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Manitoba's Decker Hutterite Colony says, several dead hogs spotted recently on a public roadway, nearby, died of natural causes.

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by Larry Powell Hog carcasses in two dumpsters on a side road near the Decker Colony, northwest of Brandon, Apr. 24th. I spotted these carcasses on April 24th. My initial attempts to phone the colony about this (then accessible by appointment only due to Covid-19), failed. Today, the Colony's Barn Manager, David Waldner, called me back (May 6th). He says the hogs died of natural causes, not disease. In his words, "Hogs die." Sometimes one gets a broken leg, for example, and has to be put down. But most of the animals in the dumpsters, were what he calls "standard mortalities," not the result of disease. He says the company which picks up the carcasses, usually comes about once a week. But, due to mechanical issues, it was delayed. As a result, they sat there for longer than normal. Because of that, he explains, the bodies were bloated. And this likely makes it appear as if there are more than the 20 which he estimates were in the dumpsters.

What could our post-pandemic world look like? It depends on you and me!

by Larry Powell Like everyone else, I’m worried.   But not just about the Covid-19 pandemic.  It’s what the future holds once it ends that scares me, too. Man’s assault on our planet s imply cannot pick up where it left off when the virus hit. It’s true that our economy cannot remain at this level of lockdown forever. But, if we just come “roaring back, full tilt” when it’s over, we’ve lea rned nothing. And civilization as we know it will resume its relentless slide, once again.   So what have we learned? Lives can be saved just by slowing the frantic pace of human activity. Pollutants spewing from industrial plants, ground vehicles, jet planes and ocean vessels have dipped dramatically due to the slowdown forced by Covid. And they’re not just greenhouse gases which are dangerously heating up the Earth, spawning violent storms, rising sea levels and devastating floods (think Fort Mac.) that have gone down, significantly. They’re also the kind that get into your lun

11,000 air pollution-related deaths avoided in Europe as coal, oil consumption plummet

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CREA Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air A PinP photo. The measures to combat the coronavirus have led to an approximately 40% reduction in average level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution and 10% reduction in average level of particulate matter pollution over the past 30 days. This has resulted in 11,000 avoided deaths from air pollution. Story here.

Meteorologists say 2020 on course to be hottest year since records began

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The Guardian A PinP photo. Global lockdowns have lowered emissions but longer-term changes needed, say scientists.  Story here.

WARNING: LANGUAGE IN THIS VIDEO MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME. Bill Mahr reminds us how our contempt for nature and the way we produce food is biting us back.

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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney tours Fort MacMurray, site of major spring flooding - fails to see his own handiwork amid the damage. (Opinion)

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by Larry Powell K enney was out inspecting the town of Fort MacMurray and region  (above)  this morning, where major flooding has resulted in a mandatory evacuation order going out for the entire downtown area. Big trucks and low-lying buildings are reportedly submerged.  This is the same Premier who "dissed" a reporter recently for daring to ask if this might be the time to transition away from fossil fuels to renewable, sustainable energy. Kenney was especially shocked that the journalist was a member of the Calgary press core, who are apparently all supposed to be cozy little members of the same club, parroting Kenny's anti-science lies about the consequences of continuing to exploit the tar sands.  Fort Mac - 2016. A Creative Commons photo. This is also the same Premier who is spending millions of tax dollars from his own citizens, including desperate, unemployed oil workers, to fund a "war room," spreading mis-information about the consequences of a c

Beyond Covid 19 - Defeating the virus is just the beginning!

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by Larry Powell The task of  building a safer, healthier planet, surely, will only begin anew once we have defeated this beastly pandemic. So, are there lessons we can learn from Covid that we can actually use to blunt the assault of that other existential threat - manmade climate change? Smoke obscures the sun in one of the increasing number of wildfires in recent years - infernos which are starting earlier, lasting longer and burning more intensely. A Wikimedia photo. The steps being implemented globally to counter the deadly virus, Covid 19, have surely been sweeping, drastic and unprecedented.  And rightly so. While we could argue over which crisis is more grave, one important reality seems clear. As with every other contagion to have attacked human civilization in past, Covid 19, too,   will pass.  Sadly, if we do not take steps which are similarly drastic to the ones now happening during the pandemic,  that will not be the case with the climate crisi

Some Canadian hog producers are euthanizing their own pigs because Covid-19 has rendered them almost worthless. Is it happening in Manitoba, too?

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by Larry Powell These carcasses were spotted on a side road not far from the Decker Hutterite Colony. According to the farm newspaper, the Western Producer, some Canadian producers are killing their own hog stocks and disposing of them, without putting them on the market.  Many meat-plant workers have been infected with Covid-19 and several packing plants in Canada and the U.S. have closed, as a result. Packers are therefore not accepting as many hogs as before and supplies are backing up throughout the production chain.Piglets normally raised in Canada and sold to finishing operations in the 'States are said to be worthless. Photos by PinP. News reports suggest, only animals in eastern Canada are known to have been euthanized, so far.  However, I spotted and photographed two large dumpsters filled with the carcasses of mature hogs two days ago (see above). They were near the Decker Hutterite Colony in southwestern Manitoba, site of a major hog producing oper

End park mining in Manitoba. (Video)

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The Wilderness Committee

Whether famous or obscure, Earth's wild creatures cannot hide from the hand of man.

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Just months ago, billions of animals, including iconic kangaroos and cuddly koalas, perished in Australia's calamitous bushfires,  found by scientists to have been worsened by manmade climate change.   Now, researchers say, one of the Amazon's least-known species could be all but gone, too in scant decades. Its habitat is being relentlessly slashed and burned to make way for agriculture.  by Larry Powell The elusive short-eared dog  ( Atelocynus microtis ) .   This rare photo was  captured  on a camera-trap,   deep in the Amazon rainforest.  Photo credit:  Guido Ayala and Rob Wallace.  Most of us know there are wild dogs living in remote places of the world. Australia's dingo probably leaps to mind first.  But did you also know that a cousin of the dingo (above) has been roaming quietly through vast areas of Amazon rainforests, in Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil for a long time? Atelocynus microtis -  the "short-eared" dog  is the

Torrential rains triggered the disastrous volcanic eruptions in Hawaii two years ago; Study.

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Nature Research Will a changing climate make such events more frequent?  The answer? S ee footnote ! Lava flow from Kilauea south of Hawai'i Volcanoes Nat'l. Park. Photo by Ekrem Canli. A paper appearing in  Nature today,  suggests, t he 2018 eruption of the KÄ«lauea Volcano in Hawai’i may have been activated by extreme rainfall.  The findings indicate that rainfall should be taken into account when assessing volcanic hazards. Rainfall is known to trigger seismic events and can alter volcanic activity. However, observations of such effects are limited to the shallow subsurface of the volcano, and it is unknown whether rainfall can activate deep magma movement. The eruption of the KÄ«lauea Volcano in Hawai’i was complex and multi-stage, but its trigger has been unknown. From May to August 2018, rifts opened around KÄ«lauea and the summit exhibited explosive eruptions and caldera collapse.  Jamie Farquharson and Falk Amelung examined the impact of rainfall on the 20