What's on my Food?

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It's Time for Change. Big Change! (Global Warming & the Manitoba Flood Connection)

Dear Editor,  

                                                                                      

Many Manitobans are upset that the federal election is happening at the same time as major flooding threatens their homes, businesses and farms. 

Red River Valley - 1997 - Natural Resources CA

After all, who wants to be distracted from the stressful job of protecting your livelihoods and families by yet another political campaign and trip to the polls?

In a saner world, there would actually be candidates on the ballot from the two major parties we could vote for, who would be attacking the root causes of the catastrophic flooding so they don't get worse in the future. These candidates would already know that these events are on the rise in both frequency and intensity, due to climate change. Climate change is anthropogenic.

If that is too big a word for you, Stephen, or you, Michael, it just means, it is caused by human beings. That's because we are producing way too many greenhouse gases from the fossil fuels we produce in various ways - notably through the vehicles we drive and planes we fly in.

In a saner world, that would place the problem in the realm of something which can actually be addressed by governments through enlightened emissions control regulations. But, of course, such governments would first of all need to care and, secondly, understand big words. (Neither seems to be the case now if, indeed it ever was.)

There's little doubt that massive engineering projects like "Duff's Ditch," have spared people a good deal of grief by protecting them from the worst. But just how much longer can we rely on human technology to save us? Are huge machines, which burn lots of fossil fuel, breaking up ice jams and building higher and longer dikes really the long-term answer? Or are they just band-aid solutions which merely dabble with the symptoms while aggravating the disease?

The refusal of governments to attack the root causes of this phenomenon has now entered the realm of the criminal.

The fact that greenhouse gas emissions are skyrocketing in Alberta, home of the tar sands, is not surprising. That project, perhaps the dirtiest of its kind anywhere, is one of Stephen's darlings. Not only does he exempt it from meaningful emission controls, he gives the rich oil sands companies over a billion dollars of our money each year, just because he likes them so darn much. Peter, his new "Minister of Environmental Destruction," would have us believe that the government actually has a plan (to fight climate change), and that the plan is working! Michael thinks the sands are pretty nifty, too. His party is calling for a cockamamy scheme called "cap and trade" which will allow the capitalists of the world to somehow make money, betting on our planet's survival.

Meanwhile, nobody is minding "the climate file." Nobody.

Flood waters creep up on millions of dollars worth of farm 
machinery at a dealership (above) at Elie, MB. A PinP photo.

   

If the flooding is as bad again this spring as it appears now,  these same politicians must surely bear responsibility for the misery they will have once again helped to inflict on the citizens of Manitoba's and elsewhere. 

Our lawmakers should have stopped acting like climate criminals and taken the catastrophe of global warming seriously years ago. That's when the best brains on the planet were trying to alert them to it. But, instead of setting a leadership example for the world, Canada has become a laughing stock in the international community.

It goes without saying that we need wise public policies which provide security for our seniors, the disabled and students. We also need to make sure the economy and health care are safeguarded. But politicians who can walk and chew gum really ought to be able to handle these important issues and the climate, too.

And the myth needs to be exploded that working to fight climate change will somehow damage the economy. We are already seeing good jobs being created elsewhere in the new "green economy." Here in Canada, we are being left behind in the dust. Here, record amounts of taxpayer dollars are being spent to compensate producers and homeowners for mounting crop, livestock and property losses spawned by climate-induced, severe weather.

It's called the cost of doing nothing.

Here in Manitoba, greenhouse gas emissions are rising, pretty much unchecked, too. How are we countering this? By allowing increased production of that "clean, sustainable, alternative" fuel - (sarcasm intended) oil! Drilling for oil in this province is now at an all-time high.

