Scientists Uncover New Ocean Threat From Plastics

By Steve Connor, Science Editor - the Independent - Thursday, 20 August 2009.

Plastic pollution is not just unsightly but it could be to toxic to humans and animals.

The North Pacific Gyre, which traps untold
amounts of plastic particles in its eddies.
(Credit: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)

A Cleanup Begins - but Concerns Remain Over the Massive Straw-Bale Piles at Elie, Manitoba

by Larry Powell - (Please also note comments at bottom.)

A resident of Elie, Manitoba, Linda Aquin, says she worries that the massive backlog of straw-bales stored near the town will catch fire, resulting in the release of toxic chemicals. Aquin and her husband operate a bed-&-breakfast in the small town on the Trans Canada Highway, west of Winnipeg. She says Dow Bio Products which owns the now defunct strawboard plant, has hired exterminators to control the rodents living in the straw.

She believes they used a poison possibly containing arsenic for this purpose. If a fire breaks out, she adds, she doesn't know what could happen. But, it could be like a chemical fire and if the wind is in the wrong direction, results could be serious. She says a fire at the Elie school some time ago produced toxic smoke when some plastic chairs burned. "We couldn't breath and had to get out of there," she remarked. She fears a similar incident, only on a larger scale, could still happen with the bales.

Aquin says there have already been fires that smoldered for a long time in the bales and even ones inside the plant, when it was still operating. There have been rumours that the bales will be removed, she adds. These include a deal with a Hutterite band (to bury them) and with the Trans Alaskan pipeline, who would use the straw to cover some of its equipment. But this has not happened, so far. *

Aquin adds, the failure of the plant, which has been dismantled and the machinery shipped to new owners in Brazil, means area farmers, who once had a market for their straw at the plant, are burning it, once again. She believes the owners set money aside to clean up the site. Yet the bales "just sit and sit and sit." The question becomes, is it now even safe, given the chemicals used to control the rodents, to attempt to destroy the bales even in a controlled burn, because of the possible toxins they would produce?
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* Dow has now begun a cleanup program on the west side of the straw bale piles, nearest the town.
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Please also read "A Testament to Failure." Click here.
=====COMMENTS; That rat breeding grounds on the #1 is owned by Dow Ind. and is backed by our government. A gov'nt article stated it was now tarped and just ignore the tumbled piles. Very responsible, don't u think? Anon.
=====Apparently Dow Industries was using the straw piles (and piles and piles and...) to manufacture building supplies. They have tarped some, according to a government article, but we're told to ignore all the tumbled over piles-probably the rat infested piles. Every year I drive down the #1, I see the same eyesore too, and you know it's not the farmers. Anon.

Methane Seeps From Arctic Sea-Bed

By Judith Burns - Science reporter, BBC News.Photo by Peter Hollinger
Scientists say they have evidence that the powerful greenhouse gas methane is escaping from the Arctic sea-bed.

Alberta RCMP Use Re-Enactment to Help Find Wild Horse Killers

Wed Aug 19 - By The Canadian Press

SUNDRE, Alta. - Mounties hope a Crime Stoppers re-enactment will help them find who is killing wild horses in the Alberta foothills. Photo courtesy Canadian Geographic

Editor's note: Once again, our inhumanity to our fellow creatures shows no bounds. l.p.

Is Our Last Chance to Preserve Life On Earth Slipping Away?

By Larry Schweiger, Fulcrum Publishing. August 17, 2009.
Shallow news coverage causes most Americans to underestimate the urgency of the threat of global warming.

Soaring Population May Swamp Anti-Poverty Goals

Published on Monday, August 17, 2009 by Inter Press Service by Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals, already undermined by the global financial crisis, are expected to take another hit - this time from rising population growth.

courtesy of The Boston Globe

Phosphorus, Nitrogen Levels Spike in Lake Winnipeg After Massive Spring Flood

By: Chinta Puxley, THE CANADIAN PRESS - 16/08/2009

WINNIPEG - The massive spring flood in Manitoba that transformed the Red River into a lake and caused at least $40 million in property damage has also taken a toll .....

Satellite image courtesy of Greg McCullough