Melting Arctic Ice Releasing Banned Toxins, Warn Scientists

Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk - 24 July 2011

Unknown amount of trapped persistent organic pollutants poses threat to marine life and humans as temperatures rise. Details here.

Climate Change Threatens to Spoil Ontario’s Signature Wines

Globe & Mail Jul 23-11

Ontario’s wine makers are fighting to protect their grapes against Mother Nature’s wrath. Details here.

"P in P" Takes a Former Ambassador to Task for Bullshit Comments on the Keystone XL Pipeline

		Below is an email I sent to "The House" this morning. It followed a very disturbing interview this CBC Radio show did with two former Ambassadors. One, Derek Burney (former Canadian ambassador to the US), dismissed opponents of the climate-killing project, the XL pipeline, as violently emotional. ========== Dear Ms. Elliott, (Host) Derek Burney's argument that opposition to the tar sands pipeline in to the US is spurred by "violent emotion" is outrageous. Sadly,  it reveals that he is nothing more than another cheerleader for dirty energy, with dollar signs where his heart should be.Where's the violence, Mr. Burney?  I haven't heard of any environmentalists blowing anything up to support their case. Has he? Is it emotion that the Alberta tar sands are huge emitters of greenhouse gases which are feeding catastrophic climate change? It seems to me there is mounting science - not emotion - behind this conclusion. Is it emotion that the tar which will travel through this misguided project is very corrosive and needs to be forced under heat and pressure, increasing the risk of spills? Tell me I'm wrong, Mr. Burney. Unless you do, you have nothing more to tell me, or anyone else for that matter! Larry Powell, ===== Footnote: According to Wikipedia, Burney is also a Director of TransCanada Pipelines Limited, proposed builders of the pipeline. Gee, what a surprise for him to be taking the position he is taking! No vested interest there!  === Please read the happy ending to this tale of woe here.

Say NO to the Keystone XL Tar Sands Oil Pipeline (Video - Natural Resources Defense Council)

The US Secretary of State must decide by year's end whether to allow construction of a massive pipeline carrying dirty tar sands oil from Alberta all the way to the Texas Gulf coast. Watch the video and find out more of the disturbing facts.

Heat, Drought, Famine All Part of Coming Increase Of Climate-Related Disasters

Alternet - Jul 22-11

Climate change will "exponentially" increase the scale of natural disasters -- so when are we going to take this threat seriously? Details here.

White House Pact with Industry to Push Genetically Engineered Plants

CommonDreams.org - 07/21/11 
High-Level Working Group Shielding Plan to Force GE Crops onto Wildlife Refuges. Details here.

Green Party of Saskatchewan Alarmed by Outcome of Canada's Annual Energy & Mines Ministers' Conference

Press Release    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 20, 2011

The Green Party of Saskatchewan today expressed "profound disappointment" in the outcome of Canada's annual energy and mines ministers' conference, held on Monday and Tuesday in Kananaskis, Alberta. 

Party leader Larissa Shasko (r.) said, "Instead of planning for an economically and ecologically sustainable green energy future in Canada where jobs will be created and pollution reduced, the energy and mines ministers have irresponsibly chosen to go the route of increased tar sands extraction that will take Canada and the rest of the world past the tipping point of climate change.

"In describing the Alberta tar sands as a 'sustainable major supplier of energy to the world', the ministers' communiqué distorts the English language to the breaking point. Non-renewable, high-carbon fossil fuels are by their very nature unsustainable," continues Shasko. 

We are already seeing the early impacts of climate change globally in record floods, record droughts, record temperatures, increasingly severe storms, the steady decline of arctic pack ice, and the melting of glaciers worldwide. Weather is becoming more extreme - and not only in rainfall and temperatures in the prairies. This year so far has seen 900 new temperature records in the USA alone and serious drought throughout the US southwest, as well as prolonged and unprecedented floods in Colombia and the developing tragedy of drought in the horn of Africa. 

Professional energy consultant Dr Mark Bigland-Pritchard, who ran for the Green Party in the federal election, pointed out that a graph used in the ministers' report to emphasise "growing global energy demand" describes the International Energy Agency's "current policies scenario", in which increased carbon dioxide emissions would result in a 6 degrees Celsius rise in global average surface temperatures by the end of the century. This would mean, amongst other things, irreversible loss of the polar icecaps, the loss to fire and die-back of most of the world's great forests, and the loss of much oceanic life through acidification. "It is unlikely", says Bigland-Pritchard, "that human civilization could continue for long in such an environment, because of unpredictable and extreme weather, the massive loss of agricultural land, the flooding of major centres of population, the inevitable wars over scarce basic resources, and the destructive impact of failed states." 

The Green Party of Saskatchewan insists that such a global catastrophe is not inevitable, and that as a province we have much to gain by doing our fair share to avoid it. Bigland-Pritchard notes the 300 thousand jobs created so far in the green energy sector in Germany. "By making a radical shift to energy efficiency and clean safe renewable energy sources," said Shasko, "we could create local jobs, strengthen local economies and build local communities throughout Saskatchewan." Saskatchewan has the best solar characteristics and the best usable inland wind resource in Canada, good hydroelectric resources, substantial potential for sustainable biomass and deep geothermal energy, and massive scope for energy efficiency savings. 

"Given the real enduring long-term opportunities which a green energy economy would bring," said Bigland-Pritchard, "I cannot help wondering why Brad Wall and Bill Boyd choose to pursue policies which privilege oil executives in the short term and cockroaches and mosquitoes in the longer term. They could instead be building a truly sustainable society in which our children can be proud to be citizens." 

"A Green government", said Shasko, "would place value on providing for our children, not stealing from them."   

- 30 –  

For more information, contact
Dr Mark Bigland-Pritchard, Professional Energy Consultant,
Mobile:  306.827.7431, Home: 306.997.5721
mark@lowenergydesign.com
Larissa Shasko, Green Party of Saskatchewan Party Leader,
Mobile:  306.690.1404, Home: 306.692.7925
Larissa.Shasko@gmail.com

PLT: Well done, Larissa! You are are a true asset to your country!