Work is proceeding apace to expand the Winnipeg airport to accommodate countless more jetliners, the most effiicient climate-change producers known, and to build that white elephant known as Centreport. It will link Winnipeg to distant points such as Mexico and Nunavut by every mode of transport known to man. It's promoters call it "world-class." I call it "fossil fuel City!" Where do governments get their mandate to do these things? Not from their electorate, that's for sure. (I know someone who lives near Winnipeg, who had no idea what all the massive construction was about!) 

It's clear our powers-that-be now take their cues, not from you or me, but from the non-elected "Captains of Industry" who, in our so-called democracy, stand to profit, big-time from such misguided schemes.

The World Health Organization says climate change is already killing 150,000 people and making 5 million more sick, worldwide, each year. Populations of insects which carry diseases and destroy vast expanses of forests and crops, are moving northward in a warming planet. Food production is being seriously disrupted due to droughts and floods. All this has helped drive food prices to new highs, not just "somewhere else," but in Canada, too.

The old saying, "It's time for a change," is a saying no longer. It's time to completely jettison the two old parties who have governed this country forever, like the "warts on the rump of history" they have become. If you care about your kids, it's time to elect a party which has never governed this country before. They can do no worse.

Larry Powell

Roblin, Manitoba, CA

National Research Council Disavows GM Wheat

Canadian Biotechnology Action Network

Update. Thursday, April 7, 2011: The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) issued a statement to clarify that it has no plans to research genetically modified (GM) wheat. Details here.

Honeybees 'Entomb' Hives to Protect Against Pesticides, Say Scientists

Fiona Harvey guardian.co.uk 4 Apr'11
By sealing up cells full of contaminated pollen, bees appear to be 
attempting to protect the rest of the hive. 
Details here.   
 

Koch Brothers' Deeds Exposed in New Film - Please Donate!

AlterNet
Dear Friend,
I'm writing to ask you to support an incredibly important film, one that will save lives and thwart what may be the most destructive pair of brothers in American history.

A $50 gift today will get you listed as 
a "producer" plus this exclusively

designed Shepard Fairey t-shirt 
with the Koch-topus logo
https://bnf.actionkit.com/donate/kb_donation_alternet 

By now you have probably heard of the nefarious Koch Brothers. They are two super wealthy radical conservatives who are spreading their billions to crush working people, destroy the environment, undermine health care, demean immigrants, avoid responsibility for their own death and destruction, and the list goes on.

Already the Koch's have paid $30 million in fines for 300 oil spills, and invested $34 million to support groups who are trying to steal rights away from teachers,fireman, police, nurses -- our neighbors and friends.
We have to get the truth about the Koch's to millions more people and the best person to do this is Robert Greenwald. Greenwald and his team at Brave New Foundation. They have produced "Outfoxed," "Walmart," and " Iraq For Sale" -- all political film classics that have had a huge influence on the public debate -- and now they want to expose the Koch brothers.

Please become a "producer" of the expose film about the Koch brothers. Be part of history. Your support will help produce this eight-part video series, documentary film, and campaign while earning you what many are considering the coolest t-shirt of the year, featuring an exclusive Shepard Fairey design of the "Kochtopus"

The movie needs to be made ASAP. So your help right now is incredibly important.

Yours in the fight against the radical right,

Don Hazen
Executive Editor, AlterNet 
 P.S. We have teamed up with Brave New Foundation in the past. I can assure you that they are very tough and creative. They make Hollywood-quality films with great story telling that millions of Americans will want to see and that make a difference.

Can We Solve Our Environmental Crisis Without Talking About Climate Change and Global Warming?

AlterNet / By Brendan Smith and Jeremy Brecher
Poll-oriented groups say that public opinion surveys prove Americans care most about jobs and lack the capacity to act on some distant threat. But here's where they're wrong. Details here.

Record Stratospheric Ozone Loss in the Arctic in Spring of 2011

Geneva, 5 Apr '11 (WMO) 

Depletion of the ozone layer- the shield that protects life on Earth from harmful levels of ultraviolet rays - has reached an unprecedented level over the Arctic this spring… Full story here.