PLANET IN PERIL

Manitoba Wildlands - Feb. '12 For the second time Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent has declined to issue an emergency order to protect woodland caribou. Details here.

Bill Redekop - Winnipeg Free Press 02/25/2012 PLT photo Roving rural columnist finds Harper's decision to dismantle the wheat board goes against the grain for many Manitoba farmers. Details here.

Feb 24, 2012 by Common Dreams Food justice advocates rise up to confront corporate control of our food system. Details here.

            Coldplay's haunting classic "The Scientist" is performed by country music legend Willie Nelson for the soundtrack of the short film entitled "Back to the Start." The film, by film-maker Johnny Kelly, depicts the life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future. Both the film and the soundtrack were commissioned by Chipotle to emphasize the importance of developing a sustainable food system.

by Larry Powell It's hardly surprising that Big Oil is already brandishing the latest scientific study on the Alberta oil-sands as a weapon in its crusade to peddle bitumen to the world.  The study was done by a noted Canadian climatologist, Andrew Weaver and a colleague at the University of Victoria.  This is the part Big Oil likes. If all of the oil-sand's reserves considered "economically viable" were developed, the resulting rise in global temperatures would be "almost undetectable," when compared to massively larger, global deposits of coal. But there are other parts of the study you won't hear Big Oil quoting.    For example, what if all o f the tarsand's reserves known to be there, (known as "oil-in-place and seven times larger than Saudi Arabia's ) are developed, over time?  In that case, Earth's temperature would rise up to ten times as much as in the last scenario! And that would represent almost half of the man-ma

(Source - Wikipedia) A report put forth by economist and former Insurance Corporation of BC CEO, Robyn Allan, in early 2012, states that this proposed pipeline could actually hurt non-oil based sectors of the Canadian economy. Allan stated in the report that the project's success depends on continual yearly oil price increases, by about $3/barrel. She also stated that an increase in oil prices will lead to "a decrease in family purchasing power, higher prices for industries who use oil as an input into their production process, higher rates of unemployment in non-oil industry related sectors, a decline in real GDP, a decline in government revenues, an increase in inflation, an increase in interest rates and further appreciation of the Canadian dollar."