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Will the Rural Municipality of Shell River Brush Aside Better Technology in Favour of Another Sewage Lagoon?

by Larry Powell  Is Council Withholding Crucial Information? Shell River surrounds the Village of Roblin, in west-central Manitoba. It's where my wife and I live, on a peaceful, rural acreage. In mid-March, the RM quietly sent in a drill truck to test the soil less than a mile upwind of half-a-dozen rural acreages, including our own, with a view to building a new sewage lagoon. (Read earlier story, with photos, here.) Test results, we were told, would be known in a couple of weeks. So, on April 13th, almost a month later, my wife and I appeared before Council. Well, no, we were told, we couldn't have the test results yet because, according to Deputy Reeve Joe Senderewich, who chaired the meeting, "They were not yet official!" We weren't sure if that meant they didn't know, or weren't telling us! Now, after another 10 days and at least one "in-camera" meeting, we understand via the grapevine, that Council may make those res

Stop the Mass Death of Bees! Tell EPA & USDA to Ban Bayer's "Neonic" Insecticides!

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Organic Consumers Asn. PLT photo  Commercial beekeepers have filed an emergency legal petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to suspend use of a pesticide that is linked to massive honey bee deaths. The legal petition, which specifies Bayer's neonicotinoid pesticide clothianidin, is backed by over one million citizen petition signatures. Click "Go!" to add your voice. Take Action Now! PLT: An open challenge to Canadian beekeepers....how about similar action here?

Ocean Acidification Definitively Linked to Oyster Failure

By Nathan - Planetsave On April 13, 2012 The collapse of a commercial oyster hatchery in Oregon has now been linked definitively to an increase in ocean acidification. Details here.

Canadian Researchers Open a Door to Saving Threatened Bats

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Bat Conservation International. Dear supporters, A research team led by the University of Winnipeg in Canada recently confirmed that the Geomyces  Courtesy of "Bats About Our Town." destructans fungus that causes White-nose Syndrome in North America originated in Europe, where it is still found but does not  cause mass deaths of bats. This suggests that European bats may have faced WNS sometime in the past and the bats that survived evolved to have immunological or behavioral resistance to the disease. This research also demonstrates that the WNS fungus was almost certainly carried, inadvertently, by humans from an infected European cave to North America. Since it was first reported on the muzzles of little brown bats in New York’s Howes Cave, WNS has killed more than 5.7 million bats, according to federal biologists. This new evidence that humans can carry and spread the fungus reinforces the need for targeted closures of caves used by bats, as we

How the European Commission is Responding to the Sahel Food Crisis

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European Union - Europa - Apr 12 2012 1. How big is the food crisis in the Sahel in 2012? This is one of the biggest humanitarian crises in the world today. Details here.

Harperites Chop Trees in Latest Austerity Revelations!

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By: Jennifer Graham, CP SASKATOON - Canada's agriculture minister is defending the government's decision to put a pasture program and a shelterbelt tree program on the chopping block to save money. Details here. PLT shelterbelt photo. PLT: Trees are the latest declared "enemies" of the Harperites. What's next? Motherhood?