Oreo maker linked to destruction of orangutan habitat in Indonesia

Greenpeace

Photo by Evan-Amos

Oreo products found on Canadian supermarket shelves list palm oil as an ingredient, the cultivation of which in Indonesia is a major driver of orangutan habitat loss Story here.

Is Warming Bringing a Wave of New Diseases to Arctic Wildlife?

YaleEnvironment360

Rapid warming and vanishing sea ice in the Arctic has enabled new species, from humpback whales to white-tailed deer, to spread northward. Scientists are increasingly concerned that some of these new arrivals may be bringing dangerous pathogens that could disrupt the region’s fragile ecosystems. Details here.

White-tailed deer feed on hay-bales in Manitoba.
A PinP photo.

Ragweed may expand its range northward with climate change

Science Daily

Hay fever allergy. Photo by championswimmer.

A new predictive model developed by ecologists and climate scientists suggests that climate change may allow common ragweed to extend its growing range northward and into major northeast metro areas, worsening conditions for millions of people with hay fever and asthma. Details here.

The Olympics vs. the Wild Creatures of the Rainforests.

Rainforest Action Network

 The Borneo file-eared frog (Polypedates otilophus).

Photo by Charlels J. Sharp.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are likely built on the backs of endangered species. That’s because the very timber being used to build the Olympic venues is being sourced from Indonesia’s rainforests. So much for being “one of the most sustainable Olympics yet!” Details here.

Denying solutions is the new climate change denial

Clean Energy Canada

A new form of denial has risen from the ashes of the old: denying the solutions that empower us to minimize climate change. Details here.

Strathclair hog barn operator not in compliance with laws - Hogwatch Manitoba

Dear Editor,

Politics, not law, are driving Yellowhead Council’s response to 

Hog Watch Manitoba’s revelations about a hog barn expansion 

near Strathclair.  

(See B.G. story, here.)

Claims that its “investigation” reveals the operator was “found to 

be in compliance with laws and regulations” as reported in the 

October 24 Brandon Sun are false.

Council’s informal plan to have taxpayers pay someone to count 

the Maple Leaf-owned pigs at this so-called family farm is a 

diversion designed to give the offender time to fix problems 

documented by Hog Watch. Counting pigs helps them evade their 

responsibility to regulate on the maximum number and type of pigs 

a barn can hold. 

Governments’ honour system has led to the approval of a new barn 

without making sure there is sufficient capacity to store 

manure.  Only after the barn was built, over a thousand pigs put in

 it this spring, Hog Watch sounded an alarm and municipal 

officials spoke to the operator, was an application made for a 

provincial manure storage expansion permit.

 The law is that any size of operation using earthen manure 

storages have at least 400 days storage capacity. This operator’s 

engineer October 5 letter to Council admits current storage 

capacity is only 253 days and an application for a provincial 

permit submitted only recently.  There was no mention if a water 

rights licence had been submitted or obtained since Hog Watch 

intervened.

When the building application was made, the law required all 

expanding pig operations, big or small, to file manure management 

plans.  This provided some check on having enough suitable 

manure spread lands.  It is now obvious why the Pallister 

government eliminated this rule.  It makes it easier and cheaper for 

the hog industry to expand.  It exposes people to the effects of 

environmental and surface water nutrient pollution from the hog 

industry.  

Council ignored their own Zoning By-Law regarding required 

spread lands. While the engineer’s manipulation of pig numbers 

down to 297 Animal Units (AUs) appears to justify the operator 

not having to go through a conditional use hearing and provincial 

technical review (triggered at 300 AUs), the zoning by-law clearly 

states any livestock operation producing over 75 animal units of 

manure has to “provide enough suitable land… to dispose of the 

manure in a fashion which will not pollute the land.”  Counting 

pigs can’t fix these violations of the law.  

 
Wim Verbruggen publicly asserted in the Sun that I, acting on 

behalf of Hog Watch is telling “lies, lies, lies.” The evidence 

speaks for itself. Just like evidence heard by Oakview Council 

from a local resident during the conditional use hearing on his 

2016 proposal for a 6000 head-capacity finisher operation that was 

rejected. The manure storage site selected and sanctioned by a 

different engineer, was shown to be illegal. A fact ignored by the 

Provincial Technical Review Committee.  Another provincial rule 

change now allows such manure storages to be built on such 

surface watercourses by simply calling them something else.

Governments’ job is to regulate the hog industry by putting the 

public interest first. The honour system, ignoring facts and the law 

while attempting to count pigs to give an offender time to become 

compliant after-the-fact is dangerous practice and sends a troubling 

message to the industry.  You can break the law and if you get 

caught, we’ll help fix it for you. This approach rewards 

lawbreakers, rather than prosecuting them and does nothing to 

protect people and the environment.

Ruth Pryzner

Hog Watch member

Living Planet Report 2018 - Bad News for the World’s Wildlife.

World Wildlife Fund

We are pushing our planet to the brink. Human activity—how we feed, fuel, and finance our lives—is taking an unprecedented toll on wildlife, wild places, and the natural resources we need to survive. On average, we’ve seen an astonishing 60% decline in the size of populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians in just over 40 years, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2018. Story here.

Carnage on our roads is surely a significant factor as well.

Maggots swarm over the carcass of an animal killed on the highway.

Roadkill litters a busy highway in Manitoba as the wheels of commerce
(and the carnage), keep on rolling. PinP photos.