Obama Administration Backs Oil Pipeline From Alberta to Texas

Campaigners disappointed as White House says 1,700-mile pipeline will not cause significant environmental damage. Details here.
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The Alberta tar sands - source of "product" for the pipeline

courtesy, the Boreal Songbird Initiative 

PLT: As pessimistic as I am about President Obama actually stopping this thing, I think the gist of this story is a tad misleading. It is the President, and only the President (not the "White House" or "State Department"), who must sign off on the actual permit that will allow it to proceed. And that has yet to take place.

Climate-Change Scientist Cleared in U.S. Data-Altering Inquiry

By Jim Efstathiou Jr. - Bloomberg - Aug 22, 2011

Michael Mann, a Pennsylvania researcher who’s been a target of climate-change skeptics, was cleared of wrongdoing by U.S. investigators in the flap surrounding e-mails hacked from a U.K. university. Details here.

The CBC Gives Belated - but Appreciated Coverage of an Issue Critical to Canada and the World!

CBC.ca | The Current
The Keystone XL project is a proposed pipeline that would carry crude oil from Alberta to Texas. Critics call it a disaster in waiting ... saying the pipeline would pass through many environmentally sensitive areas, and there's little doubt that at some point, there would be big spill. Proponents say the line would give oil hungry Americans a safer supply of oil. And create a lot of jobs in a time where help wanted signs are desperately needed. Click headline for details.

Please read update, *below.
PLT: Below is a message I sent this morning to "The Current," (with a copy to "The National.)"
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Dear Piya, Anna-Maria et al,

As a faithful listener and environmentalist, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your coverage of the anti-pipeline protests in Washington!

To me, these are nothing less than a critical battle against the ravages of climate change. At the heart of this struggle is a Canadian project. The demonstrations and subsequent arrests therefore richly deserve more coverage from the CBC than they are getting...i.e. on "The National" along with hourly radio newscasts. There has been little or nothing of this, so far (altho I missed last night's show), much to the shame of the Corporation's news department!

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might swear these programs are being cowed into suppressing this news by a "strong, majority, Conservative government," Hell-bent on development at any cost.

(Might this also explain the "friendly" coverage of Harper's northern junkets...where apparently nary a soul living there is concerend any longer about the fact their whole world, including the snow, ice and permafrost, is melting around them! I guess it's all good!)

Once again, my sincere and heartfelt thanks!

Larry Powell
Roblin, Manitoba.
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*Last night (Fri.) "The National" finally got around to covering the demos in question, almost a week after they began. Did PLT play a role?

A Comment "PLT" Left on an American Website

See update, *below.

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Thanks! - Larry

                                                                                                      

PLT: I have just posted the following in the "comments" section of "Common Dreams," an alternative online media in the US. The story was about the critical protests taking place at the White House. Hundreds are there to demand President Obama not allow the proposed Canadian pipeline to carry Alberta tar to the Texas Gulf coast and the profound implications it would have for the environment and climate change:
"I just want the world to know from up here in Canada that our flagship TV newscast, CBC's, 'The National,' is studiously avoiding any coverage of the protests so far. Shame on the CBC and the rest of the media for its undercoverage of this critical juncture in the environmental history of our planet. My worst fear is that Stephen Harper's new, majority, right-wing, heavy-handed government here is somehow coercing the CBC into not giving this event the coverage it deserves. As I see it, this is a seminal struggle to avoid reaching a tipping point with climate change. And a Canadian project is at its heart. Earth's foremost climatologist, James Hansen, warns it will be "game over for the climate" if this misguided project is allowed to proceed!"
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And it seems the CBC is not the only delinquent "mainstream" media, suppressing the news about these important demonstrations. Similar things are happening in the 'States. Here is another comment posted in the same space by someone else:
"Not a word of this in the MSM (mainstream media) - so we would never know people were protesting if not for alternative news. Corporate owned media only reports what they think will shape public opinion to their ends."
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* "The National" finally got around to covering the demos last night (Fri.), almost a week after they began.

Jack Layton's Last Letter

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."
  Read the whole letter here.




Jack with his wife, Olivia Chow
BBC photo

A RUDE AWAKENING: THE NORTHERN WALK TO REGINA FOR A NUCLEAR WASTE BAN

For Aug. 26, 2011 R-Town papers

BY Jim Harding

On August 16^th several hundred people walked the green mile along Regina’s Albert Street, taking their call for a provincial nuclear waste ban to the government. They want an end to the industry group, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), negotiating with northern communities to “host” a nuclear dump without the people of Saskatchewan having any say.

This was the completion of a 20-day, 820 km walk started July 27^th from Pinehouse. Along the way walkers made new friendships and networks that bring the north and south closer together. At the front of the colourful parade was a big, blue balloon “earth” encircled by cutouts of the world’s children holding hands. There was much magic as I watched, over the heads of the block-long string of people in front of me, as “the earth” bobbed up and down as its carriers led the way.

And then I remembered a similar walk, thirty-two years ago, on February 22, 1979. Then, walkers carried a huge white elephant, made of paper-mache, to symbolize what they thought of the government’s uranium policies of the day. How much longer, I thought, will it take for us to learn the hard lessons about the toxic economy and start to seriously make the shift towards sustainability?

Climate Science References for the (US) Campaign Trail

WASHINGTON - August 22 
Given that a number of presidential hopefuls have been voicing their opinions recently on climate science, the Union of Concerned 
Manitoba's unprecedented, catastrophic floods of 2011 - 
the costliest in the province's history. Wpg. Free Press photo.
Scientists (UCS) thought it would be helpful to provide a short list of authoritative scientific assessments on climate science...Details here.