Ecosystem in Peril after Gulf Oil Spill
By Matthew Cardinale - IPS ATLANTA, Georgia, May 14, 2010 (IPS) - With engineers giving a...
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Are Pesticide Regulators on theTake?
Canadian Authorities Refuse to Protect Precious Pollinators From Known Toxins. Is Something Crooked Going on Here? by Larry Powell Nothing smacks of collusion between government officials and the agro-chemical industry, quite like the current crisis facing the world’s pollinators. For years, scientific research teams both far and near, have been documenting dwindling numbers, even extinctions, of several populations of pollinators like honey bees and bumble bees. Scores of reputable groups, including The Canadian Pollination Institute (CANPOLIN) , the Xerces Society and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in the ‘States, are all sounding the same alarm; “The diversity and abundance of insect pollinators are in a global state of decline. This decline represents a serious threat to the integrity of natural ecosystems and the production of many crops.” Xerces has been devoted to preser
The Great Debate Over Air Quality in the Swan Valley Reaches a Climax
by Larry Powell (This story also appears in the current issue of Canadian Dimension magazine.) Bill Blaikie is about to go through a bit of a “baptism by fire” as Manitoba's new Minister of Conservation. He will soon need to decide whether to order Louisiana Pacific Canada Ltd. (LP) to restart the pollution control devices it shut down at its wood products plant near Minitonas , in the Swan Valley over a year ago. If he does that, he will be throwing down the gauntlet to LP to make good on its threat to shut the whole plant down, dealing a body blow to the local economy. Or he could grant the corporation’s request for a permanent decommissioning of the devices. If he does that, it could mean more harmful industrial pollutants will continue to be released into the atmosphere than at any time since the plant opened, with the controls operating, in 1996. Not only that, he would almost certainly incur the renewed wrath of individual citizens and environmental groups who be