Monsanto Murders Almost a Billion Monarch Butterflies and Now Uses Them for PR

OpEdNews - Kenneth Eade

The Monarch butterfly depends on milkweed to feed its larvae. Without milkweed, the Monarch will surely go extinct. Over the past 18 years, the Monarch population has been….Story here. 

U.S. Climate Commitment Should Spur Other Countries to Act

World Resources Institute

The proposed U.S. commitment to tackling climate change in support of a new international climate agreement is a serious and achievable plan…story here. 

Limiting Climate Change Could Have Huge Economic Benefits, Study Finds

the guardian

Stopping global warming at two degrees would create nearly half a million jobs in Europe and save over a million lives in China, analysis of emissions pledges says. Story here.

Subsidies to Industries That Cause Deforestation Worth 100 Times More Than Aid to Prevent it

the guardian

Brazil and Indonesia paid over $40bn in subsidies to industries that drive rainforest destruction between 2009 and 2012 - compared to $346m in conservation aid they received to protect forests, according to new research. Story here.

Canada May Have to Pay Hundreds of Millions of Dollars After Losing a Case Under NAFTA.

by Larry Powell

Will it be even harder for us to protect our own environment now?

It all began about a decade ago when “Bilcon Inc.,” a US company controlled by the Clayton family of Delaware, applied to expand a basalt mine and marine port in Digby County, Nova Scotia. (Basalt is a common rock used in road construction, concrete and other products.)

But the site, which would cover over 150 hectares , happened to be in a key breeding area for vulnerable marine animals, including an endangered whale species. After the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans expressed concern that the rock-blasting associated with the operation might adversely affect the environment, a Joint Review Panel (JRP) was appointed to look into it. The company labelled this development as "rare, costly and time-consuming," but it went ahead anyway.

The Panel conducted lengthy public hearings, calling a host of witnesses. Many expressed concern for tourism, air and water quality, the fishery and generally the quality of life in the area if the project went ahead. In the end, the JRP recommended against it.

In 2008, Bilcon then sued Canada under terms of the now-familiar “Chapter 11” of the NAFTA agreement, seeking $300 million damages. The investors argued before an international NAFTA tribunal, set up to deal with such disputes that, given the encouragement Nova Scotia had been giving them to invest, and the very nature of the agreement itself, rejection of their plan was both discriminatory and unfair. 

In March, the tribunal ruled in favour of Bilcon. It means Canada will have to pay up. While the family is demanding $300 million, the tribunal will decide in a future ruling what that amount will be.

But one member of the tribunal, Prof. Donald McRae of Canada, disagreed with the majority ruling. In a written conclusion of his own, he issues a note of caution about the downsides of the whole process.

"Once again, a chill will be imposed on environmental review panels which will be concerned not to give too much weight to socio-economic considerations or other considerations of the human environment in case the result is a claim for damages under NAFTA Chapter 11. In this respect, the decision of the majority will be seen as a remarkable step backwards in environmental protection and a significant intrusion into domestic jurisdiction. If the majority view in this case is to be accepted, then the proper application of Canadian law by an environmental review panel will be in the hands of a NAFTA tribunal, importing a damages remedy that is not available under Canadian law." 

It is not immediately known when a final decision on the amount of damages, will be determined.

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Please also read: Free Trade; Pathway to Prosperity or Back Road to Corporatism?

Antarctica Recorded Its Hottest Temperature On Record Last Week

CLIMATEPROGRESS

The coldest place on Earth just got warmer than has ever been recorded. Story here.

Keystone & Beyond. Tar Sands & the National Interest in the Era of Climate Change.

inside climate news

The Keystone has already divided the nation on the fundamental questions of how we should respond to climate change and what our energy future should look like. Story here.

It is Time to Stop Monsanto's Poisoning of the Public With Cancer Causing Roundup

Ross Eade - OpEdNews

PinP photo

For this (UN) Agency to label an agent "probably" carcinogenic, there has to be sufficient and convincing evidence of carcinogenicity. Story here.

Blogger Takes Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada to Task Over His Latest "War Games." (Letter)

Dear Editor,

Sad, isn’t it? 

Canada’s days as an honest broker are over. The Harper government has transformed my country from a kinder, gentler peacekeeping nation, into a wanna-be petro-state that takes sides, “smites” its enemies, sows seeds of hatred based on culture, religion or gender and intimidates those whose views differ from its own. 

After all, by Harper's definition, I’m a “radical” because I oppose the tar sands and donate to “subversive” organizations like the David Suzuki Foundation. Apparently so, too are First Nations people who are trying to fight Harper’s draconian legislation which directly threatens their land, water and air. 

Harper may be backing off parts of his "anti-terrorist" Bill C-51 which threaten so many of our civil liberties. But only after repeated warnings from many informed people, including former Prime Ministers and Chief Justices. And the fact those parts were there in the first place, is revealing. And what remains, I fear, still gives police too many more power with little oversight.

Harper wags his finger at other nations for failing to implement “democratic values,” while shamefully letting ugly, vote-suppressing “robocalls” in the last election, go largely unpunished on his watch at home.

With breathtaking contempt for international law, Harper is barging ahead in the Middle East, selling the lie that ISIL is a threat to Canada. Could it not be just the opposite? Is not the very expansion of his war games there more likely to make us a bigger target?  After all, did most of the ISIL fighters themselves not get their start during the American invasion of Iraq, that grotesque, unjust bit of deception that Harper was itching to get Canada into, had he only been PM at the time? 

Harper actually labelled jihadi terrorists (as evil as they clearly are), “the most dangerous enemy our world has ever seen.” How conveniently he ignores the Nazis and Fascists who embroiled our world in two great wars in the 20th century, claiming the lives of tens of millions of troops and innocent civilians. Anyone who is prepared to use such inflamed hyperbole to get his way, richly deserves to have his term in office ended at the next election! 

More recently, after two useless wars which accomplished nothing, one in Afghanistan (where more of our returning veterans took their own lives than were lost in combat) and the other in Libya, now such a “paragon" of western democratic virtue, here he is, agitating for more of the same. 

For what? And for how long? Forever?

So why is he doing this? Simple; To divert our attention away from his monumental failure to diversify the economy, away from his singular vision of making Canada "an energy superpower." Now that oil prices have tanked, it has revealed that vision to be one that not only has harmed the environment, but the economy, as well.

Instead of having "clean, green" jobs to turn to (thanks to Harper's neglect of the solar and wind sectors), many of those laid off in the oil patch are having to go half way round the world to find similar jobs, the only kind they know how to do, just to put food on the table.

This man does not fool me. Please don’t let him fool you.

Larry Powell,

Neepawa, MB

Related: Elizabeth May's Speech in the Commons on Canada's Military Contribution Against ISIL

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Project Shows Link Between Healthy Soils and Healthy People

Manitoba Co-Operator - Laura Rance

A unique project is improving nutrition and incomes through better farming practices. Story here.

Cancer Risk From Malathion Low For Winnipeggers, Says Canadian Scientist

CBC News

John McLaughlin is 1 of 2 Canadian scientists involved in WHO study on malathion. Story here.