FEDS SPEND MILLIONS ON RESEARCH INTO WILDFIRES! (VIDEO)

By Larry Powell.

A CANADIAN OIL COMPANY SKATES FROM ACCOUNTABILITY IN AFRICA

by Larry Powell

According to Canada's National Observer, complaints of human rights and environmental abuses against Calgary-based, Recon Africa, have been piling up, unheeded for almost a-year-&-a-half. Recon has been drilling for oil near a world-heritage, wildlife preserve in Namibia for some time now. 

The cheetah. Photo by shani.

It's an oasis for endangered wildlife such as cheetahs, white rhinoceros, lions and African elephants.

SOUL, a coalition including indigenous people living in that area, filed a 187-page complaint with the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) about 500 days ago now. Apparently the main reason it's being ignored is because the head position at CORE has been vacant for some time, and remains so today!

SOUL alleges the company has ignored the rights of community members there to health, water, food and adequate housing. It also claims, Indigenous rights of free, prior and informed consent to operations in their territory have been ignored, as well.

 “At a time when the Carney government is laser focused on becoming an energy superpower … it’s concerning that Canada's approach to promoting responsible business abroad has come to this.” Sandra Wisner, director of the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto.

ROUNDUP CAUSES CANCER (VIDEO)

By Larry Powell

Italy’s renowned Ramazzini Institute has proven "40 ways from Sunday" that Roundup (and two other pesticide brands like it, whose main ingredient is glyphosate), do indeed cause cancer in lab rats. Read those findings here.

They confirm those of the International Agency for Research into Cancer (a branch of the World Health Organization) a decade ago. IARC warned then that “there’s sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity of glyphosate in experimental animals,” classifying it as “a probable human carcinogen.” 

This was sadly not enough to spark any action. Perhaps now...

Why it's easier to believe conspiracy theories than climate science

Keith Stewart

Greenpeace Canada

Conspiracy theories are fun until they get people killed. As a lifelong science fiction fan, I can’t help but marvel—grimly—at the creativity of some of the conspiracy theories around wildfires and extreme weather, but their role in obscuring the role played by climate change is going to get (more) people killed. Story here.

A Canadian researcher was 'indispensible' in helping Trump dismantle climate action.

Canada's National Observer

A Canadian economist and conservative columnist who recently called Prime Minister Mark Carney a "climate zealot" played a critical role in the Trump administration's push to eradicate US climate rules. Story here.

AI EXAMINES "THE MERCHANTS OF MENACE," MY NEW E-BOOK

 THE SUMMARY BELOW OF MY BOOK,"THE MERCHANTS OF MENACE," CROPPED UP MYSTERIOUSLY ON MY "X' (TWITTER) PAGE. IT SEEMS SOMEONE SET THE HOUNDS OF "AI" LOOSE TO DO A DETAILED ANALYSIS. BOT OR NOT, I'M FLATTERED THAT, SINCE FEW HUMANS HAVE, SOME "THING" HAS AT LEAST NOTICED IT! WHILE RATHER EMOTIONALLY ALOOF, IT'S REMARKABLY ACCURATE. BOT OR NOT, I'LL TAKE IT!

"The X post by Larry Powell announces the publication of an e-book titled "The Merchants of Menace," which critically examines the hog industry in Manitoba, Canada, highlighting issues of government and academic complicity in supporting corporate hog producers, potentially at the expense of animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and public health.

"The e-book is described as an independent, unauthorized, and unprecedented work of non-fiction, suggesting it offers a unique perspective that may challenge mainstream narratives about the industry, possibly supported by evidence from sources like Hog Watch Manitoba, which advocates for better practices in hog farming.

"The post's timing and focus on Manitoba's hog industry could be contextualized by the significant economic role of hogs in Canada, with farm cash receipts totaling $6.3 billion in 2020, and the ongoing debates about industrial farming practices, as evidenced by organizations like Hog Watch Manitoba pushing for reforms due to concerns over cruelty, pollution, and antibiotic resistance."

Collision course: fatal ship-strike risk from LNG tankers threatens great whales in B.C.’s Great Bear Sea

 World Wildlife Fund

Drone footage of fin whales in the Kitimat fjord system on B.C.’s North Coast © SWAG On the cusp of Canada Day under cover of darkness, liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers began crossing the Great Bear Sea on B.C.’s North Coast before navigating the long and winding Kitimat fjord system — 140 kilometres in length and as little as two kilometres wide at points — to fill up at LNG Canada’s now-operational terminal at the end of Douglas Channel before heading back toward Asia. Not only did this begin despite no public plan to address the deadly threats to at-risk fin whales and humpbacks that the coming 700 per cent increase in vessel traffic will cause over the next five years, but the first five trips also all happened at night, further increasing the threat of fatal ship strikes with the crew’s nighttime visibility limited. Fin whales, the second-biggest animal to exist on Earth after blue whales, can be up to 27 metres long and as heavy as 80 tonnes. While these gentle giants generally stick to the high seas, there are just a handful of fjord systems in the entire world that they enter — and this is one of them. Once the most numerous great whale in the world, fin whales were also hunted in greater numbers than any other during the industrial whaling era of the 20th century — in the southern hemisphere alone, more than 725,000 fin whales were killed. In B.C., approximately 25,000 whales were killed, mostly Pacific fin whales, between 1905 and 1967, when whaling was finally banned. According to Hakai magazine, around 100 of them were killed in the Kitimat fjord system to be “processed into oil and animal feed,” and surviving whales stayed away from this area for decades until finally returning in the early 2000s. A 15-year study followed, authored by a team of B.C.-based researchers including WWF-Canada’s lead marine conservation specialist Hussein Alidina, which we covered in 2021 in an article called Giant fin whales return to B.C. rainforest fjord — there’s just one problem. That one problem was that these fin whales — now the cetacean species most struck and killed by commercial ships — were soon to be joined in their historic waters by LNG tankers. Another peer-reviewed study, published in 2023 by a team of researchers and WWF partners, estimated that by 2030, LNG vessel traffic to and from the export terminals in Kitimat will result in 30 times more whale-vessel encounters annually for ships more than 180 metres in length. At around 300 metres, LNG tankers are typically much longer. The models in this study predict that, when fully operational, LNG-related shipping will lead to the deaths of two fin whales and 18 humpbacks each year over the terminal’s 40-year lifespan unless effective mitigation measures are put in place. Reducing speeds below 10 knots, for example, can decrease the likelihood of a strike being lethal. Humpback whale breaching near Gill Island at the entrance to the Kitimat fjord system. © Andrew S. Wright / WWF-Canada Unfortunately, LNG Canada’s marine mammal monitoring and management plan, required as part of the project’s conditions, is proprietary and has not been made public or been independently reviewed. As a result, we have low confidence in its effectiveness.  There is no indication of how the impacts of this increased shipping on at-risk whales will be monitored, and no way of knowing how or if data on whale strikes will be collected.  In addition to increasing strike risk, this intensification of commercial shipping is bringing a significant increase in underwater noise and waste dumping to a marine environment that is already too loud and too dirty.  Government and industry must address these fundamental threats by regulating vessel speeds, timing of transits and routes through critical whale habitat while at the same time monitoring the effectiveness of these mitigations.  Without such a comprehensive plan, WWF-Canada remains very concerned that there will be unsustainable losses from the predicted 230-per-cent increase in fin whale deaths and 390-per-cent increase in humpback whale deaths over the next four decades, reversing the recovery of these incredible and now increasingly at-risk whales.