Stop the Tar Sands Pipeline

Natural Resources Defense Council's Save BioGems News, Au 25, 2010

In northeastern Alberta, the lush forests, sedge meadows and freshwater lakes of the Peace-Athabasca Delta attract more than a million birds every year.

Manitoba geese photo by l.p.

These undisturbed wetlands are critical nesting grounds for tundra swans, snow geese, whooping cranes and countless ducks, but they are slowly being poisoned by tar sands oil extraction taking place just south of the delta.

Tar sands oil development has already contaminated rivers and lakes with toxic discharge, created vast waste ponds and worsened global warming pollution. Now, plans for a new trans-boundary pipeline that would bring tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast is moving forward, paving the way for additional mining and drilling in the boreal forest. Not only would the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline destroy even more habitat for millions of migratory birds, it would do nothing to lead the United States toward cleaner forms of energy production.
» Call on President Obama to oppose the tar sands pipeline.

Suburban Sprawl and the Decline of Social Capital

22 August 2010 - by: Anthony DiMaggio, t r u t h o u t

Why Long Commutes Are Bad for the American Body and Mind (P.S. Canadian, too? l.p.)

Please also visit this link and read about the tragedy of this huge, new subdivision that was supposed to be a progressive, green addition to Winnipeg.

Waverly West construction.
Wpg. Free Press photo

The Future of Air Quality at a Big Manitoba Wood Products Plant is Now in the Hands of the Minister

Au 24-2010 - by Larry Powell

Important recommendations on what the Manitoba Government should do about controlling pollution from a big wood products plant in the province, are now in the hands of the Minister of Conservation, Bill Blaikie.

Louisiana Pacific Canada's OSB mill near Swan River. Photo by Larry

The Clean Environment Commission, an "arms-length" advisory agency, began last year to look into the merits of a government decision almost 20 months ago, to allow "temporary" closure of pollution control devices at Louisiana Pacific's "oriented strandboard" plant in the Swan Valley of western Manitoba.

Certain toxic emissions have apparently been escaping into the air around the plant, near the Village of Minitonas, since that time. The Commission will recommend that the devices should either be started up again, or closed permanently.

The agency says it submitted its report to Blaikie on Aug. 16th, but, he was away, so wouldn't have seen it until he got back on the 23rd. Cathy Johnson of the Commission says she believes the Minister could possibly release it "in early September."

It will be up to him to make the final decision on the recommendations.

Please also read my earlier story: "The Great Debate Over Air Quality in the Swan Valley Reaches a Climax."

On Harper's Northern Tour

Au 24-'10 - Below is my letter to the Winnipeg Free Press (now published, Au 27.) l.p.

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Dear Editor, I find media coverage of Prime Minister Steven Harper's current tour of the north, appalling. If I heard the CBC correctly this morning, our Prime Minister is "putting emphasis on science" in his approach to northern development!

An emphasis on science?

The sad fact is, this so-called leader of ours has been spitting on science and scientists ever since he came to power. He has been appointing "climate-denying" oil and gas toadies as his "science advisers" while being nothing but criminally negligent in his approach to the crisis of global warming.

As our "True North" melts around the people and creatures living there, Harper parades about, peddling "Arctic sovereignty" as some kind of opiate we can all use to avoid the harsh reality of climate change.

No doubt Harper has a greedy eye on the petroleum bonanza that lies beneath melting permafrost and the ocean's surface, now made more accessible with quickly disappearing sea-ice. While this approach might extend the supply of this unsustainable energy source, it will also surely guarantee that global warming will do nothing but worsen, with consequences I personally would rather not think about.

Apparently the media tagging along with him see themselves as little secretaries, faithfully recording his every utterance while turning a blind eye to the changing world around them.

I just hope they didn't get wet in the deluge of rain or blown away by the 100 K winds which were supposed to hit Churchill while they were there!

Larry Powell Roblin MB

A Great Way to Blow a Day

By: Laura Rance Wpg. Free Press - 21/08/2010

Folks eating it up at farmers' markets.

Farmers' market

photo by l.p.

High-Yield Agriculture Slows Pace of Global Warming, say FSE Researchers

Louis Bergeron - Stanford News Service - 2010

Advances in high-yield agriculture…..

EDITOR'S NOTE: I do not always agree with stories I post here. This is a case in point. But what I think is secondary. I would love to hear your comments on this study. Might there be something to it? Or is it just a piece of "agri-biz" propoganda? l.p.

Outrage at UN Decision to Exonerate Shell for Oil Pollution in Niger Delta

John Vidal, environment editor

• guardian.co.uk, 22 August 2010

• Oil giant blamed for 10% of 9m barrels leaked in 40 years


Photo courtesy of
Crossed Crocodiles