PLANET IN PERIL

The Canadian Press - Jul 19-11 OTTAWA - The freak windstorm that toppled the main stage at the Ottawa Bluesfest may be a sign of weather to come, warns a top climatologist. Details here. PLT: I'd like to applaud Mr. Phillips for finally using the term "climate change," publicly. More and more scientists such as himself are moving away from the old line that "you can not link climate change to any particularly freak weather event." These freak events are becoming so common and widespread, only the most hidebound of "climate-denier" can any longer argue with any credibility against the fact that climate change is real, it is happening now and is very ominous, indeed.

Jul 16 - '11 PlanetSave Lions, these wonderful big cats — I think there isn’t anybody who has ever avoided their charm — could be extinct in just 15 years. Details here.

The City of Winnipeg offers incentive to buy hybrid cars. Details here.

New York Times. Jul 15'11  As recently as a decade ago, farms in the Midwest were commonly marred — at least as a farmer would view it — by unruly patches of milkweed. Details here.

Natural Resources Defense Council - 07/15/11  The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would carry dirty tar sands oil from Canada’s Boreal forest to refineries in Texas, destroying songbird habitat, fueling global warming and threatening drinking water for millions of Americans. Take action now .

Press Release: July 13, 2011, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network  US Department of Agriculture will not regulate genetically modified bluegrass, decision could be applied to future GM crops Ottawa. Canadian environmental groups today expressed new concerns about a serious threat of contamination from genetically modified (GM) plants across the U.S. border after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) decided last week not to regulate a GM herbicide-tolerant grass, potentially opening the door to similar decisions on future GM crops. U.S. company Scotts Miracle Gro is now free to sell its herbicide-tolerant “Roundup Ready” Kentucky bluegrass in the U.S., without regulatory oversight. In an exchange of letters with Scotts, the USDA declared that it lacked authority over the new GM bluegrass because Scotts did not use a certain “plant pest” in the process of genetically engineering. Superweed rendering by Paul Hoppe “GM grass is a nightmare scenario for contamina

Jul 14 '11 TomDispatch.com These days, even ostriches suffer from heat waves. Details here.