PLANET IN PERIL

by Larry Powell It's time to wake up and smell the smoke! Forest fire smoke (from as far away as BC) over southern Manitoba.  PinP photo. As wildfires rage around us on the Canadian prairies, forcing thousands of poor souls from their homes, we click our tongues and complain about sore eyes and reduced visibility on the roads. (Trust me, reduced visibility is the least of our worries.)   We apparently lack the brain power to listen to and actually  hear  what the world's scientific community has been warning us about for over a generation. If we do nothing to curb our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels, we can expect more and worse heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and a host of other extreme weather events which are  decidedly not positive,  in our future .  Our relentless burning of gas, oil and coal, apparently without a thought for tomorrow, produces greenhouse gases which trap the sun's heat and cause the earth's average temperature to increase. 

Manitoba Co-Operator Smokey western MB.  PinP photo. Thick smoke from neighbouring forest fires has been lingering over Manitoba  but experts say it’s unlikely to impact plant growth. Story here.

by David Suzuki - Common Dreams My hometown, Vancouver, is in a rainforest, so we celebrate sunny days. People I talk to are enjoying the recent warm, dry weather , but they invariably add, "This isn't normal" — especially with all the smoke from nearby forest fires. Story here.

Common Dreams Workers find 39-inch hole in hull of Shell vessel meant to safeguard controversial drilling operation in vulnerable Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Story here.

Manitoba Co-Operator A new educational site is being developed in Rivers, Man., with the goal of immersing youth in natural surroundings to instil the importance of environmental issues. Story here.

Climate Progress Sixty years ago, Nobel laureates gathered on a tiny island in Western Europe and warned the world of the dangerous effects of nuclear weapons.  Last Friday, on the same island, 36 Nobel Prize winners took up another cause: climate change, which they said poses a “threat of comparable magnitude” to nuclear war . Story here.