Manitoba Schools to Teach Sustainability: Selinger to Rio Summit

By: Nick Martin Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba students will have a new Grade 12 course on sustainable development, and every school will have a sustainability plan, Premier Greg Selinger said today at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. Full story here.

Tell Brazil Rio+20 Host: “The World We Want” Is Not 60 Amazon Rainforest Destroying Dams

ACTION ALERT PLEASE SEND, SHARE, LIKE, FORWARD!
By Rainforest Portal http://www.rainforestportal.org/ – a project of Ecological Internet June 20, 2012

TAKE ACTION
To protect the Amazon with sustainable development based upon standing rainforests:
  http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=brazil_xingu

Brazil’s government – host of the “Rio+20” UN Conference on Sustainable Development devoted to sustainable development and sustaining ecosystems – is planning to build 60 dams on tributaries to the Amazon -- including the controversial $11 billion Belo Monte project. Industrial destruction of intact primary rainforest ecosystems based upon ecocide and genocide is not “the world we want” – a motto of Rio+20. These plans for massive Amazon dam construction reveal Brazil’s meaningless rhetoric regarding environmental sustainability and sustainable development, as they hypocritically continue destroying key regional and global ecosystems. Brazil’s deceptive doublespeak regarding sustaining ecology must not be allowed to stand unchallenged during Rio+20. Stand with brave indigenous protestors who recently dismantled a portion of Belo Monte’s construction, as we call upon all Rio+20 delegates to demand Brazil cancel Belo Monte and other Amazon rainforest destroying dams, embracing instead a program of sustainable development based upon standing primary rainforests.

TAKE ACTION 
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=brazil_xingu

The Mendacity of Hope

George Monbiot - June 18, 2012

PLT photo

The summits which promise to save the world keep us dangling, not mobilising. Full story here.

Dark Ages Redux: American Politics and the End of the Enlightenment

by John Atcheson - Common Dreams
We are witnessing an epochal shift in our socio-political world. Full story here.

TAKE ACTION to Protest Failed Global Ecological Leadership

ACTION ALERT  PLEASE SEND, SHARE, LIKE, FORWARD!
Rio+20: Protest Global Leaders Obama, Merkel and Cameron’s Absence
By Ecological Internet June 18, 2012
  http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=rioplus20

PLT photo

These major nations dawdle as Earth burns. Their failed leadership obstructs international efforts to protect our one collapsing biosphere while sustainably meeting all of humanity’s basic needs… Based upon ecological science, we know what must be done to sustain Earth’s life and human advancement: protect and restore primary forest and other intact ecosystems, immediately begin reducing emissions to avoid abrupt climate change based upon common but differentiated responsibilities, reduce inequitable consumption and population growth, and promote fairness in sharing of Earth’s dwindling abundance amongst all nations and their peoples… What could possibly be more important than ensuring Earth remains habitable, and all humanity’s basic needs are met? Ecological Internet’s Earth Action Network must bear witness to such deadly and dangerous environmental intransigence, holding failed leadership accountable for ecocide.

TAKE ACTION!  http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/sendsm.aspx?id=rioplus20

Robert Sopuck - Environmentalist or Hypocrite?

Dear Editor, 

I've been struck by the irony of recent, published pictures of my Member of Parliament, Robert Sopick. Smiling broadly, he is shown in one, presenting trophies to the winners of a fishing derby and, in the other, in beaming attendance at a sport fishing banquet (below). 

A few days later, the government Mr. Sopuck represents, rammed through the all-purpose budget bill which included the gutting of the Fisheries Act. Now, all the Act will allegedly "protect" are those fish that are part of "a commercial, recreational or aboriginal fishery." The old Act protected all fisheries, presumably because fish don't always stop abruptly at the boundaries they have been designated. How naive! As a recent article from a Canadian professor of environmental law suggests, if the fish don't "obey" the new rules imposed by Harper, they could find themselves in mortal danger of strip mines, oil spills, clear cuts and the other hazards posed by this government's wild west, development-at-any-cost mentality.

In his latest flyer, Mr. Sopuck is appealing to his constituents to fly a flag to show their "patriotism." Since patriotism means accepting your government whether it is right or wrong, I guess he'll be needing as much of that as he can get.

Mr. Sopuck, shame on you! Some environmentalist!

If more voters around here don't soon start connecting the dots between the party they keep re-electing, and the destruction it is wrecking on our beautiful country, God help us all!


Larry Powell
Roblin, MB

Non-Democratic Party Undermining Democracy

Changing Election Law Requires All-party Consultation
06/13/12
For Immediate Release:

The Manitoba Government, at its own initiative and without consulting with the other political parties in Manitoba, is moving to completely rewrite election law in Manitoba.

Typically amendments to the elections law are suggested by Elections Manitoba, the independent agency charged with overseeing elections, and then discussed at an all-party committee meeting before changes are made.

Clearly the principles of democracy once held dear by the NDP have now been abandoned. The proposals before the legislature seek only to cement efforts to create a two party system in Manitoba.

“The New Democratic Party of Manitoba should rename itself the Non-Democratic Party of Manitoba,” said Green Party of Manitoba Leader James Beddome. “We are outraged that this stealth attack on a fundamental issue of fairness is brought about by the same stealth tactics the Federal Conservatives are using in Ottawa,”

Although on first glance,  it appears that the intent of this bill is to avoid overlapping federal and provincial elections, Schedule A completely replaces the Elections Financing Act.  The stated purpose of replacing the Elections Financing Act is to draft the law in more plain language.

The new act puts the issue of annual funding for political parties before an "independent allowance commissioner."  The Green Party expresses some skepticism as to the neutrality of an “allowance commissioner” who will be appointed by Cabinet.

Beddome said, “Putting a person that is likely to be a friend of the Government in charge of the distribution of the funds to political parties is like putting a mouse in charge of the cheese factory!”

“There is no need to hurry this legislation through.  The next scheduled federal and provincial elections are not until 2015.  And if we want plain language legislation, then time should be given so that the changes can be discussed with all parties affected, including the public.  This is completely unacceptable and undermines the democratic process. We will oppose this every step of the way,” said Beddome

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More Details here.