Much More Policy Support and Investment Is Needed in Sustainable Smallholder Farming - & Quickly! - UN

Rome/Nairobi, 1 June 2011
United Nations officials called today for a "Green Revolution," a dramatic increase in support for sustainable agriculture....Details here.

Start Fighting the Next Flood Now

By: Josh Brandon - 06/1/2011 Wpg. Free Press

The flood season of 2011 is among the worst Manitoba has ever seen. Details here.
(Josh Brandon is water caucus co-ordinator at the Manitoba Eco-Network)

Below the Shellmouth Dam.  l.p. photo
Please also read "Lake-of-the-Prairies - the next Lake Winnipeg?" Like the article above, it also includes information on the critical role of wetlands.

Hundreds Ordered to Evacuate as Homes, Cottages Threatened

Winnipeg Free Press - By: Bruce Owen - 06/1/11
HUNDREDS of residents and cottagers on Lake Manitoba and other flood-prone parts of the province were ordered to get out...Details here.

* “I find it systematically tends to get underplayed by my fellow scientists. I’m sure you’ve probably heard, ‘Well you can’t attribute a single event to climate change.’ But there is a systematic influence on all of these weather events nowadays because of the fact that there is this extra water vapor lurking around in the atmosphere than there used to be say 30 years ago. It’s about a 4% extra amount, it invigorates the storms, it provides plenty of moisture for these storms and it’s unfortunate that the public is not associating these with the fact that this is one manifestation of climate change. And the prospects are that these kinds of things will only get bigger and worse in the future.”

*Kevin Trenberth, lead author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Senior Scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.
 

Chevron Feels the Heat: Annual Shareholder Meeting Brings Huge Protests For Oil Giant's Abuses Around the World

Alternet - May 31-'11
"We are the human face of Chevron's operations, armed with the memories of our dead relatives, our neighbors, our sick children," said one woman who traveled from Ecuador. Details here.

Please also read: Chevron Wins Halt to $18 Billion Judgment in Ecuador Pollution Case 

Government of Manitoba Will Launch Action-Plan To Save Lake Winnipeg: Selinger

News Release - Manitoba - May 31'11 
The province will take the steps necessary to save Lake Winnipeg, Premier Greg Selinger announced today, following a five-year study of the lake. Details here.

Prospect of Limiting the Global Increase in Temperature to 2ºC is Getting Bleaker

May 2011 - International Energy Agency
CO2 emissions reach a record high in 2010; 80% of projected 2020 emissions from the power sector are already locked in. Details here.

Outrage Grows Over New Brazilian Rain Forest Law

Planetsave - May 30 '11 - A controversial piece of “forest reform” legislation was passed by the Brazilian senate this past Tuesday...Details here. 

Soy field in the Brazilian Amazon