Six Unions: One Voice

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

This Wednesday, February 13, the six unions operating on the University of Manitoba campus will unite with one voice. Details here.

Manitoba's Sustainable Pastures

Perennial polycultures and Managed Intensive Rotational Grazing (MIRG)

By Lydia Carpenter - Manitoba Eco-Journal

Permanent Pasture stands can be maintained by use of perennial polycultures that imitate the diversity of natural ecosystems. A diverse grouping of plants consisting of grasses, forbs, and woody species can make up a perenni- al polyculture and be used as pasture for grazing animals (ruminants), including cattle, sheep and goats. Animals on a perennial polyculture can contribute to nutrient cycling and an increase in soil organic matter. Established, maintained and healthy perennial pastures have also been shown to have a large capacity for carbon sequestration.

On our farm in Western Manitoba, we have counted over 30 different species of both native and non-native perennials and biennial forages, including nitrogen-fixing legumes such as alfalfa, pea-vine and various species of clover. These plants populate our permanent pasture that maintains a flock of sheep, a herd of goats and seasonal pro- duction of pasture-raised poultry. 

PLT photo.

Safeguarding Manitoba's Seal River

Manitoba Eco-Network

The largest remaining undammed river in this province's north, the wild, unspoiled essence of the Seal and the lands that feed it, hold a mythic quality in the hearts and minds of those aware of it natural richness. Details here. 

Another Manitoba river which, to me, evokes similar sentiments, is the Waterhen, above. PLT photo.

Curbing Food Waste for Human and Environmental Health

World Watch Institute

It is said that the US alone wastes enough food to fill every empty stomach in Africa! Details here. 

PLT: This is sooo outrageous! When will something be done?

Organic salad. PLT photo

Oklahoman Youth Pastor Suspended From KXL Construction Equipment, Locked to Machinery.

Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance

A youth pastor locked himself to machinery being used to build the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline near Schoolton, Oklahoma this morning. He's taking action to protect the North Canadian River and the health of the towns and land it runs through from being irreversibly damaged by leaks and spills... Details here.  

Lake Winnipeg Most Threatened in World in 2013

'This is the red flag'          CBC News

Lake Winnipeg has earned a disturbing new title from the Global Nature Fund (GNF), as the Threatened Lake of 2013."That this huge Canadian lake is faced with problems similar to those of lakes in more densely populated countries is hard to believe," stated the organization, which is based in Berlin, Germany. Details here.

Please also read: "Of Parrots and Parables. The Silent Majority Must Speak Out."

(PLT: Beautiful, if you don't look too close.)

New Era of Food Scarcity Echoes Collapsed Civilisations

Analysis by Lester R. Brown - Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON - The world is in transition from an era of food abundance to one of scarcity. Over the last decade, world grain reserves have fallen by one third. World food prices have more than doubled, triggering a worldwide land rush and ushering in a new geopolitics of food. Full story here.

Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza Mexico. PLT photo

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Letter-to-the-Editor)

Dear Editor,

Remember when school would start and your teacher would ask you how you spent your summer vacation?

While school is now a dim and distant memory for me, last summer is anything but. I spent about ten days of it, flat on my back in the Regina General Hospital, after a near-death experience. 

It all started on a dark and stormy night in late June. Like many other folks living in a huge area of the eastern prairies, we suffered property damage in the thousands when a dangerous "plow wind" of well over 100kph struck about midnight, while we were in bed. 

(Sadly, it was consistent with what our top scientists have been warning us about for decades: That the climate we humans are changing by our addiction to fossil fuels, is bringing "weather events" which have become way more severe and frequent than they once were.) 

The wind buckled our garage door (above), damaged our car inside, blew the tops off several of the spruce trees in our shelter belt and brought down two of the largest, brushing our sun porch and barely missing our house (below). 

Some days later, I was cleaning up the debris when it happened. I developed the kind of chest pain I knew I couldn't ignore. 

A Case for Civil Disobedience

By: John Bennett - Sierra Club of Canada - Wpg. Free Press

OTTAWA — All the benefits Roslyn Kunin attributes to life in Canada in her recent column, including peace and order and good government, came about through civil disobedience. The suffragettes who won women the right to vote did not shy away from it. Details here.

First Nations Protestor - Regina. PLT photo

Spruce Point Minesite Mess - a Black Eye for Manitoba (Video)

Wilderness Committee

Please also read: Mine Proposed in a Manitoba Provincial Park.

Wildlife in a Warming World

 

National Wildlife Federation (US)

'Only by rejecting dirty energy and embracing clean energy solutions — will we begin to alter the path we are on to catastrophic climate change.' Details here.

Red Wing blackbird.
PLT photo