PLANET IN PERIL

--> The Guardian Toxic formations across the US and the Baltic are part of a worrying trend linked to the climate crisis and farming methods  Story here. Lk. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, with Reindeer Is. in the lower right. Photo credit - European Space Agency. Mekong Turns from Brown to Blue-Green In late 2019, the river started to turn colours due  to a reduced sediment load and algae blooms. NASA Earth Observatory. RELATED: IN HOGS WE TRUST - Part 1V   "The environmental costs of intensive livestock operations.".

Science The grim toll on many helpless wild creatures from that countries epic infernos is slowly coming to light.  Story here. Below are some of the species at risk, possibly trapped in the flames. The beautiful Regent Honeyeater, already in diminishing numbers, living in an area threatened by the flames. Photo by Derek Keats, South Africa. The  pouched frog  ( Assa darlingtoni ), a small, terrestrial frog  found in rainforests in mountain areas of south-eastern Queensland &  northern New South Wales. Photo credit - Wikipedia. The endangered Blue Mountains Water Skink.  Taken a month after a bushfire. Photo by Sarshag7

truthdig - by Chris Hedges The greatest moral failing of the liberal Christian church was its refusal, justified in the name of tolerance and dialogue, to denounce the followers of the Christian right as heretics. By tolerating the intolerant it ceded religious legitimacy to an array of con artists, charlatans and demagogues and their cultish supporters. It stood by as the core Gospel message—concern for the poor and the oppressed—was perverted into a magical world where God and Jesus showered believers with material wealth and power. The white race, especially in the United States, became God’s chosen agent. Imperialism and war became divine instruments for purging the world of infidels and barbarians, evil itself.  Details here.

T he Narwhal As governments drag their feet on caribou habitat protections, the iconic species engraved on the Canadian quarter is winking out across the country. The year 2019 saw alarming declines and local extinctions of a species Indigenous peoples hold sacred. Story here. "Santa's reindeer" flee a logging truck, somewhere in the boreal forests of Canada.  Please read my own, related story and watch my video, below... Larry Powell. Even our national bird - the Canada jay - is not immune from the ravages of manmade climate change. Save the Wilderness. A music video by Eric Bogle and Larry Powell.

Canada's  National Observer Ft. Chipewyan from the air. Photo by Mark S. Elliott. It’s been more than a dozen years since the metaphorical alarm was first sounded, and yet the residents of Fort Chipewyan still don’t know what’s killing them. Story here.

IPS - INTER PRESS SERVICE By any measure this has been a devastating year: fires across the Amazon, the Arctic and beyond; floods and drought in Africa; rising temperatures, carbon emissions and sea levels; accelerating loss of species, and mass forced migrations of people. Story here. Fires in the Brazilian Amazon - 2018. Photo by Ibama from Brasil.

A younger Jane....forever a rebel!

The New York Times Government scientists say chlorpyrifos is unsafe. And yet it’s still in use.  Details here. A "crop-duster" sprays a pesticide believed to be chlorpyrifos on a canola crop in Manitoba. Circa 2006. A PinP photo. A related story that may interest you: Thirteen years after the pesticide chlorpyrifos (Lorsban) sickened a Manitoba family, Health Canada is proposing it be severely restricted in Canada. The European Union will ban it in the new year.  by Larry Powell

The Guardian Cutting toxic air might prevent millions of people getting depression, research suggests. Story here. Smoke from wildfires in Alberta, two provinces away, blankets Manitoba - 2018. A PinP photo. Here's a related story of mine that you might enjoy.  " Re-thinking extinctions " New research suggests that pollution may be playing a bigger and more ominous role in pushing many of Canada's plants and animals to the brink than earlier thought.   Larry.

Dear Editor, So I guess the bully-boys of the world's petro-states sure have Greta Thunberg on the run now. Apparently their "eyebrows were raised" because the 16 year-old schoolgirl suggested global leaders be put "up against the wall" for their lack of action on our climate crisis. I guess they were terrified Greta was going to unleash her standing armies against the likes of Saudi Arabia's murderous Crown Prince and Brazil's homophobic, rainforest-destroying (and Trump wanna be) President. Apparently Saudi   Arabia, busily killing children in Yemen as we speak (quite possibly with the help of Canadian-made weapons), and Brazil, whose leader fires scientists for telling him the truth - that his policies are committing Brazilian rainforests to death by wildfire - were major hurdles in the way of any meaningful progress at the recently-failed environmental summit. (Canada's own role, I might add, was weak, unconvincing and disgusting.) So, sho