Posts

What can a large, but routine highway project teach us about our climate crisis?

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Larry Powell explores that question in this picture story - "Thinking Globally. Acting Locally. " Earlier this summer, in a letter in my community newspaper, the Crossroads, I complained about a huge multi-million dollar roadbuilding project south of Shoal Lake, in southwestern Manitoba.   Here’s why. A convoy of dump trucks streams past my window. Despite a standing warning from the United Nations that the  construction sector needs to cut back on its huge carbon footprint “yesterday” if we are to meet our obligations under the Paris Climate Accord, a steady stream of diesel trucks rumbled through town for weeks, from dawn to dusk, right past my living and bedroom windows.  (Above.) And, scant weeks after the Parks and Wilderness Society informed us that biodiversity (the variety of plant and animal life on Earth) is declining faster than at any other time in human history, the trucks were making hundreds of round trips a day, hauling copious loads of grave

Cargill Closes Feed Mills in China Due to African Swine Fever

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FarmJournal’s PORK Cargill Inc has closed animal feed-mills in China in recent months, partly because of the devastating spread of African swine fever (ASF) that has reduced demand.  Story here. One of millions of ASF victims. "The incidence and range of many emerging diseases are influenced by the intensification of..livestock systems."  U.N. report - "Agriculture at a Crossroads" 2009

The research is in - stop fracking ASAP!

By  Barbara Gottlieb  | OTHERWORDS Over 1,500 reports show there’s simply no safe way to do it — and it’s harming us all every day it goes on. Story here.

The more we carve up natural landscapes with roads and fields, the closer we’re pushing large predators like lions and wolves, toward extinction.

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by Larry Powell While the consequences of habitat loss have been known for some time, new research just published, underlines just how grave the situation has become.  While this latest research is German, animals like the grey wolf face similar disruption in North America.  It’s called “habitat fragmentation.” And, it’s been happening on such a large scale, it’s been hard to tell what aspects are the most destructive. That's because ecologists - at least 'til now - ha ven't been able to properly keep track of all wildlife within an entire eco-system when human developments confine them to smaller and more isolated patches of livable space.  -30-

Recent research contradicts a claim by the chemical giant, Bayer, that its newest bug-killer is safe for bees.

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by Larry Powell A honeybee colony in Manitoba. A PinP photo. It's brand name is "Sivanto," (generic name -  flupyradifurone ). It's an insecticide designed to kill a wide range of bugs which eat food crops such as soybeans. Bayer is registering it in many jurisdictions around the world.  After conducting various field studies,  Bayer  concludes , "Sivanto displayed a very promising safety profile." The company concedes, it works in ways similar to the  neonicotinoids  (a group of insecticides which has become notorious for its likely role in pollinator decline). Still, it finds, the product "can be considered safe to most beneficial insects, specifically pollinators."  Image by Brian Robert Marshall. But a team of scientists at the University of California, San Diego, reaches a different conclusion.   In findings published earlier this year, the team gave a range of Sivanto doses to the bees, including ones

Amazon deforestation accelerating towards unrecoverable 'tipping point'

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The Guardian Data confirms fears that Jair Bolsonaro’s policy encourages illegal logging in Brazil.  Story here. The Amazon rainforest near Manaus, capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas (largely untouched by human hands, so far).Photo by Neil Palmer/ CIAT.

‘You can’t drink money’: Kootenay communities fight logging to protect their drinking water

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The Narwhal In Glade, BC, where clear-cutting could begin any day, determined residents are pulling out all the stops in an effort to protect their local creek — even though a judge ruled they have no right to clean water. Story here. The south end of Kootenay Lk. Photo by Shawn from Airdrie, Canada.