Soon Be 'Irreversible'

UN News Centre

Citing “clear and growing” human influence on the climate system, a United Nations report issued today has warned that if left unchecked, climate change will increase the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems. Story here.

Historic flooding in Manitoba, 
Canada, 2011. A premonition?

Crisis Fuelled Resurgence of Horse-Drawn Carriages in Cuba

INTERPRESS SERVICE

HAVANA, Oct 30 2014 (IPS) - Up and down the streets of towns and cities in Cuba go horse-drawn carriages with black leather tops and large back wheels, alongside more simple carts, operating as public transportation. Story here.