Late Frost and Blizzard Put Chill on Seeded Fields on the Canadian Prairies

Laura Rance - Winnipeg Free Press

This year could go down in Prairie folklore as the year farmers seeded and seeded -- and then seeded some more. Story here.

Manitoba Renews Support For Manure Management Financial Assistance Program

Government of Manitoba

Funding for the Manure Management Financial Assistance Program (MMFAP) has been renewed for another year to help ensure all eligible farmers have an opportunity to make improvements that will benefit their operations and the environment, Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Minister Ron Kostyshyn announced today.

‘It Is Climate Change': India’s Heat Wave Now The 5th Deadliest In World History

ClimateProgress

A searing and continuing heat wave in India has so far killed more than 2,300 people, making it the 5th deadliest in recorded world history. Story here.

The Government of Manitoba Defies Conventional Wisdom - Increases Highway Speed Limit. Climate Change? Who Cares? (Editorial)

by Larry Powell

In an age when the ravages of climate change are making themselves increasingly evident, the Government of Manitoba has raised the speed limit on most of the Trans Canada west of Winnipeg, to 110 KPH. 

Have the poor souls flunked out of "Climate Change 101?" If they hadn't, they would surely know that higher speeds will only result in more fuel consumption, something an enlightened government should be trying to avoid. (Every 9th grader now knows, or sure as Hell should, that our now out-of-control burning of fossil fuel is what is driving the climate crisis we are now all faced with.)

On its website, Natural Resources Canada has a simple warning: "Avoid high speeds. Most cars, vans, SUVs and pick-up trucks operate most fuel efficiently when travelling between 50 and 80 km/h. Above this optimal speed zone, vehicles consume increasingly more fuel the faster they go." 

Obviously the expediting of human traffic and cargo is more important to this government than the catastrophic climate change now facing present and future generations. Could it be that Greg Selinger and his crew are actually trying to "Out-Harper" the Harperites in their appalling environmental illiteracy?

Food, Water, Health, Life: United Nations Experts Warn of Threats Posed by Secret 'Trade' Deals

CommonDreams

'All draft treaty texts should be published so that Parliamentarians and civil society have sufficient time to review them and to weigh the pros and cons in a democratic manner,' say officials. Story here.

Related: Free Trade: Pathway to Prosperity - or Back Road to Corporatism?

Warmer Oceans Will Make Typhoons More Intense

ClimateCentral

While the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be relatively quiet, thanks to the influence of a healthy El Niño, the typhoon season in the northwest Pacific has been jam-packed so far, even for an area that normally sees the highest tropical cyclone activity and a large proportion of the strongest storms. Story here.

World's First Ocean System Targeting Plastic Pollution to Launch in 2016

ALJAZEERA AMERICA

The world's first system designed to rid the oceans of plastic pollution will be deployed near Japan in 2016, with the aim of eventually capturing half of the plastic found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a large concentration of marine debris located between Hawaii and California. Story here.