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An Update on Manitoba's & Saskatchewan's (Climate-Spawned?) Flooding

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-by Larry Powell In the community of Eriksdale, north of Winnipeg, flooding is now threatening homes, the hospital and personal care home.  A farm home near Yorkton, SK, isolated by floodwaters. A flood warning is in effect for the Dauphin Lake Basin, including Parkland and the Duck Mountains, especially once the snow melts & there's lots of that yet to come. Runoff from Riding Mountain has already increased the flows of the Valley, Vermillion and Ochre Rivers significantly. The Turtle River has risen by over a meter (4 ft) since Monday!  Runoff from both the "Ducks" and Riding Mountain are adding significantly to the flow of the Assiniboine River. Because of a swollen Assiniboine, points downstream, St. Lazare, Brandon, Portage and Winnipeg are still under a continuous and prolonged flood watch. Conditions on the Assiniboine have been affected by the same blizzard and heavy rains which struck a wide area last weekend. The huge Lake of the Prairies near th

UN Targets Widely-Used Pesticide Endosulfan for Phase-Out

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Geneva, 3 May 2011   Representatives from 127 Governments meeting in Geneva last week agreed to add endosulfan to the United Nations' list of persistent organic pollutants to be eliminated worldwide. Details here.

Voting System Cheats Canadians Again - Fair Vote Canada

Fair Vote Canada - May 3, 2011   Canada’s national citizens’ movement for voting reform has released an analysis of Tuesday’s federal election results showing that the outcome does not accurately reflect the way Canadians voted.  Details here.

A Small Step Forward

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by Larry Powell  Last winter, I asked CBC Manitoba to start announcing atmospheric C02 levels on their weathercasts. (See "CBC Manitoba Thinks Nothing Can Be Done About Climate Change!) C02 levels cause global warming, melting ice caps and glaciers, rising sea levels, droughts, floods, blizzards, tornadoes, cyclones, hurricanes, and ice storms. Safe levels are 350 ppm or below. They have already been way above that for some time. At the time of my request, the CBC said it would be "inflammatory" to announce such levels.  But I finally did convince their broadcast meteorologist,  John Sauder, to place a link to C02 atmospheric levels on his website, "John Sauder's Forecast."  (Lower left.) Thank you, John! You have done the public a real service! l.p.

Soggy Fields Put Northern U.S. Farmers on Tight Deadline

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Manitoba Co-operator - Apr 29'11 - By: Suzanne Cosgrove -Chicago | Reuters Conditions described here are hardly confined to the US. Vast farm fields, such as this one near Winnipeg in March, were covered by snow-melt in another vast flooding event. l.p. Incessant rains have turned Indiana farmer Larry Winger's grain fields into ponds, making it impossible for him to seed his corn crop. Details here.

Fossil Fuel Industry Gives us Cause to be Skeptical

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Science Matters - David Suzuki    The priority for people who run oil companies is to maximize profits. Details here.

Blizzard Worsens Flood Woes for Manitobans

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Manitoba News Release ............................................................ April 30, 2011 FLOOD BULLETIN #29 .    A major storm is causing snow and rain along with high winds that are expected to shift from southerly to northerly directions across most of southern Manitoba.  The slow-moving system is expected to move across Manitoba today (Sat.) and tomorrow.   A lonely Robin awaits the return of spring. The storm will affect the dates of river crests and prolong the duration of the flood.  Forecasters are assessing the storm's impact and will have more information once it is over. .    Due to high wind gusts forecast across southern Manitoba today, those properties with flood-protection works and exposed to north winds can expect wind setup and wave action and are advised to assess the need for flood-protection reinforcements. Assiniboine River .    Water levels on the Shellmouth Reservoir increased by 1.18 ft. since yesterday to 1,411.55 ft.   Above, the br

"Massive" Crop Losses Feared in U.S. South's Drought

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Apr 28, 2011 Reuters The worst drought in more than 40 years intensified across Texas over the last week, with high winds and heat causing "massive crop losses," with little relief in sight, according to weather experts Thursday. Details here.

Larry Tries Again to Draw Attention to the Manitoba Flooding & Climate Change Connection

PUBLISHER'S COMMENT: Below is my letter to Terry McLeod, host of the CBC Radio "Information Radio," morning show in Winnipeg. It is in response to an invitation he extended to listeners to comment on the current flood situation. I'm not holding my breath that it will be used. My record in having such letters/emails see the light of day "on the air," especially on the climate change topic, has not been too good! I hope they will prove me wrong this time! l.p. ========== Dear Terry, Perhaps it's high-time for us to recognize the link between climate change and the increasingly serious floods we are facing in our province and elsewhere. Climate change is caused by humans. We are creating too many greenhouse gases by, among other things, the vehicles we drive and the planes we fly in. These, in turn are warming the planet and creating more extreme weather events such as the flooding which has definitely been on the increase in both frequency a

Last Members of Manitoba First Nation Leaving as Reserve Monitors Flood

By: The Canadian Press 04/25/2011 WINNIPEG - The last residents of a Manitoba reserve on the U.S. border were leaving Monday if they weren't needed to monitor flooding, said the man in charge of the evacuation. Howard Nelson said about 800 members of the Roseau River First Nation would have traded life on the reserve south of Winnipeg for that in city hotels. He said the evacuees could be there for five to 10 days, but it was hard to predict because the road into the community might be closed by flooding. However, the water on Monday was still almost two metres below the top of a protective dike. Nelson said pumps were being used to get water out of almost 30 flooded basements in low-lying areas. This year's spring flooding has forced about 1,600 people to leave their homes in Manitoba — most from Roseau River and the Peguis First Nation along the Fisher River near Lake Winnipeg. =====  The number of people displaced by the flooding is only a fraction of what it wa

BP Getting $13 Billion Tax Break? {TAKE ACTION}

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PlanetSave - 24 Apr 2011   Last Wednesday, it was determined that BP would be getting  $13 billion in tax credits. It is not clear if BP is even going to pay any taxes at all or if it will actually get money from the government after this. Why is BP getting so much money? Because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico…. Yeah, that’s right, BP got to write off its losses from the oil spill. Residents and animals are suffering (if they haven’t already suffered and died) from this unprecedented disaster, the country is struggling, and BP gets to skip tax season because it’s own mistake caused it to lose money. $13 billion is hard to even comprehend. But let’s put it this way: it’s about equal to the EPA’s annual budget, which just got slashed considerably by a Tea-Party-wacky Congress, and it’s equal to about 1/3 of the total budget cuts our government has put forward for 2011. Now , though, one of my favorite sites, CREDO Action, is pushing BP to take responsibility for i