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Manitoba's Conservation Minister Responds to my Story on Swan Valley Air Emissions

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While composing my story, "Standing the Precautionary Principle on its Head; the Manitoba Government celebrated '09 by allowing industrial pollutants to be released in the Swan Valley," Gov't. of MB photo I invited three Manitoba cabinet ministers to give their input. Just over a month later, I got a response from one of them, Bill Blaikie. Please read my email and his, below. Larry ========== From: Larry Powell [mailto:earthkeeperfarm@yahoo.ca]
Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 12:22 PM
To: Conservation, Minister; Agriculture, Minister; Finance, Minister
 Subject: News Story On LP's Pollution Controls Dear Honourable Ministers,

 I'd like to congratulate you all on your recent appointments to new portfolios!

I am a journalist based near Roblin who writes regularly on issues touching on your areas of ministerial responsibility. (I write for my blog - see link below - occasionally for weekly newspapers in my region and magazines such as Briarpatch and Sasquatc

Biotech Wheat Could Slam U.S. Wheat Prices -Report

Wed Jan 27, 2010 - By Carey Gillam CHICAGO, Jan 27 (Reuters) U.S. wheat prices could fall by 40 percent...

With Climate Change, Some Birds Are Taking Off for Migration Sooner; Not Reaching Destinations Earlier

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ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2010) Migrating birds can and do keep... (R.) Cape May Warbler Three American goldfiches (l.) migrated north to Manitoba, as they usually do in mid-spring of 2009. They were caught by a highly unusual major snowstorm in May! Photos by l.p.

Pro-Canadian Wheat Board Farmers Consider Appeal Over Voters' List

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Staff - MB CoOperator - 2/1/2010 l.p. photo The Prairie farmers' group that….

Tell Chevron to Clean up its Toxic Legacy

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Care2 subscriber since Jan 1, 2010 Unsubscribe | Forward to a Friend | Take Action Hi Larry, Chevron is responsible for one of the largest environmental disasters on the planet. For 26 years, the U.S. oil giant has deliberately dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into Ecuador's Amazon rainforest. Tell Chevron to clean up its mess! » As a result of all the toxic dumping, local people suffer from cancers, miscarriages and birth defects. And still Chevron refuses to clean up the catastrophe! Chevron even stated that if it is found guilty in court the company simply won't pay to clean up the site or provide health care, potable water and compensation to affected communities. Chevron needs to take responsibility. But the company won't unless it feels pressure from its American customers and the general public. Send a letter to CEO John Watson and tell him he needs to clean up Chevron's toxic legacy in

GM Crops Facing Meltdown in the USA

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ISIS Press Release 01/02/10 Major crops genetically modified for just two traits - herbicide tolerance and insect resistance – are ravaged by super weeds and secondary pests in the heartland of GMOs as farmers fight a losing battle with more of the same; a fundamental shift to organic farming practices may be the only salvation Dr. Mae-Wan Ho Please circulate widely, keeping all links unchanged, and submit to your government representatives demanding an end to GM crops and support for non-GM organic agriculture Artist Paul Hoppe Two traits account for practically all the genetically-modified (GM) crops grown in the world today: herbicide-tolerance (HT) due to glyphosate-insensitive form of the gene coding for the enzyme targeted by the herbicide, 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS), derived from soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and insect-resistance due to one or more toxin genes derived from the soil bacterium Bt (Bacil

Biotech Crops Cause Big Jump in Pesticide Use: Report

Carey Gillam - Reuters - KANSAS CITY - Tue Nov 17, 2009 KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - The rapid adoption by U.S. farmers of...

Boreal Forests Store More Carbon than Tropical Forests

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Posted: 15 Nov 2009 09:58 PM PST Report Calls for Global Climate Talks to Consider Boreal’s Impact OTTAWA, Ontario—When the world thinks of forests and their value to offset global warming, tropical forests come to mind. A report released today shows that the global impact of Canada’s boreal forest, which stores nearly twice as much carbon per hectare as tropical forests, has been vastly underestimated. “The Carbon the World Forgot” identifies the boreal forests of North America as not only the cornerstone habitat for key mammal species, but one of the most significant carbon stores in the world, the equivalent of 26 years of global emissions from burning fossil fuels, based on 2006 emissions levels. Globally, these forests store 22 percent of all carbon on the earth’s land surface. “Past accounting greatly underestimated the amount and depth of carbon stored in and under the boreal forest,” said Jeff Wells, an author of the report. In addition to carbon storage i

Behind Mass Die-Offs,
Pesticides Lurk as Culprit

07 Jan 2010: environment 360 In the past dozen years, three new...

Pesticides Worsening the Honey Bee Crisis

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Shared by: F. Los on January 7, 2010 Ottawa - Sierra Club Canada is calling on the Canadian Government… ========== Editor's note: Were they listening? On Dec. 30-'09, I sent the message below to the Sierra Club. Today, they issue a release, calling for action! While it may not be the kind of action I had asked for, you won't hear me complaining. An immovable object like our federal government needs all the persuasion which can be mustered from any and all quarters! Yaaaaay Sierra! l.p. From: Larry Powell ... View Contact To: Green Peace ; Greenpeace ; Greenpeace International ; Prairie Sierra Club ; Sierra Club ; Sierra Club ... more Dear Greenpeace/Sierra Club, I am passing on the news release, below. Might there be a chance for a similar lawsuit in Canada to succeed? I know that groups such as Eco-Justice and Environmental Defense sometimes take on such things, on behalf of groups such as yours. Many thanks for your considerat

Pesticides Loom Large in Animal Die-Offs

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"better dying through chemistry" 7 Jan 2010 - by Tom Laskawy - Grist Please also read - Plight of the Humble Bee and Poisoning Nature's Pollinators. photo courtesy Natural Resources Defense Council Editor's comment - To corrupt and heartless (are there any other kind?) pesticide regulators everywhere - I hope you can sleep at night. Instead of doing the decent, honourable thing by protecting our precious planet and the creatures in it, you have lost your souls up the asses of the corporations who make these god-damndable poisons and, instead of doing the honest jobs you get paid by the people to do, you are letting the Bayers and Monsantos of the world get away with their dirty work. You belong in jail! l.p.