Posts

We must keep single-use plastics out of our oceans.

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Greenpeace -   More here. Poster by Jessica - NOAA marine debris program.

Thawing permafrost may release more CO2 than previously thought, study suggests

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folio New research from University of Alberta ecologists show "mineral weathering" can be a significant contributor to Arctic climate change.  More here. Melting permafrost in Alaska. Photo by the US Geological Survey.

Orca 'apocalypse': half of killer whales doomed to die from pollution

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The Guardian Banned PCB chemicals are still severely harming the animals - but the Arctic could be a refuge.  More here. An orca breaches. Photo by  H. Zell.

Busted! A citizens' group exposes an illegal hog operation in southwestern Manitoba. (An illustrated text version.)

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By Larry Powell Hogwatch Manitoba says a large pig barn in the RM of Yellowhead in the southwest, has been operating illegally   since last year. This is the barn in question, 5k east of the village of Strathclair. Photo by Larry Powell. Ruth Pryzer presented Hogwatch’s case to the Yellowhead council  this week. She claimed the barn  owner, Wim Verbruggen, misled  the local government when he applied for a building permit early  last year. She says the barn he built was three thousand square feet bigger than  he said it would be. And it houses many more animals than  the fewer than 300 he claimed it would. The Planning Act which existed at the  time, required that a barn such as the one now up  and running, have  both a “conditional use” hearing and  a technical review.  Neither of  these actually took place.  The lack of a hearing meant there was no chance  for anyone in the area to express concerns or perhaps of even finding out about it, beforehand!

For the First Time, Scientists Prove Human Activity Is the Top Cause of Warming Antarctic Waters...

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Mother Jones ...and not regular temperature variations or responses to natural climate change.   More here. Mt. Herschel, Antarctica, with a penguin colony in the foreground, 2006. Photo by  Andrew Mandemaker.

Busted! Citizens' group exposes Illegal hog operation in Manitoba. Few consequences likely for barn owner.(Video)

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Read an alternative version here.  Also.... "In Hogs We Trust."   A critique of Manitoba’s “runaway” hog industry. Part 1 - Antibiotic Overuse. Part 11 - The price we pay for corporate pig$.   Part 111 - From Malaysia to Manitoba - the global magnitude of livestock diseases. Part 1V - The health and environmental costs of an expanded hog industry. Part V - What’s behind Manitoba’s drive to expand?  

For years, the main culprit in bee decline has been the "neonics," a family of insecticides. Now, another suspect has been added to the list - an herbicide - Roundup!

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More here. Science X A honeybee colony in Manitoba.  A PinP photo.

Florence Flooding Kills 5,500 Pigs, 3.4 Million Chickens in the Carolinas

EcoWatch The North Carolina Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that the historic  flooding  from  Florence  has killed about 3.4 million chickens and turkeys and 5,500 hogs.  More here.

World's Largest River Floods Five Times More Often Than It Used to

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EcoWatch Extreme  floods have become more frequent in the Amazon Basin in just the last two to three decades,  according to a new study.  More here. Amazon River, Western Para Province, Brazil June 1996.  This image shows the flooded condition of a small section of the Amazon River,including the jungle towns of Obidos and Oriximina. The sun’s reflection off of the muddy looking river water, called sun glint or sunglitter, helps to identify land-water boundaries in this section of the Amazon River which is roughly midway between Manaus and the Amazon River Delta. By comparing this image to a detailed map of the area it is obvious that the river is flooding in the low lying areas that are adjacent to the floodplain of the main channel of the river. Large areas south of the main channel of the Amazon River are covered by standing water. Patches of cleared land can be identified within the densely vegetated terrain along the northeast side of the Amazon River. The main c

Million$ more in government help for Manitoba's high-maintenance hog sector.

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by Larry Powell Manitoba's  Premier, Brian Pallister has announced  another assistance package   to Hylife Foods of more than $11 m over the next several year.  (HyLife is now Canada's biggest pork processor.) Some $9.5m will come from the province, the rest from Ottawa. It will help the company pay for a pricey expansion of its killing plant in Neepawa and a new feed mill in the southwest. Last November, I warned in a blog-post here , that Manitoba taxpayers had better be prepared to "dig deeper." Why? Because Pallister's Conservatives had just begun to deregulate this province's corporate hog sector, so it could expand. And, expand, it has! Countless new barns are going up, so that millions more animals can be raised and slaughtered here: And all with fewer regulations than ever to control pollution, disease or catastrophic barn fires.  Given past history, my article reasoned, more "corporate welfare" was surely in the wind. It do

A call to protect much more land and sea from human encroachment

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Science X  Riding Mtn. Nat'l. Park - Manitoba, Canada. A PinP photo. A new paper in the journal Science strongly supports establishment of many more land and sea areas as protected sites. Failure to do so, the editorial warns, chillingly, could spell doom for many species, including our own!  More here.