Vanuatu: UN Finds ‘Extensive’ Loss of Agriculture; Full Scale of Damage Still to be Revealed

UN News Centre

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called for emergency support for farmers in Vanuatu, where the vast majority of crops have been destroyed by Tropical Cyclone Pam. Story here.

Officials Blame Climate Change for 'Worse Than Worst Case Scenario' in Vanuatu

Common Dreams

'For leaders of low-lying island atolls, the hazards of global warming...is a catastrophe that impinges on our rights—and our survival,' says Pacific Island leader. Story here.

Antibiotics Are No Longer Making Pigs Bigger

Mother Jones

For decades, it's been thought that low, regular doses of antibiotics help livestock grow big—thus increasing meat producers' profits. So common is the practice of lacing farm animals' feed with the drugs that an astonishing four-fifths of all antibiotics in the United States now go to livestock. Story here.

A Breathtaking Ode to the Beauty and Importance of the Imperiled Songbird, and What it Will Mean if we Lose Them. (Video-go full-screen)

Produced by SongbirdSOS Productions Inc.  The full show will be aired on CBC TV's The Nature of Things on March 19 at 8pm.

Canadian Climate Skeptic in the News Again.

A well-known Canadian climate-denialist, Tim Ball (above), appears on a list of about 24 people asked to block the release of a new documentary film. The award-winning website, Inside Climate News, has exposed secret e-mails from another denialist, Fred Singer, an American. In them, Singer seeks advice from a group of pundits and scientists, including Ball, on how to keep the film “Merchants of Doubt,” from being shown to the public. The film shows how these individuals go about trying to convince government and the public that climate science is not real and that human activity is not the driving force behind climate change. Ball argues on his blog, for example, that water vapour, not carbon dioxide, is the most important greenhouse gas. It is not known whether Ball supplied the kind of advice to Singer that he asked for. Singer has ties to both the fossil fuel and tobacco industries. 

United Nations Responding to ‘Devastating' Impact of Tropical Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu, Pacific Region

UN News Centre

The United Nations announced today that it is taking all necessary steps to respond to the catastrophic impacts of a devastating tropical cyclone that affected most of Vanuatu over the past two days. Story here.