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THE FUTURE IS HERE FOR THE NEW GOVERNMENT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

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Sierra Club of BC A wildfire in the Okanagan region of BC a few years ago, from space. NASA. Record-breaking wildfires and heat waves are a reminder that we have little time to save nature, phase out fossil fuels and leap to a low-carbon economy, all at the same time. Story here.

'The damage is done': Home electricity meters exploding, starting fires in Sask. drought

CBC news Regina's driest July in 130 years also threatening livestock, crops and farmers' livelihoods. Story here.

Climate change to cause humid heatwaves that will kill even healthy people

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theguardian Drought-affected area in Karnataka,_India,_2012 - Photo by  Pushkarv If warming is not tackled, levels of humid heat that can kill within hours will affect millions across south Asia within decades, analysis finds Story here.

Blue-Green Algae Fouling Lake Winnipeg Beaches Again 2017

H2O: Ideas & Action for Canada's Water A blog about the Lake Winnipeg Watershed  The hot summer weather  in Manitoba has brought along another reminder that all is not well in our great Lake Winnipeg, the 10th largest freshwater lake in the world. Story here.

New Studies Show - Goals of Paris Climate Accord Unlikely to be Achieved. by Larry Powell

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Wildfires in Portugal. Wikimedia Commons. Two new studies paint a sobering picture for the future of the Earth in a changing climate. One report  by a team of American scientists estimates there’s only a five percent chance that global warming can be kept below 2 degrees celsius by 2100. On the other hand, there’s a 95 percent likelihood the increase will be more like 2 to 4.9 degrees! That upper range would generally be considered by many experts as catastrophic for life on earth. And it would clearly represent a failure of  the Paris Climate Accord .   That agreement, signed last year, commits almost 200 member countries, including Canada, to limit the increase to “well under 2 degrees” above pre-industrial levels. Achieving that goal, adds the study, “will require carbon intensity to decline much faster than in the recent past.” The second study  (done jointly by a researcher with the Max Planck Institute in Germany and another from the University of Colorado), mak

Two Weeks with No New PED Cases in Manitoba Cause for Optimism

Farmscape for July 31, 2017 New tools being used in Manitoba appear to be helping bring the spread of PED in the province under control. Since the end of April almost 60 swine production sites in Manitoba have been confirmed infected with Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea. On Thursday Manitoba Pork hosted a PED information session in Steinbach to update producers on the situation. George Matheson, the Chair of Manitoba Pork, says there have been no new cases since July 14. Clip-George Matheson-Manitoba Pork: We're organizing a manure management group for the infected farms. Of course equipment can become infected and we don't want a positive farm infecting a negative farm just by the transfer of manure equipment and spreading must be done soon. Lagoons get full. That's one approach we're taking. Manitoba Pork has decided to employ a Swine Health Officer, a full time position, just to manage the situation with the help of the Manitoba CVO. We've had three staff members, M

A New and More Virulent Hog Infection Invades Manitoba

Dr. Blaine Tully   - Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians Farmscape for July 28, 2017 The President of the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians says swine veterinarian in Manitoba have stepped up their focus on addressing a new more virulent strain of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome. A new more virulent strain of PRRS, a viral infection that affects pigs of all ages and stages of growth, has been identified in Manitoba. Dr. Blaine Tully, the President of the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians and a partner with Swine Health Professionals in Steinbach, says genetic sequencing to determine whether it's related to strains experienced in Manitoba or other parts of the country have shown that its kind of a lone wolf. Clip-Dr. Blaine Tully-Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians: We have about 12 or 15 farms, the majority of which are in southeast Manitoba but we do know there's farms in the Interlake and out into central Manitoba that h

Thanks to climate change, forest fires will likely become more common and widespread in Canada.

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Environmental Research Letters Control fire -- NWT, Canada. (USDA Forest Service photo.)  As summer weather becomes increasingly drier and warmer, the risks of forest fires increase and their manageability decreases. A new study has modelled the key forest fire factors in boreal forests within the framework of changing climate models, and the results aren't hopeful: future forest fires will likely rage stronger and be much more difficult to contain than ever before. Researchers looked at three main predicting factors in forest fires: forest fuel types (in other words, what burns up in a forest fire: species of trees in the forests, type of forest and shrub cover, presence of lichens, wood chips or mosses on the ground surface); weather scenarios for the next 80 years; and fire behaviour (how the fire will spread, how fast it will travel, how intense it is, etc.) Their findings showed that the proportion of days in fire seasons with the potential for unmanageable fire w

More evidence on link between antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance

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ScienceDaily Health Authorities in Europe are concerned about the impact of use of antibiotics on the increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The report presents new data on antibiotic consumption and antibiotic resistance.  Story here. Hogs in a "confined animal feeding operation." Feed for such animals often contains antibiotics, not to treat sickness, but to promote growth and add value at market time. Wikimeida Commons photo. 

Industrial hog production is leading to devastating issues for Manitoba

Vicki Burns and Janine Gibson. For the last three decades, hog production in Manitoba has become increasingly industrialized with the number of pigs per barn jumping to the thousands and the number of actual pig producers dropping from over 14,000 in 1971 to a mere 200 today. The pigs that are the basis of this industry are often referred to as animal units. The production system is under constant pressure to produce more piglets at less cost, resembling an industrial assembly line. The pigs never see the light of day or have the opportunity to root in straw or breathe fresh air. How far we have moved from family farming to this industrial model, where thousands of animals are kept inside buildings with minimal human contact, feed is automated and they must live above pits of their own feces and urine. This industrial hog production that dominates the Manitoba landscape is resulting in devastating issues that are in the headlines now. Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) has n

Is big oil committing fraud to stay in business?

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National Observer Canada’s oilsands  have been sucked into the bitter legal fight around Exxon and climate change. Story here. Overburden removal - Suncor Mine - Alberta.  Photo by Beautiful Destruction.