United Nations Declares War on Ocean Plastic

Interprets Agency Service News Agency

The available data is enough for the United Nations to literally declare war on oceans plastic: more than 8 million tonnes of it leaks into their waters each year – equal to dumping a garbage truck of plastic every minute, wreaking havoc on marine wildlife, fisheries and tourism, and costing at least 8 billion dollars in damage to marine ecosystems. Story here.

Alarm raised in North Dakota over high risk of Red River flooding

Winnipeg Free Press

The U.S. National Weather Service says there is more than an 80 per cent chance of major flooding along the Red River near the Manitoba border in the coming months. Story here.
Grand Forks, ND in 1997
Ken Gardner, 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

"Jeff's Earth." Our Home Planet as Photographed From Space by NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams.

Canadians are making a supersized gamble on climate and the economy

NATIONAL

OBSERVER

Did you know that:

• We Canadians are now one of the world's largest extractors of climate pollution, per capita?
• We're planning one of world's biggest increases through 2030?
• Our relentlessly increasing extraction has become a supersized gamble that threatens both climate hope and our economic stability? DETAILS HERE.                        

Part if the infrastructure awaiting approval of the 

Keystone XL pipeline. Photo by shannonpatrick17

Conservation groups urge increased protection for boreal caribou habitat

The Globe & Mail

Federal and provincial governments are being urged to increase protection for the boreal forest and its imperilled woodland caribou herds from resource-company activity, as environment ministers prepare to meet in Ottawa this week to devise plans for greater conservation efforts. Story here.

Crop destroying caterpillar rapidly spreading across Africa; maize production endangered

AgroNews

New research announced by scientists at CABI (Center for Agriculture and Bioscience Information) confirms that a recently introduced crop-destroying armyworm caterpillar is now spreading rapidly across Mainland Africa and could spread to tropical Asia and the Mediterranean in the next few years, becoming a major threat to agricultural trade worldwide. Story here.

Manitoba "crop-duster." PinP photo.