PLANET IN PERIL

Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society Photo credit: W. Klenner Last week, we had good news (albeit temporary) about one of Canada’s most threatened wildlife species – the beautiful beluga whales of the St Lawrence Estuary. Story here.

The Globe and Mail Polar bears are an international symbol of Canada and a barometer for what is happening in the climate-sensitive North. And according to wildlife experts now monitoring the impact of global warming in greater detail, the big bears aren’t as big as they used to be.   Story here .

Chris Hedges Those who use violence to shape the world, as we have done in the Middle East, unleash a whirlwind. Our initial alliances -- achieved at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dead, some $3 trillion in expenditures and the ravaging of infrastructure across the region -- have been turned upside down by the cataclysm of violence. Thirteen years of war, and the rise of enemies we did not expect, have transformed Hezbollah fighters inside Syria, along with Iran, into our tacit allies. Story here.

INDIEGOGO This film will be for all Canadians.

CBC News Opportunity to 'develop sustainably' must be seized, says the Director of the World Wildlife Fund.  Details here . Pine grosbeak (f.) Larry Powell -  P in P photo:  Susceptible to habitat loss from logging operations that destroy their preferred coniferous forests. 

Canadian Press CALGARY - Southern Alberta ranchers have banded together to preserve a huge swath of almost untouched native grassland that some call a prairie Serengeti. Story here.