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Thousands of pigs die as southern Manitoba hog barn goes up in flames

CBC news Fire commissioner's office investigating the cause of the blaze. Story here.

Climate Change Health Impacts Demand Urgent Action

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Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment  “The human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and potentially irreversible – affecting the health of populations around the world, today. Whilst these effects will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable in society, every community will be affected.” Details here. Wildfires in Portugal.  Wikimedia Commons.

Animal Farmers & Others - Use Antibiotics Responsibly! WHO

9 November 2017, Geneva/Rome/Paris - In the lead-up to World Antibiotic Awareness Week (13-19 November 2017), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) are together calling for responsible use of antibiotics in humans and animals to reduce the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world and threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. Infections affecting people – including pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poisoning and gonorrhoea – and animals alike are becoming harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat as antibiotics become less effective. Antibiotics are often overprescribed by physicians and veterinarians and overused by the public. Where they can be bought for human or animal use without a prescription, the emergence and spread of resistance is made worse. Examples of misuse incl

Stephen Hawking Says Earth Will Become ‘Sizzling Ball of Fire’ in 600 Years

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EcoWatch PinP photo Last year, scientist Stephen Hawking gave humans a shelf-life of  1,000 more years on Earth .  Apparently, 2017 hasn't been to his liking—as Hawking shaved another 400 years off that prediction. Story here.

Made-in-Manitoba carbon tax falls short, says Arctic climate change expert

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CBC news Sea-ice researcher David Barber argues provincial $25-per-tonne tax a good start but not aggressive enough. Story here. The flooded rail line to Churchill.  Photo by Omnitrax.

More alarm bells sound over drug usage in the world's intensive livestock operations. Will Manitoba listen?

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by Larry Powell writes from  SHOAL LAKE, MANITOBA. The World Health Organization is  ramping up its warnings  about the health risks of giving antibiotics to animals raised in intensive livestock operations (ILOs) everywhere.  In   an announcement in Geneva this week ,   the UN agency had some straight talk for the world’s food industry and animal farmers in the form of several formal recommendations: •                Stop giving antibiotics to food animals altogether  if it’s just to speed their growth - or prevent disease .  A CanStock photo image. •                Don’t give   them to healthy animals unless disease has already been diagnosed in another part of the same herd. •                Cut back on the amount of antibiotics given to animals for any reason.  •                And even when animals become sick, o nly give them antibiotics not considered critically important in the treatment of human infections . (Drugs used in

Why Did Trump Release a Report Confirming Climate Change Is Real?

EcoWatch Last Friday, the White House stunned many after it released a sweeping  report  concluding that  climate change  is not only real, but it also poses as a major threat to the U.S. and humans are "extremely likely" to be responsible. Details here.

Newly discovered orangutan species is also the most endangered

nature The first new species of great ape described in more than eight decades faces threats to its habitat. Story here.

Julie Payette dares to be interesting with comments on climate, astrology, and divine intervention

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CBC news The governor general speaks up for science over certain beliefs. Story here.

Trump administration releases report finding ‘no convincing alternative explanation’ for climate change

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The Washington Post The Trump administration released a  dire scientific report  Friday calling human activity the dominant driver of global warming, a conclusion at odds with White House decisions to withdraw from a key international climate accord, champion fossil fuels and reverse Obama-era climate policies.  Story here. Another disastrous wildfire season in Portugal.  Wikimedia Commons.

Ancient storms could have hurled huge boulders, scientists say – raising new fears of rising seas

The Washington Post Atop a jagged, 50-foot-high cliff on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera sit two enormous boulders known as “The Cow and the Bull.” Each is several… Details here.